2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 3 (Everything BK)

[Woody Stover]

Combustor before vacuuming

That doesn't look very clogged to me, not clogged enough to restrict flow that much. I guess you know when you need to clean it, though..

 

[jetsam]

You have to understand at 40-60 mph winds the t/stat has to be fully closed on my stove. The wind will lift the t/stat plate (has hole in it) back a forth choo choo effect against the seat. I would think this isn’t good for the life of bimetallic spring. This is why I can’t set it and walk away without checking weather. I live at 6200 ft on top of a hill and most of the time I choose not to burn with high winds.

Huh. Could you construct a windbreak for the stack?

 

[black smoke signals]

Wind break surrounding my home would be nice buying 30ft trees would be expensive. Tried this cap it caused more draft.
https://www.superiorchimney.net/vacu-stack-chimney-caps/ Home Depot has this cap anyone proud of it?

 

[Diabel]

Please help me understand clearances.

I am looking at both manuals, Princes and Chinook.
Still deciding which stove would suit my needs better. I want to tuck the stove is a corner as close to unprotected wall as possible. I thought that I could place the Chinook 6" side and back to the wall (which would be great). Now I look at the Princess and I believe it has to be 9.5" and the Chinook manual says 9.5" too. I believe that I read somewhere here that the Chinook needed 6".

 

[MissMac]

cat's are just miserable - clearly hate the stove

 

[AlbergSteve]

Please help me understand clearances.

I am looking at both manuals, Princes and Chinook.
Still deciding which stove would suit my needs better. I want to tuck the stove is a corner as close to unprotected wall as possible. I thought that I could place the Chinook 6" side and back to the wall (which would be great). Now I look at the Princess and I believe it has to be 9.5" and the Chinook manual says 9.5" too. I believe that I read somewhere here that the Chinook needed 6".

The Chinook 30 requires 6'' at the back and 9.5'' at the side. The smaller Chinook 20 actually has larger clearance requirements at 6.5'' and 12.75''.
The Princess is 6'' at the back and 10'' at the side with side and back shields or fan kit installed. The back clearance increases to 9'' if the stove pipe exits through the wall.

 

[begreen]

Diabel, is the planned corner installation with the stove at a 45º angle to the walls or parallel to the walls? If it is a corner install, the back corner of the Sirocco can be 4" from the wall as long as it has the curved sideshields.

 

[sprawlnstall]

what are the requirements for spark protection on the sides with a princess ultra? I believe it is 16 inches on the front.

 

[lsucet]

what are the requirements for spark protection on the sides with a princess ultra? I believe it is 16 inches on the front.

I think is 3". It is the G value of the attachment above by @begreen

 

[Diabel]

Thanks for the help and info all.
It will not be a 45* angle install.
I think Steve is bang on on the requirements
I will have all the side shields and back fans installed.

 

[Diabel]

what are the requirements for spark protection on the sides with a princess ultra? I believe it is 16 inches on the front.

The floor I am not worried at all. I am putting tile on top of insulated cement slab. Six inch styrofoam insulation underneath the slab.
It will be a flush corner install. 24" from the corner a patio door starts and I don't want for the stove to stick out too much.

 

[Ashful]

Proportionately we probably have about as much glass area. 2 loads per day is what we average. 3 on extra cold days. 9 yrs now, no clogging.

Touche' on the clogging. Advantage PE, there. Of course, I think my problem is entirely self-inflicted, due to my crazy-stupid-tall chimney. There are thousands of BK users out there, and likely hundreds on this forum alone, and I'm one of the only two or three people reporting this problem. Even at that, it's only one on of my two stoves. The other stove on a 15 foot pipe has no issue.

My 1990's addition is all glass. There are 4 sets of glass double French doors + 13 very large (almost door sized) double hung windows + 16 large transom windows. All that is heated by the stove on the 15 foot pipe, which never clogs, and heats that space on one load every 24 hours. Advantage BK, there.

