2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 2 (Everything BK)

Ashful said:

I’ve been buying all of the parts to do it, so I’ll be doing it soon. I’m installing (in this order, bottom up):

1. Probe thermometer
2. Magnehelic with metal to high-temp plastic tubing
3. Key damper

I actually have a damper I bought back when I had single wall on this chimney, not sure if it can be made to work with double wall, will be looking at that later tonight.

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Are you having a smoke smell issue also?

In my opinion there should be a “wiki” of sorts for the BK stoves rather than a massive thread... I check in on it occasionally and find smoke smell, dial settings, cat cleaning, and other similar repeated questions. Well the smoke smell thing needs it’s own thread (for the record my sirocco has been clean as a whistle, not a hint of smell and I do hope that issue can be sorted for the unlucky few who have it.)

Hey, I’m the first one to say there’s no such thing as a bad question, don’t get me wrong. I just wonder if there’s a better way to answer all these (repeated) questions for those who seek them than have to sift through this sometimes convoluted thread...

Maybe a sticky pointing to these recurring topics? Maybe it exists already and like everyone else I’ve missed it?

Ignore me, I’m just warming my feet and enjoying the flame show of my wood stove

Stove is burning noticeably better. We're back to normal! Will definitely order gasket material, will probably order a spare CAT to have on hand. Right now the HVAC guy is under the house trying to figure out why the gas furnace is flaking on us. We'll have to pay *that* bill too, so it may be next month before we order the spare CAT.

Thank y'all again for your help!

Got her up and running after a bit of a rough day installing the chimney liner. One thing I did notice is the fan stays the same (noise and blower air) or seems like it does no matter what setting I put it on. Does this sound right or might I have a faulty switch?

WhitePlatinum said:

View attachment 220852 Got her up and running after a bit of a rough day installing the chimney liner. One thing I did notice is the fan stays the same (noise and blower air) or seams like it does no matter what setting I put it on. Does this sound right or might I have a faulty switch?

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I can definitely tell a difference on fan speed when I rotate the switch

Blaze King King Wood Stove

WhitePlatinum said:

View attachment 220852 Got her up and running after a bit of a rough day installing the chimney liner. One thing I did notice is the fan stays the same (noise and blower air) or seems like it does no matter what setting I put it on. Does this sound right or might I have a faulty switch?

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It’s a rheostat so just barely clicked on is full blast and all the way clockwise is low. On low my fans are just louder than the refrigerator but on high they’re closer to a hair dryer.

Highbeam said:

It’s a rheostat so just barely clicked on is full blast and all the way clockwise is low. On low my fans are just louder than the refrigerator but on high they’re closer to a hair dryer.

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I got what your saying and I see that on the dial, but I don't hear a difference from "high" to "low"

WhitePlatinum said:

I got what your saying and I see that on the dial, but I don't hear a difference from "high" to "low"

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There is an adjustment. Some were delivered with the inability to turn down very far. I haven’t done the adjustment but I believe that @Ashful has.

becasunshine said:

Stove is burning noticeably better. We're back to normal! Will definitely order gasket material, will probably order a spare CAT to have on hand. Right now the HVAC guy is under the house trying to figure out why the gas furnace is flaking on us. We'll have to pay *that* bill too, so it may be next month before we order the spare CAT.

Thank y'all again for your help!

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Welcome. I responded to your original question when I got to the bottom of page 60 without realizing you had pics on page 61.

The little cans of pressurized air for dusting keyboards and things are low pressure and come with a handy straw

jetsam said:

If you burn a few sticks a couple times a year for "ambiance", the original cat will probably outlast the stove. If you use it for primary heat in a northern state, you might hit 12k hours in 2 years.

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My first Jotul still had the original cat in it after 20 years, when I purchased it. It worked just fine, I don't think the prior owners ever used it much.

kf6hap said:

It was always my belief that compressed air, even at low pressures, would -ike a high pressure washer stripping paint from wood-strip off the flaky very soft invisible catalytic coating.

