2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 2 (Everything BK)

[kennyp2339]

By the way, yes, I have 2 year seasoned wood, tight door gasket, and know and use the bypass protocol from the

your running your stove to hot, that cat got baked... take a pic of the underside of that cat please.

 

[Diabel]

your running your stove to hot, that cat got baked... take a pic of the underside of that cat please.

I am a bit confused.....

How can you run this stove too hot?

 

[kennyp2339]

I am a bit confused.....

How can you run this stove too hot?

If you have excessive draft the flow out through the Combustor will make it hot (to much fuel and air mixture) and the Combustor overheats

 

[kennyp2339]

I’ll take pics of a over heated Combustor.

 

[Richard Pryor]

This is probably a stupid question but, if i remove the catalytic from a BK, will it burn like a Regency type stove? Probably not eh?

 

[lsucet]

No it will burn like an smoke dragon.

 

[Diabel]

If you have excessive draft the flow out through the Combustor will make it hot (to much fuel and air mixture) and the Combustor overheats

I see.
How does one determine if they have excessive draft?

 

[BlazeKingSaddles]

Anyone ever get a shower of paper-thin black creosote out of the top of their stack fly all over the yard?

Fired my Ashford 30 back up this morning after 3 weeks of inactivity due to a repair that needed to be done (stack connection needed tightening) After starting the fire, I went outside to observe the smoke coming out of the chimney and the flakes were a flyin’.

Have had my chimney professionally swept twice in the past 4 months since I burn a lot. I typically burn hot. Flakes were definitely hot, as they melted down into the snow.

Any advice or words of caution or concern much appreciated.

 

[Highbeam]

I am a bit confused.....

How can you run this stove too hot?

You can't if your install is to spec, and your gaskets are good.

 

[kennyp2339]

You can't if your install is to spec, and your gaskets are good.

I beg to differ

 

[Highbeam]

I beg to differ

I beg you to elaborate. Max draft spec is in the manual.

 

[Richard Pryor]

No it will burn like an smoke dragon.

What does that mean? Can I get the stove to burn pretty like a regency or will it look like it’s not on most of the time? There will be times (very few, during parties etc) where I want the stove to look like it’s on. Can I open flue there and feed it small pieces of wood to keep it burning and look like it’s actually burning?

 

[kennyp2339]

I beg you to elaborate. Max draft spec is in the manual.

Standby... im cooking dinner when I get done I’ll argue with you.. but you might have me by a technicality

 

[Highbeam]

Standby... im cooking dinner when I get done I’ll argue with you.. but you might have me by a technicality

While you get ready, a major benefit of the bk thermostat system is that it closes before anything gets too hot. There is an assumption of course that you install and operate according to the manual and no gaskets have failed.

Overfire is not equal to clogging a cat which of course would make things cold.

I’ve never seen anybody overfire a properly installed bk. Have you?

 

[Ashful]

What does that mean? Can I get the stove to burn pretty like a regency or will it look like it’s not on most of the time? There will be times (very few, during parties etc) where I want the stove to look like it’s on. Can I open flue there and feed it small pieces of wood to keep it burning and look like it’s actually burning?

These stoves should only “look like it’s not on” when you turn it way down low, trying to minimize heat output and maximize burn time. Under normal “medium burn” or higher conditions, it should have nice flame show.

What’s confusing to a lot of people, and I think BK could do a better job here, is that that low “black box” setting is right in the middle of the “Normal” range labeled on our dials, for most people. My dial spins thru 11 hours of the clock, but the useable range is only 3 hours. If I lower it any more than 2 hours from max position, I have a dark black box. This is normal, but I think it confuses new users.

Leave that cat in there, and if your install meet’s spec, feel free to run that thing on maximum setting all day long. You should have a nice roaring fire. And when you’re tired of the heat and fire, turn it down a bit for some long burn times.

 

[Ashful]

Standby... im cooking dinner when I get done I’ll argue with you.. but you might have me by a technicality

Best laugh I’ve had this week. You do realize who you’re arguing with, right?

 

[jetsam]

I missed him in the last "wood stove in the garage" thread. Bholler was there and Highbeam wasn't. I read all the way down to the end and felt lost...

 

[bholler]

Best laugh I’ve had this week. You do realize who you’re arguing with, right?

Yes arguing with him is rather pointless. Even if you offer substantiating documentation it is ignored.

 

[jetsam]

What’s confusing to a lot of people, and I think BK could do a better job here, is that that low “black box” setting is right in the middle of the “Normal” range labeled on our dials, for most people. My dial spins thru 11 hours of the clock, but the useable range is only 3 hours. If I lower it any more than 2 hours from max position, I have a dark black box. This is normal, but I think it confuses new users.

