2022-2023 BK everything thread

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Question for you guys. I’ve read with a new stove (or new cat) that it’s normal for the cat temp to be in the very upper end of the range (or just past that) for a little while, while the cat is breaking in. How long does it do that?
I've been burning 24/7 for a month and it still goes well beyond the active range if the thermostat is set above 4:00.
 
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I've forgotten to close the by-pass a time or too, was lucky that no damage occured, but damage can happen if your running the t-stat on high with open by-pass, you could melt the retainer clips and warp the by-pass opening.
Been there, done that. Like 45 minutes at wide-open throttle on a 30 foot chimney, maybe averaging once per year. Always an "oh chit" panic moment, when you're outside splitting wood or other chores, and remember you forgot to close the bypass after loading an hour prior. Luckily, no damage... so far.
what retainer clips ken?
The old Princess design had retainers welded to the bypass door assembly, which would warp if you had a severe over-fire event, such as forgetting to close the bypass. It was an intentionally-designed sacrificial component, but I believe they had to be cut out and new ones welded in, to repair. BK changed the design maybe 2 years ago, but since I don't own a Princess, I forget the specific details of the change.
 
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Yes wrong gasket. Please visit with a Blaze King dealer. You need our dense 7/8" gasket and it appears to be a solid door and that gasket is also failing.
Just to give an update... it was the door gasket, got both gaskets on the door replaced, turns out that the stove is a King not a Princess, and we may need to replace the cat but will wait till we see how the burn times are. Thank you for all the help....
 
With all the shortages right now, is there a cat shortage too? Just curious.

I just got my stove, but already in thinking about getting a backup cat. For whenever I might need it. Yes I know it will be years... :)
 
With all the shortages right now, is there a cat shortage too? Just curious.

I just got my stove, but already in thinking about getting a backup cat. For whenever I might need it. Yes I know it will be years... :)
I bought one early this year (late spring). No shortage then.
 
Hi all - I'm a new user/BK owner. Did a lot of reading on this forum last year and had an Ashford 25 insert delivered and installed by the only BK dealer I could find local to me. Used it all last winter and loved it. Getting between 10 and 14 hour burns reliably.

We are preparing for the cold and had our chimney sweep out (different guy from the installer). He found substantial creosote build-up and says he is unable to clean it he says because the insulated liner the installer used is "substandard" and will crack and disintegrate if he tries to scrub it. He wants to pull it and put in a heavier gauge liner.

I do have a moisture meter and spot check my wood (always checking on a freshly split face) so I'm not sure why I'm getting so much build-up. Nothing goes in that's over 20%, mostly it's around 15% to 18%. We primarily burnt ash last year. Our chimney is ~25'. I make sure the cat is active until I go to bed (it falls off sometime overnight) and I usually have some coals left in the morning.

I've found the people on this forum to be very knowledgeable and I'd be happy to have any insight you can offer.

Thanks

flue.jpg
 
With all the shortages right now, is there a cat shortage too? Just curious.

I just got my stove, but already in thinking about getting a backup cat. For whenever I might need it. Yes I know it will be years... :)
I wouldn't bother. Barring anything too catastrophic for a combustor to be your biggest problem, you won't need it for at least two or three years, and prices on everything "woodburning" are peaked right now.

Peek at the peaked pricing, and you'll see the woodburning bug has piqued the interest of many. Sorry, couldn't help myself.
 
With all the shortages right now, is there a cat shortage too? Just curious.

I just got my stove, but already in thinking about getting a backup cat. For whenever I might need it. Yes I know it will be years... :)
I replace mine every two years, probably could go three
 
I’ve been burning about 4 cords per year in my old stove. I’m assuming how long they last is dependent on how much wood you burn?
 
Good to know. You have a Princess right? How much did the cat cost? If you don’t mind me asking.
I have a Chinook (but believe it's the same cat). A tad under $300 (incl. shipping and tax) at MidWestHearth

I’ve been burning about 4 cords per year in my old stove. I’m assuming how long they last is dependent on how much wood you burn?
In principle yes. I can see arguments for how many hours it's been hot (and hotter counts faster than less hot...), and for how many cords of wood went thru it (b/c impurities/metal atoms that might affect the cat after building up over time).

Estimates vary a lot. Some say 10-15k hrs. Some run far longer (8 years with BKVP?), some run many more cords than others.