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Maybe, but you can't really get a vacuum with any brush attachment I've ever owned onto that cat, and even doing my best with the vacuum it was still clogged. A paint brush... not going to help suck debris out of steelcat passages. In the end, I don't really care if I took off a little substrate. I have to do this every few weeks, on this stove and it always goes from "not working" to "working fine". When that ends (and I already have more than 10k hours on it), then I'll get a new one, and repeat.

I believe you have read that you shouldn't use compressed air, I've read the same. I also believe that such instructions are written to protect the manufacturer, more than with any thought to a user's real situation, or ability to execute an operation without damage.

begreen said:

They make them for double wall. If available that's the way I would go. What brand stove pipe?

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Not sure of brand, purchased from Rockford. Just checked email receipt (2015), and it reads:

Item: Double Wall Black Stove Pipe
Quantity: 1
Description: Stove Pipe
Size: 6 in. dia. x 24 in. length ADB6 5.8 C - 89.99
Price (each): 89.99
Item Total: 89.99

Highbeam said:

186$ free shipping for an oem replacement.

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You Princess guys suck! I believe the 30 box combustors are much more.

tarzan said:

Are you having a smoke smell issue also?

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No, I've never said that. With all this talk of smoke smells, I have actually spent time putting my nose oils all over both stoves. If I get right up on the one with the taller chimney, I can actually smell a creo smell on the top hinge side corner of my door, but I can't smell it at any distance from the stove. Highbeam's "dog's butthole" theory. I occasionally get a smoke smell in the house, maybe once per month, but the few times I've bothered chasing it down I find it's coming in from outside. My house has a U-shaped floor plan, with a stove at the end of each leg of the "U", and some wind conditions carry smoke from one chimney across the other side of the house where it can be drawn in thru leaky windows and doors as make-up air.

However, for full disclosure, my house was BUILT for burning wood. The original owners appear to have had five or six stoves in this house, and we have sufficient make-up air thru these mid-18th century windows and doors, that even the occasional reload smoke will dissipate in reasonable time.

Nigel459 said:

In my opinion there should be a “wiki” of sorts for the BK stoves rather than a massive thread... I check in on it occasionally and find smoke smell, dial settings, cat cleaning, and other similar repeated questions. Well the smoke smell thing needs it’s own thread (for the record my sirocco has been clean as a whistle, not a hint of smell and I do hope that issue can be sorted for the unlucky few who have it.)

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You just need to check in more often. These threads are a great way to stay on top of all things BK, so much so that the half dozen spin-off threads that are floating around out there (mostly on the smoke smell issue) sometimes feel like rogue states. The forum is fully searchable, and you can display search results by post, not just thread.

WhitePlatinum said:

View attachment 220852 Got her up and running after a bit of a rough day installing the chimney liner. One thing I did notice is the fan stays the same (noise and blower air) or seems like it does no matter what setting I put it on. Does this sound right or might I have a faulty switch?

Click to expand...

One of my blower kits had the rheostat not adjusted correctly, and also had a very small range of operation. If you remove the knob, you'll find a small adjustment screw on the rheostat, which you can turn to set the low point (just barely spinning on lowest knob spinning) to get maximum range. Note that a screwdriver between this screw and the blower housing will short out and blow up the rheostat (DAMHIKT), so you may want to use a plastic screwdriver if doing it live.

Highbeam said:

but on high they’re closer to a hair dryer.

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Are you joking here?

Diabel said:

Are you joking here?

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No, the noise they make at low is comparable to my fridge, the noise at high is like my daughter’s hairdryer. Pretty loud IMO. Good news is that you don’t need high speed unless it’s an emergency since the manual tells us to match fan setting to stat setting and max output is not needed very often! Low is nice and makes a significant difference.

One of the reasons I ripped down a masonry fireplace and chimney was to be rid of the insert that required a noisy fan all the time to make heat.

Highbeam said:

No, the noise they make at low is comparable to my fridge, the noise at high is like my daughter’s hairdryer. Pretty loud IMO. Good news is that you don’t need high speed unless it’s an emergency since the manual tells us to match fan setting to stat setting and max output is not needed very often! Low is nice and makes a significant difference.

