buyer's remorse

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Big and old drafty house, center chimney with two 6" liners, about 25 feet tall. Dollar bill test shows a small spot near the handle that isn't as tight as it could be. I just tested a couple of pieces of room temp fresh split: 19.3% and 22.1%, so some of my wood is good and some is a little too wet.

I fill the stove, throw the bypass as soon as the cat probe reads active, let it run for a few minutes and then slowly start to turn the tstat down. Cat probe continues to go up until it about maxes out. I've set the tstat to 2, 1.5, 1, and lower than 1 (my tstat spins about 180* past 1??), All with the same 8-12 hour burn. By the end, I have a ton of coals but hardly any heat and the probe has dropped to inactive.
It sure sounds like your cat is about shot and lots of coals indicates wet wood.
 
I've actually wondered about this. The bypass handle rolls over and then stops, but if I give it some pressure is kind of clicks one more notch. I looked inside the stove this morning before loading it to see what that extra click looked like and all I saw was the damper slide toward the front of the stove 1/8 inch. I didn't know if that was by design or because the stove is 10 years old
 
I've actually wondered about this. The bypass handle rolls over and then stops, but if I give it some pressure is kind of clicks one more notch. I looked inside the stove this morning before loading it to see what that extra click looked like and all I saw was the damper slide toward the front of the stove 1/8 inch. I didn't know if that was by design or because the stove is 10 years old
That actually sounds normal but i would inspect the gasket anyway
 
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That click is what you are supposed to do. It seals better.

Also, my cat was not brown when new. And it is not brown now. Metal and whitish (presumably ash).

25 ft is a bit tall if no elbows. So draft could be too much.

Wet wood uses energy to evaporate the water.

Is your thermostat knob fixed to the rod? (Set screw tight)

Maybe a good idea to take the cover off of the Tstat housing to see if things work properly; if there is debris there (should not be so), and it doesn't close well, it'll burn thru the load too fast.

Can you post a pic of how a full load looks like?
 
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Just another thought, if I understand correctly, you mentioned you engage your bypass and then start turning your air down, to 1 or less; is it possible your turning down to quickly and stalling the cat?
 
wow. If all that's usable, it's close to 10 cubic ft...

If 10 cubic ft gave 8 hrs of burn time, and the efficiency of the BK is twice that of the old stove (that's likely an overestimate in efficiency, but gotta start someplace), and the princess is only 3 cubic ft, then it should last about 5 hours for the same heat output.

I don't think one can even burn down a stuffed BK firebox in 5 hrs if one wanted to...

And something is wrong with the model noted by the OP or the times quoted by the OP... It just does not add up.
The all nightera have a baffle in the middle of the fire box, creating a large smoke chamber in the upper half
 
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Just another thought, if I understand correctly, you mentioned you engage your bypass and then start turning your air down, to 1 or less; is it possible your turning down to quickly and stalling the cat?
Might be the case, althought the first time we burned the stove we waited the recommended 30 minutes to start turning down and the stove was raging. Second time we waited 20 minutes, still raging. Now I'm turning it down after about 7 minutes and the gage is still in the top of the range but the fire isn't going crazy
 
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Btw campcook most of us are not blindly defending blaze king. They are not perfect stoves but something doesn't sound right. With more info we may be able to help you
Trust me, I really want to love this stove, if only because I almost killed myself getting it out of the truck and into the house!
 
It it totally normal for the knob to spin almost 360 degrees or as you say 180 ccw past 1. Mine does too.

I burn with just a 12’ chimney even when it’s 65 outside and I don’t see smoke other than intermittent blue emissions.

The one steel cat I used didn’t even last two seasons before becoming a slobbery cold mess. My steel cat was brown and then grey sometimes, my only point was not to be alarmed if it is brown.

You can dollar bill test the bypass gasket just as you would the loading door. It’s a hard gasket to change and your description of the bypass lever operation sounds good.

Left over wood sounds like wet fuel.
 
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Either too much draft, leaky gaskets at the door and/or bypass! I bought a 2005 king in December put new bypass gasket on, had new door gasket already and only fill half a firebox in single digit temps and consistently get 24 hr burns and could go more but I need to go to bed at some point! Longest burn I’ve received was 36 hrs with a half load in the box. I’m pretty sure when weather warms up and stuff that stove complete full I will surpass 50+ hrs.
 
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Give the stove a fresh cat so that you are starting off from a known point. The old cat could be dead or poisoned. Midwest Hearth is a good source for cats for this stove.
 
Can steel cats be cleaned in a vinegar bath like the ceramic ones? I've never owned a steel cat but if this is a possibility you may get it active enough for a short term fix.
 
I would do both: get a new one and do the vinegar on the old one. Buy extra gasket material. If the new cat resolves the issue, you know what the problem was. If the new one does not, you know to search for other causes. Keep the old one because it may not be dead.

If the problem is resolved and you know the cause, and the old cat is "dead", then do the vinegar thing and test the old one again. If you're lucky you have a spare with some lifetime left. And if not, you had practice doing the vinegar thing on a cat that was dead anyway.
 
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I’m sorry I totally forgot about mentioning the cat could be the culprit. In my opinion I feel the cat is most of your problem.