2015-2016 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

[kennyp2339]

My princess update, a few weeks ago I ordered and installed a convection deck and OAK on my princess, I uploaded some pictures and BKVP said the OAK was not installed properly and to take it all down.
I acknowledged the advice and started doing research on OAK installs, since I never heard of anything like this in the instructions.
My problem with the install was that the stove is located in the basement of my house, the oak connected to the stove, then was installed straight up on the block wall about 5ft then outside to day light, supposedly under extreme circumstances (right conditions) the stove could reverse draft and the oak could act like a chimney and smoke / heat could escape it, lighting the house on fire, or smoke could leak into the living space and co poisoning could occur.
I don't take that kind of stuff lightly, I love heating with wood and don't want to be constantly wondering if I'm going to have a problem. So back to my research, I never did come across anything that referenced what BKVP said, (I'm certainly not calling him out on this, and don't mean that to be negative) I've actually seen quite the opposite with gas installs; were they install in an existing chimney and run both the exhaust and oak pipes in the same flue terminating almost at the same height, I also read up on gas furnace installs were they install the oak and exhaust relatively in the same area's with pvc pipe.
After reading this I left my oak connected to the stove and monitored it daily to see if I had any reverse draft conditions, thankfully I did not, but I developed a new problem.
Running a 3" oak with a rise/fall of 5ft along with a 6" class a chimney about 22ft high straight up caused an excessive draft problem, I could literally feel the excess cold air coming out of the top of the thermostat cover on the stove, my burning conditions changed also, setting 2 was like running the poor princess full bore, it was also loosing a lot more heat up the chimney, my thermometer which normally reads in the 250deg range (pre oak) jumped to a cruising temp of 450, when I would load the stove and open the door, it would sound like a freight train (not good) I also experienced a major decrease in burn times.
keeping the t-stat a setting 1 was the new sweet spot, but I knew this was not right, After a couple of days running the stove like this I took the oak apart, everything went back to normal and now the house is warmer than ever with the convection deck.

 

[Woody Stover]

Coal buildup is not a problem unique to bk. Any stove will do this when you are trying to produce more heat than your stove is capable of.

I size my stoves so they can handle the heat load most of the time. Bigger stoves take longer to heat up and get cruising. I don't want that on a daily basis. Trade-off is, when it's unusually cold out I may want to get rid of coals more quickly. That's where the grated ash system helps. I swirl the poker through the coals on my Dutchwest, and the ash and small coals fall away through the grate. Then when I pull them to the front, plenty of air can get through the bigger coals that are left and I can burn 'em down in short order. Opening the air a bit, the stove top will go back up to 400, and slowly drift down to around 300 over the next couple hours, at which point I have held room temp and can fit in another full load.

 

[Highbeam]

My princess update, a few weeks ago I ordered and installed a convection deck and OAK on my princess, I uploaded some pictures and BKVP said the OAK was not installed properly and to take it all down.
I acknowledged the advice and started doing research on OAK installs, since I never heard of anything like this in the instructions.
My problem with the install was that the stove is located in the basement of my house, the oak connected to the stove, then was installed straight up on the block wall about 5ft then outside to day light, supposedly under extreme circumstances (right conditions) the stove could reverse draft and the oak could act like a chimney and smoke / heat could escape it, lighting the house on fire, or smoke could leak into the living space and co poisoning could occur.
I don't take that kind of stuff lightly, I love heating with wood and don't want to be constantly wondering if I'm going to have a problem. So back to my research, I never did come across anything that referenced what BKVP said, (I'm certainly not calling him out on this, and don't mean that to be negative) I've actually seen quite the opposite with gas installs; were they install in an existing chimney and run both the exhaust and oak pipes in the same flue terminating almost at the same height, I also read up on gas furnace installs were they install the oak and exhaust relatively in the same area's with pvc pipe.
After reading this I left my oak connected to the stove and monitored it daily to see if I had any reverse draft conditions, thankfully I did not, but I developed a new problem.
Running a 3" oak with a rise/fall of 5ft along with a 6" class a chimney about 22ft high straight up caused an excessive draft problem, I could literally feel the excess cold air coming out of the top of the thermostat cover on the stove, my burning conditions changed also, setting 2 was like running the poor princess full bore, it was also loosing a lot more heat up the chimney, my thermometer which normally reads in the 250deg range (pre oak) jumped to a cruising temp of 450, when I would load the stove and open the door, it would sound like a freight train (not good) I also experienced a major decrease in burn times.
keeping the t-stat a setting 1 was the new sweet spot, but I knew this was not right, After a couple of days running the stove like this I took the oak apart, everything went back to normal and now the house is warmer than ever with the convection deck.

