Burning the new King Ultra

ohlongarm said:

Have a new king ultra and am in the learning how to burn it process,a couple questions that I hope someone can answer. My king install just made the minimum chimney height requirement of 14 feet,I have one 90 degree elbow that then enters a masonry lined chimney where it bends it only goes in about 2 feet and then straight up,double walled 8 inch all the way and stainless liner inside the chimney.I can't seem to get a good burn on settings 1,1.5 the fire and cat shut down after about 6 hours with maybe a third of the firebox filled. When i turn the setting to #2 I have no problem acquiring a long burn. I don't have room to replace the 90 with 2 45's to get a smoother draw,I was told to extend the chimney liner by 2 feet and that would solve this problem,does this sound right?Other than that no problems,I have yet to fill the firebox to it's capacity due to shoulder season. Thanks if you can advise.

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A longer chimney will draft better, and your draft should also improve as the temperatures get cooler.

I think Hiram is at around 13' with his, but a straight shot. I'm going to end up right around there also, but straight up as well. I can twist on a couple more feet if I have to. I'd extend your liner if you can. That 90 certainly isn't helping. Draft will improve with colder weather, but now is when the big cat stove with a thermostat should stand out. Gotta be pretty warm burning at 2 right now.

I had about 15ft last year and it wasn't enough. Worked fine when it was cold out, but when it was warm (30s) I could barely get a draft going.

I added another 3ft of pipe this summer and it fixed the problem. Mine is straight up from the top of the stove.

Everything I have read says min chimney length for most stoves is in the 15-16ft area. I wouldn't expect 13ft to be long enough. If you are installing in a 1 story house, that would probably be only 1-2ft off the roof wouldn't it? Mine is about 8ft from the roof. Doesn't look bad because it's at the bottom edge of the roof.

I've got about 1' out of the flashing, and another 4' on top of that. Eight feet of class A, 5'ish of double wall stove pipe. I was right at the edge of needing a roof brace, so I installed one anyway, in anticipation of adding to the class A. Ranch home with 8' ceilings, that's what you get. I'll see how it goes.
I'm ready to be done with this project. Couple more weeks, I hope.

are you still at 6" pipe, as you were with your previous set ups or did you change it to 8"? if not, that may be your problem.

cass

I can’t seem to get a good burn on settings 1,1.5 the fire and cat shut down after about 6 hours with maybe a third of the firebox filled.

You probably won't see flame at those settings
After 6 hours the cat may not be orange but still could be working.
Are you saying the fire goes out?
What is the stove top temp after 6 hours?
Where is the cat gauge pointing at when this happens?
8 inch flue?
BTW I can turn my king classic all the way down and get long ..very long burns..but no fire of course.

Taking out the 90° & putting in 2 45°s helped my system.
Was single wall, new is double wall.
Also I found some air leaks on the new double wall joints & sealed them. I'm now able to burn at lower settings.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/73529/
Got a picture?

Non cats put more heat up the pipe than a cat when it's dialed down so they'll draft better. These stoves burn best with a full firebox on a nice coal bed. Even this time of year loading up the stove won't give you more heat just a longer burn time. The hardest part this time of year is burning it hot enough to get the fire well established/charred before getting run out of the house. After you dial it down it'll stay hot for a while but settles down to a nice even temp for hours and hours. My Princess on 1 burns in the 300's after it settles down.

I'll piggyback on what HotCoals asked, after 6 hours is the cat temp down in the inactive zone or still active? If it's going inactive I'd say the wood still has too much moisture in it(didn't burn it hot long enough before turning it down or wood isn't ready) or the chimney could benefit from more length.

bogydave said:

Taking out the 90° & putting in 2 45°s helped my system.
Was single wall, new is double wall.
Also I found some air leaks on the new double wall joints & sealed them. I'm now able to burn at lower settings.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/73529/
Got a picture?

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dave how did u seal up your double wall pipe?

Are You burning East/West?

IMHO they dont burn well East/West

Also pack it full, it will burn much much better when filled.

ecocavalier02 said:

bogydave said:

Taking out the 90° & putting in 2 45°s helped my system.
Was single wall, new is double wall.
Also I found some air leaks on the new double wall joints & sealed them. I'm now able to burn at lower settings.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/73529/
Got a picture?

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dave how did u seal up your double wall pipe?

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My temporary fix was/is; I cut some 2" strips of foil, folded in 1/2 to 1" strips. Wrapped it over the joints & slide my finger over it to get it tight & folded ends over at the back, (don't want to see the foil folds )
My temporary is still there, LOL, :red: I keep "going to get" some of the black, high temp, stove/flue calking. One of these days.
Stove being hid in the basement lets me get away with it (for now)
The stove pipe don't get real hot when the catalytic is running. Normal operations, I can touch the double wall pipe for a second or so.

When I did mine I added one extra 4 ft section just to be sure. Needed the supports anyway even without that last section. I don't have a Blaze King but I think when you are dealing with big stoves, it's better to err higher and be done with it.