Finally "a dead cat" means something different for everybody because performance decreases over time - when is it "dead"?

From all this, I think one cannot predict when the cat will be dead for you. As I understand that shelf life is not an issue, I bought one now. And I'll see when I will decide I need it.
 
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@stoveliker already gave an excellent answer, but just to add to, augment, or even re-enforce what he has already said:

Of course there must be some dependency on cords burned, it seems unintuitive to expect anything else. But real-world experience has run somewhat contrary to this, if we are to give any merit to the anecdotal evidence posted to this forum over the last decade or more. Owners seem to be showing much more dependency on hours than cords, with @Highbeam and I probably representing the most two extreme ends of the spectrum.

Case in point, I'm putting about 7 cords of very high BTU cordwood (eg. almost exclusively oak for 5 years) thru one Ashford 30.1 every year. I don't remember Highbeam's numbers exactly, but I think he's somewhere around 3 cords per year of low-BTU softwoods, thru a Princess. My combustor is more than 4 years old, and while obviously much less hyper-active than it was when new, it's still doing a good enough job in my application. Highbeam sees black ooze dripping down his chimney if he pushes his combustors past 2 years. Clearly, it's not only about cords.

But when we look at hours, I think him and I are actually running pretty similar hours. I start around Oct.1, and am often still doing evening fires up to June 1, although I honestly start to get pretty lazy about lighting stoves by early May most years. I think Highbeam's season is of similar length, yet he's ripping thru at least TWO combustors for each of mine.

So what's the difference? I once accused him of just being more picky than me, but he made it pretty clear that there's no "maybe" about when his cats die, the "black ooze" comment wasn't an exaggeration. So, it seems his application using softwood at low-BTU output rates must rely much more heavily on having an ideally-functioning combustor. In fact, I'd be tempted to take one of his spent units, and see how it performs in my setup, to see what we could learn from it. I wouldn't be surprised at all, if a combustor that fails to cut mustard in his setup, works just fine in mine, based on the demands of our individual applications.
 
Up to this year, Highbeam has been heating for a longer period of time I think. Some years the only time he doesn't burn is July-August. This may change with the addition of a mini-split which should cover the shoulder season heating easily. This year's weather is unusual. We were chilly until early July and now there is nothing in the 10 day forecast but sun and 70s for daytime temps.
 
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Up to this year, Highbeam has been heating for a longer period of time I think. Some years the only time he doesn't burn is July-August. This may change with the addition of a mini-split which should cover the shoulder season heating easily. This year's weather is unusual. We were chilly until early July and now there is nothing in the 10 day forecast but sun and 70s for daytime temps.
Its funny because I was thinking to myself that this time of year is the only time of year my house goes below sub 68 inside, right now I'm sitting at 66 in my family room, its not that bad, a couple more weeks and I'll start my shoulder season batch burning for the cooler nights.
 
We've been using the heat pump as a chill chaser, but at this rate I won't be burning before November. The bad thing is that we have already set the record for the driest summer, now it looks like that might also apply to October unless things change.
 
Up to this year, Highbeam has been heating for a longer period of time I think. Some years the only time he doesn't burn is July-August. This may change with the addition of a mini-split which should cover the shoulder season heating easily. This year's weather is unusual. We were chilly until early July and now there is nothing in the 10 day forecast but sun and 70s for daytime temps.
Good data, begreen. But even if his season is 10 months and mine is only 8, it doesn't completely make up for the more than 2:1 rate difference in our combustor replacement schedule.

It's obviously a multivariate problem, a function of cords, time, and burn rate. But I'm leaning most towards the low burn rate really highlighting any degradation much sooner than might be noticed by those operating at higher BTU output. Put otherwise, it's a function of 1) hours, and 2) cords, but overwhelmingly highlighted first to those who are trying to eek out 10k BTU/hour.

I can never get my output anywhere near that low on oak or hickory, to even detect the diminished performance @Highbeam might detect after two years, burning ultra-low on softwood in a shoulder season. Each full load into my stoves is going to run 500k to 700k BTU, so unless I'm hitting 50 - 70 hour burn times, I'm just never going to see Highbeam's lowest rate near 10k BTU/hour. The lowest I can get is likely around double that rate, and sure to not ask nearly so much of a catalyst.
 
