2019-20 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 1 (Everything BK)

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Anyone knows where I can get touch up paint for the Princess? I noticed the paint on it is extremely thin/light, one thin layer and it peals super easily. Some time ago I scuffed the lip (below loading door) with a piece of wood as I was loading and a piece of paint came off. Yesterday, I was tinkering and installing thermocouple to see the real cat themps (another post) and the thin wire from the probe rubbed against the top corner of the stove and it rubbed bunch of paint off with hardly any pressure. BK should give these stoves several coats of paint.
 
This is what I am talking about.
 

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That sounds about right for that type of start. Yes, once the stove gets fully up to temp, air is cut and the cat is glowing, it will be eating all the smoke. Once the load gets to the coaling stage, there's little or no smoke to burn, of course..

Yep. This is exactly what happened. Just loaded it again and it looked like a ton of “smoke” but guessing this is steam. Ran the stove on high for 20 minutes and backed it down to half. Absolutely nothing coming out of the stack now.
 
Just loaded it again and it looked like a ton of “smoke” but guessing this is steam. Ran the stove on high for 20 minutes and backed it down to half. Absolutely nothing coming out of the stack now.
My guess it that you were seeing some smoke, if it disappeared that quickly. Steam will usually persist for longer, up to several hours sometimes. Moisture comes out of the wood for a while, and if it's very cold out, you may see steam very deep into the burn since H2O is also a product of combustion.
 
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You've probably heard this before, but an OAK intake should not be above the firebox.
 
the paint on it is extremely thin/light, one thin layer and it peals super easily. Some time ago I scuffed the lip (below loading door) with a piece of wood as I was loading and a piece of paint came off. Yesterday, the thin wire from the probe rubbed against the top corner of the stove and it rubbed bunch of paint off with hardly any pressure. BK should give these stoves several coats of paint.
Agree. Paint comes off very easy.
Duly noted. ;)
 
You've probably heard this before, but an OAK intake should not be above the firebox.

And that magnetic surface temperature gauges on double wall flues are not effective.
 
He said he would disconnect the OAK sometime last week
 
Two kings working!
 
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Yep. On floor now. Sorry old pictures. Didn’t think about that when i posted it
I thought I was bad, but that looks like an even more extreme case of hand tool loss over the course of a job! ;)
Two kings working!
That's unusual..don't kings usually sit around and let the peasants do the actual work? ;)
 
My guess it that you were seeing some smoke, if it disappeared that quickly. Steam will usually persist for longer, up to several hours sometimes. Moisture comes out of the wood for a while, and if it's very cold out, you may see steam very deep into the burn since H2O is also a product of combustion.

Are you sure about that, Woody? I can’t pretend I sit and watch my chimney for long enough to be an authority on this, but every weekend I stuff the stove full and head outside to do yard work or wood splitting as soon as the combustor is engaged and active, usually with instructions for my wife to turn it down after 20 minutes on high. I check for a change in plume to tell me she remembered, and will also look up at it several more times during the course of my outside work. I can’t remember ever seeing steam coming out much more than 30 minutes into the burn, but maybe I’m just losing track of time.
 
My guess it that you were seeing some smoke, if it disappeared that quickly. Steam will usually persist for longer, up to several hours sometimes. Moisture comes out of the wood for a while, and if it's very cold out, you may see steam very deep into the burn since H2O is also a product of combustion.
Are you sure about that, Woody? I can’t pretend I sit and watch my chimney for long enough to be an authority on this, but every weekend I stuff the stove full and head outside to do yard work or wood splitting as soon as the combustor is engaged and active, usually with instructions for my wife to turn it down after 20 minutes on high. I check for a change in plume to tell me she remembered, and will also look up at it several more times during the course of my outside work. I can’t remember ever seeing steam coming out much more than 30 minutes into the burn, but maybe I’m just losing track of time.
If you run pretty big flame in the box getting the stove up to temp, then close the bypass and she runs it high for another twenty minutes, you are probably cooking most of the moisture out of the wood early in the burn. I don't generally burn in the load that much, so it's possible there's more water left in the wood to make steam later into the burn. Granted, after a few hours I'm usually not seeing steam, but it can happen. And as I said, very cold weather will show the steam more since the water vapor condenses and becomes visible sooner. It's not likely that you are going out to work in that kind of weather, so you may have never seen that phenomenon.
 
Loaded stove this morning, 8 minutes in bypass, then closed bypass and got my boots and jacket on. This is what I found when I went outside, five minutes later.

2019-20 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 1 (Everything BK)


It’s hard to tell against that ominous sky, but I was already at 99% clear emissions. No steam, just the faintest almost undetectable whiff of smoke. Humidity must have been close to 100%, it started to flurry at this time, and has continued since, despite no precipitation in the forecast.

I will admit I’m not playing fair, here. This is the B3 beta cat.
 
It's not likely that you are going out to work in that kind of weather, so you may have never seen that phenomenon.
You must be new here. Just one case in point, I was outside building a woodshed two days ago, starting around 20F at 6am and ending in pouring rain around 35F from 3pm - 11pm. I work outdoors in all weather we get here, as long as it is below 100F.
 
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You must be new here. Just one case in point, I was outside building a woodshed two days ago, starting around 20F at 6am and ending in pouring rain around 35F from 3pm - 11pm. I work outdoors in all weather we get here, as long as it is below 100F.
No, when I say "very cold," I mean low single digits or less.
Another factor may be that your wood is shedded. Mine is covered with mats or metal, and some rain can blow in so my wood may have some additional moisture soaked into the outside of the splits sometimes.
I got steam on the load I started this morning, and humidity was closer to 70%. I didn't keep going out to see how long it persisted, though. A lot of times it might be a half hour or more, from what I've seen.
 
No, when I say "very cold," I mean low single digits or less.
Another factor may be that your wood is shedded. Mine is covered with mats or metal, and some rain can blow in so my wood may have some additional moisture soaked into the outside of the splits sometimes.
I got steam on the load I started this morning, and humidity was closer to 70%. I didn't keep going out to see how long it persisted, though. A lot of times it might be a half hour or more, from what I've seen.
Its relative humidity that gives you the steam, temp & dewpoint, that's why sometimes when its 40deg f you can see your breath, but other times when its in the 20's you cant see the steam.. personally its all null to me, as long as the house is warm, not a lot of smoke coming out of the stack and your saving wood consumption.
 
No, when I say "very cold," I mean low single digits or less.
Another factor may be that your wood is shedded. Mine is covered with mats or metal, and some rain can blow in so my wood may have some additional moisture soaked into the outside of the splits sometimes.
I got steam on the load I started this morning, and humidity was closer to 70%. I didn't keep going out to see how long it persisted, though. A lot of times it might be a half hour or more, from what I've seen.
Yeah, I’m a little slower to get going in the mornings at single digits. If it’s calm, no problem, but we often have high wind with our occasional single digits.

My 2022 wood is shedded, but the stuff I’m burning now was stacked on pallets for 3 years with no cover, and then covered this fall. I can’t say I normally get clear plume this quickly, I truly don’t usually check, this morning was just one random sample.
 
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