2013-2014 Blaze King Performance Thread(everything BK)

[chevyheim]

I have an old VC Defiant in the basement and can get the thing extremely hot very quickly. When I do this heat will rush upstairs like you are saying.
This morning I fired it up and left it on a lower setting. It is taking longer but the heat is still being pushed upstairs.
With the Blaze King you will be able to keep the stove going for longer and maintain the draft to the rest of the house without first waiting for the stove room and its path upstairs to heat up slowly.
When I allow the stove downstairs to be cooler the house becomes a more even temperature more quickly than if I try to heat it up faster.

I do not really think they are comparable stoves in terms of heating capacity or function.

So are u saying u think the blaze would or would not do the job adequately?

 

[Zanimal]

So are u saying u think the blaze would or would not do the job adequately?

From what you are telling me your desired function is I think the Blaze King would be far superior.
The VC Defiant I mentioned in my basement died down overnight. There was still plenty of coals to start up another fire. But now I must wait for the room the stove is in and the pathway the air travels upstairs to warm up slowly.
If there was a large modern stove such as the Blaze King King down there the temperature could be kept much more stable for longer providing consistent heat to the areas the stove reaches.
Once the fire goes out in the Mansfield there is still heat being put out but it is not going to be making any sort of consistent heat output like the Blaze King can do.

For your needs the King seems to fit the bill in more ways than the Mansfield.
More heating capacity to ensure your larger home in a cold region is warm enough.
4X Longer burn times.
Ability to set the stove to a larger range of heat outputs with control you will not be able to get from the Mansfield.
More efficient. Especially applicable at the lower thermostat settings.
Easier ash removal solution.

 

[TX-L]

I am trying to heat about 2200 sq ft with my Quadra fire 4300. The problem is I work 10 hours a day so the stove cycles on me. Would a blaze king really make a huge difference?

Yes.

I experienced the same scenario with my previous Woodstock stove. I am gone 11.5 hours each workday, and the Woodstock would be almost "out" when I came home; it just wasn't big enough to hold enough wood to make meaningful heat over a 12 hour period. The BK is, and does, for a 24 hour period. Even at extremely low outside temps (-20s or more), I only put a couple of additional pieces in the stove at about the 10 hours into the burn cycle, before I leave for work. This is with the larger King model, your mileage may vary.

 

[blueguy]

..... It looks funny with a flue gauge, cat probe, and stove top temp.

Same here - although right off the bat I placed my stove top thermometer about half way between the centreline of the stove (and cat) and the right edge of the stove top to get a more accurate reading of the stove top itself. Using my IR gun, it's reading pretty close to the temp a little farther to the edge of the stove top. This way I can gauge it a little better based on the forecasted outdoor temps.

 

[blueguy]

Slightly different topic - when turned fully open, where does you t-stat point on the sticker or even better, where if a clock face were used?

 

[Zanimal]

Slightly different topic - when turned fully open, where does you t-stat point on the sticker or even better, where if a clock face were used?

3 or about 5 o'clock is my max setting.

My stove has been burning for 16 hours...
Although I have not opened the dorr I can tell you it is ridiculous how much fuel is still left!

 

[Zanimal]

Stove at 30 hours into burn...
and stove at 40 into burn... Turned the thermostat up just a little because the cat and flue temps were dropping a bit.

 

[blueguy]

It's nice to see you're happy with your stove now. What changes did you to fix the issues you were having?

 

[Zanimal]

What changes did you to fix the issues you were having?

It was just 4' of extra chimney!
I was really skeptical about it solving all my problems. But somehow it took the stove from practically nonfunctional to wonder stove in no time flat!

The blower was impressive at first. But now it appears pretty unspectacular. It does make the room hotter. But it seems to really be because it cools the thermostat down and that in turn lets more air in because the flue temp goes up as well.
If it is really cold it is nice to turn it on and get blasted in the face with warm air.

 

[Highbeam]

It was just 4' of extra chimney!
I was really skeptical about it solving all my problems. But somehow it took the stove from practically nonfunctional to wonder stove in no time flat!

The blower was impressive at first. But now it appears pretty unspectacular. It does make the room hotter. But it seems to really be because it cools the thermostat down and that in turn lets more air in because the flue temp goes up as well.
If it is really cold it is nice to turn it on and get blasted in the face with warm air.

40 hours is way over spec for that stove and so you now have an overperforming stove. That's great.

The fans don't create free heat, they strip it from the firebox and so the thermostat must open to maintain firebox temp. You are correct. The fans do produce lots of hot air vs. radiant heat and I find that the hot air travels to the far corners of my home better vs. without fans the stove room gets much warmer.

 

[blueguy]

Slightly different topic - when turned fully open, where does you t-stat point on the sticker or even better, where if a clock face were used?

3 or about 5 o'clock is my max setting.

Where do others' stat dials point when fully open?

 

[alforit]

Stove at 30 hours into burn...
and stove at 40 into burn... Turned the thermostat up just a little because the cat and flue temps were dropping a bit.

