Blaze King Sirocco 25 insert

[mellow]

Installed the Siracco 25 this weekend, was one of the easier installs thanks to Blaze King's flue adapter, you install it first on the liner than back the insert into the fireplace, reach through the damper and grab the adapter and then mount it on the back with two bolts. The most worrisome part of the install was making sure you have the flue adapter at the right height, you have some wiggle room but you want to be close, and for sure you do not want to be short!

Anyway I took plenty of pictures.

 

[gregbesia]

Wow! Very sharp looking install and insert. Maybe this one will get my wife's approval. Waiting for your experience with it. Keep us posted.

 

[mellow]

So here is my dilemma so far, the low burn rate isn't as low as I expected it to be. I have made a video of the Siracco set at low, fellow BK burners let me know what you think, I took this video 20 minutes into a low burn.

 

[mellow]

Also, the analog cat temperature needle never moves much higher than where it is in that video even on a high burn, it never moves more than half way even with a ripping fire.

 

[Highbeam]

What's up with the wiring around the thermostat. Looks like they have white connected to black connected to white? Why is there even a splice there?

So is this thermostat located up front directly connected to that knob or is there some wonky linkage?

If you kill the low burn rate from a BK then you really may as well have a non-cat. I hope that this is just a growing pain.

 

[mellow]

What's up with the wiring around the thermostat.

Don't mind that, that picture was taken while it was still in the wood crate, those wires are for the fan and got cleaned up on the final install.

So is this thermostat located up front directly connected to that knob

Correct, connects directly to the tstat, nothing wobbly, very secure so I know it is not slipping, I verified it is hitting the high and low stops on the tstat.

 

[ejn327]

So here is my dilemma so far, the low burn rate isn't as low as I expected it to be. I have made a video of the Siracco set at low, fellow BK burners let me know what you think, I took this video 20 minutes into a low burn.

Hey Mellow, glad to see your installation went well.

Your Sirocco on low looks very similar to mine, I get a good amount of flames even after an hour or so set on low. Setting it on low certainly doesn't kill the flames and smolder. I've also not seen the cat needle move past the center of the gage, even with a hot fire. I was thinking of running a fire with several 2x4's to see if I can get a good hot fire to burn off the deposits on the glass, I'll have to see if I can get that needle to move further to the right.

 

[mellow]

I am wondering if this is how the emissions went from 2 grams/hr on the Princess insert to .9 grams hr with the Sirocco? Hopefully @BKVP will chime in and let us know if this is how the Sirocco burns on Low or if we have an issue.

 

[mellow]

@webby3650 The sc25 you installed, did you get a chance to see it burn yet?

 

[begreen]

Nice looking insert. Looking forward to reports on burntime and heating comparisons to previous inserts.

 

[Highbeam]

I am wondering if this is how the emissions went from 2 grams/hr on the Princess insert to .9 grams hr with the Sirocco? Hopefully @BKVP will chime in and let us know if this is how the Sirocco burns on Low or if we have an issue.

The stoves also got much cleaner (also slightly less efficient) with the new models. However, the new model stoves retained the low output and long burntimes that make BKs so valuable.

 

[cableman]

Man i would love to have one of these but i only installed my hi300 last year!
16" splits n/s?

 

[webby3650]

@webby3650 The sc25 you installed, did you get a chance to see it burn yet?

No I did not.

 

[mellow]

So comparing the performance numbers on the website the Sirocco should be able to burn less BTU's than the Princess, so when we set to Low we should see the same thing as the Princess, if I read that correctly, that the fire should really die down and go out if we suddenly switch from High to Low.

Is there a video of someone going from High to Low in a Princess Insert that we can compare?

Sirocco:
Constant Heat output on Low 12,463 BTU's/h for up to 20 hours 11,534 BTU's/h for up to 20 hours

Princess:
Constant Heat output on Low 13,173 BTU's/h for up to 27 hours 12,254 BTU's/h for up to 27 hours

 

[Rickb]

It looks like you still have a lot more air flow then I do on my Sirocco 20. as far as cat temps I really never pay any attention other then over the red line.

 

[tarzan]

Your video doesn't work for me. Is your burn with fans on or off?

I realize an insert needs the fans to be efficient but on the Princess stove running the fans have a dramatic scrubber effect on the thermostat.

