First burn. BK Sirocco 20.1 Little advice please

[moresnow]

Finally installed my new toy today! Its been sitting patiently for several weeks while we have been traveling. First load is tiny. 5 very dry Maple splits. 2-4 inch diameter by 10 inch long. Cat engaged after 15 minutes. Thermostat close to wide open except for a few minutes turned down to the half way point. Just to see how it controlled the fire. Impressive to say the least .

Anyway my cat gauge has been at the 5/8 to 3/4 range and holding. still have half the wood but it is burned down quite a bit. My question is when will it be ok to put in a decent load? Do I need to wait for the cat to go inactive? I could read the manual but getting schooled here is much more fun! I got this far from researching here. Chime in guys/gals. Thanks

BTW this thing throws awesome heat.

 

[weatherguy]

I used to do 90% of my burn with the t-stat on 1, I would turn it up at the end then reload when it was down to a few coals.

 

[Rickb]

Nice to see someone on here with the same stove!

I have a tall chimney. 20 ft class A. I run the stove on high till the cat goes active then turn it as low as it goes. If I need more heat I run the fan. If I need less I dont. Other then that I turn it back up if I load more wood for a few minutes but then back to low.

Hope you like yours as much as I love mine. It truly is a great small stove.

 

[moresnow]

Nice to see someone on here with the same stove!

I have a tall chimney. 20 ft class A. I run the stove on high till the cat goes active then turn it as low as it goes. If I need more heat I run the fan. If I need less I dont. Other then that I turn it back up if I load more wood for a few minutes but then back to low.

Hope you like yours as much as I love mine. It truly is a great small stove.

Thanks for the replies guys. Small house here. I went against the grain getting the small stove. Having fun smoking up the house tonight burning off the paint/oil residue. Going to take me some time to get used to the low settings. Stove top running 450-500. BK sent me the wrong blower kit (big stove kit). Will be nice to add that.

 

[Jason763]

What's the square footage of your homes and stove/flu setup? I'm interested in the Sirocco but debating between the 20 and 30.

 

[Highbeam]

What's the square footage of your homes and stove/flu setup? I'm interested in the Sirocco but debating between the 20 and 30.

Get the 30. Always. It has a lower low setting, a higher high setting, and 50% longer burn possible at any setting.

Reasons vary for choosing the 20. It's a few inches smaller but has bigger clearance requirements, sometimes a little cheaper, looks "cuter" maybe? Like a puppy?

 

[Highbeam]

Finally installed my new toy today! Its been sitting patiently for several weeks while we have been traveling. First load is tiny. 5 very dry Maple splits. 2-4 inch diameter by 10 inch long. Cat engaged after 15 minutes. Thermostat close to wide open except for a few minutes turned down to the half way point. Just to see how it controlled the fire. Impressive to say the least .

Anyway my cat gauge has been at the 5/8 to 3/4 range and holding. still have half the wood but it is burned down quite a bit. My question is when will it be ok to put in a decent load? Do I need to wait for the cat to go inactive? I could read the manual but getting schooled here is much more fun! I got this far from researching here. Chime in guys/gals. Thanks

BTW this thing throws awesome heat.

Enjoy the new stove. You don't have to wait for the cat to go inactive before reloading. Many folks keep the cat active all winter long! Just open the bypass, stat to full throttle, for a few minutes before opening the door. You can load the stove to the roof now.

 

[moresnow]

Holy smokes! 6 medium splits at 7:20 AM. Ash and Oak. 3:20 now. 1/4 load left. Cat still reading straight up. STT 400F. House 70F even all day.Thermo at "almost" half way closed the entire burn. All I can say. There is a God. HeeeeeHaaaaa

 

[Rickb]

yea i get 8-10 hours on a full load pretty regularly. I usually only load about 3/4 of a load once a day when i get home from work. Keeps the basement nice and cozy all evening/night and still warm all the next day.

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

Alien I tell you! Alien!

 

[dh1989]

I typically see 12 hr burns with the thermostat around 3 o'clock and a full firebox. If I time it right I can reload on hot coals. On really cold days (teens here) I may top off late at night with a hot reload. It works fine but I've lit off the light creosote residue in the pipe at least twice by doing this. Bypass sends flames right up the flue and the probe keeps rising through 1200 even after I shut the thermostat down. It freaked me out a bit the first time it happened but I went outside the second time and the chimney was fine (no flames or anything unusual). Just something to keep in mind on the hot reloads if you have the door open for a while.

Enjoy the SC 20. I too would have gone for the 30 just for fitting longer logs if I could have fit it. The 12 hr burn time suits me just fine.

 

[begreen]

Bypass sends flames right up the flue and the probe keeps rising through 1200 even after I shut the thermostat down.