It's like you supercharged the stove. I'm surprised that the high draft caused by the duct remained when the loading door was opened since at that time, the OAK's pressurization effect is defeated into the living space.

 

[kennyp2339]

It's like you supercharged the stove. I'm surprised that the high draft caused by the duct remained when the loading door was opened since at that time, the OAK's pressurization effect is defeated into the living space.

You know its been a very weird ride since installing a stove in my basement, when the old stove was upstairs it ran like any other cheap old stove, I put that stove in the basement before pulling the trigger on the BK and had a totally different burning experience, I had huge coaling issues on 18% moisture content wood, I tried everything from installing pipe dampers to manually cutting the air supply, it helped but I knew it wasn't really right.
I put the BK in and the t-stat really calmed things down, then like you say "super charged it" with an oak, I thing my issue is although my install is in the basement, my house is on top of a fairly steep hill with no big tree's in a 125ft radius of the house, i think I have a natural updraft that increases my chimney draft, what I really need to do is get a manometer and test my draft to get some true numbers, not that it really matters, but just so that I know.

 

[webby3650]

What makes you certain you even need the OAK? It calms down to normal without it connected?

 

[kennyp2339]

Webby - I was trying to go on a full outside air supply to eliminate heated combustion air going into the stove and up the flue, I just have to much time on my hands when I'm not cutting and splitting I guess, it was more of an experiment if anything. And yes, with out the oak everything is back to normal - cat sits at the 2 o'clock range, blower on medium, regular ash build up (not to many coals) 250 - 300 deg flue temps depending on the t-stat setting, most importantly a warmer house on a longer burn.

 

[webby3650]

Around here we have way more issues introduced by outside air kits than they eliminate.
Constant cold infiltration, over-draft, condensation...

 

[Poindexter]

I have been getting consistent 12 hour burns out of my local poplar (Populus balsamifera ) with the thermostat on medium and the fan kit off. No coaling issues, in fact I have been slipping one split of birch in with my poplar loads to make sure I still have coals in case I get home late from work.

I can't quite get 24 hour burns out of a full load of birch at that setting. I now have an intermediate step between 24 hour birch loads and 12 hour spruce loads. Just a data point, carry on.

 

[Usernamemustbeunique]

Its been very warm here lately. Still trying to figure out my long burn times, which I know vary depending on box size, wood species, draft and the R value of the home. That said, at -10c I get 12hrs from a full load of spruce pine in my 30.2, with fir larch mix I am pushing 16hrs, in both cases there is still ample heat produced by the coals at this point, so I call these "honest times" though I could do 1-3 more hours respectively. We lack any real hardwoods here, although, I have collected some maple and oak from various sources to use when needed in the future. With the warmer weather we are having now I get the same burn times out of half as much wood. I basically load the wood in, do a short high burn and close the damper right off and just let the cat go to work when its this warm out. I have burnt close to two cords this winter, which is low due to the warmer weather this season.

I say it at least once a day, usually when I get home and the house is toasty, I love this wood stove and it is by far the best money I have spent. It works well for me no matter if its +5 or -26. The range of adjustment is so useful.

The only thing I am wondering now is if I am getting these results with 12.5ft of flue, on the short side I know, if I add 3 more feet will I see an improvement in my low burn times? Would 2 more feet be enough? There is a bit of smoke roll back at these warmer temls so I know that would improve.

 

[Scoutin Wyo]

Username, here is a single data point for you. I had a princess installed on a straight 12.5 stack with the interior portion being double wall. It ran fine but had a bit too much smoke leakage in the house when I opened the door for hot reloads. I installed a 3' stick of triple wall and noticed that my cat stall point moved from a 1.75 Stat setting to around 1.0. So I am now able to run it lower in shoulder season which was great. Now during the colder season I see no difference when running in the "normal" 3 o'clock range. It did help my smoke spillage so I'm happy!

 

[Highbeam]

So I got my new gasket and hope to install it tomorrow. It seems much much bigger than the old one that has been on for the last three years. Did BK decide to increase the size of their gaskets in the last few years?

 

[Ashful]

Eyeballing he vertical piece, they appear to be the same size, in that photo. Are you sure yours wasn't once the size you perceive this to be?

 

[Highbeam]

Eyeballing he vertical piece, they appear to be the same size, in that photo. Are you sure yours wasn't once the size you perceive this to be?

I know the OEM gasket was never as big as the new one. What I don't know is how the OEM door/gasket was treated before I got it. It may have been on a floor model stove or something. The old one could have been stretched at installation too. These gaskets can be squished or stretched significantly if you need to. Like say, if you cut it too short.

