2022-2023 BK everything thread

[Jedi]

It would not be normal on a freestander. The cat meter you are looking at is an on/off idiot light that is connected by wires. Hopefully those wires, or that system hasn't failed.

Just installed it today, so brand new. Maybe the cat meter isn't calibrated properly? I'll keep an eye on it for a few days

 

[Highbeam]

Just installed it today, so brand new. Maybe the cat meter isn't calibrated properly? I'll keep an eye on it for a few days

There is no calibration and day one is the most likely day for failure of any electrical device.

Shouldn’t be that hard to fly without a proper cat meter.

 

[Nealm66]

Weird

 

[Ashful]

If cat is glowing, you know it's over 1000F, and that indicator should show active for anything over 500F.

Obviously you'll want to get it fixed, but you can drive by the glowing cat until that gets resolved.

Note that the cat will only glow in the initial phase of the burn. After turn-down, temps will slowly drop off and cat will stop glowing, but remain in active region. That's when that gauge is useful, but you can just watch your chimney emissions for the interim.

 

[NHWS]

BK hearth pad question: The BK manuals show significantly different sizes for U.S. and Canadian hearth pads. Obviously the regulations are different, but why are they different? Are the Canadian regulators simply more conservative? Is one or the other basing their regs on outdated info? Are Canadian homes more flammable in general?

A larger pad is probably somewhat safer. Slightly safer, or much safer?

 

[Ashful]

BK hearth pad question: The BK manuals show significantly different sizes for U.S. and Canadian hearth pads. Obviously the regulations are different, but why are they different? Are the Canadian regulators simply more conservative? Is one or the other basing their regs on outdated info? Are Canadian homes more flammable in general?

A larger pad is probably somewhat safer. Slightly safer, or much safer?

It's our American Wild West mentality, we like to live dangerously. Put three Canadians and one American together at any 4-way stop intersection, and you'll quickly have your answer.

 

[Jedi]

If cat is glowing, you know it's over 1000F, and that indicator should show active for anything over 500F.

Obviously you'll want to get it fixed, but you can drive by the glowing cat until that gets resolved.

Note that the cat will only glow in the initial phase of the burn. After turn-down, temps will slowly drop off and cat will stop glowing, but remain in active region. That's when that gauge is useful, but you can just watch your chimney emissions for the interim.

I'll contact the dealer/installer to see about this. Thanks

 

[GrumpyDad]

It's our American Wild West mentality, we like to live dangerously. Put three Canadians and one American together at any 4-way stop intersection, and you'll quickly have your answer.

Put 4 American's through a round-a-bout. They will all yell "this is stupid...just put stops signs up"

 

[Highbeam]

It's our American Wild West mentality, we like to live dangerously. Put three Canadians and one American together at any 4-way stop intersection, and you'll quickly have your answer.

Yet, the canadian's are dangerous enough to allow woodstoves in garages. Stupid american code prohibits it.

 

[Ashful]

Put 4 American's through a round-a-bout. They will all yell "this is stupid...just put stops signs up"

I have a round-a-about just up the road from me, and use it daily. You can spot the out-of-towners real quick, as the locals are all used to it, by now.

 

[kennyp2339]

Yet, the canadian's are dangerous enough to allow woodstoves in garages. Stupid american code prohibits it.

That’s because we refined the no spill gas can that spills more liquid than it ever spilled before.

 

[trail guy Mike]

I seem have gotten into a seam of black walnut in my stacks. Funny how you don't even remember where this wood came from, by the time it's ready to use. I likely felled this tree five years ago, as it's been split and stacked for 4 years. I mark them with a tag when I split and stack them, but there's no record kept of when or where they were felled.

