2022-2023 BK everything thread

[Nealm66]

North Pole = brrr

 

[BKVP]

North Pole = brrr

Go there! See Santa and he'll sign a book for you. And go to the Notty Shop in Salcha. And stovies will love The Woodway in Fairbanks.

March is the world famous ice carvings competition! You think you've see ice carvings? I went it was -44F and the experience was sooo cooool.

Google Fairbanks Ice Carvings and click on images....

See you there in March 2023!

 

[Nealm66]

Nope

 

[Crummy]

Go there! See Santa and he'll sign a book for you. And go to the Notty Shop in Salcha. And stovies will love The Woodway in Fairbanks.

March is the world famous ice carvings competition! You think you've see ice carvings? I went it was -44F and the experience was sooo cooool.

Google Fairbanks Ice Carvings and click on images....

See you there in March 2023!

You make it sound so glamorous 🥶 Try living it for 30 years and see how ya like it 🤨

 

[BKVP]

You make it sound so glamorous 🥶 Try living it for 30 years and see how ya like it 🤨

I try to visit 3-4 times a year. Only once in the winter. Glamorous? I think Homer is more glamorous, but there is no place like home, wherever that is.

 

[Crummy]

I try to visit 3-4 times a year. Only once in the winter. Glamorous? I think Homer is more glamorous, but there is no place like home, wherever that is.

Yeah it's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there... Oh wait 🤦🏻‍♂️

 

[stoveliker]

Interesting (to me) observation. Last night I loaded the box with pitch pine and two splits of red oak on the bottom layer. On the one hand I have the needless concern that the pine won't last long enough (as I said, no need for that, see below), on the other hand I like to have some coals for reloading, and oak does give me those.

Well, at this point (13 hrs in), I have about 35ish pct of the wood left to burn (the low was 31 F only), BUT the two splits that are almost completely gone are the oak splits...

Probably just because of some airflow and previous coal distribution on the floor, but my coal-plan is not working out today....

 

[Judge80]

Is there anything wrong with running my Princess thermostat on high for full loads to bring up the base temperature in the house and then turn it down closer to 4? Utilizing proper bypass operation of closing as soon as you load it if on the active zone and flue temps are also good.

 

[BKVP]

Is there anything wrong with running my Princess thermostat on high for full loads to bring up the base temperature in the house and then turn it down closer to 4? Utilizing proper bypass operation of closing as soon as you load it if on the active zone and flue temps are also good.

Nope. But run it at 90% so thermostat has so latitude for adjustment as wood collapses. But I've run my King at 100% many times.

 

[stoveliker]

Folks in Alaska or Canada do so too, I believe. 100 percent on the thermostat does not mean the flapper will stay open - if it gets too hot, it'll still close some.

 

[Judge80]

Thanks BKVP!

 

[Ashful]

Interesting thought of running at 90%. I will start doing that.

I've been running one of my Ashfords at 100% a lot more than usual this year, since I work from home now, and don't mind feeding the stove on a less-predictable or more frequent occasion. But speaking to longevity, I've spent 7 years running it at 100% any time very cold weather coincided with a weekend (meaning maybe a dozen loads over 4 weekends per year), and have seen no ill-effects.

 

[Nelson]

I know this has been discussed many times but I'm feeling too lazy to go back and search. What are some characteristics of a cat that is showing signs of being less efficient (aka, starting to fail)? Visible smoke through the burn, with cat thermo in active zone? Decrease in cat active burn times? Less consistent burn times?

 

[BKVP]

I know this has been discussed many times but I'm feeling too lazy to go back and search. What are some characteristics of a cat that is showing signs of being less efficient (aka, starting to fail)? Visible smoke through the burn, with cat thermo in active zone? Decrease in cat active burn times? Less consistent burn times?

First, we need to acknowledge the single greatest variability in stove performance results from the fuel we use. The fuel we burn can vary load to load, not the least of which is season to season. Someone called our offices a little bit ago and I listened-in on the call.

The consumer could not get any heat out of their stove. It's been great the past 2 winters. The first question is, have you altered the chimney in any manner or recently had it serviced? If chimney was swept, was the pipe removed from the stove removed prior to cleaning etc. etc. etc. And as noted many time before, failure is different than diminished efficacy.

To your question, with all the aforementioned, taking longer to become active. More visible opacity randomly throughout a burn, not attaining higher temperatures during any point in a burn cycle, degradation of substrate, reduced stove top temperatures directly above combustor during peak high burn rates are good starters.

BKVP

 

[BKVP]

Oh and it was wet wood! They cut the trees and split them in September. "But it was dead standing timber"....

 

[Nelson]

Thanks BK ! I have been around here long enough to know that the condition of your wood is always the first consideration for anything that seems out of the ordinary. I know some folks like to replace their cats every 2-3 years while others have gotten a lot more life out of theirs. I was mainly starting to think of the things I should be looking for that would indicate I need a change (outside of a visible inspection).

