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

[begreen]

Well bholler ??
I told you you'd see a difference did'nt I ??
I'm 100% sure your house was easier to heat today than it was before you hooked up the OAK...
,

If...
I will report if it makes much difference

 

[bholler]

Well bholler ??
I told you you'd see a difference did'nt I ??
I'm 100% sure your house was easier to heat today than it was before you hooked up the OAK...
,

Yes it was but it is also 60 degrees outside lol. Not a good day to find out if it is doing anything.

 

[Ashful]

Yes it was but it is also 60 degrees outside lol. Not a good day to find out if it is doing anything.

Another freakishly warm spell before Christmas. I remember being outside fixing Christmas lights in a tee shirt on Dec. 24, 2015, and thinking how bizarre it was. Then we outdid that in 2016, with an even longer warm spell. Last year, we had a proper cold Christmas, actually quite a bit below normal, and I figured all was back as it should be.

Now, this...



At least we have six days with no rain coming up. That may be only the second time since 2017 that we’ve gone this long without it, if it holds out.

 

[begreen]

Warm here too. Our daffodils are now 4" tall. Geraniums on the patio still have green leaves. We broke a record warm yesterday. 60F at the airport. Temp yesterday dropped 16º in about 10 hr and it was 37º this morning.

 

[Diabel]

Well bholler ??
I told you you'd see a difference did'nt I ??
I'm 100% sure your house was easier to heat today than it was before you hooked up the OAK...
,

Yes Bholler please report. I will be hooking one up to the Princess as well in Jan. Local dealer quoted me 160 cad for the kit. It seems a bit much.....

 

[jatoxico]

Yes it was but it is also 60 degrees outside lol. Not a good day to find out if it is doing anything.

Isn't this prime BK weather? Shoulder season at XMas!

 

[bholler]

Isn't this prime BK weather? Shoulder season at XMas!

No at 60 i need no heat.

 

[kf6hap]

I don't mind this global warming stuff. Load the stove once a day at 5:00 PM. 9:00AM the next day run the heat pump until 4:00PM then restart the Ashford at 5:00 again. Got to burn up all those stored solar electrons before they take them back at "true-up" in may.

 

[darktower007]

Fanboys haters and trolls are literally on every forum. I hunt deer and relics.. you should read the all CAPS shouting and trolling matches bout Minelab vs Deus or Winchester vs Remington.

This forum is much more mature than some I visit., and very helpful!



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[drhiii]

Folks, was encouraged to come at it again, to try and solve the smoke smell that emits from the stove… by my missus. She loves the look and form factor of the stove, a BK Princess., and she also does not want to experience defeat. Neither do I. So I put the stove back into place. And continue to try and solve the problem. As an fyi, the smoke smell is being emitted from the upper left quadrant of the door, where the hinge is located. Have no question isolated it to that specific location. I have been given some tests to perform by BK which I have performed and sent back the results. As it is Xmas and the New Years and things slow down, I felt why not come back to the forum while am awaiting BK response and… well… can’t sit idle.

To update, the smoke smell began day one of the install. The 26-27' flue had just been swept. Pristine. The stove is a demo stove. Was told it had two burns in it. I learned it was manufactured in Feb, 2018. On the original door, I replaced the gasket, and then ended up replacing the glass and then the main gasket (again). This did not resolve the smoke smell. The replacement door arrived 4 days ago and it did not resolve the smoke smell either. Same. Total of 4 gaskets have been run on the BKP. None have resolved the smoke smell. Incl a replacement door.

Couple of questions. On the replacement door from Blaze King. My two questions are… is a latch replacement from Hechlers the correct place to order a replacement latch? I know it is, but am asking because I had an odd comment about another BK replacement part from Hechlers that did not instill confidence in Hechlers. Anyway, the latch on the replacement door is loose, by a wide margin. Defective. So it no question needs replacing. And yes, in spite of the loose latch.. I have manually placed ample pressure on the replacement door to see if that would create a successful seal and stop the smoke smell. It did not. So am not confident a replacement latch will solve this still. Regardless, it needs to be replaced.

