Left BK bypass open all night

[shredit]

I loaded my BKP at about 8pm like always, I go down this morning to find the bypass wide open and the thermostat on high. I'm worried that I might've caused some damage to the stove...any chance that it caused any damage other than a wasted load of wood?

 

[Sconnie Burner]

Not a bk owner but start with letting it cool so you can inspect it thoroughly. Check for warped parts/pieces and cracks. Metal is pretty resilient to heat, and a stove is built for it. Chances are if its only happened once you should be ok. They are tested and have to pass testing in these exact situations.

Also take the flue pipe off and inspect it well. And shine a light up or down the chimney if possible.

 

[kennyp2339]

I also have a BK princess, let the stove cool off, get a flash light and look up at the underside of the by-pass, flip the by-pass open and look at the retains to make sure they didn't warp (highly unlikely) next get your dollar bill and close the by-pass and pull the dollar, you should feel resistance while pulling, do this on all sides. If you have severe slippage on the dollar, like pulling it through with no resistance then take the smoke pipe off the flue collar and adjust the by-pass cam shaft to tighten it down. If you have resistance then burn away and remember to close it next time. *note, while doing the dollar bill test you will not have the same tight resistance as with checking the door, this is due to a flat gasket on a flat piece of steel.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

Thats why i stopped using the bypass on my Austral, i was always forgetting to close it. It never seemed to do any harm but i didnt like taking the chance forgetting yet again. I don't know the specifics of the BK to comment there.

 

[Rickb]

Thats why i stopped using the bypass on my Austral, i was always forgetting to close it. It never seemed to do any harm but i didnt like taking the chance forgetting yet again. I don't know the specifics of the BK to comment there.

I would think that would be a bad idea. You would be thermal shocking your cat every time you reload.

 

[Calentarse]

I was talking to @BKVP once when troubleshooting mine and he assured me that the bypass can be left open and the tstat will shut down on its own when stove reaches max temps. I wouldn't worry! Now, you probably wasted a ton of heat up the flue, but I doubt you damaged the stove.

 

[Highbeam]

I call bullpoo. The owners manual requires you to shut the bypass when the cat meter reads active. This means no safety testing is done on improper operation. Even if it was, a safety test does not consider internal damage.

The thermostat will work like always but will only prevent damage if the bypass is closed. That is proper operation.

Leaving the bypass open too long is risky, not according to the manual, and therefore abuse. You can absolutely damage the gasket retainers this way. Depending on fuel quality, quantity, draft, etc. it might be fine or you may have just caused significant internal stove damage.

The good news is that you can check for damage by testing the gasket. Princesses older than a few years were apparently more susceptible to this damage. My retainers melted and required some hydraulic reshaping even though I am a stove enthusiast and am very careful.

So no, the stove was not made to be operated with the bypass left open. Time to verify that no damage was done and if not you’re lucky.

 

[Calentarse]

I guess I should clarify the context to shed light on how acceptable it is to do it. I was in a situation where I wanted to test to see if leaving the bypass open made a difference with an issue I was having and @BKVP told me it'd be ok. I think this was an incidental suggestion and otherwise one should stick to the manual.

 

[kennyp2339]

I call bullpoo. The owners manual requires you to shut the bypass when the cat meter reads active. This means no safety testing is done on improper operation. Even if it was, a safety test does not consider internal damage.

The thermostat will work like always but will only prevent damage if the bypass is closed. That is proper operation.

Leaving the bypass open too long is risky, not according to the manual, and therefore abuse. You can absolutely damage the gasket retainers this way. Depending on fuel quality, quantity, draft, etc. it might be fine or you may have just caused significant internal stove damage.

The good news is that you can check for damage by testing the gasket. Princesses older than a few years were apparently more susceptible to this damage. My retainers melted and required some hydraulic reshaping even though I am a stove enthusiast and am very careful.

So no, the stove was not made to be operated with the bypass left open. Time to verify that no damage was done and if not you’re lucky.

Good points

 

[Highbeam]

Don’t mean to be a downer, I love my bk, but all stoves have shortcomings. We can deal with this one by closing the dang bypass. Seems simple enough, just like closing the loading door.

Accidents can happen though.