blaze king king questions (got it a week ago)

[skelator]

hey guys im new here. i got a king last weekend. let me tell you about my setup and if you could let me know my options if you please.


ok now i figured id try the stove with 6" pipe simply cuse i had it already run from my old stove. i simply added a reducer on the stove.

my pipe run consists of a reducer right off the stove. then to a 2 ft section straight up into a adjustable 90* (its got a decent upward rake towards the chimney) after the 90 theres 4ft of straight pipe then another adjustable 90* to about 18" of straight pipe into the brick chimney.


i know they want all 8" double wall but that amoubt of pipe is almost $600 if i swap over to 45* fittings over the 90s. i was thinking of changing over to 8" single wall pipe to see if that helped with the draft or if it improved the stove any. i could prolly lose a couple feet of straight pipe if i redid the total run but prolly not much more than that.


my burn time is about 12 hours on a full load of decent oak set on the #2 setting. the stove top was around 350* or so. im not sure if my crappy pipe is hurting me at all? any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you, Mike

 

[webby3650]

I'm not sure if it's the crappy pipe or not, but there are several thing here that are not good!
It should have 8" pipe all the way to the stove. What size is your flue after the connector pipe?
It should have 3' of vertical rise before the horizontal run.
In my experience with the King, on #2 you should be getting much closer to 20-24hr burns. Are you filling the firebox? With what kind of wood?

 

[skelator]

i dont know the exact size of the chimney liner. its rectangular but id have to go measure it to be sure of the size.

if i go with 3 feet or straight rise before i go horizontal i wont have much if any lift before it gets to the chimney. ill have to get as close as i can.

is using 2 90s a bad idea? should i try to work some 45s in there? i was thinking of using a 45 just a little out of the stove but that would kill my vertical rise so i dunno if thats a bad idea or not. my vertical rise would just be an agressive slope at that point.

ive been using some old split dried oak ive has stacked and covered some years now. its on its way out. well some of its still really good actually. i figured id se it now while the weather still isnt that cold.

would my crappy pipe job hurt the burn time and heat output?

i think i might let the stove die out and go get single wall 8" pipe and 2 90s tomorrow and re do the run. would this help me or is the double wall the only way to go?

thank you for the reply i really appreciate it!

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Did I read this correctly?-

• stove top- 8" to 6" reducer
• reducer to 6" pipe (not sure if it's single or double-wall)
• 2' vertical
• 90 elbow
• 4' of 6" pipe running horizontal
• 90 degree elbow going 'up',18" vertical inside of brick chimney

Is that correct?

 

[skelator]

Yes except for the last 18 inch piece it's not going up its horizontal going into the chimney. It may have a slight uphill towards the chimney but it's not very much.

 

[Quentin2]

I'll get 12-16 hours on an 80 percent full box of spruce wood if I set at 2. The manual requires a minimum of 2 feet before a 90. My dealer highly recommended I go with nothing other than 8 inch double wall stove pipe. 350 for stove top is what I get towards the end of a burn. 500 in the heart of the burn is what I see. What is your cat reading? I would think you should best me by a bit with oak wood and a milder climate.

 

[Todd]

I don't think you will see the kings full potential unless you install 8" all the way to the top of your chimney. If your budget is a concern I think you may get away with installing 8" single wall as far as you can. 45 elbows will also help as well as shortening up your horizontal pipe runs and making sure they have at least a slight rise up to the next connection.

 

[daleeper]

Make sure that your chimney is bigger than the 6" before spending the money for 8" flue pipe. If it is limited to 6" chimney, then 8" at the stove is not going to help much, I would then probably just take the 90's out and straighten it up with 6" 45' pipe fittings. However, if that chimney is bigger, then get that reduction out of there, and go to 45's instead of 90 degree turns with the full 8", you are choaking the draft down with 6" pipe. I would try single wall first, shouldn't cost much.

Next issue is wood. How dry is it? "Decent oak" may not be dry enough to put out good heat yet, and could be causing you some problems. If it has not been cut, split and allowed to dry for at least 2 years, then it is most likely holding at least a little bit of moisture, and causing you some lack of heat. Find some known dry wood, or throw some dry pallet wood in with a couple chunks of that oak and see if that helps. You may have to turn the temp control up a bit more for you to get higher stovetop temps with wet wood. As your wood gets dryer, then you will find you have the temp control back down.