Im sure you have your setup down to perfection. But if you could do something to better it or to say would you do something different what would you do?

Hah... you haven't been reading. If you had, you'd know I'm just winging it! No perfection, here... but I'm having a heck of a lot of fun.

The only thing I'd do different, if I could go back, would have been to switch to BK sooner. When I'd hear the BK fanboys say crap like that, I always took it as them fluffing themselves, but it really is true. I hate myself for fighting with those old Jotuls, for several years.

If this were any other house, I'd put insulation near the top of the list of things I'd do different. However, this is a historic house, and at least eight generations of prior owners have managed to keep it original. I'm not going to be the one to mess with that track record, all repairs are being handled using original materials and methods, and I even chose to forego weatherstripping on my windows, as I've been rebuilding each. My one concession is that I have added storm windows, but they're nice wooden storm windows of your great-grandparents' variety, not those ugly triple-tracks.

Ashful, I would think what you do would get old real quick. Your feeding 3 stoves and still use 3000 gal of oil? Lotta work and money dude. Any idea how much wood you go through every year. Wouldn't two kings have worked out better than the ashford's?

Sorry, maybe I mis-spoke. The prior owner used 2400 - 2700 gallons of oil per year, and we were on track to hit the same numbers our first year here, prior to getting into wood burning. Of course, that was keeping the house cooler all night and while we were away during the day, and still burning that amount of oil.

Now, with two stoves, we keep the house 70F - 75F all day every day (and all night too). We have averaged 1000 gallons of oil per year, over the last five years, while heating with wood. To do the same without the stoves, I'm sure we'd be quite a bit over 3000 gal. of oil, but I've never cared to do the math on that. I do recall once figuring that one cord of oak (mostly what I burn) is roughly equivalent to 215 gallons of oil, based on assumed efficiencies for each appliance. If that's true, I'm saving 1200 to 2000 gallons of oil per hear, based on my 6 - 10 cords burned each year.

I'm only burning two stoves, now. I think I may have said "3 loads per day", as I'm doing 2 loads per day in one stove, and 1 load in the other. Burn times are set to fit the loading schedule, not my heating needs. Hence the 1000 gallons per year of oil we're still burning.

 

[jetsam]

If this were any other house, I'd put insulation near the top of the list of things I'd do different. However, this is a historic house, and at least eight generations of prior owners have managed to keep it original. I'm not going to be the one to mess with that track record, all repairs are being handled using original materials and methods, and I even chose to forego weatherstripping on my windows, as I've been rebuilding each. My one concession is that I have added storm windows, but they're nice wooden storm windows of your great-grandparents' variety, not those ugly triple-tracks.

I'm a proponent of modern windows, but an old fashioned wooden window with a tightly fitting wooden storm window outside of it can be pretty good if it's kept in good order.

If I was determined to keep an old fashioned window original, I'd probably look into double-pane storm windows with good weather stripping around the outsides for the winter months... I don't think you'd be able to see the difference, and it could save a lot of heat loss. It's also not actually a modification to the window, as the storm window is a separate piece.

 

[Woody Stover]

If this were any other house, I'd put insulation near the top of the list of things I'd do

Can you stuff chicken feathers in the walls and still call it original?

 

[Ashful]

I'm a proponent of modern windows, but an old fashioned wooden window with a tightly fitting wooden storm window outside of it can be pretty good if it's kept in good order.

If I was determined to keep an old fashioned window original, I'd probably look into double-pane storm windows with good weather stripping around the outsides for the winter months... I don't think you'd be able to see the difference, and it could save a lot of heat loss. It's also not actually a modification to the window, as the storm window is a separate piece.