I'd try to avoid getting the stove pipe that hot repeatedly. It's not great for the pipe and will affect the thermometer accuracy over time.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/what-is-a-safe-flue-temp-what-is-too-hot/

 

[moresnow]

I typically see 12 hr burns with the thermostat around 3 o'clock and a full firebox.

Sounds like your stove behaves like mine.

 

[dh1989]

I'd try to avoid getting the stove pipe that hot repeatedly. It's not great for the pipe and will affect the thermometer accuracy over time.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/what-is-a-safe-flue-temp-what-is-too-hot/

I try but it's hard to shove all the wood in fast enough with the stove raging and get that door shut. The only other alternative I have is to let the stove go cold overnight and warm up a cold house the next morning with a fresh fire. I only hot reload on the really cold days I end up with 3 reloads in a day.

 

[moresnow]

Anyone else struggle to get pipe temps above 250 for any real duration? House is 72 and the stove is basically idling in my opinion. Worried about creo. Just a light steam that disappears quickly. Am I worrying to much? My old stove did the same thing much of the time. Using both a magnetic and IR to check pipe temp.

 

[begreen]

Anyone else struggle to get pipe temps above 250 for any real duration? House is 72 and the stove is basically idling in my opinion. Worried about creo. Just a light steam that disappears quickly. Am I worrying to much? My old stove did the same thing much of the time. Using both a magnetic and IR to check pipe temp.

250F surface temps on single-wall aren't too bad. That equates to flue gas temps in the 4-500F range. If the flue system goes up through the house this could be ok. Double-wall stove pipe will keep the gases hotter if this is a concern.

 

[dh1989]

Anyone else struggle to get pipe temps above 250 for any real duration? House is 72 and the stove is basically idling in my opinion. Worried about creo. Just a light steam that disappears quickly. Am I worrying to much? My old stove did the same thing much of the time. Using both a magnetic and IR to check pipe temp.

I run low flue temps all the time and haven't noticed much of an issue (200-300F with a flue probe). If I were to keep a hot flue my house would be 90 degrees. I say keep an eye on your flue and brush more frequently if needed (sooteater?)..

 

[moresnow]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys! I popped the pipe and swept it after a handful of days and the single wall was clean and almost chocolate brown (like a finely tuned 2 smoke sparkplug). Had some buildup at the telescope joint that was black and crispy. Some build up at the transition to class A that looked the same. Class A looked clean but much darker. Tough to see well up that far. Pipe is a straight up run. 15' roughly.

 

[Highbeam]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys! I popped the pipe and swept it after a handful of days and the single wall was clean and almost chocolate brown (like a finely tuned 2 smoke sparkplug). Had some buildup at the telescope joint that was black and crispy. Some build up at the transition to class A that looked the same. Class A looked clean but much darker. Tough to see well up that far. Pipe is a straight up run. 15' roughly.

Your temps are fine for a low/medium burn rate. Are you saying that you can't get them any higher? If you spin the thermostat to the highest setting you should be able to get surface temps of that single wall up to 400. I've seen 800 internal flue temps during the 20-30 minute burn in of a new load.

I like to keep my internal flue temps at 400 or above to prevent condensation. This corresponds to a surface temperature of 200 or higher. The place you will notice accumulation due to low flue temp condensation is at the top of the flue and the cap. It can be pretty messy if you don't send enough heat up the pipe to keep things dry.

 

[moresnow]

I can get the pipe hot (and I do awhile at each reload) but it reminds me of chasing my previous stove when I do. Stove naturally gets real downright hungry. I am already nicely spoiled letting this thing run slow/chug away without babysitting for hours.

 

[Highbeam]

Anyone else struggle to get pipe temps above 250 for any real duration? House is 72 and the stove is basically idling in my opinion.

The stove is doing its job perfectly. 72, idling along. Boring but long burning.

 

[dh1989]

@Highbeam don't you think maintaining such hot flue temps. negates the whole point of owning a BK and being able to dial down to such a low burn rate? I know that I can only run a flue temp. over 300-400 briefly at reloads or I am cooking myself out of the house. Granted I haven't gone up and inspected my cap but I do periodically clean with the soot eater.

 

[Highbeam]

@Highbeam don't you think maintaining such hot flue temps. negates the whole point of owning a BK and being able to dial down to such a low burn rate? I know that I can only run a flue temp. over 300-400 briefly at reloads or I am cooking myself out of the house. Granted I haven't gone up and inspected my cap but I do periodically clean with the soot eater.

I thought I was clear but it is a very important thing to notice. I have double wall pipe and am talking about internal flue temperatures. You have single wall pipe and can only measure surface temperatures.

Internal flue temps are double the surface flue temps that you are measuring. So when you are measuring 200 on the surface, you are actually getting 400 internal. Just like me. 400 degree internal flue temps are about the minimum you would want to be sure that condensation does not occur at the top.

My condar internal flue temp probe meter shows operating ranges and indicates temperatures lower than 400 (again, internal) are too cool. 400-900 is normal.