Second, am awaiting communication from BK on what next but thought to ask… anyone know of a way to create a tighter seal, as in move the door closer to the stove opening? I.E. adjusting the door closer to the stove? Will of course follow what BK advises, but thought why not ask here for opinion while I await the next communication with BK. Wondering if the door is seating too far away from the stove opening. Misaligned?? tx

 

[lsucet]

Folks, was encouraged to come at it again, to try and solve the smoke smell that emits from the stove… by my missus. She loves the look and form factor of the stove, a BK Princess., and she also does not want to experience defeat. Neither do I. So I put the stove back into place. And continue to try and solve the problem. As an fyi, the smoke smell is being emitted from the upper left quadrant of the door, where the hinge is located. Have no question isolated it to that specific location. I have been given some tests to perform by BK which I have performed and sent back the results. As it is Xmas and the New Years and things slow down, I felt why not come back to the forum while am awaiting BK response and… well… can’t sit idle.

To update, the smoke smell began day one of the install. The 26-27' flue had just been swept. Pristine. The stove is a demo stove. Was told it had two burns in it. I learned it was manufactured in Feb, 2018. On the original door, I replaced the gasket, and then ended up replacing the glass and then the main gasket (again). This did not resolve the smoke smell. The replacement door arrived 4 days ago and it did not resolve the smoke smell either. Same. Total of 4 gaskets have been run on the BKP. None have resolved the smoke smell. Incl a replacement door.

Couple of questions. On the replacement door from Blaze King. My two questions are… is a latch replacement from Hechlers the correct place to order a replacement latch? I know it is, but am asking because I had an odd comment about another BK replacement part from Hechlers that did not instill confidence in Hechlers. Anyway, the latch on the replacement door is loose, by a wide margin. Defective. So it no question needs replacing. And yes, in spite of the loose latch.. I have manually placed ample pressure on the replacement door to see if that would create a successful seal and stop the smoke smell. It did not. So am not confident a replacement latch will solve this still. Regardless, it needs to be replaced.

Second, am awaiting communication from BK on what next but thought to ask… anyone know of a way to create a tighter seal, as in move the door closer to the stove opening? I.E. adjusting the door closer to the stove? Will of course follow what BK advises, but thought why not ask here for opinion while I await the next communication with BK. Wondering if the door is seating too far away from the stove opening. Misaligned?? tx

Can you provide a little more information again about your setup? Any 90s, 45s etc?

 

[lsucet]

I don't think they have basements in NM, do they? Why so many stoves, are they huge houses, not very tight, or what?

Just one has a little basement but not like living space, just storage. No it is not common here to see houses with basements. They are not very tight except additions over the years. Some, a good part of the houses are Adobe.
Mine like an example, around half of the house is old old old. The additions over the years were on the south and west sides of the house. There is an outside wall through the center of the house. It is hard to send heat to that area from the old part of the house. It is better another stove than be messing with the framing of the old part. Is not worth it to me.. similar situation is easy to find around here. Sometimes is better just supply its own heat to those areas.

 

[darktower007]

Folks, was encouraged to come at it again, to try and solve the smoke smell that emits from the stove… by my missus. She loves the look and form factor of the stove, a BK Princess., and she also does not want to experience defeat. Neither do I. So I put the stove back into place. And continue to try and solve the problem. As an fyi, the smoke smell is being emitted from the upper left quadrant of the door, where the hinge is located. Have no question isolated it to that specific location. I have been given some tests to perform by BK which I have performed and sent back the results. As it is Xmas and the New Years and things slow down, I felt why not come back to the forum while am awaiting BK response and… well… can’t sit idle.

To update, the smoke smell began day one of the install. The 26-27' flue had just been swept. Pristine. The stove is a demo stove. Was told it had two burns in it. I learned it was manufactured in Feb, 2018. On the original door, I replaced the gasket, and then ended up replacing the glass and then the main gasket (again). This did not resolve the smoke smell. The replacement door arrived 4 days ago and it did not resolve the smoke smell either. Same. Total of 4 gaskets have been run on the BKP. None have resolved the smoke smell. Incl a replacement door.