One of the reasons I ripped down a masonry fireplace and chimney was to be rid of the insert that required a noisy fan all the time to make heat.

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Ok. Thanks for the details. You got me worried. I have two ladies in the house with blow dryers going every morning.....I really do not need a third one.

Fridges I can live with....

becasunshine said:

Please send better picture of Dog by Fire. <:3~

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Here's one from this past week sometime. There's one definite dog and two additional alleged dogs in there.

My flying Alsatian has been long gone, replaced by these two nasties

My wife is not allowed to see that photo.

What is the gizmo with the red LED display?

Electronic cat thermometer (Auber at100) great little tool.

Diabel said:

Electronic cat thermometer (Amber at100) great little tool.

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Please expound. Thank you. <:3~

One of my blower kits had the rheostat not adjusted correctly, and also had a very small range of operation. If you remove the knob, you'll find a small adjustment screw on the rheostat, which you can turn to set the low point (just barely spinning on lowest knob spinning) to get maximum range. Note that a screwdriver between this screw and the blower housing will short out and blow up the rheostat (DAMHIKT), so you may want to use a plastic screwdriver if doing it live.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for this info, you have been great!

Ashful said:

No, I've never said that. With all this talk of smoke smells, I have actually spent time putting my nose oils all over both stoves. If I get right up on the one with the taller chimney, I can actually smell a creo smell on the top hinge side corner of my door, but I can't smell it at any distance from the stove. Highbeam's "dog's butthole" theory. I occasionally get a smoke smell in the house, maybe once per month, but the few times I've bothered chasing it down I find it's coming in from outside. My house has a U-shaped floor plan, with a stove at the end of each leg of the "U", and some wind conditions carry smoke from one chimney across the other side of the house where it can be drawn in thru leaky windows and doors as make-up air.

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I was relatively sure you were not having smoke smell issues but I've not been checking in as much as I had in the past. So, I guess mu question then is, why are you installing a manometer and key damper?

tarzan said:

I was relatively sure you were not having smoke smell issues but I've not been checking in as much as I had in the past. So, I guess mu question then is, why are you installing a manometer and key damper?

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One of his stoves has a longish flue and the other one is vented directly to the mesosphere. I'm guessing there may be a small wormhole involved.

tarzan said:

I was relatively sure you were not having smoke smell issues but I've not been checking in as much as I had in the past. So, I guess mu question then is, why are you installing a manometer and key damper?

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I like Jetsam’s answer better than the one I was going to give.

There are a few reasons for installing a key damper:

1. I’ve been having problems with my combustor clogging with fly ash on the stove with a longer flue. When I watch a fire burn on high (as I do for the first 30 minutes of each burn cycle), the action in the stove is what I would call “furious”, with ash and flame blowing all over. I can actually watch an almost continuous curtain of flames leaping from air wash right into the combustor.

2. When I measure draft on high, it’s always above 0.15” WC. BK manual specifies 0.06” maximum, anything higher will void warranty.

3. I am having coaling problems, probably more related to my always-high heat load and burning oak, but I’m always looking to get as much heat output thru that coaling phase as possible. Aaronk’s comments about draft, as it relates to air wash and coaling, have me thinking I might see an improvement if I get my draft down close to their nominal .05” number.

Ashful said:

I like Jetsam’s answer better than the one I was going to give.

There are a few reasons for installing a key damper:

1. I’ve been having problems with my combustor clogging with fly ash on the stove with a longer flue. When I watch a fire burn on high (as I do for the first 30 minutes of each burn cycle), the action in the stove is what I would call “furious”, with ash and flame blowing all over. I can actually watch an almost continuous curtain of flames leaping from air wash right into the combustor.

2. When I measure draft on high, it’s always above 0.15” WC. BK manual specifies 0.06” maximum, anything higher will void warranty.

3. I am having coaling problems, probably more related to my always-high heat load and burning oak, but I’m always looking to get as much heat output thru that coaling phase as possible. Aaronk’s comments about draft, as it relates to air wash and coaling, have me thinking I might see an improvement if I get my draft down close to their nominal .05” number.

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Ashful, on which stove do you get the shorters burn? on the short or taller chimney?