BK burn time problems

[MagdalenaP]

Are you loading east to west?

 

[Dataman]

Only East to West if it aligns up with he magnetic signature of the steel in stove. Normally it's North to South. Now the Stoves made in China, they can only be loaded with wood pointing Far East.

 

[jetsam]

That sounds real good to me. Try the damper and, if possible, the manometer.

 

[Doc C]

I load north and south almost exclusively.

Could this be part of the the problem? It’s makes sense that loading east/west would slow the burn down.

 

[MagdalenaP]

I load north and south almost exclusively.

Could this be part of the the problem? It’s makes sense that loading east/west would slow the burn down.

Give it a go, cheap try. Push your coals to the front of the stove, and load small to large splits with large at the back.

 

[MissMac]

I would consider them medium splits but it was about 8 or so, so I think we are probably talking the same size.

What’s the chance that my Cat is bad and keeping me from being able to turn my stove down far enough?

Doubt it by the sounds of your experience.


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[MissMac]

Ok....I have had a lot more time to mess with the Princess!

I am only getting around 7-8 hours out of a full load. I definitely think there is a problem.

I left the house this morning at 730 and just got home at 230 and there was very little coals left.

So 6 hours and not much wood left. Maybe another hour worth of heat and then I would need to restart the fire.

I go to bed around 7 and by about 3 I have to outback more wood in.

I have been home all day before and the stove is not burning overly hot, doesn’t seem to be any issues with door gaskets or anything like that. I can stall the fire if I want to do I don’t think it’s an issue with air leakage or even to much draft.

I have been running the stove around 1.5 which is enough to keep the living around 70 degrees in a very well insulated 1990sf home built in 2011. And the outside temp has been low around 28 and high around 47.

When your stove is dialed down for low and slow the firebox should look dead. Do you see flames at all on your low setting? Or a lot of bright glowing? Could indicate an air leak coming through door gasket. Also did you check your bypass plate to ensure the gasket there is good and there’s no warping in the metal? I agree with some of the other guys that you might have too much draft on your hands possibly.



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[jetsam]

Wood quality too. I took down a standing long dead pine yesterday that I am burning today. I'd be lucky to get 12 hours out of some of that stuff even on low. You could lift some of those splits with one finger. They burn like crazy though!

I don't put that stuff in my stacks, but I will grab it to burn right away if it's in a good spot and I'm passing by.

 

[aaronk25]

Got a princess same problem until I checked draft with Manometer and then added 2 key dampers.

Doc, with 30ft combined (double black pipe and stainless double/triple) you got a freight train worth of pull on the stove. I bet your at .2 when the flue is hot, or more.

Here is what happens, The air in the flue collar makes a hard 90 degree turn and straight toward the cat then up around to the air wash. Think of snaking a rope from the chimney, though the stove collar through the cat around to the air wash to the T stat. The more draft vacuum you have the tighter the rope gets pulled and what happens is the T stat doesn’t get hit with as much hot air.....because the air is following the straightest path though the stove, so the t stat opens more, more heat goes up the flue, the flue pulls harder. It’s just inefficient as hell and a lot of the hot air in the box gets dumped out the chimney. Plus the higher volume of air going though the cat is inefficient to as the cat works best with a lower volume of air going though it. The overall heat output to the room is is similar to a correct draft situation but there is a huge amount of wasted hot hot hot air going up the chimney. My guess is this is also the problem associated with short cat life as well.

The biggest give away I saw was when the dampers are almost closed and the stove is at .04” instead of .2, the thermostat actually gets satisfied and darn near closes even on high.

Try it. Run the stove over drafted on high for 30 mins and close the t stat quickly and listen for the clink (which is the t stat going to the zero position and deadheading against the metal stop), note where that happened in relation to the dial. You. For instance might here the clink at the 2:45 position with excess over draft and if the draft is right you will hear it at the 4:00-4:30 position.

This is the reason the t stat is not well equipped to deal with overdraft efficiently. I couldn’t believe how much less wood the stove burned fpr the same heat when the draft is proper.

Keep in mind when you go from high to low the draft goes way up because the t stat closing puts the brakes on the chimney by drastically reducing flow and the vacuum goes way up, creating more of a problem until the stack cools.

Get a manometer, and stick it in the hole where the ca gauge is and it will show you how much draft/chimney vacuum you have.


This is the cheapest I’ve seen and what I use. https://www.globaltestsupply.com/pr...MIl6qnoNvd3wIVg0ZeCh0jSwHgEAQYBCABEgKmZfD_BwE

Get a little 1/4” copper pipe at menards and stick the hose end into the copper pipe with some silicone to seal the hose to the copper pipe. Then stick the copper pipe end into the cat thermometer hole. If you don’t see the copper pipe the rubber hose will melt in 1 sec.

Hope that helps.


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[kennyp2339]

Got a princess same problem until I checked draft with Manometer and then added 2 key dampers.

Doc, with 30ft combined (double black pipe and stainless double/triple) you got a freight train worth of pull on the stove. I bet your at .2 when the flue is hot, or more.

Here is what happens, The air in the flue collar makes a hard 90 degree turn and straight toward the cat then up around to the air wash. Think of snaking a rope from the chimney, though the stove collar through the cat around to the air wash to the T stat. The more draft vacuum you have the tighter the rope gets pulled and what happens is the T stat doesn’t get hit with as much hot air.....because the air is following the straightest path though the stove, so the t stat opens more, more heat goes up the flue, the flue pulls harder. It’s just inefficient as hell and a lot of the hot air in the box gets dumped out the chimney. Plus the higher volume of air going though the cat is inefficient to as the cat works best with a lower volume of air going though it. The overall heat output to the room is is similar to a correct draft situation but there is a huge amount of wasted hot hot hot air going up the chimney. My guess is this is also the problem associated with short cat life as well.

The biggest give away I saw was when the dampers are almost closed and the stove is at .04” instead of .2, the thermostat actually gets satisfied and darn near closes even on high.

Try it. Run the stove over drafted on high for 30 mins and close the t stat quickly and listen for the clink (which is the t stat going to the zero position and deadheading against the metal stop), note where that happened in relation to the dial. You. For instance might here the clink at the 2:45 position with excess over draft and if the draft is right you will hear it at the 4:00-4:30 position.

This is the reason the t stat is not well equipped to deal with overdraft efficiently. I couldn’t believe how much less wood the stove burned fpr the same heat when the draft is proper.

Keep in mind when you go from high to low the draft goes way up because the t stat closing puts the brakes on the chimney by drastically reducing flow and the vacuum goes way up, creating more of a problem until the stack cools.

Get a manometer, and stick it in the hole where the ca gauge is and it will show you how much draft/chimney vacuum you have.


This is the cheapest I’ve seen and what I use. https://www.globaltestsupply.com/pr...MIl6qnoNvd3wIVg0ZeCh0jSwHgEAQYBCABEgKmZfD_BwE

Get a little 1/4” copper pipe at menards and stick the hose end into the copper pipe with some silicone to seal the hose to the copper pipe. Then stick the copper pipe end into the cat thermometer hole. If you don’t see the copper pipe the rubber hose will melt in 1 sec.

Hope that helps.


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i also recently installed a damper on my system and have been very happy with the results so far.

 

[maple1]

Thinking that since it was 2 months since this post was updated, Doc got his issue fixed? Maybe it got posted to another thread. But would be nice to see a resolution posted.