Blaze King Sirocco 25 insert

[webby3650]

Is there a chance that ash build up my affect thermostat behavior . It takes much longer time for fan to kick in on my Travis FPX if I got bed of ash since the sensor is under firebox.

FPX 33 insert?

 

[Dmitry]

FPX 33 insert?

Flash Hybrid large

 

[ejn327]

I've been playing around with th Sirraco this morning. I emptied out all the ash from it and started a fire. Got a good one going and shut the bypass when it was hot enough. After about 2 hours I left the house and there were very little flames. Returned home a few hours later and still very little flames and th cat just in ththe active zone. There was a little bit of wood left, so I decided to reload it.
Put some splits on it and kept it wide open to allow them to char. After an hour I brought the T-stat down again and checked it. It was partially closed (similar to the what I saw with hair drier test) and there was some flames.
I pushed down on th flapper to shut it and the flames died immediately. When I let up with my finger the flames didn't come back, even though th flapper opened up again. The cat really took off and is glowing away. The needle is higher than I have seen it yet.
I still wonder what I need to do to get the stove to shut down like this on its own?
The stove top is about 650 F, the ash shelf is about 250 F and the aluminum block around the t-stat is 135. Seems like there isn't enough heat being transferred down around the t-stat.

 

[begreen]

Thermostatic operation of an insert has to be challenging.

 

[ejn327]

Thermostatic operation of an insert has to be challenging.

Seems like it. Not 20 minutes later and the flames returned. The flapper looks like it's in the same position as before.

 

[webby3650]

I've been playing around with th Sirraco this morning. I emptied out all the ash from it and started a fire. Got a good one going and shut the bypass when it was hot enough. After about 2 hours I left the house and there were very little flames. Returned home a few hours later and still very little flames and th cat just in ththe active zone. There was a little bit of wood left, so I decided to reload it.
Put some splits on it and kept it wide open to allow them to char. After an hour I brought the T-stat down again and checked it. It was partially closed (similar to the what I saw with hair drier test) and there was some flames.
I pushed down on th flapper to shut it and the flames died immediately. When I let up with my finger the flames didn't come back, even though th flapper opened up again. The cat really took off and is glowing away. The needle is higher than I have seen it yet.
I still wonder what I need to do to get the stove to shut down like this on its own?
The stove top is about 650 F, the ash shelf is about 250 F and the aluminum block around the t-stat is 135. Seems like there isn't enough heat being transferred down around the t-stat.

I wouldn't leave it on high for an hour if I was looking for long burns. I shut mine down as soon as the cat is active. Except for about once a week to burn the firebox out, or when I'm starting a new fire and the house is cold.

 

[ejn327]

I wouldn't leave it on high for an hour if I was looking for long burns. I shut mine down as soon as the cat is active. Except for about once a week to burn the firebox out, or when I'm starting a new fire and the house is cold.

I typically don't keep it on high that long, I was just hoping to get the insert good and heated up to try and get heat down to the t-stat.

 

[webby3650]

I typically don't keep it on high that long, I was just hoping to get the insert good and heated up to try and get heat down to the t-stat.

I see

 

[black smoke signals]

When I removed the cat from my Powerstroke wife said There goes your warranty!

 

[Highbeam]

When I removed the cat from my Powerstroke wife said There goes your warranty!

The best powerstrokes never had cats Mine is a 2000.

 

[BKVP]

The best powerstrokes never had cats Mine is a 2000.

Mine too. 7.3 6 Manual, red lines at 8mph in lower gear 4WD

 

[mellow]

I only had a few hours with the stove this weekend to mess with it. I tried running some different tests on the tstat and found out the only way I can get it to close is to blow super hot air directly on the front of the tstat right above the flapper bar, anywhere else and it will not close.

I have another video below, only watch if you are super bored, but I spent 7+ minutes with my heat gun blowing super hot air on top of the tstat from inside the firebox with the bottom firebrick removed and could not get the tstat to budge even with 360+ degree temps, I figured if anything this would get it to move and simulate a real fire with the tstat set on low.

