2012-2013 Blaze King Performance Thread(everything BK)

[Highbeam]

Pretty much what I've found since I've owned this stove. When it gets cold the increased draft usually gives me the desired heat output on the same dial setting I use when it's warmer.

Me to, well so far, we had a cold snap a few weeks back and my burn time took a big drop even though I didn't adjust the setting. I can blame this on two distinct possibilities. 1)The draft is stronger which sucks more air into the firebox through the set orifice in the intake damper. 2) The stat is doing what it is supposed to and regulate the combustion to maintain a steady temp in the room.

I'm leaning towards #1 but it is amazing how the room temp holds steady and the wood just goes away faster all without user input. Probably a combination of both.

 

[HotCoals]

Anyways back on topic..lol.
I loaded at 7 tonight with a pretty full load of med walnut splits.
After settled in the spot in front of the probe hit 625 on the ir.
Now it's at 585.
I'm shooting for 40 hours..wish me luck..lol.
I's going to be fairly warm tomorrow so I'm pretty sure it's doable.

 

[HotCoals]

Few pics...4.5 hours into it.
The temp went back up a little and i know the t stat never opened..it's as low as it will go.
Must be the smoke picked up some or the draft.

 

[rdust]

I'm leaning towards #1 but it is amazing how the room temp holds steady and the wood just goes away faster all without user input. Probably a combination of both.

Second season with mine and I'm just as impressed as I was during the first season. As I've said before these stoves are far from perfect but in terms of burn times, ease of heating with wood, no roller coaster up and down temps, set it and forget it these stoves are hard to beat.

 

[jeff_t]

As I've said before these stoves are far from perfect

Blasphemy

 

[Todd]

Few pics...4.5 hours into it.
The temp went back up a little and i know the t stat never opened..it's as low as it will go.
Must be the smoke picked up some or the draft.

Is that a pretty typical stack temp for your low burns?

 

[Machria]

When you guys refer to the Cat going "Active", or "Inactive", you are simply refering to the temp probe on the unit that shows the temp of the cat, but instead of temp it has an Active and inactive area.... correct? OR?

 

[Highbeam]

Yes, the cat probe that comes with the stoves has no numbers only a small inactive range and then a huge active range. It is provided to guide the user on when the fire is hot enough to engage that catalyst.

 

[Machria]

Yes, the cat probe that comes with the stoves has no numbers only a small inactive range and then a huge active range. It is provided to guide the user on when the fire is hot enough to engage that catalyst.

That's what I thought, thanks....

 

[HotCoals]

Is that a pretty typical stack temp for your low burns?

Yep.

As far has the cat probe it's my belief that the temp of the stove top affects the reading..matter of fact I know it does.
In other words if you have a stall and lets say the probe reads noon and active..it isn't necessarily so.
I know it's active if the spot in front of the probe is way higher then other near by parts of the stove top using the ir gun.
You get a feel for it after awhile.

The spot in front of the probe is now at 230 and my stack is at 200...19 hours into it..still some wood left and a lot of coals.
It has to be close to 50 out.
Around 80 in the stove room!

 

[Todd]

Yep.

As far has the cat probe it's my belief that the temp of the stove top affects the reading..matter of fact I know it does.
In other words if you have a stall and lets say the probe reads noon and active..it isn't necessarily so.
I know it's active if the spot in front of the probe is way higher then other near by parts of the stove top using the ir gun.
You get a feel for it after awhile.

The spot in front of the probe is now at 230 and my stack is at 200...19 hours into it..still some wood left and a lot of coals.
It has to be close to 50 out.
Around 80 in the stove room!

Do you get many stalls? I wonder how your stove would run with double wall pipe? These stoves run such low stack temps I can see how it could effect performance. Even my Woodstocks didn't run that low unless I shut the air all the way down then there was a good possibility of a stall.