 

[mellow]

Ok guys, been playing with the stove tonight, made another video of a Low burn:


I have hooked up a thermocouple to the exhaust so I can see temps going out.

In the video I shine a light on the stops of the tstat to show it is infact as far low as it can go, also shine a light on where my thermocouple is.

 

[mellow]

So after making that video it hit me that maybe I am treating this like my old cat stove and burning back to front when this thing should be burned front to back since the tstat is in the front. I took all the embers from this fire and raked them to the front of the stove and did a smaller fire, I did not take a video of it but it did seem to burn lower which would make sense since the tstat is getting more heat, the rear exhaust only got up to 400 and the flames did die down.

I will experiment more tomorrow night and build a fire front to back and load it up to see how it handles it, hopefully this is the answer to the Low burn question.

 

[BKVP]

So after making that video it hit me that maybe I am treating this like my old cat stove and burning back to front when this thing should be burned front to back since the tstat is in the front. I took all the embers from this fire and raked them to the front of the stove and did a smaller fire, I did not take a video of it but it did seem to burn lower which would make sense since the tstat is getting more heat, the rear exhaust only got up to 400 and the flames did die down.

I will experiment more tomorrow night and build a fire front to back and load it up to see how it handles it, hopefully this is the answer to the Low burn question.

Mellow,

Flying to Chicago today but watched your video. Before you try your low burn this evening, put some 16" logs, north to south loading and 6"-8" diameter. We have employees that were experimenting to extend burn times in their homes and by using larger pieces and filling the firebox could get much better low burn times.

Also, Did you use the 24" section of liner that came with the unit? It appears to be so in the video, but just wanted to make certain. On the low burn test you do this evening, try running the fans on low as well.

We have had excellent feedback from owners thus far. One note, the longer 16", 6-8" logs will cause the glass to get a bit of build up on low, but it will clean up easily with a hotter fire.

 

[mellow]

Did you use the 24" section of liner that came with the unit?

Yep, it made life really easy, posted pictures about it in the first post.

try running the fans on low as well.

Will do.

@BKVP Was this stove designed to favor N/S burns?

 

[mellow]

We have employees that were experimenting to extend burn times in their homes and by using larger pieces and filling the firebox could get much better low burn times.

By any chance can those employees and beta testers that have been running the stove for a while be given access to here

 

[ejn327]

Before you try your low burn this evening, put some 16" logs, north to south loading and 6"-8" diameter. We have employees that were experimenting to extend burn times in their homes and by using larger pieces and filling the firebox could get much better low burn times.

I'll try and give this a try tonight or tomorrow morning and see how it goes. This morning I loaded it up with 3 large splits E/W on the bottom and 2 small N/S on top. I left the house for work with the insert set to low and the flames seemed to be pretty low (about an hour after I started it)

So after making that video it hit me that maybe I am treating this like my old cat stove and burning back to front when this thing should be burned front to back since the tstat is in the front. I took all the embers from this fire and raked them to the front of the stove and did a smaller fire, I did not take a video of it but it did seem to burn lower which would make sense since the tstat is getting more heat, the rear exhaust only got up to 400 and the flames did die down.

I'll try this out with my next fire too. I've been starting my fires more in the back in order to get better draft up the chimney. It makes sense to start them more in the front closer to the t-stat.

 

[cableman]

Is that 24" extension necessary? I would think it has to be cut down, no way i could fit that in with out raising liner alot.

 

[mellow]

Is that 24" extension necessary? I would think it has to be cut down, no way i could fit that in with out raising liner alot.

I had to cut my existing flex liner back to use the adapter (not sure why it didn't use band clamps for a flex liner?). I would recommend it as it is beefy, not exactly sure why they ovalized a section of it (maybe to get through a block off plate?) Screwing that flex adapter to the liner ahead of time and hanging it all just right makes it nice to be able to just push the insert back and hook it all up instead of fighting to get the appliance adapter in (been there done that too many times), so glad I didn't have to tilt up the insert this time to get the angle just right to get the appliance adapter in. The hardest part this time was making sure I didn't cut too much of my existing liner, well that and screwing into that supplied flex adapter, that thing is thick.

 

[Highbeam]

I wonder if BK didn't supply that chunk of liner to make sure that even the "slammer" installs have at least 24" of stack for a better chance of drafting well.