Do you all precut, tape, and dry fit the door gasket before busting out the RTV to assure that the door is closable?

 

[tarzan]

I just sat the door on the kitchen table, pulled out old gasket, scraped the channel clean, applied cement, worked gasket in starting from the same corner as old one, cut off excess, reinstalled door, adjusted latch, allowed setup time, done.

 

[Highbeam]

I just sat the door on the kitchen table, pulled out old gasket, scraped the channel clean, applied cement, worked gasket in starting from the same corner as old one, cut off excess, reinstalled door, adjusted latch, allowed setup time, done.

I'm hoping it's "just" that easy. I tend to over think things.

 

[Ashful]

I tend to over think things.

Highbeam, let me introduce you to Poindexter...

 

[tarzan]

Had to do an emergency cat cleaning tonight. Not sure what happened since I have cleaned the cat a couple times in the close to two seasons I've ran this stove including a front and back cleaning with a vaccume hose at the start of this burning season and it there was never much to clean. Everything seemed to be fine until yesterday when I closed the bypass and lost all flames. Needed the stove so elected to wait another day to clean it. The stove top was still at 400* with some hot coals in the back when I did so I just bypassed the cat, took the guard off by sliding a couple screwdrivers in the holes and lifting it out of its brackets. Cleaned the cat with an old paint brush. There was a lot more on the cat than I expected but the stove is running as normal now. Just a little confused why this all seemed to happen so suddenly. Nothing has changed in my burning habbits except I'm burning more Hickory which in the past has created a good bit of ash (?) but the cat was clogged. I'm positive my cat is not performing as it should be so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[shoot-straight]

Had to do an emergency cat cleaning tonight. Not sure what happened since I have cleaned the cat a couple times in the close to two seasons I've ran this stove including a front and back cleaning with a vaccume hose at the start of this burning season and it there was never much to clean. Everything seemed to be fine until yesterday when I closed the bypass and lost all flames. Needed the stove so elected to wait another day to clean it. The stove top was still at 400* with some hot coals in the back when I did so I just bypassed the cat, took the guard off by sliding a couple screwdrivers in the holes and lifting it out of its brackets. Cleaned the cat with an old paint brush. There was a lot more on the cat than I expected but the stove is running as normal now. Just a little confused why this all seemed to happen so suddenly. Nothing has changed in my burning habbits except I'm burning more Hickory which in the past has created a good bit of ash (?) but the cat was clogged. I'm positive my cat is not performing as it should be so maybe that has something to do with it.

Pulled mine and it was horribly clogged. The front looked ok, the back was all jammed up.

 

[becasunshine]

I have a question. I apologize if this has been answered before. I can't think of a succinct way to search for said answer.

A couple of weekends ago, when we were last here, we realized that we could spin our t-stat knob around 360' without stopping. I noticed this when it seemed that we couldn't control the burn, i.e. couldn't turn the stove "down." We then noticed (with the help of our stove shop) that the knob wasn't turning the shaft.

Husband turned the shaft with a pair of pliers to turn the stove down, and then reinstalled the knob. At that point we had to decide where the pointer was going to point, for lack of a better term.

We installed the knob such that when the pointer aligns with the back stop on the knob, i.e. when the t-stat is turned all the way down and the damper is completely closed and the knob cannot be turned any further in the counter clockwise direction, the pointer is pointing at that back stop. We put the pointer at "zero" at the back stop.

Does this make sense?

This changes *everything.* We are having to learn our stove and t-stat settings all over again. Makes me wonder how long that knob was loose and if we were ever really opening and closing the damper completely.

I had noticed that it seemed to take longer for the fire to "catch" at initial start up, with lots of smoking before it actually fired up. Our wood is quite dry so it didn't make sense to me, the longer smokey start ups, but the stove did start up sooner rather than later and when it did it performed normally.

Last night was our first cold start with the t-stat knob reinstalled, and what a difference. T-stat knob turned to full open is now WIDE OPEN and the stove started up in mere moments, like that was its job and its ONLY job.

OK, so when the t-stat is all the way closed, the pointer on the knob corresponds to and points at the back stop, the knob cannot be turned back, or counter clockwise, any further. I refer to this as "pointer set to zero." When the t-stat is turned wide open, moving the pointer clockwise around the dial, the pointer is moved way past the dial marker for "4". The pointer on the t-stat knob will point to roughly 8 o'clock if one is thinking in terms of a clock face.