No burning here since it's 60 degrees and sunny,

 

[HotCoals]

Do you get many stalls? I wonder how your stove would run with double wall pipe? These stoves run such low stack temps I can see how it could effect performance. Even my Woodstocks didn't run that low unless I shut the air all the way down then there was a good possibility of a stall.

No burning here since it's 60 degrees and sunny,

I seem to get stalls on harder denser woods.
Mostly from shutting down to soon.
I just crank her back up for maybe 5-10 mins then back down and all is fine.
I guess not enough out gasses to keep that cat happy.

For sure double wall pipe would help stack temps but I like the extra heat off of single wall.
I clean one a season and all looks good except for the screen bellow the cap.
I should probably do that in the middle of the season again to be safe..but so far I have gotten by.

I just checked the temps now that I'm at 22 hours.
My cheap condar was actually hung up at 200..I need to buy a better surface temp gauge.
I think it always has been hanging up actually because I never seen it this low with heat still in the stove.

The stove is still too hot to leave your hand on it and if I turned up the air i'm sure she would jump to at least 300 stove top..but it's already too warm in here..lol.
Will it go 8 more hours?
Yeah I think it will and still have enough coals to set a load off.
But now that the sun is down it would not keep up another 8 hours..well it might because the house is so warm.
I guess it's only going to go down to 35 tonight.
So all in all 40 may be doable if time right.
But 30 is more realistic..actually 24 is.
But I'll take 24 hours any day!
When it's deep winter 12-14 is no problem even on the coldest days with the t stat up some.

 

[HotCoals]

to be fair to BK..my load was not totally full and they were all small to medium splits.
I'm sure bigger splits would add to the time and the house would not hit a peak of around 85 in the stove room!
Wife loves it though and I get to see sexy nighties!

 

[Waulie]

Do the BK's run ok on half loads? I've seen some posts about how they were designed to run on full loads, but it seems like half loads would keep folks from roasting out in warmer temps. If you only need 12 hours of low heat, instead of 24 or 40, does it run ok?

 

[HotCoals]

Do the BK's run ok on half loads? I've seen some posts about how they were designed to run on full loads, but it seems like half loads would keep folks from roasting out in warmer temps. If you only need 12 hours of low heat, instead of 24 or 40, does it run ok?

Works fine!
My house is insulated really good and even though it got down to 30 last night it did get to 50 today.
My stove room is 27x16..the house 2500 sq.ft. two story.
If the stove room was much smaller this BK would be too much stove I think.
I have good moment of air through the house and that helps..no fans on usually.

I turned the air up awhile ago and I'm at 280 stove top now.
A lot of coals are left.
I'll burn those down till maybe 10.

 

[Waulie]

My house is insulated really good and even though it got down to 30 last night it did get to 50 today.

Thanks. That's what I was wondering. It seems like in so much of our "shoulder season" the temps vary by 20+ degrees between day and night. It doesn't seem like you'd need heat during the day if you only need a little bit through the night. I've found just 12 hour small night loads are fine for the most part. Maybe save some wood and do smaller loads?

 

[HotCoals]

Thanks. That's what I was wondering. It seems like in so much of our "shoulder season" the temps vary by 20+ degrees between day and night. It doesn't seem like you'd need heat during the day if you only need a little bit through the night. I've found just 12 hour small night loads are fine for the most part. Maybe save some wood and do smaller loads?

I'm starting to think you could save wood by doing smaller loads..no doubt.
Thing is I usually just do 12 hour burns no matter the temp..just load more on the nigh load.
But at times I do 24 hour loads also.
I think it helps keep the pipes cleaner not reloading any more then you need to..and I don't really like starting fires all the time.
I do know it's easier(and less wood) to keep a bigger house warmer then trying to warm up a cool house all the time.
It's just loading at 12 hours fits my schedule well.
7 in the morning then usually around 9 or10 at night after I burn the coals for a few hours.
There is always wood left in the morning..I only add 4or 5 pieces to it for the day... more when it's real cold!