I've spent quite a bit of time learning about this, as I have a lifetime history of living in several different old houses. Like the old rule of putting your insulation vapor barrier toward the warm side of the insulation (barrier in for cold climates, barrier out for hot climates), you really need your outer storm to be more leaky than your inner sash. If not, Jack Frost (and his cousins condensation and mold) will be your new roommates. Folks that want a tighter seal are usually forced toward inner storms, which have other issues.

I could really talk about this quite a bit, but will refrain from derailing your BK thread anymore! I will just say that I've spent a lot of time walking around this house with the Flir on very cold nights, and my 240 year old windows with storms installed radiate a heck of a lot less heat than my very expensive modern double-glazed windows in the new addition. You just can't beat a 4" air gap with a 1/4" air gap, no matter how good the technology. As Jetsam says, the real issue with old windows is the draft, and they can be much more efficient than any modern window if you address that.

 

[Tar12]

BK Princess Ultra owners....need a favor if you can please...I had a new local dealer order in a convection deck for me. It did not appear to be the correct one from what I have seen so I did not accept it...he had a new display model Princess ultra burning and I attempted a mock up of this deck with it as it did not have one....it covered close to a 1/3 of the top of the cat temp gauge...making the active range unreadable. If my memory serves me correctly from what I have seen here on a few the deck extended beyond the cat temp gauge with a provisional cut out to view the cat temp..no? I measured it at 24in in length by 9 3/4 in width...I think he was sent the wrong one but trying to verify.

 

[rdust]

BK Princess Ultra owners....need a favor if you can please...I had a new local dealer order in a convection deck for me. It did not appear to be the correct one from what I have seen so I did not accept it...he had a new display model Princess ultra burning and I attempted a mock up of this deck with it as it did not have one....it covered close to a 1/3 of the top of the cat temp gauge...making the active range unreadable. If my memory serves me correctly from what I have seen here on a few the deck extended beyond the cat temp gauge with a provisional cut out to view the cat temp..no? I measured it at 24in in length by 9 3/4 in width...I think he was sent the wrong one but trying to verify.

I lost some hairs on my hand measuring.

 

[Tar12]

I lost some hairs on my hand measuring.

View attachment 222750 View attachment 222751 View attachment 222752

Thank you for your sacrifice! Could you show your stove top connection? He may have had the right one.

 

[rdust]

Thank you for your sacrifice! Could you show your stove top connection? He may have had the right one.

2016-17 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

 

[Ashful]

Follow-up on the clogged cat saga. I received some interam gasket, and was able to shut down and pull the combustor this morning. To my surprise, the combustor was mostly clogged on the back / outlet side. I would love to hear some theories on how this might be happening. Here is a photo of the back side:

This was whitish fluffy stuff, but stuck well enough that it was hard to vacuum clean.

The good news is that, after an hour with a pipe cleaner and vacuuming several times, it’s working like it hasn’t worked for the last year! I’ve been having trouble getting the needle above 9 o’clock, this season, but now...

 

[Poindexter]

velocity drop and particle deposition at the combustor exit where the airway widens out? @Ashful

 

[AlbergSteve]

Follow-up on the clogged cat saga. I received some interam gasket, and was able to shut down and pull the combustor this morning. To my surprise, the combustor was mostly clogged on the back / outlet side. I would love to hear some theories on how this might be happening. Here is a photo of the back side:

View attachment 222778

View attachment 222779

This was whitish fluffy stuff, but stuck well enough that it was hard to vacuum clean.

The good news is that, after an hour with a pipe cleaner and vacuuming several times, it’s working like it hasn’t worked for the last year! I’ve been having trouble getting the needle above 9 o’clock, this season, but now...

View attachment 222780

Wow. What did the front of the cat look like?

 

[black smoke signals]

How about do DNA is it wood ash or gasket material breaking up?

 

[Tar12]

2016-17 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

Thank you sir....that was very helpful...

 

[tarzan]

Ashful, your post reminded me that my cat has clogged a few times

this season and that my stove was cold right now. Here's a pic of the backside of my steelcat out of the Princess.