2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 2 (Everything BK)

[Poindexter]

I got your BK performance right here fellas.

Wife got home to -25dF outdoors, +88dF in the stove room. Not counting hat, coat and gloves I count four clothing items on the floor.

And she found a place we can drive too to fish where we can keep some king salmon while collecting sockeye.

And she dropped the names of two men from our church who might want to go caribou hunting with me so she won't have to go.

I have an awesone wife of course, but also an awesome stove. @BKVP , please extend my thanks to your entire team.

I gotta go...

 

[AlbergSteve]

And we're off. Temp has dropped from -15 to -24 in three hours. Living room is +84dF, i am running 14%MC spruce at full throttle with the deck fans on high.

I can see the reflection of my combustor glow on the ceramic tile hearth from across the room.

When the wife gets home from coffee with her friend girl i wanna see a trail of clothing on the floor between the front door and the wood stove.

I got no caribou left in the freezer, and less than 12 sockeye filets. I got to get busy with hunting and fishing as soon as the ice goes out. Or move to California and start buying feed lot beef.

Counting on @BKVP to help me keep my man card another year.

This was a Christmas present to me. If you're on the Island, I'll share...

 

[becasunshine]

I've found a few threads where pellet stove guys are having ice buildup on their combustion air piping. To deal with the water they're putting towels under them and fans.

Interesting.

We had an OAK installed with our pellet stove in town (pellet stove and house now sold, separately.) During especially cold weather, we'd have condensation on the outside air vent, on the inside of the house, behind the stove. It was just a wee bit, barely visible and damp to the touch.

Of course, we didn't have a super monster pellet stove (Napoleon NPS40) and we didn't have super challenging winter temps.

We also had a direct vent with an outside "thimble" that held both the exhaust vent and the inlet for the OAK, on separated layers of the same device threaded through the same hole in the outside wall. I don't know if that was a factor.

I never saw ice- and I was faithful about cleaning that pellet stove, from the inside, around and behind it, and from the outside through the exhaust vent. If there was ice I would have seen it.

I'm not doubting you at all. In fact, I was so sold on OAKs after the pellet stove experience that I was adamant about having one for the wood stove as well- efficiency and all that. The shop owner/installer finally convinced me that in our climate, with our typical construction and insulation for this climate, it really wasn't necessary. I'm no expert but so far, it hasn't seemed necessary; the stove runs fine.

I'm sort of glad we don't have one now. Humidity is enough of a problem here on the (salt) water. We just replaced all five burners in our propane fired gas furnace, and we'll be sealing the crawl space and having a de-humidifier installed in the crawl space in a few weeks. (This goes against all previous experience- we have relatives who heated with wood stoves backed up with forced air HVAC systems who had humidifiers installed in their houses!)

Huh. Learn something new every day.

 

[jetsam]

And we're off. Temp has dropped from -15 to -24 in three hours. Living room is +84dF, i am running 14%MC spruce at full throttle with the deck fans on high.

I can see the reflection of my combustor glow on the ceramic tile hearth from across the room.

When the wife gets home from coffee with her friend girl i wanna see a trail of clothing on the floor between the front door and the wood stove.

I got no caribou left in the freezer, and less than 12 sockeye filets. I got to get busy with hunting and fishing as soon as the ice goes out. Or move to California and start buying feed lot beef.

Counting on @BKVP to help me keep my man card another year.

Either my stove is defective, or your wife has some more open-minded friends than my wife does...

 

[kf6hap]

Outside air pipe condensate fix:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FPDF7K/?tag=hearthamazon-20

Other pipe wrap tapes are available for color coordination.

 

[Woody Stover]

+88dF in the stove room.

Did you forget to cut the air, or has someone got the flu? That's about 18 degrees north of 'comfortable' for me..

 

[tarzan]

Either my stove is defective, or your wife has some more open-minded friends than my wife does...

Well, that was the first time I've ever "literally" spit coffee on my keyboard. Ok, phone, but still....that was funny!

 

[ratsrepus]

Been trying to be consistent with the type of wood and the amount for each load, keeping track of the outside temperature. Loaded with 6 medium splits of very dry ash at 4 pm yesterday. 9 am here in SE Michigan 74 interior temp with a massive bed of coals. Havnt run the fans. cat is still at 11 am. Looking like a 24 hr burn. Meanwhile I've loaded the F500 4 times sense yesterday same time. in the 20's last night. Wife fully clothed

 

[BKVP]

I got your BK performance right here fellas.

Wife got home to -25dF outdoors, +88dF in the stove room. Not counting hat, coat and gloves I count four clothing items on the floor.

And she found a place we can drive too to fish where we can keep some king salmon while collecting sockeye.

And she dropped the names of two men from our church who might want to go caribou hunting with me so she won't have to go.

I have an awesone wife of course, but also an awesome stove. @BKVP , please extend my thanks to your entire team.

I gotta go...

I've met your wife and yes, you married up!

 

[ratsrepus]

how come you dont dress em up any more BKVP

$600 toledo. cat or non cat?

 

[kf6hap]

Just thinking... A key damper might be useful for a "hot" reload to prevent the fire from raging. This might apply more to folks in the very cold climates wanting to pack the stove full at night. It might prevent a bypass gasket clip meltdown too. Selkirk makes a double walled unit but it might not truly be necessary as a damper section is so short.

The stove décor looks to be Marvel Mystery Oil inspired.

