2022-2023 BK everything thread

[stoveliker]

(Been too busy with work and projects to post here much lately.)

First stove lighting this afternoon. A few 4 year old red oak pieces and some 4 year old cedar cut offs (previous stove ate larger wood). Good to get things going. Overnight will be oak, and then some low and slow tomorrow when it'll be a high of 48 F - but 30 F at night, so I'm going to keep the thing warm. (not hot ).

My cat has seen 2000 hrs last year (I know because of the energy usage on the wifi plug that runs the fan that helps me move heat from the basement to the main floor). It definitely has settled down. It just glides into the active zone. I'm not running hard (though a mix of hard and softwood) now, and it's at the bottom quarter of the active zone. Pipe probe is at 300 F.

 

[Ashful]

Your fans only run when your cat is active?? How do you manage that?

 

[stoveliker]

This is my inline fan in the duct that sucks cold air from my living room floor and deposits it on the basement floor where the stove is. Warm air then gets pushed up the stairs onto the main floor.

I control it with a wifi plug, which also records total kWh used. Knowing that it runs on 26 W at full speed, allows me to calculate the total runtime. And I only switch it on when the cat is active. If coming off a cold start, it does not make sense to run it earlier anyway.

 

[kennyp2339]

Chill is here, lit the stove last night before going out, threw another load in around 9am or so, just ash and poplar, was screwing around with something outside and my neighbor came over, he was first complaining about the arrival of the cold, and then asked me when I was going to lit the stove up, told him it was going, he did a double take since the chimney didnt have any action going on around the cap area.

 

[stoveliker]

Lol, the exact same here. I texted my elderly neighbors (whom I give split shorties) "stove time". They responded "when? Not yet, I can see." I responded "2 hrs ago". Then they came out and I showed them the refraction (vibrations) at the chimney.

I hope they understood the "dry wood" remark I made....

 

[DonTee]

What flue temp do you guys get up to during the charring phase of the burn? And do you limit the flue temp during that phase?
For example, 20 minutes at 650 degrees etc.

 

[kennyp2339]

What flue temp do you guys get up to during the charring phase of the burn? And do you limit the flue temp during that phase?
For example, 20 minutes at 650 degrees etc.

Honestly I just look at the fire behavior, on a hot reload I turn t stat up, reload, wait till the logs catch then turn the t-stat down, normally my double wall is warm to the touch, on charring it’s uncomfortable/ hot to the touch

 

[DonTee]

Rereading the manual now I see it says to keep on high for 20-30 min OR until the fire is well established after reloading.

I missed the second part. On hot reloads I’m getting to 600 degrees pretty quick on high.

I’ve been turning down the thermostat to keep the temp under 650 while charring the wood. I’m not sure how high it would climb to if I didn’t turn it down some.

I’ve been getting good burn times out of the stove, so it must be working ok.

This is my first cat stove, and my first time with a flue thermometer, so excuse the silly questions

 

[stoveliker]

No silly questions. Or, as silly as mine:

2021-2022 BK everything thread

Yes, Very few BK’s can be run below the 2 oclock setting, you need to find the sweet spot for your setup (everyone’s situation is different).. Once you find the spot on your dial that you cannot go below without losing your CAT you’re golden.. Also, you posted this in the wrong place, this...

www.hearth.com

In the end, I have reverted to looking at the fire as well. At some point, you know how it should look for the turn down and long burn to work well. I guess.

(Edit: the blurb above is not representative of the particular post it links to.)

Also, I char less long when I burn the load on a higher setting.

Only if I go for the really long and low, I char a bit longer, but I slowly decrease the thermostat to avoid overheating. I do look at the flue probe then a bit. I think I keep it under 850 F or so. But this does not happen much for me because I use the minisplit when it's that warm outside.

 

[Highbeam]

What flue temp do you guys get up to during the charring phase of the burn? And do you limit the flue temp during that phase?
For example, 20 minutes at 650 degrees etc.

I use a condar flue probe meter and that meter is the first one to get to redline during a charring phase of a new load. I let it get up to 850 or so before cutting the thermostat substantially but not all the way down to my cruise setting.

With good, dry, Douglas fir I can’t go 20 minutes on high before maxing out the flue temperatures so the “or until established” will have to work.

 

[TheElementalCashew]

I did the dollar bill test on my door gasket yesterday before firing up the Princess. The last time I did this test was after the last burn season and everything was tight.
This time, the paper slid fairly easily out from the bottom center of the door. Everywhere else seems tight. Seems a shame to replace a gasket already on a year old stove.
Does any 7/8" gasket work, or do I need a Blaze King specific gasket? I've already got some of the high temp copper RTV.