Just want to make sure that we put that knob back in place correctly... I guess as long as we are operating the stove properly and the stove is behaving as expected the numbers are arbitrary but if I missed something here, please tell me!

 

[jetsam]

Just want to make sure that we put that knob back in place correctly... I guess as long as we are operating the stove properly and the stove is behaving as expected the numbers are arbitrary but if I missed something here, please tell me!

My (uneducated) guess is that the answer is even messier than you think. I read (somewhere on here) that each individual bimetallic thermostat was factory set for that particular stove (high limit, low limit, range calibration, I imagine)- so in a laboratory setting with an artificial, consistent heat source, and environment, every stove has the air more or less open the same amount at the same internal temperature. Simple!

Now take that stove out of the lab and put it somebody's house. Now the draft isn't the same one minute to the next, the ambient air temp is variable, the heat source is wildly inconsistent, the metals in the thermostat don't degrade at exactly the same rate, the damper gets stickier, the springs get older, the numbers on the dial are squinchy and hard to see and sometimes it's not even set where you think it is...

My point is that if you keep conditions kinda sorta similar you should get sorta similar behavior, but too many factors are invisible to you (or out of your hands) for you to really give the stove consistent operating conditions day to day anyway.

In conclusion, it is not your husband's fault, and he owes me a beer if you actually bought any of this.

Cheers!

 

[becasunshine]

My (uneducated) guess is that the answer is even messier than you think. I read (somewhere on here) that each individual bimetallic thermostat was factory set for that particular stove (high limit, low limit, range calibration, I imagine)- so in a laboratory setting with an artificial, consistent heat source, and environment, every stove has the air more or less open the same amount at the same internal temperature. Simple!

Now take that stove out of the lab and put it somebody's house. Now the draft isn't the same one minute to the next, the ambient air temp is variable, the heat source is wildly inconsistent, the metals in the thermostat don't degrade at exactly the same rate, the damper gets stickier, the springs get older, the numbers on the dial are squinchy and hard to see and sometimes it's not even set where you think it is...

My point is that if you keep conditions kinda sorta similar you should get sorta similar behavior, but too many factors are invisible to you (or out of your hands) for you to really give the stove consistent operating conditions day to day anyway.

In conclusion, it is not your husband's fault, and he owes me a beer if you actually bought any of this.

Cheers!

LOL, GREAT.

Well, we had to set the pointer *somewhere.* It made all sorts of sense at the moment to make the hard back stop "zero" with the pointer. My guess is that we'll learn to operate the stove within these parameters.

What's interesting is that wow, start up was RIGHT NOW last night, but we seem to be burning at a higher place on the dial than we typically do. The house feels cold when the t-stat is set in the "normal" range. It's cold here this weekend but not particularly brutal. ???

Last night we loaded it up, turned it down to t-stat setting 1, and woke up to a bed of coals and a 59' house. Before re-installing the t-stat knob a setting of 1 would last overnight easily, with some remnants of splits remaining in the morning.

Of course, there are so many variables. It's not as brutally cold here last night as it can get, but it was dry and quite windy.

Anyway, we're re-learning. As long as we haven't done something stupid/dangerous with the way we've installed the t-stat knob.

 

[blueguy]

The knob should point to the 6 o'clock position with the stat fully open. Turn the stat all the way up, loosen set screw, turn knob so marker is pointing straight down and retighten.

 

[becasunshine]

The knob should point to the 6 o'clock position with the stat fully open. Turn the stat all the way up, loosen set screw, turn knob so marker is pointing straight down and retighten.

This makes sense. Because, if 6 o'clock is wide open (as opposed to 8 o'clock corresponding to wide open the way it's set now) then the damper will be opened further in the "normal" range as it is marked on the t-stat dial. Right now our "normal" burn range- where the stove is running like we'd expect it to run, historically, when it's set to cruise, is around 3:30 to 4 on the dial.

Thank you!

 

[tarzan]

Blue guy has it right but theoretically you could leave it as is. You would adjust to how your stove performs at the different settings and they would become "your settings."

Me, I would fix it or it would drive me crazy

BTW, what's with "succinct"! I had to pull out the dictionary.

 

[becasunshine]

Blue guy has it right but theoretically you could leave it as is. You would adjust to how your stove performs at the different settings and they would become "your settings."

Me, I would fix it or it would drive me crazy

BTW, what's with "succinct"! I had to pull out the dictionary.

LOL, yes, we have to fix it or it *will* drive me nuts. The stove always operated as we expected in the "normal" zone. Now the "normal" operating range does not correspond to "normal" on the dial. I like consistency.

Succinct? The reason is brief and to the point. Unlike my posts.