If you haven’t done so yet, download the owners manual from BK website and start reading. Lots of good information.
Seeking advice on new stove BK Soricco vs HT3000
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After those 10k hours start checking for lack of combustor activity. Look for smoke from the chimney, look for the cat meter dropping out of the active range when it shouldn't.
Above all, don't be afraid to replace it. The catalyst is cheap compared to the value of the wood you are saving by having a good cat doing its job. Even full time burners should always get two years from a cat unless they are doing something wrong.
Compared to my escape 1800 apparently I should burn 25% less wood. I burn 2 cord a year before at $270 per cord, so I’ll save $108 per year on wood. The wood savings alone wont make up for the cat cost ($500 on amazon.ca).
I do think the early morning electricity savings and extended shoulder season burning should more than pay for a new cat every few years.
I’ll post a review after I have it for a while hoping I like it as much as others on here.
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So there's some tricky math here. You don't burn very much wood at all so the amount of money you save per year at $108 is real on this day but you will also get many more years from a catalyst compared to someone who burns fulltime say 4 cords per year. This is why the "years" measurement can be problematic. Bottom line is that the wood savings will pay for your new cat every 5 years or 7.5 cords.
On top of all that, you have great prices for cordwood and horrible prices for catalysts! Using canada dollars and apparently tariff or import duties on the cats.
I see a lot of value in 20-30 hour burn times.
That may not happen with a heating efficiency difference of about 6 or 7%. The real difference will be in a longer burn time and easier heating in shoulder season weather if the wood stove is the sole source of heat in the house.
That $270 is actually on the higher end for my location. Been getting cordwood from same guy for years now, 95% maple 5% birch cut split and delivered. It is 12-13% MC on the ends and 16-18% middle of a large fresh split. Hope it burns good in the Princess!
I’m guessing most of the winter will be 18 hour loading cycles. There are about 20 days per winter where it is below -15C, those will probably be 12 hour.
We have a central heat pump (non-inverter). When it is less than -15C it switches to electric coils in the plenum probably (10kW guess). That will be my largest savings. Plus the shoulder seasons.
The princess will be installed early next week. Can’t wait.
I'm burning maple right now in my princess. It has been a good fuel, I think our is bigleaf maple.
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In my non-cat I would always char the outside of all the loaded wood before shutdown. I’d want to see an orange glow around the outside before shutdown. I think I saw in videos that this is not needed for the BK?
Edit: by shutdown I mean air shutdown. Cat was already in active zone and glowing but want to shut the draft down without putting out the fire.
First fire :D
Edit: by shutdown I mean air shutdown. Cat was already in active zone and glowing but want to shut the draft down without putting out the fire.
First fire :D
You do want to char the load, but I don't wait until it's orange.
Black is good. And often I don't know whether the back of the firebox is charred or not.
Black is good. And often I don't know whether the back of the firebox is charred or not.
I think I could have charred a bit better. I saw one spot that was still bare wood. That said been running 12 hours and only burned little over half the load. Still going good. crazy!
Edit: just remembered when I loaded it yesterday, closer to 14 hours ago!
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Don't overthink it. When I reload, I set the Thermostat to WOT with the bypass open until the fire is established, maybe 10 minutes tops. By then not all wood is charred, and it doesn't need to be. I then turn down the thermostat, close the bypass and let it cruise.
Do turn down the thermostat in steps. Going from blazing to black box cruising in one step is going to overload the cat initially (cut air, create lots of smoke, and the cat needs to warm up to process all that fuel).
That turning down in steps will add some time between when you open the door and when you are completely settled and cruising.
That turning down in steps will add some time between when you open the door and when you are completely settled and cruising.
When I reload if the CAT is in the active zone, I shut the bypass down immediately and set my timer for 20 minutes and let it char. After 20 minutes I might give it another 10 minutes at WOT depending on how the load looks and how warm the room is vs my target room temperature.
This time of year(shoulder season) I resplit my wood to smaller pieces, easier to maintain a smaller hotter fire that won’t cook us out of the house. During shoulder season I’m shooting for a 8-12 hour time frame with an active cat.
This time of year(shoulder season) I resplit my wood to smaller pieces, easier to maintain a smaller hotter fire that won’t cook us out of the house. During shoulder season I’m shooting for a 8-12 hour time frame with an active cat.
Yes, once there's flame (generally before the door closes) I leave the bypass open for a minute, two max, to exhaust the cold room temp air that got sucked in, and then I close the bypass, let it run on high for a bit before dialing down in steps.
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It's crazy how some people just don't believe that this is possible. This is the reason I switched to BK, those long controlled burns. No other stove comes close to that capability and it's hugely important for full time heaters. Cuts down the effort required to heat with wood significantly when you can reload once per day instead of three times. Get the home warm and keep it warm.
Well, it does depend on the type of wood quite a bit. With my low-energy pine wood, 24h are just not achievable. 12h, sure, and that's good enough for me.
24 hours burns are fine for 40 to 50 degree days but it won’t do chit for ya when it’s 20 below zero! There were times I had to burn mine on high to keep up. The burn control and even heat of the BK is a great thing though.
Not everybody lives in WI 
Regarding pine, @Tron , I believe the 30 hr results advertised by BK are with fir. (Bit better than pine, but no oak.)
I am not sure I've reached 30 hrs with pine, but I have reached 18 hrs. Then again, I don't do that anymore much, as the mini split is nice for such weather, especially since solar exposure can change inside temps a lot when it's not that cold outside. Easier to switch off the mini split than the BK...
Regarding pine, @Tron , I believe the 30 hr results advertised by BK are with fir. (Bit better than pine, but no oak.)
I am not sure I've reached 30 hrs with pine, but I have reached 18 hrs. Then again, I don't do that anymore much, as the mini split is nice for such weather, especially since solar exposure can change inside temps a lot when it's not that cold outside. Easier to switch off the mini split than the BK...
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