Buck 80 insert

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xshmoox

Member
Nov 1, 2015
50
Bucks Co., Pa
Finally got around to finishing the install up of my used buck 80 insert I picked up this fall after we moved in August. I had great success with the 91 at my old house pushing 14 hour plus burn times with ease but I Left the buck 91 at the old house didn’t feel like moving that beast again even though I got it for free. I only paid 400 for the 80 it’s great condition. Cat was completely intact. Previous owner took great care of it and it showed. But I did pull the blower and cleaned all the dust out and cleaned the cat out before installing. Install took a bit longer as I had to send a few liner pieces back and reorder what I actually needed. I’m running about 20’ of the 6” oval duraliner system down my chimney since it wasn’t big enough to fit insulated round flex. System was great to install. And fairly easy as I did it myself without help. But my roof also isn’t to steep. The rigid sections extend passed the clay liner into the fireplace then went to oval flex in the smoke shelf then obviously back to round just before the stove. System drafts excellent. Sorry I didn’t take any liner pictures I still have to get back in to install the block of plate and roxul just wanted to fire it up ahead of the cold weather/storm. Yes I have a hearth extension just not in pictures yet, had to setup safety gate for toddler first . And stove does pass mantle clearances listed in manual in case you question it.

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Good deal, and just in time for the weather event.
 
Yeah man. In reality I should have taken the buck 91 with me since it offers better burn times and bigger log size capacity. And it was free to me but the previous people or someone had overtired it a tad before as the mounting plate for the cat housing was warped and some studs were broke out already and cracked. So I felt ok leaving it behind. I’ll see how long I can stretch burn times on the 80. If I can get 10-12 hours I’ll probably be ok with it but if not I’ll probably end up switching in the off-season to a blaze king or perhaps maybe the new Clydesdale if it ever gets released as I’ve seen some nice reviews of the green mountain stoves so we will see
 
Stove is a pretty good performer loaded her up the other night and shut air down at 830pm. Now this was a semi hot reload as the cat was still at 1,000. There was still a half burnt out log and I could have gotten another in if I had one that would have fit. So I decided to let it roll. Got up at 815 fan was still on cat probe was around 300. Was still enough coals to get her going again. Problem with my wood length now is I have to load e/w so it’s a bit tricky. I’m probably going to do what others have done to the buck 91 to seal up the air sliders coming out the sides as they are not designed to seal all the way letting extra air in so that way I can have more control rather than the stove racing to a cat temp of 1700-1800 every time. But considering the fact all in all I have no complaints other than firebox height and fan noise.
 
Stove is a pretty good performer loaded her up the other night and shut air down at 830pm. Now this was a semi hot reload as the cat was still at 1,000. There was still a half burnt out log and I could have gotten another in if I had one that would have fit. So I decided to let it roll. Got up at 815 fan was still on cat probe was around 300. Was still enough coals to get her going again. Problem with my wood length now is I have to load e/w so it’s a bit tricky. I’m probably going to do what others have done to the buck 91 to seal up the air sliders coming out the sides as they are not designed to seal all the way letting extra air in so that way I can have more control rather than the stove racing to a cat temp of 1700-1800 every time. But considering the fact all in all I have no complaints other than firebox height and fan noise.
I feel for ya with the wood length issue. I still have 6 cords of wood that is to big for our new stove when i load N/S. So I have been cutting them down to length as needed. Kind of a pain for sure.
 
after I let the stove go out the other day I had some prices I trimmed off my top plate for my liner so I cut some pieces to fit snuggly underneath the side sliders to completely block those 2 off and now I have awesome control over air entering into the firebox! I can keep the entire load from just igniting and burning through sending the cat up to 1800. Now I can keep it 1500 and under for a more even controlled real low burn/smolder much like a blaze king is able to achieve on lower thermostat settings. If I can push this thing 12 hours with a cat temp 500+ at that mark I’ll be ecstatic. I’ll update when I do a full load tonight or tomorrow with the modifications.
 
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