 

[BKVP]

how come you dont dress em up any more BKVPView attachment 221516

$600 toledo. cat or non cat?

That's a find! Non cat, pre EPA rear vent.

 

[allan5oh]

Ok so water heaters and furnaces. Both are equipped with drains to trap the constant condensation, neither of which have external temperature that exceed room temperature by even 20 degrees.

I'm confused. You seem to be making an argument *for* OAK since one would reduce condensation up the flue pipe. Not having one introduces a lot of extra moisture.

It’s a totally different animal is my point. Apples and oranges. Condensation is a real problem on single wall OAKs in many environments, particularly when there are a lot of temperature swings during the burning season.

Goes back to my original 2 points. Too high humidity inside the house or installation error.

 

[aaronk25]

Ya is it really that hard to insulate the OAK pipe? Seems pretty simple. Install it and insulate it, done best of both worlds.


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[sutphenj]

That's a find! Non cat, pre EPA rear vent.

Sure do hope a rear vent is in BK's near future

 

[Ashful]

The number of complaints vs the number of stoves sold would suggest that less than ideal fuel is not the cause. Or else BK owners are like a thousand times more likely too have ideally dry wood than any other stove owner.

I was in a rush, and so wasn’t as verbose as I should have been. It seems obvious to me, given the very low number (statistically) of smoke smell cases, that multiple factors must combine in a certain way to cause this problem. If there were just one smoking gun, as you point out here, we would see many more of these complaints.

In my case, as Aaronk has been suggesting the last few weeks, unusually strong draft combined with wet wood, and surely a few other factors I’ve never identified. I’ve been burning three years with draft 3x what BK spec’s as their “allowable maximum”, with no smoke smell issues. Now, within two or three days of switching to wet wood, I’m getting it on every load. It’s only happening on the stove with very strong draft, not on my stove with a 15 foot chimney, which is actually burned at a much lower rate.

This morning, I loaded with mostly dry wood (six splits of 3 year + two splits of 2 year, all red oak), and will aim to load again tonight with dry wood. It will be interesting to see if this clears up, after a day or two back on dry wood. I’m assuming the capillary action of the gasket (creosote seeping thru the gasket and burning off on the outside) is the primary mechanism, which is why I anticipate there being a few days lag in cause/effect.

 

[webby3650]

Ya is it really that hard to insulate the OAK pipe? Seems pretty simple. Install it and insulate it, done best of both worlds.


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Almost no one is going to be ok with a big piece of insulated duct laying behind their stove. At least no one that is willing to drop $3K on a stove, those folks typically like things to look nice.

 

[Ashful]

@Ashful , looking forward to objective, data backed insight.

There you go with your misplaced faith, again. ;-) I work much better on assumptions and inaccurate generalities.

Now I’m going to have to go dig out a moisture meter, warm up some splits, re-split them, and all that chit.

 

[BKVP]

Sure do hope a rear vent is in BK's near future

Not likely...

 

[Deere80]

Bought a BK princess ultra last night to replace my 35 year old smoke dragon, got it installed and fired it up. This is my first experience with a cat stove so after I had it going for an hour I was reading around 650F on stove top inn from of cat indicator, which at that temp it was throwing off some nice heat but the indicator was at around the 3 to 4 oclock range is that normal? Also what is the max temperature you want to run the top of the stove at?

 

[lsucet]

The cat probe is used to know when the cat is in the active or inactive zone. you will get the hang out of it very soon. they are easy to use and control. There are many here with all kind the experience burning these stoves for years, any question, ASK. you will get answers quick and BKVP monitor the forum. 3 to 4 o'clock is normal and can go higher too with no worries. Read the manual real good and get a starting point operating the stove and everything else will be a piece of cake. You are going to love it.

 

[SuperJ]

Bought a BK princess ultra last night to replace my 35 year old smoke dragon, got it installed and fired it up. This is my first experience with a cat stove so after I had it going for an hour I was reading around 650F on stove top inn from of cat indicator, which at that temp it was throwing off some nice heat but the indicator was at around the 3 to 4 oclock range is that normal? Also what is the max temperature you want to run the top of the stove at?

You don't need to worry about stove top temps as long as your cat is in the active zone, and you don't have air leaks.
Just get the cat active and adjust the dial for comfort. Note that a small change in dial position may not be noticeable for 30min or more. So don't over adjust.

Play with it to figure out what your lowest setting is that can stay active until your fuel is consumed. Go too low and you'll have un-burnt fuel and no more fire (this might take overnight). For me this is about 3oclock on my ashford (or about 50% on the dial). That's my baseline and I go up from there if I need more heat.

 

[Deere80]

I was at about the 2 oclock position on the T-stat when I went to bed with the stove top at 575F and when I left for work it was still half full of wood so filled it back up and didn't change the settings. The cat indicator was still at about the 3 oclock position. I just didn't know if I run it hard and get 750 degree stove top temps and have the cat indicator max out if I will wreck anything. This is to expensive of a stove to not take care of it.

 

[lsucet]

Remember to open the air and bypass first before open the door it is a good practice to way a few minutes before open the door to stabilize everything in there and put the cat out of the picture. That way the cat doesn't suffer of thermo shock. I better if you can burn down to coals the load before reloads but i know sometimes heat demand can make you load early. if wood still in there and need more heat just turn the dial to higher settings. learn to adjust the load to your schedule and lifestyle. these stoves are good on that.lol

 

[lsucet]

Oh.WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE.