2019-20 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 1 (Everything BK)

[begreen]

So it's been 28 days since I swept the pipes and this is what they looked like this afternoon when I took them apart. And bear in mind we had about a week or so of "cold" weather where we burned a lot hotter than we usually do. No, I'm not burning Bridgestone's in my stove!
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The cap looked like something from a science fiction movie...
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...another half gallon of flake. This didn't include the 4-5 cups that got brushed into the stove.
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The good news is this bad boy got delivered to my dealer yesterday and was installed after the cleanout.
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The early results are outstanding. Cat probe was at 2 o'clock within the hour and just a wisp of steam at the top of the pipe.
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Along with the creosote build up I've been experiencing, I was also waking up after a 10-12 hour burn and seeing great plumes of smoke drifting across the yard.
The plan is to sweep in 28 days and compare the creosote build up to the last few sweeps.

That's a big improvement. Hope you see a corresponding change in the flue. How old was the previous cat?

 

[Woody Stover]

How old was the previous cat?

Two years, about 7k hours. But it wasn't working right at the end of last season either.

 

[Gooseduck]

No flames in a blaze king.

 

[Gooseduck]

No flames in a blaze king.

 

[AlbergSteve]

That's a big improvement. Hope you see a corresponding change in the flue. How old was the previous cat?

Yeah, me too. About 7k hours on the original cat.

 

[Ashful]

No flames in a blaze king.

I assume you’re speaking in jest. IIRC, the photo below was taken nearly 24 hours into a burn, when I arrived home from work and turned the thermostat back up from the low-burn position I had set it to the night before:



My BK’s have great flame show, on any setting corresponding to a burn time of 8 hours or less. When I turn down for 12 hours the flame show is more intermittent, and lazy when it’s there. When I turn down for a 24 hour burn, it’s just a faint glow, almost a black box. The beauty is having all these options at the twist of a knob.

 

[Gooseduck]

I assume you’re speaking in jest. IIRC, the photo below was taken nearly 24 hours into a burn, when I arrived home from work and turned the thermostat back up from the low-burn position I had set it to the night before:

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My BK’s have great flame show, on any setting corresponding to a burn time of 8 hours or less. When I turn down for 12 hours the flame show is more intermittent, and lazy when it’s there. When I turn down for a 24 hour burn, it’s just a faint glow, almost a black box. The beauty is having all these options at the twist of a knob.

Yes. Only one month in to using this stove and must say im impressed. I used an old local made stove at last house. Worked good but took armloads of wood at a time and no where near as efficient as this stove.

 

[GinaC]

Hello all, I've been lurking for a few years as I researched buying an old house or building a new log cabin and what I was going to put in it. I decided on a 1939 house that I am in the process of "restorovating" while I live in it, and I got the BK Sirocco put in a few months ago in what was a Heatilator fireplace. The thick interior steel had to be cut away, and apparently I was lucky to find someone who would take on that job as it was a horrendous one.

I've never had a fireplace or stove before, and I am very much loving being able to supplement my hot air heating with the wood stove. I had it installed by a CSIA certified chimney sweep who also rebuilt the exterior part of my chimney and installed steel liners in both flues. I've read all the instructions, but I'd just like to hear from other BK owners. I think my record burn time was 10 hours, but this is not consistent, but my wood isn't cut exactly right and sometimes I have to load east-west, and that sucks. Anyway, here are my questions:

1) How do I avoid shocking the CAT when reloading? Right now I just wait until it's not in the red anymore, disengage the CAT, turn the temperature gauge all the way up, turn the blower fan off, and then open the door to add more wood onto the embers. It still makes pinging sounds, though, and I'm worried because of that.

2) Right after my sweep installed the insert, we found that the finish on the bottom piece of the shroud had been rubbed off. Because of this, the sweep did not screw the shroud down. The dealer that I bought the stove from contacted BK, and they sent another piece to him. A few months later, the dealer's guys were able to travel to me to switch out the bottom shroud piece. The tried to scoot the insert over to better center it on the outside brick trim, but were unable to really get it right because I guess the hearth doesn't line up with the outside trim. Now the fire seems to flame longer than it did, and stay hotter than it did before the shroud was screwed down. Should I be worried about this?

3) (see attached photo) When I ordered my insert, I had a choice of a small shroud, which I ordered, or a humungous one. Now I find that it can't be centered in the brick trim, and I'd like to try to make the crookedness less noticeable. Others have suggested to me that I go to a metal shop and have another thin decorative frame of metal made and painted in the flat black fireproof paint, and just stick it between the shroud and the brick to cover the brick. Do any of you have a better solution?

I know that this is a huge first post, and I thank you all for your consideration!

 

[begreen]

You're doing fine. A little metal sound as parts cool down is not unusual. Avoid throwing an icy split in on hot coals then immediately closing the bypass.

Why can't the insert be scooted over 1/2"? Is the insert body actually touching the fireplace wall on the left side?

 

[Ashful]

I got the BK Sirocco put in a few months ago in what was a Heatilator fireplace... I've never had a fireplace or stove before, and I am very much loving being able to supplement my hot air heating with the wood stove.

Welcome to the club! Sounds like you did good with the certified installation. You’re going to love what these stoves can do.

1) How do I avoid shocking the CAT when reloading? Right now I just wait until it's not in the red anymore, disengage the CAT, turn the temperature gauge all the way up, turn the blower fan off, and then open the door to add more wood onto the embers. It still makes pinging sounds, though, and I'm worried because of that.

