Buckstove 91 struggling to heat

[NewWoodBurner527]

Hello,

I upgraded my old woodstove to a 2023 build buckstove 91 catalytic stove. It was brand new and along with it did a new stainless liner. The stove runs how it should according to instructions and blows hot air but it is struggling to heat my home which is about 1400 sq ft. I have a strong draft and I'm using seasoned hardwoods but the stove just is not heating my home. If I set my gas heat thermostat to 60, Ill be lucky to keep the house at 60-62. The old woodstove was damaged and extremely inefficient but when it was burning, the room you were in was 80 degrees! And that's dead of winter. Its currently 30 degrees outside and sitting next to the stove you wouldn't even be able to tell there is one in the room.

The stove is over 250 degrees on the exterior using an IR thermometer. It's installed correctly as an insert and protrudes 18" in the room past the trim kit (which is sealed for drafts). Its full of burning wood, the cat temp is 1300 and the 16x16 room its in is 66. The old woodstove would have the room unbearably warm in a few hours.

What do I do?

 

[kborndale]

250 is not very high, give it more air. How tall is your chimney? You claim to be using seasoned wood, how did you determine that?

 

[NewWoodBurner527]

Chimney is 23 ft with stainless 8" liner. I use a probe to check my wood and its all between 12-18%. It's a brand new stove, does it need to be broken in beyond the burn in procedures in the manual?

 

[Gearhead660]

Do you have a block off plate?

 

[kborndale]

Just to be sure, when you check the moisture content on your wood you are doing so on a piece that you grabbed an ax and resplit just before taking the reading? I'm asking because 90% of the time wet wood is the issue when not getting hot enough and if you don't resplit just before checking you are not getting an accurate reading and 250 stove top temps are not hot enough. You want to be around 600.

 

[stoveliker]

Can you show a pic of your load so we can see how fully loaded it is?

 

[begreen]

It's a brand new stove, does it need to be broken in beyond the burn in procedures in the manual?

No, it's a steel stove. The paint will need baking in by getting the stove up to temp (500+º). It may stink for the first few fires. Open a neaby window to vent out the fumes if it does.

The stove is over 250 degrees on the exterior using an IR thermometer.

Where is the stove temperature being measured? Is the bypass being engaged once the cat is over 500º? Is the left side air control fully closed after the fire has started burning well?

 

[NewWoodBurner527]

Do you have a block off plate?

No block off plate. Liner running through old damper door.

 

[NewWoodBurner527]

No, it's a steel stove. The paint will need baking in by getting the stove up to temp (500+º). It may stink for the first few fires. Open a neaby window to vent out the fumes if it does.

Where is the stove temperature being measured? Is the bypass being engaged once the cat is over 500º? Is the left side air control fully closed after the fire has started burning well?

Yes to all. I am following manufacturer directions. I am measuring the top center 6-8" in from front of the stove with an IR thermometer. Catalytic temps reach up to 1500.

 

[begreen]

I think the "stove top" of the Buck 91 insert is actually the convection cabinet top, so the reading there will be much lower than the physical stove top which is visible through the stove's warm air outlets.

 

[NewWoodBurner527]

I think the "stove top" of the Buck 91 insert is actually the convection cabinet top, so the reading there will be much lower than the physical stove top which is visible through the stove's warm air outlets.

You are correct because I realized this myself.

 

[Gearhead660]

No block off plate. Liner running through old damper door.

Work on getting it blocked off. Thats where alot of your heat is going.

 

[Woody Stover]

I don't think you'd see 1300* on the cat meter if your wood wasn't seasoned. But just to make sure, warm several large splits up to room temp for a couple days, then split them and immediately check on the centers of the freshly-exposed faces, pushing the pins in deeply.
When I ran the 91 at my MIL's house, I could barely keep my hand in front of the hot air vent when the cat was that hot and the blower was running on low speed. When I had the stove cruising on a new load, I had the left slider shotgun air closed, and right slider just barely open, maybe 1/8". I was trying to get long burns, since I was loading on a 12-hour schedule.
If you're running the stove with more air than that, and flame in the box, try cutting the air back to where you are getting a cat-only burn, no flame in the box, and see what that does as far as heat output. It could be that with the air open a lot, you are losing heat up the flue, and not giving the stove a chance to capture as much and release it into the room. Sound counter-intuitive that you'd get less heat with a lot of flames going, but trying different things can't hurt.
I had a magnetic stove meter on the front of the stove, above the door and to the side a bit, about where I figured the actual firebox top intersected the front. I think that meter ran about 450* or so, but I don't have the pictures anymore, and it looks like my threads about the stove from ~10 years ago have been deleted. They were mostly gibberish anyway. 😆 Shoot around on the front of the door with your infrared thermo and see what you get.
The stove should be able to heat 1400 sq.ft. well, unless the house has no insulation and big air leaks. But my MIL's house was like that, plus 9' ceilings and a second story with only a curtain closing off the stairway. It would hold 68* in the room next to the stove room ( which was solarium with glass on three walls.) Uphill battle trying to heat that place, but the 91 definitely helped the furnace run less.
I didn't have a true block-off plate but I cut a batt of Rockwool insulation to fit tightly in the fireplace smoke shelf and around the flue pipe, just above the stove top. It was a 21' chimney.

 

[mellow]

Sounds like you are losing a lot of heat out the back to the fireplace. I would recommend insulating the fireplace walls and installing a block off plate so that heat is transferred out by the insert fans.

 

[NewWoodBurner527]

@mellow I actually saw your thread on insulating the fireplace. I recently installed a a top plate and threw some roxul behind the stove. It still fails to radiate heat into the room. The catalyst temp probe sits at 1000-1400 for most of the burn, however the stovetop temp taken with an IR thermometer reads 230-280. I am not getting heat from the stove other than the hot air blown from the stove. It is incredibly frustrating. Wood is seasoned.

 

[begreen]

It sounds like the comparison is being made with an entirely different design stove. Some are radiant and some are convective. What was the old stove the Buck replaced? Did it have a blower?

Is the Buck's temp being measured with the blower off or on? Where is it being taken?

 

[Woody Stover]

the stovetop temp taken with an IR thermometer reads 230-280. I am not getting heat from the stove other than the hot air blown from the stove.

The top, sides and back of the stove are the outer convective shell, with the blower air passing between them and the actual firebox.

I think the "stove top" of the Buck 91 insert is actually the convection cabinet top, so the reading there will be much lower than the physical stove top which is visible through the stove's warm air outlets.

Did you shoot around on the front of the stove with the IR gun, as I suggested above? That's the only part of the firebox that is exposed for easy measurement. I'm sure it is hotter than "230-280" when your cat temp is 1000-1400*. What temps are you getting there?
Did you measure temps with the IR meter on your previous stove?
What about the details of the space you're trying to heat, like I detailed in the last paragraph of my post above?
We'll need more of those details to determine if the stove is the problem, or if the heat demand is unrealistic.
What is the floor plan layout? A drawing would help. What about the insulation level of the house? Does it have bad air leaks: Is it a drafty house? Are there many windows, or large ones? The more details, the better.

 

[Woody Stover]

No block off plate. Liner running through old damper door.

I recently installed a a top plate

So this "top plate" is not a block-off plate? What is it? Or did you just install the top plate/block-off plate within the last couple days?

When I had the stove cruising on a new load, I had the left slider shotgun air closed, and right slider just barely open, maybe 1/8".

When you have the stove cruising with bypass closed and 1000-1400* cat temp, how far open do you set each of your air sliders?