Blaze King Ultra poor performance please analyse data, Should I USE in PIPE DAMPER????

[kwikrp]

Got a new king this is the 5th or 6 th fire. My set up running 35 foot interior insulated 8 inch ss liner. Got a 28 in rise before 2 45's into thimble. Using Kiln dried wood with moisture reading of 13 -16%. I dont feel the stove is putting out heat. So spoke to Blaze king tech support. Was told start a fire with kindling then add larger and larger splits only add when the previous has caught fire well. Leave tstat on 4 and load stove. Once cat gauge goes into active zone leave tstat on 4 and claose bypass. Then temp should rise steadly until desired temp and then you can begin to lower tstat in increments every 15- 20 minutes.
Ok so this is what I did Started fire with kindling and news paper and gradually and larger splits fire was going good kept adding as directed above. then loaded stove. Here is my data.

Time room temp Outside temp Draft(manometer inches of water column) Stove top temp Cat gauge temp Stove pipe
6 pm 69* 47* -.01 69* 69*
start fire
6:10 69 47 -.025 72 low deactive zone 107
6:40 70 47 -.03 170 just in active 180 engaged cat tstat still on 4
7:40 71 45 -.05 180 little past active 140
8:00 71 45 -.07 287 about 12 o'clock 200 setting at 3 slowly decreased every 15 minutes cat glow
8:20 71 45 -.075 380 about 1 o'clock 240
8:50 74 44 -.08 400 2 o'clock 223 slowly decrease tstat now at 2.25
9:05 74 44 -.08 380 2 " " 207 tstat 2.25
9:30 74 44 -.08 350 1 " " 180 tstat 2.25
9:40 turned tstat up to 4 caols begin to glow wood begins to glow after 15 minutes
10pm 75 43 -.10 500* 7 o'clock 310 tstat at 3.50
10:20 76 43 -.10 530 5 o'clock 274 tstat 2.75

I will continue taking readings and up data but what do you guys think ????

11:45 pm 78 43 -.11 700* 7 O'clock 340 tstat 4

DO I NEED AN IN PIPE DAMPER ???

 

[kwikrp]

fans were completely off the entire time

 

[Battenkiller]

Without seeing your fire and just looking at your data, it seems to me that you didn't have much of a fire going when you tried to engage the cat. Very low flue temp and, therefore, a poor draft. .1" of pressure is considered to be adequate draft, you were only at .03" at 6:40 when you closed the bypass.

What kind of pipe thermometer are you using? With the insulated pipe, you need a probe type that measures the actual flue gas temp. If you were using a probe thermo and were only at 180ºF after 40 minutes of burning, I think you need to contact BK tech support again, because something ain't right. I can easily hit 600º on my magnetic pipe thermometer within 10 minutes of starting my stove using the same method you used, and I don't have a 35' insulated chimney.

 

[ecocavalier02]

with my magnet pipe thermometer about 30 inches up mine is maxed out at about 325. never gets hotter than that. thats on double wall. the bk produces really low flue temps. when on 2.25 200's is normal. but my stove stop easily reaches 600 or 700 after just a little bit. i'd let it cook on 3 for a while. i usually let it go on 3 for bout 20 minutes or so. then bring in down in half's every few minutes over the course of an hour to what i want.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Not sure what you mean by poor performance? It looks like the cat temp and room temp ran right up and then you started turning down the tstat? I think you will find the stove heats up faster if you turn the tstat down from 4 to 3 sooner. I do it when I close the bypass. The warmer outdoor temps also seem to have a big impact on draft. I would try leaving it at 3 longer and then take smaller steps going down especially from a cold start.

I would play with the process a little bit. The data with the actions you took suggest that your setup performs similar to mine. You will also find that a reload instead of a cold start is a lot easier. No paper, kindling, small splits, fire tending required.