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NIELS arrived today. This is two tons. By the way, I'm tired now. I'll run NIELS exclusively for a few months, then switch to mix of cordwood and NIELS. I'm testing a few items which I'll share when completed.

View attachment 299564
How do you burn this type of compressed wood log in the blaze king?

I’m getting a Sirocco 25 insert in a few weeks and plan to mostly burn compressed wood (envi block or biobrick) this winter. I’ve read that these compressed wood generate more heat and that I should avoid loading the firebox to the full with these.

Would it be possible to damper down air flow in blaze king and burn a full load of these compressed wood to get a long burn time, without undue heat stress to the insert?

I know I’ll have to test it out for myself but wanted to lear other people’s experience.

Thanks
 
How do you burn this type of compressed wood log in the blaze king?

I’m getting a Sirocco 25 insert in a few weeks and plan to mostly burn compressed wood (envi block or biobrick) this winter. I’ve read that these compressed wood generate more heat and that I should avoid loading the firebox to the full with these.

Would it be possible to damper down air flow in blaze king and burn a full load of these compressed wood to get a long burn time, without undue heat stress to the insert?

I know I’ll have to test it out for myself but wanted to lear other people’s experience.

Thanks
I’ve done it a bunch of times. I’ve had no problems stuffing them full and they even seem to burn a bit lower than Doug fir. The Idaho press logs are the best but a little more$. Just my experience and I’ve been cautioned against it for fear of forgetting to shut the stove down etc
 
I run them like I do cord wood, with the BK thermostat you don't have to worry. You might find a lower setting with the bio blocks is required
 
As discussed earlier I ordered a flue temp guage to see what it was doing in relation to the overactive cat. Just installed it and it appears when the cat hits the end of the active zone which is about the 3:30 position the flue is right around 400°. When the cat got to the c in .com which is about 5:00 position the flue was 800°. When the cat got to the 5:30 position the flue was almost 900° which is where it enters the red. At this point I turned it down a little, no idea if it would keep climbing or not.

Don't know what the results reveal but I do know the glass is clean and it's really hot in the house 🥵.

As the temperature came back down the flue was about 350° when the cat dropped back into the active zone. At this point the top was maintaining 550° in the right rear corner far away from the cat which was as hot as it got.

45 minutes later with thermostat at 3:00 the cat settled in to about 1:30 or 2:00 where it normally runs and the flue is 200°.

Another 45 minutes and cat is at 11:00 with the flue at 125°ish.
 
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I’m looking forward to getting my Auber hooked up and getting some temp info too.

What type of cat do these stoves come with? Ceramic or metal? And are you guys replacing them with the same type?
 
I thinking of maybe a test fire later today, rainy weekend, highs only in the low 50's, lows in the upper 40's.
 
As discussed earlier I ordered a flue temp guage to see what it was doing in relation to the overactive cat. Just installed it and it appears when the cat hits the end of the active zone which is about the 3:30 position the flue is right around 400°. When the cat got to the c in .com which is about 5:00 position the flue was 800°. When the cat got to the 5:30 position the flue was almost 900° which is where it enters the red. At this point I turned it down a little, no idea if it would keep climbing or not.

Don't know what the results reveal but I do know the glass is clean and it's really hot in the house 🥵.

As the temperature came back down the flue was about 350° when the cat dropped back into the active zone. At this point the top was maintaining 550° in the right rear corner far away from the cat which was as hot as it got.

45 minutes later with thermostat at 3:00 the cat settled in to about 1:30 or 2:00 where it normally runs and the flue is 200°.

Another 45 minutes and cat is at 11:00 with the flue at 125°ish.

800-900 flue temps sound a little hot to me. A good range for flue temps during a full load cruise is 400-600. Maybe you need to turn her down a little sooner. This flue probe should help you fine tune your burn.
 
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When the cat got to the 5:30 position the flue was almost 900° which is where it enters the red. At this point I turned it down a little, no idea if it would keep climbing or not.
I said it before, and I'll say it again: your rig runs unusually hot, maybe even too hot for the long-term good of your combustor. Running this hot won't kill anything instantaneously, assuming it's not climbing much higher, but it's definitely going to impact combustor lifetime if it continues.

If turning it down works, that's good news, there's no leak in the stove... especially if you tell us you're able to get down to "black box" mode. But is it possible the thermostat needs re-calibration, to be running this hot at WOT?
 
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