blaze king wont heat?

[BobFalfa]

hello..new member but a long time reader. i have 2 blaze king stoves. an ultra in the house and a classic in my shop. my house stove is a beast and performs awesome.

i recently installed the classic in my new shop and actually got to use it this weekend. the new stove will not put the heat out like my house stove does. i have to keep it above the 2 setting to keep the catalyst active. the cat probe has never gotten hotter than the 12oclock position.

i am using the same wood in the house and i feel like i do know how to operate these stoves. i am leaning towards a draft issue in my shop stove. it is 7ft of dbl wall and 8 ft of ss class A straight up. the chimney exits on the eave and extends 4ft from there. what do you guys think? as i type this my basment is 86 degrees with my ultra set on 2 and the cat probe maxed!! thanks

 

[daleeper]

hello..new member but a long time reader. i have 2 blaze king stoves. an ultra in the house and a classic in my shop. my house stove is a beast and performs awesome.

i recently installed the classic in my new shop and actually got to use it this weekend. the new stove will not put the heat out like my house stove does. i have to keep it above the 2 setting to keep the catalyst active. the cat probe has never gotten hotter than the 12oclock position.

i am using the same wood in the house and i feel like i do know how to operate these stoves. i am leaning towards a draft issue in my shop stove. it is 7ft of dbl wall and 8 ft of ss class A straight up. the chimney exits on the eave and extends 4ft from there. what do you guys think? as i type this my basment is 86 degrees with my ultra set on 2 and the cat probe maxed!! thanks

How old is the cat in the classic? I'm thinking it may be a bit weak. The cat may just need a good cleaning though. It could be that the draft is not as good, and you need to keep the air opened up quite a bit more. When you do open it up, does it heat good then. Maybe the handle on air control got moved?

 

[BobFalfa]

How old is the cat in the classic? I'm thinking it may be a bit weak. The cat may just need a good cleaning though. It could be that the draft is not as good, and you need to keep the air opened up quite a bit more. When you do open it up, does it heat good then. Maybe the handle on air control got moved?

the classic stove is brand new. even when i open the bypass and turn it past 3 it still wont put the heat out. if i do that on my stove in the house it will really get to rolling.

 

[Jags]

15 ft of stack is really about the lowest limit for stack height. Grab a section of the cheap snap together heat ducting and add it to the top of your pipe and see if that makes any difference. If it improves the burn then do it right with proper pipe and bracing. If it doesn't change the burn then you have eliminated one possibility and wasted 3 bucks.

 

[Highbeam]

15 ft of stack is really about the lowest limit for stack height. Grab a section of the cheap snap together heat ducting and add it to the top of your pipe and see if that makes any difference. If it improves the burn then do it right with proper pipe and bracing. If it doesn't change the burn then you have eliminated one possibility and wasted 3 bucks.

The manual for the princess used to identify 12' as the minimum. 15' just improves low burn performance. It won't hurt to try though.

I actually have considered a classic princess in my shop to complement my house ultra. Watching this thread.

 

[BobFalfa]

thanks guys. i think im gonna try and add a 4ft section and see if it helps. i have a lot of money in this just for it to be in my hobby shop. the reason i spent so much was because of how good the ultra does in my house. my shop is 2800sqft and insulated with blown in cellulose so heating shouldnt be too tough. thanks again.

 

[drz1050]

You say it only goes 4' past the eave. What's the pitch of your roof? Is the chimney at least 2' taller than anything within 10'? Any tall trees close by?

 

[BobFalfa]

yeah about 4ft above the eave. its a 4/12 pitch. there arent any trees around it at all nothing else close either. i didnt measure out the 10ft and check like it says to....

 

[jeff_t]

Do you have any actual numbers on the stove temp? Maybe it's putting out heat, but not warming the space like you expect?

 

[BobFalfa]

no actual numbers really...i have checked the top at around 400f but that is about at 3 on the dial..what seems odd is that the cat probe never gets way up into active..and even with it wide open it really doesnt burn very hard.

 

[shoot-straight]

Watching this closely.... My ashford doesn't seem to putout the heat like others have raved about. My cat therm rarely goes above the 12 o'clock position too. I have over 25' of insulated flex that drafted really high with my old hearthstone. When the wind blows it's insane.

Every time I see guys with the cat needle buried at like the 4 o'clock position I get jealous.

 

[BobFalfa]

my ultra in the house will always bury the cat needle with no problem at all....it seems kinda like my classic in the shop is starving for air because it wont even burn hard with the bypass open and tstat open past 3.

 

[BobFalfa]

wanted to update this issue. i added a 4ft section of class A today...this got the chimney up above my peak making a total of about 19ft of chimney. this seems to have helped witht the heat output and being able to turn down to a lower setting..the cat probe still wont bury itself but it is burning hotter and the cat seems to stay active longer. gonna see how it does through the night.

do the cats have a breakin period?

 

[drz1050]

Define "bury"... I rarely see my cat probe above 1 o'clock-ish. Have only gotten it up to 3 o'clock once, never went past the 'active' range. Granted my house is on the small side, but it heats this place just fine. I don't have a flue probe, so not sure of temps there. Total flue height is 15'6, will probably be adding a 2' section soon though.

 

[BobFalfa]

my ultra in the house will always go to the 3 or 4 oclock position after in engage the bypass and start to dial it back after a reload. the cat in my ultra is about 5 years old.

 

[Highbeam]

I have always been able to bury the needle past the active range on my ultra with 12' of flue. Usually on low stat settings in the first half of the burn.

 

[jeff_t]

What happens if you swap the cat probes?

 

[begreen]

Watching this closely.... My ashford doesn't seem to putout the heat like others have raved about. My cat therm rarely goes above the 12 o'clock position too. I have over 25' of insulated flex that drafted really high with my old hearthstone. When the wind blows it's insane.

Every time I see guys with the cat needle buried at like the 4 o'clock position I get jealous.

Might be the too high draft. This should be tested. BK has a narrow acceptable draft range listed in the manual. Compare your draft with the recommendation.

 

[BobFalfa]

it burnt well all night. i reloaded about 8am and is still doing well now it has kept the shop right at 70deg all day with the tstast set just a bout 2.25. my shop is 40x72 with 12ft ceiling. it is insulated very well, but is still a big space to heat.

 

[coldkiwi]

70 degrees sounds great ...you are heating almost 35000 cubic feet!

 

[BobFalfa]

yeah...when you put it that way...it is doin pretty good. i havent even really put any good wood in it yet..

 

[Highbeam]

We've been hitting 21 for overnight temps the last several days and due to the communist (kidding of course) burn bans currently instituted I have been unable to burn a fire in my insulated 30x60x14 foot ceiling shop. Surprisingly, to me, is that the temperature hasn't fallen below 52 out there. No source of heat but the ground.

Seems insulation is a pretty dang good idea. Even in a shop. I have water out there in an RV trailer but also my home's water passes through the shop where there is iron removal equipment and a shop sink.

R50 cellulose in the ceiling, R-21 batts in the walls, and R-10 around the slab. All three overhead doors are 12 footers and insulated.

The poor little NC30 is going to get a workout when they lift the bans here soon.