Buck 80 & 91 With Sloppy Air Controls; Easy Fix

Okay, I got my new 80 insert installed this past Friday and boys and girls I'm here to tell you it is a beast! I can't even imagine what the 80's big brother, the 91 will do!

The first thing I noticed was it just seemed to be getting too much air. Burn times were shorter than I expected and it was easy to reach max safe cat temps with very little wood. Long story short; I read about sloppy air controls on the 91 here and sure enough there was a lot of room for air to get into the stove with the shutters fully closed.

To correct the problem I took the point of a screw driver and bent the sheet metal rails, on which the air control shutters slide, up a tiny bit. This forced the shutters tight against the stove body and the whole dynamics of burning changed for the better. Cat temps down, burn times way up and I can load the stove full without worrying about frying the cat. There is more resistance when opening and closing the shutters but that's good as the shutters are now very tight against the stove body and no air can pass through.

Just thought I'd share, hope this helps

Edit: May apply to other Buck models and other makes as well.

My secondary burn 85 is the same way. On mine there is also an uncovered 1/4" hole between the two slides to let air in even if the slides are closed.

I think scotty did something similar on his Napoleon and found a new stove.

I think this is where BK has it. One simple, positive, well designed air control.

I was kinda stuck with a make of stove because of where I live. Only a couple of dealers where I live and one has a very bad reputation. The dealers in across the river in the Cincinnati area would not travel the 25 to 35 miles to do the install. That left me with the one local dealer. He carried some good names like Lopi but in the end it came down to MONEY. Buck, a.k.a. the "workin' man's stove", gave me the most bang for the dollar. This dealer also sold Napoleon, which I found out from hin is made something like 9 miles from my house, but he was in the process of dropping it and Vermont Castings from his line because of quality control and customer service issues.

Like Scotty, I had a whole new stove after I bent those little rails! I'm now beyond happy with the Buck 80.

I just remembered something. At one point, I wedged a thin wood chip between the airwash rod and the ash lip and it forced the plates tight against the openings. I came back the next day to hear that the stove had backpuffed several times...