If you start another debate about dial stickers, I am disowning you.

 

[bholler]

If you start another debate about dial stickers, I am disowning you.

One thing I don't get is how does bk get away with making a stove that when installed normally you can easily turndown to a point the clean burn system stops working while noncats are not allowed to do that?

Not trying to start a fight I just wish all stoves we're allowed to be set up like that so they could easily deal with a wider range of draft

 

[kennyp2339]

I see.
How does one determine if they have excessive draft?

You can't if your install is to spec, and your gaskets are good.

Ok, so HB is 100% correct with this statement; but many and I mean many people don't have draft within spec of what BK calls for (.05" while running at max setting, cat engaged) I myself never really gave 2 cents of my time to draft until this season when I went through my second cat on the stove (within 5 years) Having a higher draft than what is called for by spec allows more air to travel though the system, yes the t-stat can reduce flow but sometimes finding that sweet spot is nearly impossible, it will click over then the flames die out and loss of heat occurs during colder times when higher stove top temps are needed, or the draft is strong enough (my case) that the t-stat wont kick over unless ran extremely low (stall area) or the heat gets sucked out faster and up the flue creating less transfer for stove top temps to rise, allowing more air and fuel to hit the cat and make it self destruct with heating temps over 1500 deg f.
In an earlier post I asked a member to post pics of there underside of the cat - case, this metal will turn brown / red when overheated, just like steel in after a building fire.
Use this poor analogy - a 1" hose being used as a syphon, the tip of the hose has a predetermined size to let a certain volume of water in it (that the t-stat) the end of the hose is the chimney, under normal gravity syphon the hose at max can empty 50 gallons of liquid in an hour, put a pump on the end of the hose (chimney with higher draft) and turn it on, that same hose now can flow 150 galloons of water an hour.
So again HB is correct in his statement of within spec, but many don't even know what the spec is, what normal is as a baseline, and what there chimney draft is in normal operations, I had to fall on my face a couple times to wake up and check with a manometer.

Best laugh I’ve had this week. You do realize who you’re arguing with, right?

Yes, I do know, the west coast hungry version of me.

 

[Diabel]

Ok, so HB is 100% correct with this statement; but many and I mean many people don't have draft within spec of what BK calls for (.05" while running at max setting, cat engaged) I myself never really gave 2 cents of my time to draft until this season when I went through my second cat on the stove (within 5 years) Having a higher draft than what is called for by spec allows more air to travel though the system, yes the t-stat can reduce flow but sometimes finding that sweet spot is nearly impossible, it will click over then the flames die out and loss of heat occurs during colder times when higher stove top temps are needed, or the draft is strong enough (my case) that the t-stat wont kick over unless ran extremely low (stall area) or the heat gets sucked out faster and up the flue creating less transfer for stove top temps to rise, allowing more air and fuel to hit the cat and make it self destruct with heating temps over 1500 deg f.
In an earlier post I asked a member to post pics of there underside of the cat - case, this metal will turn brown / red when overheated, just like steel in after a building fire.
Use this poor analogy - a 1" hose being used as a syphon, the tip of the hose has a predetermined size to let a certain volume of water in it (that the t-stat) the end of the hose is the chimney, under normal gravity syphon the hose at max can empty 50 gallons of liquid in an hour, put a pump on the end of the hose (chimney with higher draft) and turn it on, that same hose now can flow 150 galloons of water an hour.
So again HB is correct in his statement of within spec, but many don't even know what the spec is, what normal is as a baseline, and what there chimney draft is in normal operations, I had to fall on my face a couple times to wake up and check with a manometer.

Yes, I do know, the west coast hungry version of me.

Very good post. I have no idea what my draft is. As I am positive 95% of all wood stove (including BK) are in the same boat.

 

[Highbeam]

Yes arguing with him is rather pointless. Even if you offer substantiating documentation it is ignored.

Only pointless when you’re wrong! I’m an engineer, I write code, I can smell a poorly written code but in this case I think that section of code was purposely written vaguely so that nobody is right or everybody is wrong.

 

[bholler]

Only pointless when you’re wrong! I’m an engineer, I write code, I can smell a poorly written code but in this case I think that section of code was purposely written vaguely so that nobody is right or everybody is wrong.

I dont beleive for a second you write code sorry. But if i am wrong and you do it is really scary.

 

[Highbeam]

I dont beleive for a second you write code sorry. But if i am wrong and you do it is really scary.

Really I do and words are chosen carefully for reasons that you may never understand.

Regardless of what you think there has never been anything presented that would make that particular code section anything less than ambiguous.

You’re the iron fisted mod though and as you’ve shown, you’re not afraid to say “because I said so” which is going to have to be okay here. Fine.