2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 1 (Everything BK)

[Highbeam]

Do you wait until cat is in active zone to close the door?
In my experience, even from a cold start, less than 5 minutes ( usually 2-3 minutes) is enough for the fire to get going. Then I close the door. Wait some more to have the cat to be in active zone. As soon as it is on the borderline of active zone, I close the bypass. ( Can you close the bypass a bit earlier than it is in active zone?)
Then I let it run for 15-30 min for charring.

I just had a quick chimney fire because, IMO, I kept the door cracked too long during warmup. Good thing I was there watching my flue temperature suddenly start whipping up. I slammed everything shut which on the bk actually means just that little air hole in the intake flapper. The young fire snuffed and the probe meter only climbed to about 1100 before stopping.

Whoa!

I pulled the probe meter out and the probe is shiney copper. No roaring or rumbling but crackling in the pipe.

Everything is normal now.

 

[Niko]

I just had a quick chimney fire because, IMO, I kept the door cracked too long during warmup. Good thing I was there watching my flue temperature suddenly start whipping up. I slammed everything shut which on the bk actually means just that little air hole in the intake flapper. The young fire snuffed and the probe meter only climbed to about 1100 before stopping.

Whoa!

I pulled the probe meter out and the probe is shiney copper. No roaring or rumbling but crackling in the pipe.

Everything is normal now.

wow good thing you paid attention!

 

[tarzan]

I just had a quick chimney fire because, IMO, I kept the door cracked too long during warmup. Good thing I was there watching my flue temperature suddenly start whipping up. I slammed everything shut which on the bk actually means just that little air hole in the intake flapper. The young fire snuffed and the probe meter only climbed to about 1100 before stopping.

Whoa!

I pulled the probe meter out and the probe is shiney copper. No roaring or rumbling but crackling in the pipe.

Everything is normal now.

That’s not good. You may have kept the door open to long but there still had to be some fuel in there to ignite it. When was the last time you cleaned the chimney?

 

[tarzan]

I have routinely been told to expect wood savings of about 1/4. So far i have used considerably more wood.

More wood than the 25% savings you were told or more all together?

 

[bholler]

More wood than the 25% savings you were told or more all together?

More alltogether

 

[Niko]

i have a question for everyone. I have a brand new steel cat put in less then 2 weeks old. i have been noticing my flu temps are hotter then normal by 300 hundred degrees give or take over the cat probe. So unless my cat probe is bad which its only 2 years old and giving me wrong temps, do the steel cats let more heat threw? For example when i had my stove on hi the other day to burn up the crap in the box my flu temp was borderline 900-1000 degrees but my cat probe was only reading like 1200.. ill take a picture of of the probes next time but i feel like the cat does liight up at a lower temp but a lot more heat is passing threw it. hence my higher flu temps.. with the 5 years a had my ceramic cat i never had the flew temp gets so hi when burning the creosote out and obviously bypass closed.

What do you guys say?

 

[Highbeam]

That’s not good. You may have kept the door open to long but there still had to be some fuel in there to ignite it. When was the last time you cleaned the chimney?

The probe meter swung from about 300 really fast past 900 as I shut things down.

I cleaned the chimney before the burn season started in September. I’m burning western red cedar on a cat that’s only about one year old. Very active. When I cleaned the stack I removed the pipe and inspected, nice and clean.

Starting to wonder if western red cedar might be too oily. No visible smoke and a brown probe every time I check.

The door was loosely latched, so not cracked much and I actually flopped the bypass closed to get the pipe cooler. No sparks out of the cap.

 

[Diabel]

I just had a quick chimney fire because, IMO, I kept the door cracked too long during warmup. Good thing I was there watching my flue temperature suddenly start whipping up. I slammed everything shut which on the bk actually means just that little air hole in the intake flapper. The young fire snuffed and the probe meter only climbed to about 1100 before stopping.

Whoa!

I pulled the probe meter out and the probe is shiney copper. No roaring or rumbling but crackling in the pipe.

Everything is normal now.

Seriously.

 

[tarzan]

More alltogether

Man, that doesn’t sound right. You’ve even added insulation to your home since last season IIRC. BK’s really shine in shoulder season so if your going through more wood now, winter should be interesting!

 

[tarzan]

The probe meter swung from about 300 really fast past 900 as I shut things down.

I cleaned the chimney before the burn season started in September. I’m burning western red cedar on a cat that’s only about one year old. Very active. When I cleaned the stack I removed the pipe and inspected, nice and clean.

Starting to wonder if western red cedar might be too oily. No visible smoke and a brown probe every time I check.

The door was loosely latched, so not cracked much and I actually flopped the bypass closed to get the pipe cooler. No sparks out of the cap.

I hope you didn’t have a chimney fire. It sure doesn’t seem like the conditions should have been right for it.