Sometimes I think it might even be cheaper to run my heat pump in the shoulder since I pay about 70 a fc.
But I hate to hear the blower and I don't want to give the power company any more money then I have too..lol.
If it's too cold for the heat pump my electric forced air furnace comes on..that only happens if we are away more then a day or so!

 

[Machria]

Do the BK's run ok on half loads? I've seen some posts about how they were designed to run on full loads, but it seems like half loads would keep folks from roasting out in warmer temps. If you only need 12 hours of low heat, instead of 24 or 40, does it run ok?

Waulie, do you get 12 hours on the PH with a "small" load?

 

[Waulie]

I'm starting to think you could save wood by doing smaller loads..no doubt.
Thing is I usually just do 12 hour burns no matter the temp..just load more on the nigh load.
But at times I do 24 hour loads also.
I think it helps keep the pipes cleaner not reloading any more then you need to..and I don't really like starting fires all the time.
I do know it's easier(and less wood) to keep a bigger house warmer then trying to warm up a cool house all the time.
It's just loading at 12 hours fits my schedule well.
7 in the morning then usually around 9 or10 at night after I burn the coals for a few hours.
There is always wood left in the morning..I only add 4or 5 pieces to it for the day... more when it's real cold!

Sometimes I think it might even be cheaper to run my heat pump in the shoulder since I pay about 70 a fc.
But I hate to hear the blower and I don't want to give the power company any more money then I have too..lol.
If it's too cold for the heat pump my electric forced air furnace comes on..that only happens if we are away more then a day or so!

Thanks! I'm sure it's nice to have the option either way. I'm planning an addition in the future which may include a stove in the basement. I like the idea of the super long burn times but fear I'd either not use them much due to the weather being either too warm or too cold, or get so used to them that I'd fill it full regardless and burn through more wood than I need too.

 

[Waulie]

Waulie, do you get 12 hours on the PH with a "small" load?

Yes I do. At just over a half load, I can reload after 12 hours with nice coals and the stove around 200 to 250. I basically shoot for a 12 hour schedule and put enough wood in for that depending on outside temps, which works great. Warmish = a bit over half full. Cold = nearly full. Most of these fall days though, it's just a 12 hour burn through the night and the stove holds the heat enough until outside temps warm up in the morning.

 

[HotCoals]

You know Waulie your stove would be on top of my list if I switched out for some crazy reason.
Just the service and attitude that Woodstock seems to have is a very big deal.
To be fair I have not called or sent Chris at BK a pm yet.
Very nice looking stove and a great heater from what I'm hearing.

 

[Highbeam]

On the small load thing, I live in a pretty moderate climate with a long heating season. When it is so warm that 24 hour loads at the lowest stat setting just makes too much heat and wastes wood then I am forced to burn partial loads and let the fire go out. It takes a very small amount of wood to get a 12 hour burn, seems like less than a half load, and the BK does this just fine. More work for me to restart from scratch but I don't want to overheat and waste wood either. The ideal way to do partial burns is to start them in the afternoon so that the coldest part of the day is when you are making the most amount of heat and then the fire fizzles out as the heat of the day picks up.

 

[rdust]

Do the BK's run ok on half loads? I've seen some posts about how they were designed to run on full loads, but it seems like half loads would keep folks from roasting out in warmer temps. If you only need 12 hours of low heat, instead of 24 or 40, does it run ok?

They run fine with full loads or partial loads. I usually don't roast out even if I load the stove full since I can dial it down so much. I think the fact that I have a wonderfully constructed 1980's home also helps. I haven't burned but maybe a wheelbarrow full of "good" wood to this point just for fun. The stove has primarily been feed scotch pine and a little elm up to this point.

 

[Todd]

I'm still playing around with partial loads, full loads and different t-stat settings, there are so many different options you can do with this stove during the shoulder season. Flexibility is a great thing this time of year.

 

[Machria]

Cool stuff.... amazing how good these things are these days!!