Couple of questions. On the replacement door from Blaze King. My two questions are… is a latch replacement from Hechlers the correct place to order a replacement latch? I know it is, but am asking because I had an odd comment about another BK replacement part from Hechlers that did not instill confidence in Hechlers. Anyway, the latch on the replacement door is loose, by a wide margin. Defective. So it no question needs replacing. And yes, in spite of the loose latch.. I have manually placed ample pressure on the replacement door to see if that would create a successful seal and stop the smoke smell. It did not. So am not confident a replacement latch will solve this still. Regardless, it needs to be replaced.

Second, am awaiting communication from BK on what next but thought to ask… anyone know of a way to create a tighter seal, as in move the door closer to the stove opening? I.E. adjusting the door closer to the stove? Will of course follow what BK advises, but thought why not ask here for opinion while I await the next communication with BK. Wondering if the door is seating too far away from the stove opening. Misaligned?? tx

Did you do a dollar bill test?


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[Dieselhead]

Did you do a dollar bill test?


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also is the knife edge on the stove centering on the door gasket material?

 

[drhiii]

Can you provide a little more information again about your setup? Any 90s, 45s etc?

Sure, and tx for the response.

Just today swept the flue (3rd time since Oct). I mention this because since the beginning of the season and new BKP stove install, ran 5’ single wall straight to the ceiling, then double wall up two stories and out above the roof. Straight shot end to end. Estimate is 26’ to 27’ from stove to cap. OAK feeding the stove. Draft, air flow, all working quite well. No deficiency on any of this.

Writing the above as this is how I ran from first of Oct to today, Dec 21. When I was replacing pipe today, I introduced a 30 degree angle because I did not want to reuse a short section of pipe, so used what was avail until I return to a straight shot again, which added 1 about a 30 angle 4’ up from the stove. Barely a 2” offset, started this eve. Otherwise a straight shot from Oct to today.

I burn primarily pinon pine. 5-11% measured moisture. Rated at upper BTUs and has always been supreme wood for heat, very low ash, etc. And then a combo of lodgepole, ponderosa, some cedar and oak, and generic pine. All well seasoned. Well seasoned. Seasoned wood is not a problem here. I do not burn green or junk wood. Never.

That has been the general set up.

On sweeping the flue: which I had done at the beginning of the season (first of Oct) and then 10 days later due to what I found was significant creosote buildup after running silver maple early on.. which has always been a-ok in non-cat. But in the BKP, it jammed up the flue using silver maple so badly to where I was really unnerved by the buildup. So swept it after 10 days. It was substantial. No more silver maple (which had been seasoned for 2 ½ years, 7% moisture). And then swept it again today, several weeks later. There was less buildup than I had anticipated, but more than I was comfy with. A characteristic of cat stoves of course.

The cat itself is pristine. When attempting to bring up the stove from a cold start, it takes minutes to come up to temp, then engage the cat, and it glows brightly. There is not a thing wrong with the cat.

There is more backstory, but answering the set up question.

One additional note. A few weeks into my posting my problem of the smoke smell, a few weeks ago, there was a brief post that stipulated that this “problem” was resolved last year by changing out the main gasket. Very short of it is, have had the original gasket from the new stove (learned the stove was manufactured in Feb, 2018, this year), then replaced the main gasket and that failed to stop the smoke smell, so replaced the glass gasket and main gasket again, did not work. Then just received a new door from BK 4 days ago. Did not solve the smoke smell. So 4 gaskets later in answer to the post that changing the gasket was resolving the smoke smell problem...… no joy.

Note that I am communicating with BK. So far no solutions. The most recent being a replacement door which did not resolve the smoke smell into the space.

Tx for your reply.

 

[drhiii]

Did you do a dollar bill test?


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Yessir... dollar bill test from the first day of the install. And several times since.