 

[kennyp2339]

@TheElementalCashew just adjust the door tensioner on the firebox

 

[TheElementalCashew]

@TheElementalCashew just adjust the door tensioner on the firebox

Good call, I can give that try before replacing the gasket. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[DonTee]

Thanks. It’s been fun learning the new stove.

850 is hotter than I thought. I haven’t let mine get that hot yet. Hottest flue temp was in the 700’s. So it looks like it should char hotter.

 

[Diabel]

Finally I had time and was brave enough to do hot burns between (almost black box) reloads. I have a bunch of large ~21-23” splits. When I buck I eye measure and get lazy come the end of the log, hence the longer pieces. The only way they fit the box is diagonally. When using hemlock, basswood split (one) after closing the bypass, stat open for the whole duration of burn (usually 1-2h) the flue temp will never go over 450, the cat will sit around 2pm. The thermostat can be heard ticking and pinging almost continuously. When using same size maple split (one only again), the flue will go up to 550 and cat at around 2pm again. Very interesting.

On a full box while charing with bypass closed. After 15-20 min the flue will read 600 and the box will look like the gates of hell! Scary

 

[Nealm66]

It’s been around 27 in the am for a few days and warming up during the day into the 50’s. Perfect princess weather! 12hr(ish) reloads. Maybe just a shade on the warm side in the evenings but not enough to adjust the swoosh. Milling up some logs and planning on burning the slabs/wane and will be interesting to see if it will just need some vacuum of the ceramic cat or early damage from all the Doug fir bark.

 

[Nealm66]

I think the char is just to burn off the outside stuff that can clog the cat and boil out the moisture before engaging the cat? If so, you can probably turn the swoosh down a bit from high and get the same results without over heating? Just my random thoughts while the coffee gives me some blood flow

 

[Diabel]

So I am a bit confused. And I believe this was discussed here before.

Regarding charring wood or getting moisture out:

My understanding was and when using my VC that was the process. With bypass open, char the wood or drive any leftover moisture out as not to damage the cat due to moisture.

With BK we are to close the bypass run it on high for ~20min to char the wood and or drive any leftover moisture out. I am confused….do this with air going via cat? Or am I stuck on terminology…

 

[Nealm66]

I think the flames can do some kind of damage with the bypass open too long? I engage about at that first mark and then leave it on high till my temp hits a little below the red and then turn the swoosh to my mark that keeps my upstairs at 72 and walk away. Probably got everything wrong but seems to work good for me

 

[Highbeam]

There’s melting snow and burning off spider juice, and then there’s completely drying out a 20% log to zero. I think leaving the bypass open while snow and spider juice burns off is good idea but after that, if the cat meter is in active range, flip that bypass closed and let her eat.

 

[TheElementalCashew]

@TheElementalCashew just adjust the door tensioner on the firebox

No dice on the door adjustment. The outer nut is frozen so I can't pull the latch in any further.

 

[Larch]

If there's threads for sure for it to turn out and the inner moves take it off and soak in penetration lubricant of some kind for a couple hours

 

[TheElementalCashew]

If there's threads for sure for it to turn out and the inner moves take it off and soak in penetration lubricant of some kind for a couple hours

Yeah I let it soak for a bit and went after it hard with vice grips, but it wouldn't budge. A new latch is like $20, I'll probably just order a new one and might as well do the gasket anyways.

 

[Ashful]

No dice on the door adjustment. The outer nut is frozen so I can't pull the latch in any further.

Not familiar with this adjustment, but having spent two decades with my primary hobby being the restoration of antique machinery, and before that old cars, I know a thing or two about freezing frozen fasteners. If you can get air to the stove, get yourself a small (i.e. 1/4" hex) pneumatic impact driver. Several seconds or minutes of impact on a fastener is infinitely more likely to un-stick a frozen threaded fastener without snapping it, than any amount of constant torque.

If you can't get air to the stove, then a battery-powered impact driver is your second best bet. These have several times less torque per drive size, so try 1/4" hex, but you may find yourself having to move into 3/8" or 1/2" square drive tools, to get the thing moving.

Soaking a day or three with penetrating oil before applying tools is always advisable, you're already on the right path, there.

 

[Nealm66]

Dang. I haven’t had to adjust mine on it’s 3rd season and it was a floor model. Hopefully the adjustment isn’t frozen when the time comes.