Take care of the flue pipe first, but you need to know how dry your wood is too.

 

[daleeper]

Guess I should have asked is that 350 stovetop temp your cat probe temperature or one somewhere else? What is your cat probe temp?

 

[skelator]

i dont have a moisture meater as of yet but the wood has been split, stacked, and covered on a skid for 4 years. im not sure on the temp by the cat probe ill have to check after i fire it up. its down now so i can address the pipe.

my main concern right now is is it more important to have 3' of straight vertical right out of the stove than a 45 off of the straight? i can use a 45 but i would have to shorted the vertical out of the stove to maybe 18" if i had to guess. but then the horizontal run would be a pretty good upward angle. im not sure if thats better than having a longer vertical but my horizontal not having near as much angle on it.

i can get a couple of feet of the horizontal run out if it too i think as i can move the stove a little bit.

 

[Todd]

The straighter the better. If you can eliminate a couple feet of horizontal it should help. I think a good rule of thumb is for every 90 elbow you basically cut off 5' of vertical chimney. Your total height of your chimney will also play a big role in draft.

 

[rdust]

Sounds like a mess! These stoves are draft sensitive and need a good set up to function properly. I have a Princess and had smoke spillage issues until this year. My setup from the stove was 6" double wall about 32" up then a 90* a couple feet of horizontal into 27' of insulated liner. I never had issues getting the stove up to temp but would get a wisp of smoke out of the door during the shoulder season on reloads. This year I replaced that 1 90 with 2 45's and haven't had an issue all season. Adding the 45's reduced my vertical before an elbow but I also reduced the horizontal about 6 ". I was a bit skeptical it would help but it took care of the issues.

Those 90's are killers especially in a less than ideal set up. I'm also curious of chimney size, that could also be playing a big role here.

 

[weatherguy]

There's been a couple of guys that have used 6 inch with success but you're going to need help wherever you can get it, even some that have all 8 inch had to switch the 90 to 2 45's.

 

[Highbeam]

Can you move the stove over to where the chimney is so that you can eliminate the majority of the interior pipe and bends? Sounds like a crazy octopus setup.

 

[lopiliberty]

Could you possibly post a picture of the set up so we could see that pipe configuration?

 

[skelator]

ok guys heres where im at. i woke up motovated. i went and got some 8 inch single wall pipe and 2 adjustable 90s. i talked to the guy at the stove place and came up with a plan. so what i did was put a 90 directly into the stove. its adjusted to 45ish degrees ill actually get real numbers tomorrow. then i got 6 feet of pipe going into the other 90. its adjusted between 45 and 90 somewhere sorry im really tired right now haha. then i got a 1 foot piece sticking into the chimney. i could have actually almost put the 90 into the chimney but i stuck the pipe in for safety reasons.

so overall i went from 6 to 8 and my 90s have a much less severe angle on them and i lost 3 feet overall of pipe.

it smoked like hell but i knew that was gonna happen. so far im noticing no smoke when i open the door and stove top temp is up a 100* its crazy how much better the pipe is run i really dont know what the hell i was thinking when i did that. chock that up to just being excited to getting my fancy stove up and running. i didnt realize how much bigger the 8 inch was compared to the 6. when you see it side by side its pretty severe.

ill try to get pics tomorrow to show the pipe before and the pipe after.

thank you all for your help i really appreciate it, Mike

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Sounds like you're on the right track to getting it figured out.
When your lengths/ angles are figured out, you should switch to double wall pipe.
You'll find you want that extra heat in the flue, it won't be much higher but it will be a good thing. You'll see.

 

[aansorge]

Is the cat glowing when you get the stove real warm? This was a used stove, no?

 

[scjfly]

I wouldn't think the flue would have much to do with your burn times. The flue is going to determine your draft and thus your potential high heat output limit. It will also cause smoke spillage when the door is open if you don't have sufficient draft for the amount of air entering the firebox with the door open.

Burn times would be a byproduct of wood quality, combustor working properly, and the heating requirements of your house. I would first look and see if your gaskets are good and if your cat is operating properly.

 

[Highbeam]

When he says "it smoked like hell" I believe he referring to the paint burning off of the new pipe and not chimney smoke.