 

[Woody Stover]

was encouraged to come at it again, to try and solve the smoke smell that emits from the stove

@aaronk25 came up with a theory that with a tall chimney and high draft, air flow from the air wash may be altered causing smoke to be pushed against the upper area of the door and smoke could escape there.
I think it was touched upon at one point, but I don't quite understand how this can happen even at low draft settings, which apparently it does. It seems to me that while there may be potential high vacuum at the flue exit, a low draft setting would only allow air to come in the air wash at low speed, and it would move down the glass in the same manner as it would with the draft more open on a shorter chimney with the correct draft.
At any rate, you can either get a manometer to check your draft and make sure it is within spec, or just go ahead and install a key damper into the connector pipe above the flue exit and see if that helps.

 

[jetsam]

Folks, was encouraged to come at it again, to try and solve the smoke smell that emits from the stove… by my missus. She loves the look and form factor of the stove, a BK Princess., and she also does not want to experience defeat. Neither do I. So I put the stove back into place. And continue to try and solve the problem. As an fyi, the smoke smell is being emitted from the upper left quadrant of the door, where the hinge is located. Have no question isolated it to that specific location. I have been given some tests to perform by BK which I have performed and sent back the results. As it is Xmas and the New Years and things slow down, I felt why not come back to the forum while am awaiting BK response and… well… can’t sit idle.

To update, the smoke smell began day one of the install. The 26-27' flue had just been swept. Pristine. The stove is a demo stove. Was told it had two burns in it. I learned it was manufactured in Feb, 2018. On the original door, I replaced the gasket, and then ended up replacing the glass and then the main gasket (again). This did not resolve the smoke smell. The replacement door arrived 4 days ago and it did not resolve the smoke smell either. Same. Total of 4 gaskets have been run on the BKP. None have resolved the smoke smell. Incl a replacement door.

Couple of questions. On the replacement door from Blaze King. My two questions are… is a latch replacement from Hechlers the correct place to order a replacement latch? I know it is, but am asking because I had an odd comment about another BK replacement part from Hechlers that did not instill confidence in Hechlers. Anyway, the latch on the replacement door is loose, by a wide margin. Defective. So it no question needs replacing. And yes, in spite of the loose latch.. I have manually placed ample pressure on the replacement door to see if that would create a successful seal and stop the smoke smell. It did not. So am not confident a replacement latch will solve this still. Regardless, it needs to be replaced.

Second, am awaiting communication from BK on what next but thought to ask… anyone know of a way to create a tighter seal, as in move the door closer to the stove opening? I.E. adjusting the door closer to the stove? Will of course follow what BK advises, but thought why not ask here for opinion while I await the next communication with BK. Wondering if the door is seating too far away from the stove opening. Misaligned?? tx

I'd take the door off (it just lifts up) and lay a straightedge across the back of the door and the gasket knife on the stove at various points to see if they are both flat.

The adjustment for the door is in the latch, which is adjustable. Overtightening that could conceivably make a gap on the left side worse.

Are you sure the replacement latch is defective? It is meant to have a range of adjustment, so getting a new one that is loose sounds quite normal.

(Also, check the instructions for your moisture meter. The readings you are getting are very unlikely, but that is not relevant to the smoke smell.)

 

[kennyp2339]

@drhiii what about taking paper and taping it all around the door gasket and then taking a pencil and hitting the knife edge with the graphite and then closing the door to see where the weakness is, the heavy spots should leave a darker line on the paper.

 

[darktower007]

Yessir... dollar bill test from the first day of the install. And several times since.

What are the temps there?


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[ratsrepus]

I feel feel for you sir, I must be a frustrating experience and I hope you stay with it and get her going. Now did you check to see if your wife stuffed a rag in the chimney like the other fellow who was having issues?

 

[Woody Stover]

did you check to see if your wife stuffed a rag in the chimney like the other fellow who was having issues?

Hard to believe that wouldn't just burn up...if he was ever able to get a fire going, that is.

 

[ratsrepus]

Hard to believe that wouldn't just burn up...if he was ever able to get a fire going, that is.

that sure is a strange one isn't it?

 

[kennyp2339]

Stove has been cold since Thursday, time to run the brush down the chimney and relight her, Im gona clean the baffle good and brush off the cat a little.

 

[Woody Stover]

that sure is a strange one isn't it?

Rookie mistake, I guess. Rule #1: If the smoke isn't being pulled up the chimney, check the chimney.