Now what has me laughing is that while I've grown to despise black walnut as a terrible low-BTU wood, it actually scores substantially higher than Nealm's beloved doug fir, on our venerable Sweep's Library. In fact, according to this list, the fractional gap between black walnut and red oak is smaller than the gap between doug fir and black walnut: https://hearth.com/articles/chimneysweep/howood.htm

I'll be honest, I think that list has walnut scored better than it really is. Having burned absolutely obscene amounts of red oak over the last ten years, with at least a dozen cords each of white oak and black walnut mixed in, I can say the net BTU gap between black walnut and ANY form of oak feels more like 30%, although that might be somewhat colored by my recent and sudden shift from white oak directly to black walnut.

What's this mean for Doug Fir? I don't know. I would like to understand the basis behind these BTU charts, and how much variability there can be within a species. I suspect any tree slowly growing in a dense forest will have much higher BTU value than the same volume of tree growing quickly in a sunny yard, maybe even roughly proportional to rings per inch count variation. Seeing how vast the data is in these charts, it's hard to believe they got a real wide sampling of each species tested, as the investment in testing would already be very substantial, having only one or a few samples per species.

A few years ago, we had a lot of black walnut, which I burned in a crummy Drolet stove with afterburners.
What bothered me was not the heat output but the massive amount of "clinkers" that built up. Crumbly coal-like remainders that would not burn and necessitated frequent cleanout.
It's possible the knotty parts of the walnut were not quite as well dried.

We now have a Princess insert, and I've only occasionally found walnut in our (delivered) wood; and I haven't seen a single clinker in almost 4 years.
Is this a 'wood thing' or a 'stove thing'?

 

[Ashful]

A few years ago, we had a lot of black walnut, which I burned in a crummy Drolet stove with afterburners.
What bothered me was not the heat output but the massive amount of "clinkers" that built up. Crumbly coal-like remainders that would not burn and necessitated frequent cleanout.
It's possible the knotty parts of the walnut were not quite as well dried.

We now have a Princess insert, and I've only occasionally found walnut in our (delivered) wood; and I haven't seen a single clinker in almost 4 years.
Is this a 'wood thing' or a 'stove thing'?

I think it's more a wood thing, although I'd have nothing to argue with if someone also said it was a stove thing. In my Ashfords, I used to get clinkers with white oak, before I started drying all of my wood in a shed. This year I'm burning mostly white oak that's been stacked under a roof for 4 summers, and I'm not getting many clinkers at all. When I do they seem to get consumed (or at least broken down) on the next load if I just rake them forward.

After 1/4 to 1/2 cord of walnut, I'm glad to say the wagon was filled with a fresh 1/2 cord of white oak on Wednesday night. Just in time for this little arctic blast. White oak is the toughest to dry, of all the woods I burn, but it has excellent output once it is finally dry.

 

[Poindexter]

BK hearth pad question: The BK manuals show significantly different sizes for U.S. and Canadian hearth pads. Obviously the regulations are different, but why are they different? Are the Canadian regulators simply more conservative? Is one or the other basing their regs on outdated info? Are Canadian homes more flammable in general?

A larger pad is probably somewhat safer. Slightly safer, or much safer?

I have a burn mark in my rug 24" from the lip of the loading door.

My next hearth will be large enough to comfortably accommodate the cushion from my wife's chaise lounge.

 

[NHWS]

I have a burn mark in my rug 24" from the lip of the loading door.

My next hearth will be large enough to comfortably accommodate the cushion from my wife's chaise lounge.

24 inches is more than I would have expected. I've been thinking of sacrificing room space to the more conservative Canadian size, or maybe using the smaller U.S. size side-to-side and the Canadian spec in front of the door. That still only calls for 18" in front of the stove opening.

Am I right in guessing that the burn mark was from a log rolling out during a hot reload? If so, perhaps adding some tile/stone on edge to the front of the pad to create a lip would help.

Thanks for the reply. Nobody else has yet provided any info (other than regarding U.S. v. Canadian traffic engineering, which is not quite what I was asking about). So far I'm mostly working without the benefit of other people's experience.

 

[NHWS]

(Off topic?)