Any chance a strong draft was just pulling flames up through the open bypass?

 

[bholler]

Man, that doesn’t sound right. You’ve even added insulation to your home since last season IIRC. BK’s really shine in shoulder season so if your going through more wood now, winter should be interesting!

The house is a much more constant temp so far this year without question. But we were never uncomfortable before. There is just fire in the bk way more than there ever was in the regency. Yes the fires last much longer but i will burn it all day instead of a small fire in the evening.

 

[begreen]

It will be interesting to see what cycle burns the most wood for you, all day low heat or evening warm up fires. Come the dead of winter I expect this will become a moot point, but who knows? I'm glad you are getting a chance to compare.

 

[Tar12]

The house is a much more constant temp so far this year without question. But we were never uncomfortable before. There is just fire in the bk way more than there ever was in the regency. Yes the fires last much longer but i will burn it all day instead of a small fire in the evening.

Why cant you burn a small fire of a evening in the Bk? I do this a lot till its cold enough here to run 24/7...

 

[tarzan]

The house is a much more constant temp so far this year without question. But we were never uncomfortable before. There is just fire in the bk way more than there ever was in the regency. Yes the fires last much longer but i will burn it all day instead of a small fire in the evening.

I’ve never thought of it that way but my shoulder season burning habits changed in the same way going from a tube stove to cat.

I suppose you could still just do a small evening fire if you wanted vs all day on a low setting.

 

[chemie]

I just had a quick chimney fire because, IMO, I kept the door cracked too long during warmup. Good thing I was there watching my flue temperature suddenly start whipping up. I slammed everything shut which on the bk actually means just that little air hole in the intake flapper. The young fire snuffed and the probe meter only climbed to about 1100 before stopping.

Whoa!

I pulled the probe meter out and the probe is shiney copper. No roaring or rumbling but crackling in the pipe.

Everything is normal now.

Hearing this kinda scary for a newbie like me!

 

[bholler]

Why cant you burn a small fire of a evening in the Bk? I do this a lot till its cold enough here to run 24/7...

Because its a pita to start

 

[bholler]

It will be interesting to see what cycle burns the most wood for you, all day low heat or evening warm up fires. Come the dead of winter I expect this will become a moot point, but who knows? I'm glad you are getting a chance to compare.

I can tell you at this point all day low fires burns more. But it may very well change. Time will tell.

 

[webby3650]

The probe meter swung from about 300 really fast past 900 as I shut things down.

I cleaned the chimney before the burn season started in September. I’m burning western red cedar on a cat that’s only about one year old. Very active. When I cleaned the stack I removed the pipe and inspected, nice and clean.

Starting to wonder if western red cedar might be too oily. No visible smoke and a brown probe every time I check.

The door was loosely latched, so not cracked much and I actually flopped the bypass closed to get the pipe cooler. No sparks out of the cap.

I really don’t think it was a flue fire. I’ve had this happen with a few different stoves with a bypass. Flames are able to cruise up the stove pipe and light off any small amount of build up there is, hot and fast. It doesn’t mean there was excessive build up, just a little that was able to flash. No biggie, good to catch it though.

 

[lsucet]

Hearing this kinda scary for a newbie like me!

Things happens, the good thing is you close the bypass and shut the air. The time I got something similar as @Highbeam was under control right away. Just don't panic and stay calm. The worse thing can happen is burn the house down. Just kidding.

 

[webby3650]

More alltogether

That makes no sense. Maybe you aren’t turning it down enough when the demand is low during the day?

 

[bholler]

I really don’t think it was a flue fire. I’ve had this happen with a few different stoves with a bypass. Flames are able to cruise up the stove pipe and light off any small amount of build up there is, hot and fast. It doesn’t mean there was excessive build up, just a little that was able to flash. No biggie, good to catch it though.

What you just described is a flue fire. Not a bad one but still a fire which one small fire like that is very unlikely to cause any damage. But many of them could

 

[webby3650]

What you just described is a flue fire. Not a bad one but still a fire which one small fire like that is very unlikely to cause any damage. But many of them could

I was not describing flue fires in general or what starts them.. I was referring to the event highbeam experienced.

 

[bholler]

That makes no sense. Maybe you aren’t turning it down enough when the demand is low during the day?

I turn it down as low as i can without stalling it. I have gone too low a few times and come home to a cold stove full of charred wood.

 

[webby3650]

I turn it down as low as i can without stalling it. I have gone to low a few times and come home to a cold stove full of charred wood.

Sounds like under seasoned wood. Or poor draft.

 

[bholler]

I was not describing flue fires in general or what starts them.. I was referring to the event highbeam experienced.

I understand that. But you said you didnt think it was a flue fire then went on to say that it lit off the buildup that was in there.