I am in 24 hour burn with junk wood mode. When I get home from work, I open the bypass, pull everything front center, load up the firebox completely and turn the tstat all the way up. 10-15 mins later, close the bypass and turn it down to 3. At that point, I might run the blowers for a bit to heat the house up depending on how much solar gain we got through the day. Then burn at 2.5-2.75 no blowers through the evening. Turn down to 2.25-2.5 for overnight. Wake up, turn it up to 3 with blowers to bring the house temp back up, then back down to 2.5 for the rest of the burn. Repeat when I get home from work.

 

[kwikrp]

added data and posed a question should I consider a pipe damper ? When the temp is colder the draft will even be stronger>

 

[ecocavalier02]

I think adding a pipe damper on the blaze king would be a bad idea. I dont thin ur doing something right or theres something wrong with thebstove

 

[kwikrp]

I am afraid that the draft on the stove will be even greater than -.11 which is considered high now, but when the colder weather comes next winter I could see a much stronger draft and my heat will be going out the chimney. ?????

 

[laynes69]

Personally I would add a damper. Our furnace recommends anything over .06"- .08" to have a barometric damper installed. We have pulled .1" and greater and at that point more heat goes up the chimney than in the home. For us .06" is the sweet spot for performance. I would guess you could go to .03 to .05" having a cat. You for sure have a overdraft. We are lining our chimney soon and I know I will see much higher readings with a 30' chimney. Its nice to have a manometer so you can play with some settings and find your best efficiencies. We have an old masonary chimney and I always thought it was a super drafter, until I got a manometer. When the fire gets to coaling and the chimney isn't too warm the draft drops below .03" and the performance of the furnace suffers. Thats why we are getting a liner.

 

[NH_Wood]

added data and posed a question should I consider a pipe damper ? When the temp is colder the draft will even be stronger>

I don't have a cat stove, but was still told to not add a damper to my pipe. I put on in anyway and glad I did - sometimes I need to reduce the draft of the fire want to really cook even with the primary air off. I'm of the thinking that adding a damper is almost always worthwhile - they are very cheap and if you never need to use it, leave it wide open. Nice to have to option in my opinion, but again, perhaps on cat stove use of damper is problematic. Cheers!

 

[SolarAndWood]

I find anything 3 and above requires the blowers to effectively pull the heat off the stove. I'm not surprised that the stove got that hot with an established burn, the tstat wide open and the blowers off.

 

[cmonSTART]

What exactly is your chief complaint? Short burn times?

 

[kwikrp]

Basicly if I follow the OEMs mode of operations then the stove does not produce heat !! I can not believe that a stove top temp of 200* will heat a 2500sq ft area. The only way for me to acheive higher stovetop temps and btus is not to follow the manual. I spoke with tech suppport from Blaze King and they told me I should engage cat when cat gauge goes into active zone, that is around 200* and when I do so with tstat turned up on 4 and a full load the stove just sits and idles at that temp. it wont climb. But if I get a good fire going and burn it hot and fast to get to 600-700* stove top temp with bypass open, then close bypass and the cat fires off and glows and temp steadily climbs. But they at blaze king say that I can ruin the cat and even cut its life in half.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Turn it down to 3 when you close the bypass and the cat should light right off. After it heats up, run the blowers to bring the house up to desired temp and then shut them down and turn the tstat down.

 

[ecocavalier02]

something is not right. if your having a draft problem then when you have the flue open is when its easier to achieve the high temps then something is def wrong. shutting the bypass would keep more heat in the stove therefore heating the stove up even faster . i never have a problem getting the stove up to temp. soon as i close the bypass i do the same as solar turn it down to three the cat goes way active. and within a 20 minutes the stove top will be up over 500 if not hotter. i think may have crap wood. thats what it sounds like. cuz you can get it really hot with the bypass open. soon as you close it does the flame die down? or does it stay raging?

 

[ecocavalier02]

What species of wood is it? you say kiln dried wood. ? pallets or what?