Dieselhead
Minister of Fire
You know it's burning through wood too fast when your glass is that clear
BK Princess need help
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I'm new on here. Not sure how to find Zanny. At 6:30 I was down to a few coals. Still just into active. About 240° on stove top. I would have to borrow my buddies bucket truck again. Here's pics of the outside. (broken image removed)(broken image removed)
Starts at page 17, and goes on for a while. Or search for posts by member Zanimal. Search box at top right corner of your screen.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...rformance-thread-everything-bk.116353/page-17
shoot-straight
Minister of Fire
HANG IN THERE!
i was frustrated with my ashford when i first got mine. my smaller hearthstone was good but all the BK rave on here had me super excited to experience one- i was convinced it would be all peaches and cream... i could simply load it up and walk away for 24 hours when its frigid out and my house would be toasty warm! right? WRONG! it seems some get a BK setup and right away- BINGO! everything is perfect, and they are super happy. others- not so much, it takes a while to figure the set up out and work out the kinks. everyone says that "every setup is different". they couldnt be more right. also, each house is different. no matter how well you THINK your house is air sealed and insulated, some houses simply lose heat more than others. mine is one. although its a new construction, it becomes very tough to keep warm when the breeze picks up. i will continue to work to tighten things up. not only is it leaky, but i sit on a hill where the wind simply howls. when its 20 out and blowing 25 i am simply asking too much out of the stove. my chimney drafts like crazy when its like that, it literally sounds like a jet engine. my burn times were super short, even making it overnight on a low setting was tough. i finally found out what makes a HUGE difference in my burn times. the blower. having it on literally cuts my burn times in half. last night i loaded it fairly light, went to bed at 10 fans off and set at 1.75. at 7 am, there was a remarkable amount of fuel left in there. i am now going to simply run it as a radiant heater for a while and see how it heats the house. again, still working, still learning. and i bought my stove last january. am i 100% satisfied with it? i guess i would say no at this point- but i think my expectations were simply too high. however, my satisfaction is increasing daily as i learn more.
you have bought a quality product from a company who backs it up. it may take some more effort, but it will get figured out. work with chris (BKVP) directly if your dealer is not doing their job. use the PM feature on here to contact him directly and start a dialogue offline. his accessability is one of the reasons i bought this stove. i even noticed he was responding to threads on here on thanksgiving.... that tells me alot about him. he does not want anyone unhappy with their product.
type in "zanimal" in the search under member names. his similar problems were located in the 13/14 BK thread.
i was frustrated with my ashford when i first got mine. my smaller hearthstone was good but all the BK rave on here had me super excited to experience one- i was convinced it would be all peaches and cream... i could simply load it up and walk away for 24 hours when its frigid out and my house would be toasty warm! right? WRONG! it seems some get a BK setup and right away- BINGO! everything is perfect, and they are super happy. others- not so much, it takes a while to figure the set up out and work out the kinks. everyone says that "every setup is different". they couldnt be more right. also, each house is different. no matter how well you THINK your house is air sealed and insulated, some houses simply lose heat more than others. mine is one. although its a new construction, it becomes very tough to keep warm when the breeze picks up. i will continue to work to tighten things up. not only is it leaky, but i sit on a hill where the wind simply howls. when its 20 out and blowing 25 i am simply asking too much out of the stove. my chimney drafts like crazy when its like that, it literally sounds like a jet engine. my burn times were super short, even making it overnight on a low setting was tough. i finally found out what makes a HUGE difference in my burn times. the blower. having it on literally cuts my burn times in half. last night i loaded it fairly light, went to bed at 10 fans off and set at 1.75. at 7 am, there was a remarkable amount of fuel left in there. i am now going to simply run it as a radiant heater for a while and see how it heats the house. again, still working, still learning. and i bought my stove last january. am i 100% satisfied with it? i guess i would say no at this point- but i think my expectations were simply too high. however, my satisfaction is increasing daily as i learn more.
you have bought a quality product from a company who backs it up. it may take some more effort, but it will get figured out. work with chris (BKVP) directly if your dealer is not doing their job. use the PM feature on here to contact him directly and start a dialogue offline. his accessability is one of the reasons i bought this stove. i even noticed he was responding to threads on here on thanksgiving.... that tells me alot about him. he does not want anyone unhappy with their product.
type in "zanimal" in the search under member names. his similar problems were located in the 13/14 BK thread.
blueguy
Feeling the Heat
Supposedly, every 90* turn in a flue reduces its effective height by about 5', and every 45* reduces it by 2'. If that is true, your total effective height is reduced by 9' with your current setup.
Tenn Dave
Minister of Fire
In that picture of your stove the stat knob is way away from the stove body on metal stem. The knob should set right up against the dial with no shiney steel knob available. I only mention it because you may have something installed wrong there.
I like all the pics. Burning that thing on full high is shooting smoke right through the cat at super high speed and it can't eat the smoke fast enough. You should be seeing smoke even with that dry wood. Knock it down to setting "3". You'll still see some blue smoke but the cat should have more time to eat. More cat eating means more heat at the stove and less in the chimney.
Yikes, somebody dented your expensive class A near the roofline! No harm but I bet it chaps your arse.
I like all the pics. Burning that thing on full high is shooting smoke right through the cat at super high speed and it can't eat the smoke fast enough. You should be seeing smoke even with that dry wood. Knock it down to setting "3". You'll still see some blue smoke but the cat should have more time to eat. More cat eating means more heat at the stove and less in the chimney.