Shock isn’t a huge concern with the SteelCat that’s in your Scirocco, it’s more of a concern with the traditional ceramic cats used in some other models. But either way, these are good practices:

1. Try to time your loads so that you’re not having to open the stove mid-cycle. For example, if I’m loading later than normal in the evening, and I know I’m going to want to reload early morning before work, I’ll either scale back how much I load that evening or set the burn rate a little higher to be sure it’s down to coals by morning.

2. If cat is active, go to bypass about five minutes before opening the stove. I do this by throwing the lever to bypass when grabbing my satchels, before heading out to grab fresh wood. By the time I get back in with the wood, it’s been 3 - 5 minutes.

3. Try to avoid loading very wet wood on a hot cat. If you’re loading on a hot cat, try to choose your primo dry stuff, or at least don’t grab anything sitting in the rain.

4. When loading on a hot cat, run the stove in bypass 5 minutes to let the new load catch well, before closing the damper and putting that exhaust thru the hot cat.

I’ll leave your questions 2 and 3 for BKVP and the other pro’s in the room.

 

[Woody Stover]

My BK’s have great flame show, on any setting corresponding to a burn time of 8 hours or less. When I turn down for 12 hours the flame show is more intermittent, and lazy when it’s there. When I turn down for a 24 hour burn, it’s just a faint glow, almost a black box. The beauty is having all these options at the twist of a knob.

I'm not sure where you have to be in your thermo range to get any flame? I can be at 1/4 or below air, so it's toward the low end of my burn range but I'll still have a variety of cool, lazy flames. If I stir the ash through the grate and feed air from below, to the back center of the load, I can get a single tall, thin flame that reaches to the intake screen in front of the cat. The variety of burn visuals available with the little Ks is amazing. I have the beauty of all these options, but it is at the push of a lever instead of the twist of a knob...a meaty, cast-iron lever which slides a beefy, cast-iron slider plate.

 

[vwmike]

Quick question. I’ve been burning my new used princess that I’ve completely gone thru but have been struggling with burn times. I just noticed this in the pic below, the ash plug is clearly leaking. Is there supposed to be any sort of gasket on it?

 

[Woody Stover]

Quick question. I’ve been burning my new used princess that I’ve completely gone thru but have been struggling with burn times. I just noticed this in the pic below, the ash plug is clearly leaking. Is there supposed to be any sort of gasket on it?

Yeah, you don't want that. It would certainly cut your burn times. Were the coals glowing above the ash dump, or how did you deduce the air leak there? Just pull the plug and make sure there's not a piece of charcoal or something holding it open.

 

[Highbeam]

Quick question. I’ve been burning my new used princess that I’ve completely gone thru but have been struggling with burn times. I just noticed this in the pic below, the ash plug is clearly leaking. Is there supposed to be any sort of gasket on it?

no gasket on my princess ash plug.

 

[Diabel]

I sometimes wonder about the ash plug and how it just sits there. There is definitely some air infiltration happening there. Not enough to be concerned however. Me thinks

 

[jetsam]

Quick question. I’ve been burning my new used princess that I’ve completely gone thru but have been struggling with burn times. I just noticed this in the pic below, the ash plug is clearly leaking. Is there supposed to be any sort of gasket on it?

A furnace cement gasket will last for a while, long enough for you to see if it helps or not certainly.

That does look like air is moving through there.

 

[Highbeam]

A bed of ash should mostly seal up any small leakage. I’ve never noticed any leaks.

 

[Diabel]

Surly, BK would have address this if it was an issue.

 

[jetsam]

Maybe his plug is bent or something.

 

[vwmike]

Maybe his plug is bent or something.

This is an older stover so it’s certainly possible. I cleaned both the stove side and plug up and did put some cement on it just to make sure it’s sealed. Still chasing some issues as I’m only getting 8-10hrs out of the stove on low.

 

[Highbeam]

This is an older stover so it’s certainly possible. I cleaned both the stove side and plug up and did put some cement on it just to make sure it’s sealed. Still chasing some issues as I’m only getting 8-10hrs out of the stove on low.

4.5 splits of Doug fir, cold stove started 14 hours ago at 9 pm. Looks boring and dark but it’s 75 inside and was in the 20s overnight.

8-10 hours is too fast!

 

[Diabel]

@Highbeam , interesting.....from your pic the flue temp is at 400 yet your cat is near 500
Is this at the beginning of the burn (that would make sense) or at the end (would not make sense)?

 

[Highbeam]

@Highbeam , interesting.....from your pic the flue temp is at 400 yet your cat is near 500
Is this at the beginning of the burn (that would make sense) or at the end (would not make sense)?

actually, the needle pointing at 700, flue at 400.

It was near the end, it was just a few splits yesterday meant to cool off before toddlers come over for the football game. Makes sense to me that the flue temp matches the cat exhaust temp when there is very little smoke to combust. During the burn when cat is 1500, the flue is also at 400-500.

 

[vwmike]

near the end, it was just a few splits yesterday meant to cool off before toddlers come over for the football game. Makes sense to me that the flue temp matches the cat exhaust temp when there is very little smoke to combust. During the burn when cat is 1500, the flue is also at 400-500.

That’s interesting my new ceramic cat isn’t getting near that hot! Only seems to get to a 1000 after running wide open bypass closed.

 

[Diabel]

That’s interesting my new ceramic cat isn’t getting near that hot! Only seems to get to a 1000 after running wide open bypass closed.

Don’t forget his cat meter is turned 180*