Hiram Maxim said:

Also pack it full, it will burn much much better when filled.

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Might seem strange to pack a stove full when its warm out, but this is true. 24 hour burns from chunk, punk and uglies are a great way to clean up your woodpile without being a hassle to operate.

ohlongarm said:

To answer a few questions asked of me,my liner is 8 inch,double wall all the way up inside the home interior. The stovetop temp when I noticed was at 275 and the cat probe was on the line inactive,but a hair from touching active.In retrospect I may not have charred my wood enough,when the cat probe hits active I close the bypass,perhaps too soon.Last night at 6, I charred a half load for about 20 minutes bypass open setting on 3,I turned the temp down in 20 minute increments to 2 left it there all night with a window open 15 feet from stove cracked about 6 inches,temp dropped outside to 38 house was 73 at 8 this morning ,stovetop was 300,and cat was in active zone about 10 o clock,14 hours burn with plenty of coals,reloaded with 4 splits.I still think I'll extend the chimney by 2 to 3 feet and see if I can then burn on lower settings.

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Ok questions.......

4 splits? How big?

Why are you only putting 4 splits in?

How dry is Your wood?

How long has your wood been drying?

What type of wood are you burning?

How did you load the stove?




Please try this on Your next load, using Your same burning method/procedure with the T-stat

1) Load it to gills, You just won't believe the difference, I think this is gonna solve a lot of Your issues?

2) Load the stove North/South Front to back.

3) document what you see

4) get back to us 2 days later ;-)


Cheers,Hiram

jeff_t said:

I've got about 1' out of the flashing, and another 4' on top of that. Eight feet of class A, 5'ish of double wall stove pipe. I was right at the edge of needing a roof brace, so I installed one anyway, in anticipation of adding to the class A. Ranch home with 8' ceilings, that's what you get. I'll see how it goes.
I'm ready to be done with this project. Couple more weeks, I hope.

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I have a 5' telescoping double wall 8" metalbest if you need it? FREE

I couldnt pull it apart (arthritis) so the company sent me another and didn't want the old one back.

Hiram Maxim said:

I couldnt pull it apart (arthritis) so the company sent me another and didn't want the old one back.

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What are you gonna do when you get old!?

Hiram Maxim said:

Please try this on Your next load, using Your same burning method/procedure with the T-stat

1) Load it to gills, You just won't believe the difference, I think this is gonna solve a lot of Your issues?

2) Load the stove North/South Front to back.

3) document what you see

4) get back to us 2 days later ;-)


Cheers,Hiram

Click to expand...

x2, Hiram has given me great advice for burning these stoves.

I like to burn a bunch of kindling if I'm starting from a cold stove then load on top of the coals. I load it to the "gills" every time just like Hiram suggests. I usually burn it with the bypass open and the t-stat on 3 for 10-15 minutes, after I close the bypass I burn it on 3 for another 10 or 15 minutes and then turn it down to just a little over 2, on my stove this is where the flames start to get really lazy but don't go out. I'll burn it on that setting till I feel the house getting warmed up then I'll turn it down to 1 and let it ride. So far the cat has been staying active for 24 hours or so before I reload and do it over again.

For me the big benefit to these stoves is that I only have to take the time to load it one time a day right now.(with the King you'll go 2 days) Fill that bad boy up and let it rip! If it gets to warm in the house while it's settling in crack a door or windows.

ohlongarm said:

In response to your reply my splits were 18 inches and about 3-4 inch diameter max,the wood is ash and sugar maple 2 years old very seasoned and clean. I did load the wood east,west in the rear of the stove stacked on top of each other.I'm going to take your advice and report back,thanks for the input.

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Just to confirm, is that 2 years split and stacked? or were they just bucked for two years and split recently?

Try the extension, should help.
I now cut my wood to 17". Fits in the bottom N/S & I stack it in there filling voids as possible.
The cat temp is a bit misleading sometimes, when the wood is down to coals, it don't get up into the active zone, there's not much smoke & particles to burn, (kinda like a charcoal grill, hot as heck but no smoke)
I've checked on mine & sometimes it's way up in the active zone, sometimes just below active. But the next morning the house is warm, stove is hot & everything looks good. We may crank it up just a bit & speed the fan up some if more heat is needed but don't mess with the bypass or inside the stove.
We're in the "teens" at night & burning a little hotter & stuffing it full at night. Sometimes we may need 2 or 3 splits (E/W in the front) to get thru the day, (around noon) burning a little hotter to get the coals down so I have room for a full load around 9 - 10 PM.
Sometimes with my crooked wood, I have lots of gaps & getting a tight full load just don't happen.
I think you are burning right, the 20 min on high just after you close the bypass is good. combustor gets good & hot, moisture is cooked out of the wood, glass stays cleaner, draft is well established.
I think the N/S on the bottom row of splits helps with the way the combustion air flows but you may need some shorter splits for the N/S bottom row. E/W on the top row don't seem to mater much, I put my longer ones there or use them mid day to burn down the coals.

Good burning~