My burns have been a little less consistent in my 3rd year but I suspect my wood might be the cause. I'm starting to get into my wood stacks where I have cut my pieces larger (mostly red oak c/s/s for 2 years) than I have in the past and I'm guessing those pieces aren't quite where they should be from a moisture content. My reloads are still getting blazing hot (1600F) in the amount of time that they have in the past but I've had more smoke in the middle of my burns than what I've seen in the past. In addition, I've had a few burns that didn't make my typical 24 hour cycle with an active cat (though, really no coals to speak of at the end of those burns). The other thing I've noticed is that my cat thermo is running a little hotter mid to late burn (800-900F vs 600F) than what I've seen in the past - and more than just a typical temperature spike as part of the cycle. It tends to stay there longer...

Mostly just nit-picking at this point - like most of us, I'm obsessing more than I need to be.

Edit: FWIW, my set up hasn't really changed. I did shore up my double-wall to thimble connection by adding some better screws, but I don't suspect it has made any noticeable change in draft.

 

[kennyp2339]

I know this has been discussed many times but I'm feeling too lazy to go back and search. What are some characteristics of a cat that is showing signs of being less efficient (aka, starting to fail)? Visible smoke through the burn, with cat thermo in active zone? Decrease in cat active burn times? Less consistent burn times?

I believe the manual states to make a fire w/ t -stat at full setting, once the cat become active close the by-pass and wait for 20-30min at full setting then turn the t-stat down to the halfway point and wait, if the cat falls out of active range, then its no good.
When my cat started failing, I noticed more of a yellow / orange ash near my combustor inside the fire box my the flame shield.

 

[Poindexter]

I've been running one of my Ashfords at 100% a lot more than usual this year, since I work from home now, and don't mind feeding the stove on a less-predictable or more frequent occasion. But speaking to longevity, I've spent 7 years running it at 100% any time very cold weather coincided with a weekend (meaning maybe a dozen loads over 4 weekends per year), and have seen no ill-effects.

In my experience with very cold weather you can run the A30 at WOT for weeks on end, never mind just on the weekends, with only slightly shorter than average combustor life expectancy. I am still saving money, after combustor replacements, compared to my previous non-cat EPA cert stove. A lot of money. Thousands over the 8.5 seasons this stove has been in service. Honestly more than enough to have paid for the stove. 3 loads per day at WOT x 30 days, roughly 90 loads at WOT annually times 8 years, no problem.

If you were to lift the cast iron top off my A30 you will see some discoloration in the steel firebox, centered over the combustor. I took a smartphone pic in to my BK dealer a couple years ago and he wasn't impressed.

It has just occurred to me my A30 has paid for itself, including replacement combustors, just in less wood burned, in 6 years or so. For the cost of a bypass door gasket install and probably three more door gaskets, with a window gasket or two thrown in, (and ongoing combustors) I should be able to get 20 years service life out of this item easily. I do have green splits of cordwood dropped in my driveway by young men with intact rotator cuffs in exchange for money.

90% throttle might be overall better for the stove. However, I changed my door gasket during year 5, and am told by my local dealer 10 years is the service life expectancy for the bypass door gasket. I will probably have a cold stove in the next few days (thanks to ADEC) but my bypass door gasket last passed a dollar bill test in Aug 2022, the stove will be 9 years old in May 2023.

The one tool I use for all the gasket changes on my stove is a VISA card to hire a tech who has done thousands of whatever I need done.

I do leave my bypass door closed (to keep birds out of the firebox) but not latched (to reduce compressive forces on the bypass door gasket) during the summer months. I have extremely limited experience running fuel at 16%MC and up.

I will say @Ashful probably runs his deck fans more than I do as he has more intense need for the convective ability of the A30 than I do; because of the stone exterior walls of his home. I probably run my A30 24/7 at WOT (wide open throttle) with the convection deck fans on high only 2-3 weeks per year. Maybe 4 weeks sometimes. With children home the deck fans are not discernable parts of background noise for me. As an empty nester I have become very aware of noise as an escalating influence for my mentation and delay running the fans as long as possible in colder weather.

Moderately amusing story, there was a new person at the counter a couple weeks ago when I chose to replace my combustor recently. She let me know the A30 had been in production less than 10 years so all the combustors might still be in factory 10 year warranty. The fastest way out of the situation with grace and kindness was to share my phone number so she could pull up my account and see for herself. Once she figured out I have a commercial account at the store (as an intermittent supplier of enviably dry cord wood) my biggest problem was getting out of the store without a full caf shot of espresso at 4PM.

 

[Poindexter]

Interesting (to me) observation. Last night I loaded the box with pitch pine and two splits of red oak on the bottom layer. On the one hand I have the needless concern that the pine won't last long enough (as I said, no need for that, see below), on the other hand I like to have some coals for reloading, and oak does give me those.

Well, at this point (13 hrs in), I have about 35ish pct of the wood left to burn (the low was 31 F only), BUT the two splits that are almost completely gone are the oak splits...

Probably just because of some airflow and previous coal distribution on the floor, but my coal-plan is not working out today....

