Agree 100%Oh BKs aren't perfect either. I've seen cracked door openings, holes corroded through the body, and other damage that may or may not have been caused by "abuse" but those are very rare.
The IS, if you can handle the looks and direct buy issue, is a really high performance stove. Less draft sensitive than the BK too if you can't handle the occasional whiff of smoke.
Either would be a great investment from great companies.
2021-2022 BK everything thread
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BKVP
Minister of Fire
If you set the thermostat to maximum heat output (better stated..max burn rate) it will produce that maximum just like any other stove, but it won't go over that burn rate, like other stoves might.
I should remind everyone, our thermostat is designed to protect the combustor from repeatedly reaching that point where the washcoat is damaged. The benefit of that is the conversion of an unmetered fuel into a metered fuel.
As stove subjected to extreme differentials of indoor versus outdoor can be less controlled in terms of burn rate. I've witnessed beautifully and quality build stoves "glowing" because of the inability to stop that excessive stack effect. Some warranties actually preclude coverage for "over fired" instances.
Of course regardless of stove or technology, unless you continually feed it fuel, NONE of them maintain promoted or even tested Btu ratings.
You might find it interesting to read a few reports where "max Btu's" were sustained for less than 5 minutes!
So really, it doesn't matter much. Back to what I have written and you and others have supported, we all write about our own experiences. That is what matters...so long we are always clear, it's our own experience.
BKVP
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
Aside from the odd brass colored area indicating paint loss over brass, wear on that latch is normal. It won't ever add up to much. My 2012 model has quite a deep groove worn into it because older models like mine used a round bolt hook on the stove side of the latch while your newer model uses a better flattened hook.
It is normal for the door gasket to crush down and need adjustment. Especially a new one. After the initial crush it shouldn't need adjustment very often.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
I do appreciate the "safety" feature of a thermostat designed to not overfire the stove. It's a big deal and a good idea. In theory, the thermostat also should prevent underfiring as well. These features should not be overlooked.
Wondering if you have any data on what the internal stack temps were on max output/burn rate on the princesses when you were testing them? I'd love to have that reference point!
Dieselhead
Minister of Fire
I have a Ashford that I got new in October. I have been burn 24/7 pretty much ever since, so I have around 2500hrs on the combustor . I went through the over active combustor for about a month then it started tapering off. Here recently the combustor has really tapered off. It's not glowing like it did and I have a little more smoke than I think I should, but it still is working as it hold in active region at the 3 o'clock position on the thermostat.
I did notice that one time when I emptied out the ash I noticed some ash build up so did a very very lite brushing of the combustor and it seemed to work better for awhile.
Is it possible or likely that my issue is ash build up? Should I be brushing the combustor or blowing it out every so often. I don't want to over do it and damage the cat.
On other side note. I do a lot of hot reloads where the cat probe is between the 10 and 12 o'clock position so that the stove will have enough fuel to make it through a day or night and keep the house warm. There is only hot coals when I do this. Can I be damaging the combustor by doing this? I am always opening the bypass when reloading.
I did notice that one time when I emptied out the ash I noticed some ash build up so did a very very lite brushing of the combustor and it seemed to work better for awhile.
Is it possible or likely that my issue is ash build up? Should I be brushing the combustor or blowing it out every so often. I don't want to over do it and damage the cat.
On other side note. I do a lot of hot reloads where the cat probe is between the 10 and 12 o'clock position so that the stove will have enough fuel to make it through a day or night and keep the house warm. There is only hot coals when I do this. Can I be damaging the combustor by doing this? I am always opening the bypass when reloading.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Your going to want to take the smoke pipe off and vacuum behind the cat, the back of the combustor might have build up, if you dont to go through all of that you can take a compressor and lower it to 10psi and blow the face front to rear, do not remove the cat unless you have another gasket on hand and do not stick anything into the cat cells, the wash coat is fragile and will come off, as with anything over 10psi being blown directly onto it.
I have a stove vacuum that I was thinking about running in reverse to blow out the cat. Would that be too much air?
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Im not sure, psi and volume can damage the wash coat, I have a 5gal pancake compressor with 1/4 hose and a nozzle that I use, I also can adjust the output of the compressor and always have the air flowing through the nozzle before bringing it up the cat.