 

[mellow]

I dressed the stove back up minus the front shield last night and had a fire, this time I put in a partial load and burned it hot with the damper open so I could get a good bed of coals, I then raked those coals to the front center right over the brick that is above the tstat, still could not get that butterfly to fully close on low, the stove puts out heat that is for sure, it is blowing us out of the room currently, I could barely get close enough to it to take this video. I am going to try another thermocouple that I have sitting around to see if the temps are the same with it at the tstat tonight.

 

[ejn327]

That's similar to what I did this past Saturday. Emptied out all the ash (3 gallons or so) and got a good fire going up front above the T-stat.
I had the shield underneath the cat glowing red but it just seems like not enough heat is getting down to the bottom of the insert.

 

[mellow]

I wanted to update about the tstat issue, @BKVP has given me something to test on fixing the issue, I am currently trying it out and if you feel you have a simular issue feel free to PM BKVP to see if the same fix will help you as well.

With the highs back in the 60's I am going to have to hold off on really giving the fix a workout, but so far my partial load night burns are going longer, I have the BK black glass to prove it, and man is it a lot of glass on this insert, I can't run it hot to burn it off yet!

 

[jetsam]

I do not wish to rub salt in your wounds, but it was similarly warm here today (45 overnight, 55 by day), so I burned my Princess insert nearly as low as I could, no fan. Loaded it around 7 PM yesterday. Here it is at reload time, 4 PM the next day. The wood is some deadfall oak I hauled out of the woods yesterday (some is a little punky and rotten, some is pretty good. Dryness levels vary- the tree has been dead for years, but some of it was sitting off the ground, and some wasn't.)

I think that might have gone 30 hours if some jerk hadn't opened to door to play with it.

 

[Blazing]

I get the same milage with my pi as well! I installed the new style latch today. I definitely recommend it as an upgrade.

 

[black smoke signals]

I get the same milage with my pi as well! I installed the new style latch today. I definitely recommend it as an upgrade.

Do you have a picture of your this upgrade latch?

 

[Blazing]

 

[Blazing]

It clicks in more like a detent where as the old style was more a building pressure till it bottomed out.

 

[Woody Stover]

I do not wish to rub salt in your wounds, but it was similarly warm here today (45 overnight, 55 by day), so I burned my Princess insert nearly as low as I could, no fan. Loaded it around 7 PM yesterday. Here it is at reload time, 4 PM the next day. I think that might have gone 30 hours if some jerk hadn't opened to door to play with it.

OK, here's what my stove did. It was about 37 last night, 42 today. It's 72 in here, house isn't well-insulated or air-sealed. Here's what I have left after a load of Black Cherry and Sugar Maple, loaded at 7:30 AM.

Since my Keystone firebox is half the size of yours, I'm going to double the burn time to 28 hrs. The box wasn't packed tight so I'm going to add another 2.5 hrs. And since the air wasn't cut particularly low, I'll add an additional 3. That adds up to a 33.5 hr. burn...too bad, you lose. Here's some 91% rubbing alcohol to wash the salt out of your wounds.

 

[jetsam]

Just to be clear, those long 24H+ burns aren't magical, they're just really slow.

That same stove might have got an 8 hour burn off the same load (which wasn't great wood, and it wasn't tightly packed) on a cold winter day- maybe 4 hours or less if I was really letting 'er rip to warm up a cold house.

 

[Woody Stover]

wasn't great wood, and it wasn't tightly packed

Don't even make me pack a load of Black Locust and Dogwood!

 

[jetsam]

Hee hee. In The Real World (cold windy winter day, I screwed up the stove settings, nobody was home for 12 hours and it's cold inside)- I've had 2-3 hour burns with dry pine and the stove in Raging Inferno mode with the fan on max. (Pine is great for that purpose, too. Also good for clearing out oak coals from long low burns.)

 

[BKVP]

Sorry but the record for the longest burn, documented and overseen by neutral third party, occurred several years ago at industry Expo, where a King model, with a chart recorder were burned for a contest. A special door, no glass, was fabricated so the door could be locked. 84lbs of Douglas fir was added on a hot coal bed. The cat remained active (above 550) for 62 and 32 minutes. The contest winner (person that guessed closest to how long it would burn) was a retailer from Spokane WA.

The printed chart from the chart recorder hangs in our offices.