You might try running your burns left to right (or R-L) instead of front to back. Wrangle your coals over to one side, put your hardwood on the opposite side, then fill the box with softwood. You will get a bit of front to back burn anyway because of the airwash, but you might find better coals. When running 2 burns per day I like to have coals on the door latch side of the firebox in the morning for faster light off when I am trying to get out the door.

 

[Poindexter]

I leave dry papery sheets in my firebox alone until I am reloading on a particularly plentiful bed of coals. I see BTUs. Just scrape them off onto hot coals covering the floor on a particularly hot reload and give those BTUs a second chance to get through the combustor.

I would say if you aren't running your stove through a full load or three at wide open throttle annually, you might have bought too big of a stove.

 

[Crummy]

I will probably have a cold stove in the next few days (thanks to ADEC).

You called it.

"712 AM AKST Fri Dec 16 2022

...AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM AKST SUNDAY..."

First real cold snap for the winter and we get to quit feeding the fire 🙄. Looks like it's only going to be -30° to -33° the next four nights so who really needs to heat their home anyway.

 

[Ashful]

I will say @Ashful probably runs his deck fans more than I do as he has more intense need for the convective ability of the A30 than I do; because of the stone exterior walls of his home. I probably run my A30 24/7 at WOT (wide open throttle) with the convection deck fans on high only 2-3 weeks per year. Maybe 4 weeks sometimes. With children home the deck fans are not discernable parts of background noise for me. As an empty nester I have become very aware of noise as an escalating influence for my mentation and delay running the fans as long as possible in colder weather.

My deck fans get turned on around Oct.1, and turned off sometime in April, but they're always kept running at a very low setting. The difference in convective coefficient between no fan and one running very low is huge, there's no need to run them on higher settings, in most circumstances. Furthermore, one of my stoves is located in my office, where there are some high power computers, one of which regularly sounds like an airplane preparing for takeoff. So between that and a few humidifiers scattered around the house all winter, I don't even hear them running.

 

[Ashful]

In my experience with very cold weather you can run the A30 at WOT for weeks on end, never mind just on the weekends, with only slightly shorter than average combustor life expectancy. I am still saving money, after combustor replacements, compared to my previous non-cat EPA cert stove. A lot of money. Thousands over the 8.5 seasons this stove has been in service. Honestly more than enough to have paid for the stove. 3 loads per day at WOT x 30 days, roughly 90 loads at WOT annually times 8 years, no problem.

Good to hear on the longevity of the stove, but how's this work with your work schedule? You work 3x 12 hour days, meaning maybe 13 - 14 hours(?) away from the home, but you said you can rip full loads in 4 hours at WOT. This is what always kept me from doing it, even though my house sometimes calls for it. I just kept plugging away at 12-hour reload cycles, when I was working away from home, dicated by my availability for being there to reload. The central heating had to pick up any slack.

 

[Highbeam]

I would say if you aren't running your stove through a full load or three at wide open throttle annually, you might have bought too big of a stove.

I disagree though you may have been joking, hard to tell through the interwebs. Obviously, these BKs are optimized for low/medium output where emissions are lowest and efficiency is highest. They are capable of a wide range of outputs. A successful sizing of a BK does not require any loads to be run at maximum output. I think it's more likely the opposite, that if you often find yourself running at maximum output for a full load (unless catching up from a mistake or absence) then you likely bought too small of a stove or not enough stoves!

Wouldn't you be happier Poindexter running a 2x sized ashford at a slower rate? Longer burn time with less load cycles and more available heat capacity if needed? Wood consumption should be lower if you were down at higher efficiency levels. It's almost like there should be a BK furnace.

I run some short and hot loads near the warm ends of the shoulder seasons just to clean or keep clean the firebox as much as possible since corrosion seems to be a realistic concern. 95% of the time I'm at a pretty low output keeping the house warm for our very long burn season and I am very happy with my stove sizing choice.

 

[Poindexter]

I disagree though you may have been joking, hard to tell through the interwebs. Obviously, these BKs are optimized for low/medium output where emissions are lowest and efficiency is highest.

Wouldn't you be happier Poindexter running a 2x sized ashford at a slower rate?

I run some short and hot loads near the warm ends of the shoulder seasons just to clean or keep clean the firebox as much as possible since corrosion seems to be a realistic concern. 95% of the time I'm at a pretty low output keeping the house warm for our very long burn season and I am very happy with my stove sizing choice.

I guess I was half joking. Given every install is different in all the varieties of insulation envelope and the variability of airleaks blah blah, running the stove low moderate through the bulk of the heating season with a few hot and fast at each end should keep up with the stove hygiene items I was thinking of. I don't happen to live in a climate like that though.

I very much like that my stove can keep up with my house in the depth of winter and also happens to offer more or less infinite adjustability for comfort up into warm enough weather I don't need to burn it at all.

I would very much prefer to have a Princess in my current home for the bigger fuel tank but my wife was adamantly opposed on aesthetic grounds.