I might be better just to take the smoke pipe off and shine a cell phone camera in the back to see whats going on first.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
Vacuum would work great and you can put it right on the face of the cat but don't physically damage the face by rubbing it. Suck and blow the ash out of the cells. You probably have ash cloggage which is pretty common with the fine steel cats on all brands. It's even possible on ceramic cats but less so. Another tool is that canned air used for cleaning computer keyboards, it is allegedly a safe pressure and flow for the catalyst.
That is not the best test to validate cat function. A clue at best. The smoke up top is far more valuable for troubleshooting but your cat is relatively new so we shouldn't expect it to be dead just yet. Cloggage or partial cloggage is much more likely.
What exactly is the problem? The cat doesn't need to glow to be working properly. The visible smoke can be a problem but I have found that I get something visible from my stack quite often as the thermostat opens and shuts to regulate burn rate. Are you watching the cat meter too closely? As long as that meter is above the active line you can ignore it.
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I think you guys have answered my question. Sounds like I have cat that is getting somewhat clogged and just need to clean it, hopefully without damaging it. Thanks for the quick response.
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
I was wondering about the cat if it needs to glow or not to be working. I just figured it did and when it wasn't glowing it wasn't working as well. Thanks for the info. I probably am looking at the gauge too much. I work in the engineering field so like to understand how things work.
Just make sure to give it a bit of time to dissipate before lighting a flame near the stove. This "canned air" isn't actually canned air, but rather a mix of hydrocarbons, mostly propane and butane. Like in a lighter. Meaning it will combust spectacularly in your stove or flue if it happens to be the right fuel/air mixture. But leaving the door open with the bypass closed for a few minutes should do it.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
That might actually make me want to buy a can! I was under the impression it was Co2 but I own some bottled Co2 and the vessel is quite stout. It does feel like a liquid in the can and the lower pressure LPG makes sense. Seems risky that they would sell this canned fossil fuel for cleaning computers.
Good warning.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
OMG I was thinking the same thing, buy a can to test it out lol
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
Try it out if you want. Works well with hair spray, too, for killing spiders, for instance. Household flamethrower.
And yes, it is liquid in the can. As is a CO2 capsule.
At ambient temperature, CO2 is in an equilibrium with its liquid state at a pressure of about 60 bar. That's way more than the pressure of propane/butane of 2-8 bar, depending on composition. So it's not surprising your CO2 capsules have a significantly stronger wall.
They used to use fluoro-chloro-hydrocarbons as propellant gases back in the 70's and 80's, but as those turned out to be a ozone killer the industry switched to basic hydrocarbons.
This place is great. I get to learn how to heat my house and now how to blow it up, awesome
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Any concerns from running this hot? I probably get to this temp for a couple hours in the morning and then run at the top of the “active” zone for the rest of the day.
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
If this is a new cat, then no. This happens with new cats. They are hyper active. In a few weeks it'll settle down to "adult behavior" rather than "sugared up kid behavior"...
MissMac
Minister of Fire
I have found that I have to vacuum the face of my cat about 4 times per winter. I let the stove go totally cold, and then just use my household vacuum (as it's very little ash that i'm sucking up). I put the little bristle attachment on and move it gently over the surface of the cat - night and day results after I do this. The last year of my old cat - so let's say towards the end of it's useful (to me) life, I found that it was more clogged, and that simply vacuuming was no longer really tuning it up so well. Compressed air helped at this point, but what really helped was getting a new catalyst (for a number of reasons, and you're clearly not at that point with your new cat).
The other thing worth mentioning is that if you're burning small splits, in my experience you'll have some smoke during the cycle. Overwhelms the cat. Right now I'm working through a bunch of ugly, way to small splits of balsam fir, poplar and birch. And i'm smoking for hours, regardless of what setting i adjust to. Just too much surface area on fire at one time, and the cat cant' keep up. Just something else to consider.
Happy burning!
shoot-straight
Minister of Fire
Had a non-cat hearthstone for 8 years. Now a bk ashford. Night and day difference in many ways. Firebox of ashford is a bit bigger. Burns are longer, more consistent temp and more efficient. The peaks and valleys of the non cat were the issue with me. Lots of heat for like 4 hours then 4 hours of so so- lots of coals if pushing it hard. I'd love to try a princess and see what it does here. Don't like the looks though.
No stove is perfect for Everyone or more importantly every house. Some just work better in some situations than others. And not just the house but the install can change things.
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