It's our American Wild West mentality, we like to live dangerously. Put three Canadians and one American together at any 4-way stop intersection, and you'll quickly have your answer.

I once lived in a city on the far side of the county where square 4-way intersections with stop signs seemed like something out of a fantasy story. People believed that painted crosswalks were a foreign myth. A big paved area with paint or 3" tall dividers suggesting paths was considered a well-designed intersection, particularly if an odd number of streets came together there, and no pair was at right angles. One-way signs pointed both ways. Streets were proudly said to follow 17th century cow paths.

The Wild West is tame by comparison.

I like the Canadian approach to some things.

 

[Highbeam]

24 inches is more than I would have expected. I've been thinking of sacrificing room space to the more conservative Canadian size, or maybe using the smaller U.S. size side-to-side and the Canadian spec in front of the door. That still only calls for 18" in front of the stove opening.

Am I right in guessing that the burn mark was from a log rolling out during a hot reload? If so, perhaps adding some tile/stone on edge to the front of the pad to create a lip would help.

Thanks for the reply. Nobody else has yet provided any info (other than regarding U.S. v. Canadian traffic engineering, which is not quite what I was asking about). So far I'm mostly working without the benefit of other people's experience.

Don’t overreact, if the door is open and a nice ember pops in the fire it can shoot a little hot coal 8’ across the room and burn your rug. That doesn’t mean your hearth should be 8’ deep but that maybe you should close the door sooner.

 

[PropTwister]

Wuss!

You're right! Who needs a door. Couldn't wait any longer so I fashioned a screen out of 1/4" mesh. By-pass open and thermostat on high. The fire took off great and we're burning a couple sticks in the back. Not exactly how I'm planned on using the stove, but we have a fire!

 

[Poindexter]

@NHWS Popping ember at my place.

I dream of a relatively vast expanse of ceramic tile under and around the stove for my next hearth. A throw rug or two to be sure.

 

[Nealm66]

Some species of wood are worse than others for popping heated objects. If I’m reloading and it’s cedar, I’ll wait till the fires way down

 

[Nealm66]

A buddy of mine moved to Utah for a while and said they don’t stop for red lights or pedestrians lol. I met some other folks that said the same thing

 

[showrguy]

You're right! Who needs a door. Couldn't wait any longer so I fashioned a screen out of 1/4" mesh. By-pass open and thermostat on high. The fire took off great and we're burning a couple sticks in the back. Not exactly how I'm planned on using the stove, but we have a fire!

View attachment 309125

I dunno if that’s a good idea ?

 

[PropTwister]

I dunno if that’s a good idea ?

Working good so far. I keep 2-3 smaller splits in there. I have about 5-6 hours burn time on it now.

 

[NHWS]

...Popping ember at my place.

I dream of a relatively vast expanse of ceramic tile under and around the stove for my next hearth. A throw rug or two to be sure.

Prevention (being careful when the door is open) is clearly the best approach. Damage to the floor ought to be unlikely, but over enough years, unlikely things can eventually happen. Floors are difficult and expensive to replace if the damage is bad enough or occurs more than once. A few more inches of room space and a bit more tile would be inexpensive. I asked the question because I'm not sure whether or not it would reduce the odds of damaging the floor.

@Poindexter Throw rugs seem like a good idea. Thanks.

 

[Poindexter]

Prevention (being careful when the door is open) is clearly the best approach. Damage to the floor ought to be unlikely, but over enough years, unlikely things can eventually happen. Floors are difficult and expensive to replace if the damage is bad enough or occurs more than once. A few more inches of room space and a bit more tile would be inexpensive. I asked the question because I'm not sure whether or not it would reduce the odds of damaging the floor.

@Poindexter Throw rugs seem like a good idea. Thanks.

It is a never ending spiral. My wife really likes ceramic tile, and I haven't cracked any of them yet, but there is always the risk of cracking a tile by setting down a carrier full of cord wood too quickly.

Between the kids and the pets and the wood stove, our home looks lived in because we live in it.