First night with my new Buck 91 and it will be 10F here in Saint Louis

[pkell1572]

I just wanted to say thanks for all the great advice from the very knowledgeable people on this site. I would have gone with a Blaze King King if I were buying a wood stove. Sadly they don't make an insert in the King. I got the next best thing from what I can put together and could not be happier. I have done two small fires to cure the paint and I know I am supposed to do three I could not wait to let her rip. I would not say I am driving it extremely hard but I did let the cat temp probe creep up to 1500 degrees before cutting back on the air. Burning 2 year seasoned oak splits and I can say that I have been burning a load of splits that would have lasted an hour in the fireplace for about 2 hours now and it looks like the load will go several more hours before needing to be loaded again. My electric furnace was not keeping up. I ran two space heaters in the bedrooms and the electric furnace was struggling to maintain 64F. Now will no other heat but the stove the house is maintaining about 68F. First impressions are that it takes about 45 minutes wide open to get the stove into the range to engage the cat. This is longer than I expected. The other surprise is how much heat it puts off with the air at about 15% open. I am very glad I did not get any of the fancy silver or gold trim. The stove looks very nice all flat black. I do have two small gripes. The fan is a little loud. I was hoping for a little less noise. The other thing is that the cat engage handle appears to be right in the path of a hot air jetty and so it gets too hot to handle without a glove. I guess it wont matter much since I will usually have my glove on but the door handle is staying cool and you have to disengage the cat when opening the door to prevent backpuffing. Small complaint. Otherwise this stove appears to be a real horse. I am very happy.

 

[Fireshoppe]

Congrats! As a long time Buck dealer I'd say you made a fine choice. Which dealer did you use and how was the service?

 

[USMC80]

nice. any pics?

 

[mellow]

Usually that spring handle helps to reduce the heat, as you get to know the stove better you will do reloads at a cooler temperature so pulling that handle won't be as much of an issue. By the time you get it up to temp you can push it in with your palm if it is to hot to grab.

The fan will be loud, just a given with all inserts. Once you figure out the stove and its operating ranges you can pickup a speed control to turn the fan down even more: http://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html

 

[begreen]

Gonna be a lot of new stoves going in with these winter temps.

 

[davidmc]

You will like that stove. I have been running one of these for 4 seasons now and love it.
Like you, I think the fan is a bit loud but it sure does throw out the heat. I have mine set up as a free standing stove and don't run the fan until it gets really cold.
I'm going to check on the speed control Mellow referred to....that would help a lot!

David

 

[bluefrier]

If that blower is similar to the buck 80 which I suspect it is, take the cover off the motor and locate the adjustable rheostat. The motor can be dialed back to a whisper on low.