Whoaa !! 40 hours ?!.....watch it now , you passed my long burn record of 29 hours.......... Awesome
Is that bio bricks I see in your stove ?

 

[rdust]

The house got warm very quickly this morning!
Last night I loaded it around 10 pm and set it to 1.25. The cat was in the inactive zone but the house did not even drop 10 degrees.

Added a couple fresh splits on top this morning and had to turn it down almost right away because there was so much heat

Zanimal, I've been meaning to ask, what are you using to log the indoor air temp?

 

[Zanimal]

Awesome
Is that bio bricks I see in your stove ?

Yes! Although these are Hot Brick brand. They are a little smaller than the other bricks.
Loaded bricks in the back and put a few medium sized chunks o cord wood in front. And actually, my stove is still going on the same load!!

Zanimal, I've been meaning to ask, what are you using to log the indoor air temp?

To log the temperature I have four Electric Imp WiFi modules set up as temperature probes. They are nifty devices for cloud communication and have infinite possibilities.
This one is logging the temperature in my covered porch outside. It has two temperature probes which upload temperature data points every 15 seconds to a free service which I can access from anywhere there is an internet connection.
Although the one in the stove room runs on a 9v battery and only uploads once every 5 min to save power. Very nifty devices. I built them when I first started burning wood to see how to orient fans and to see what happened when I opened and closed doors / ran the two stoves at different settings. I did not find anything else on the market which could create temperature graphs over time like I wanted.
I find that uploading every 15 seconds is not really better than 5 minutes I just do it because I can.

 

[rdust]

To log the temperature I have four Electric Imp WiFi modules set up as temperature probes. They are nifty devices for cloud communication and have infinite possibilities.
This one is logging the temperature in my covered porch outside. It has two temperature probes which upload temperature data points every 15 seconds to a free service which I can access from anywhere there is an internet connection.
Although the one in the stove room runs on a 9v battery and only uploads once every 5 min to save power. Very nifty devices. I built them when I first started burning wood to see how to orient fans and to see what happened when I opened and closed doors / ran the two stoves at different settings. I did not find anything else on the market which could create temperature graphs over time like I wanted.
I find that uploading every 15 seconds is not really better than 5 minutes I just do it because I can.

I like it, I think I'll build a couple. Thanks!

 

[HotCoals]

Just ordered this. http://www.firecatcombustors.com/category-s/1424.htm Pricey.

Not sure I really need it just want one on hand.
But lately I been getting stalls after reloads unless I really char the wood up and even then it still does it sometimes.

 

[HotCoals]

Call me crazy but I like experimenting.

So I took the flame shield off and lit a fire with maybe 10 lbs of good dry wood like I been using.
Anyways I did not let the flames get to the cat after reload and maybe 15 mins in I shut the air down..cat did not stall as it has been doing.
I do notice my stack temp is about 40 degrees cooler then normal doing this.
Maybe it will revitalize the cat or maybe just kill it off..dunno.

 

[blueguy]

Is there any difference in quality between the Firecat cats and the Condar cats? I saw that Condar's ceramic cats are about $50 cheaper. I was thinking about getting a spare just before burning season starts up again in the fall to have on-hand.

 

[Zanimal]

Well folks. This is a sad hour.
My cat has gone inactive... AFTER 75 HOURS OF BURNING THE SAME LOAD
It has been very warm so it was constantly the lowest it would go while keeping the cat above the first notch in the active zone.
There is still actually some fuel left in there! it was just smothered out with ash and when I raked it out a flame started going!

I like it, I think I'll build a couple. Thanks!

These ones are for sale if your interested.
Have a couple too many connected devices.

 

[alforit]

Well folks. This is a sad hour.
My cat has gone inactive... AFTER 75 HOURS OF BURNING THE SAME LOAD
It has been very warm so it was constantly the lowest it would go while keeping the cat above the first notch in the active zone.
There is still actually some fuel left in there! it was just smothered out with ash and when I raked it out a flame started going!

I think its working now..............

 

[BKVP]

Is there any difference in quality between the Firecat cats and the Condar cats? I saw that Condar's ceramic cats are about $50 cheaper. I was thinking about getting a spare just before burning season starts up again in the fall to have on-hand.

Condar buys their cats from Applied Ceramics....who owns fire at combustor's.com

 

[blueguy]

Interesting

 

[Osagebndr]

Have been reading this thread and I gotta say y'all have almost talked me into a Bk . I have a buck 27000 now and really want to get a new stove with better burn times. Although the ol girl puts out the heat

 

[Highbeam]

Have been reading this thread and I gotta say y'all have almost talked me into a Bk . I have a buck 27000 now and really want to get a new stove with better burn times. Although the ol girl puts out the heat

For anybody using their stove for primary heat, burn time is of extreme importance. No stove on the market can come to within half of the burntime of a bk. Those manufacturers should be ashamed and bk should be proud. Especially when bk can do it more efficiently than all of them.

 

[HotCoals]

well the fact that not many stoves can handle 80# of wood might be one reason..lol.