Yikes, somebody dented your expensive class A near the roofline! No harm but I bet it chaps your arse.
Ya. I was half way through the installation and pulled that pipe out of the box already dented. There was no turning back at that point. The new thermostat came like that. It said I need to cut that rod to fit. Wanted to make sure it worked first. That's on my list of things to do but getting heat is number 1. I can't find in the manual where it says 2 feet per 45° or 5 feet per 90° or tee. I'm worried that it will be to high for my roof support to handle. One strong wind and that could be a lot of money on the ground and dangerous
I put another 4 feet of pipe on today giving me at total of 19 feet outside. It looks ridiculous. I just loaded it with the wood I have at 3:45. The next load will be the kiln dried wood. Hopefully I see a dramatic change
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Those figures for the 45 and 90 aren't in the manual. It's a pretty well agreed upon rule of thumb. The bends create resistance to airflow, weakening the draft. The outside chimney doesn't help either, given the already low flue temps of the BK.
Why not drill a hole in the pipe and put a probe thermometer in? Than you'll know the stack temperature.
Probe meters are great, I have one too, but they are just not available at the corner hardware store. It's a mail order thing for most of us.
Calentarse
Feeling the Heat
I haven't had my BK Ashford for very long thus I cannot comment too much to the operation/setup of the stoves. I'm blessed thus far to be one of the success stories. I was nervous getting my BK only just before thanksgiving- fearful it wouldn't work as I have the minimum chimney height and a small house. I wanted to be able to operate the stove long, with low temps. It has done just that and I'm grateful. I'm very surprised I'm not losing draft. I'm choking it down and somehow it doesn't go inactive set on 1.75 (haven't tried anything below that). I'm burning 3 year old oak that honestly isn't cracked/grayed at all so I would think I'd have that working against me too.
Honestly sounds like something isn't right with the stove. You shouldn't need that much height without something else being really wrong (I'm not a professional so I really don't know, just holistically speaking). Seems like your wood is dry, plenty of opportunity for draft (double-wall pipe, operating it properly, etc.), so I'm left to believe something isn't right in the stove. Based on that pic you posted earlier with the flames LIKE WHOA! If that was with the cat engaged, you got a problem. NEVER seen those kind of flames in my BK even on highest setting. That looks like the good old days with the Vermont Castings Encore firing out of control!
Best of luck to you.
Honestly sounds like something isn't right with the stove. You shouldn't need that much height without something else being really wrong (I'm not a professional so I really don't know, just holistically speaking). Seems like your wood is dry, plenty of opportunity for draft (double-wall pipe, operating it properly, etc.), so I'm left to believe something isn't right in the stove. Based on that pic you posted earlier with the flames LIKE WHOA! If that was with the cat engaged, you got a problem. NEVER seen those kind of flames in my BK even on highest setting. That looks like the good old days with the Vermont Castings Encore firing out of control!
Best of luck to you.
Tenn Dave
Minister of Fire
For what it's worth, a neighbor of mine has a poor draft problem with his BK stove due to a less then optimum chimney setup, but his problem is the opposite of yours. He can't get a raging fire and he gets a nasty smoke smell in the house at times. He believes his stove is OK because he used it at another location and it performed well.
I may be getting a little more heat but it's hard to judge with the outside temperature almost 20° warmer.(broken image removed)After 2 1/2 hours on high. I'm sitting 4 feet away from it. It definitely hasn't chases me out of the room yet
Probably 3/4 through that load with plenty of coals. Going to try the kiln dried wood next. It's definitely split smaller. It's a mix of what looks like walnut, ash, hackberry, and who knows what. Definitely not my oak. We will see
Stop burning it on high, when you get the wood charred start dialing it down. A high setting is just puking heat out the chimney. If you have to burn the stove on high to meet your heating load the stove isn't right for your application. I burn mine on 1 3/4 90% of the time and use the fan to give me heat or take it away. After 15-30 minutes on high the stove top should be over 600*. The stove won't give you the burn your face off type of heat, the heat is more convective than radiant. I can sit 5' away from my stove and never get driven away from it if I'm burning the stove the way it wants to burn.(a setting in the normal range)
BK stoves excel at maintaining a steady temp, you shouldn't have to burn it on high for more than 30 minutes to recover the heat lost between loads. I wish I was closer I'd love to stop by and see how the stove is performing in person.
For crying out loud, turn it down to 3. The manual tells you that any setting from 1 to 3 is appropriate for normal operation. At 3.5+ you are running that thing inefficiently.
rdust beat me to it.
There is no "hi" setting on the stove. There are numbers and if by "hi" you mean all the way to the max then you are operating that thing improperly. The highest setting after engaging the cat should be #3 on the dial.
There is no "hi" setting on the stove. There are numbers and if by "hi" you mean all the way to the max then you are operating that thing improperly. The highest setting after engaging the cat should be #3 on the dial.
Just under 3 is what I call high. When I set the dial after changing the thermostat I set 1 at the flapper closing while cold. I turned it to 3 to check it and it still had room to adjust. 3.5 just keeps it wide open. When I run it in normal it gets really cool and the temp on the stove top drops to around 250°
Tell me about it. I thought about asking the cellular phone companies that I could rent them space for antennas
bobdog2o02
Minister of Fire
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