2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)#2

[Greg67]

Our Princess this morning. It's been really cold and windy here in IN. The stove can still keep the house warm we just have to run it at a higher setting. It's our first year with it and we are very pleased with it. Only one small problem with the stove when we bought it and BK sent the part to us without any hassle. The stove was set on about 2.25 when the pic was taken,the cat thermometer was at about the 11 o'clock position. Our wood supply is a mix of oak,cherry,maple, and ash right now. Can't say enough good thing about this website and this stove.

 

[Poindexter]

Trying to run a timed burn this morning, but weather isn't co-operating. +17dF here this am, forecast 0dF to +20dF night and day until Friday night 01-16-15 when we might see -1dF again.

I have one enormous split on the left side of my Ashford, filled in with smaller splits on the right, all on last nights coals. If it was 20 to 40 degrees cooler I could run this on high for about 12 hours with pretty decent heat put for a couple hours while folks are getting their day started, then a nice long taper while no one is home, and a cat still active or hot enough to re activate very quickly when I get home from work around 4PM.

Today and tomorrow are my last days off until Jan 31 so I am going to try it while I can keep an eye on it - even though in weather this warm I typically load differently.

I engaged the cat at 0833 local according to the clock nearest the Ashford.

 

[turbojoe]

Dan chiming in here: As far as fail-safes go, SmartStove(TM) includes a backup battery that will keep the draft control running for the duration of a fire. The system monitors the battery level and when it is depleted, the system will close the draft control, disconnect itself from the battery, and power down. As for a catastrophic hardware failure that leaves the draft control wide open: Assuming that the system is still functioning and monitoring temperature, it will set off an alarm if the stove exceeds the OverTemperature limit set in the configuration menu. If nobody is home to hear it, then this is what happens frequently with people who run their stoves manually. They get distracted, and fail to close the draft control. All modern wood stove installations by design are intended to be able to tolerate this because of the manual nature of the control. They are all tested in EPA certification at High (wide open), Medium and Low draft control settings. There will be an issue when someone clogs up their chimney with creosote burning too cool, or with wet wood, and then leaves the draft control wide open, or fails to latch the door tightly. This is what causes chimney fires. I am not recommending running a wood stove with a full firebox and leaving the draft control wide open. Just saying that a proper stove and installation is designed to be able to handle this.

When I ran my stove manually, I would typically get the stove into the nuclear zone (800-900 degrees on the stove top) 3-5 times every year because of family distractions. With SmartStove(TM) running the draft, that never has happened one time over 9 years since installing the first prototype system. The OverTemperature alarm has gone off one time since 2005 when the gasket around the door glass was loose and I was too lazy to fix it, but that limit was set for 675. I can confidently say that things are MUCH safer than running the stove manually.

Thanks Dan

 

[blueguy]

-3*F here last night. 7 splits in the Sirocco set on 2 had the house at 70 after 12 hours, and the stovetop thermometer was reading 300*. Still think this thing is silly

I've also noticed a big decrease in wood usage this year. We've been burning nights only since about 15 Sept, and 24/7 since early October, and just passed the 1 cord mark, whereas last year with the Napoleon 1450, we passed the 1 cord mark by early December.

 

[JA600L]

Hi there guys, I'm a Woodstock Ideal Steel owner. I was on the fence with buying a Blaze King. The stove is working out great, but I wanted to see how it compares in a few ways.

Do Blaze Kings have issues with too much coal accumulation or does the thermostat take care of that?

When the cat is finished is the charcoal body of the log left over?

Do you ever need to stir the coals to the front to help them burn down?

I'm sure they are both very comparable in quality and efficiency. I'm just curious how they compare. Thank you.

 

[jeff_t]

I've also noticed a big decrease in wood usage this year. We've been burning nights only since about 15 Sept, and 24/7 since early October, and just passed the 1 cord mark, whereas last year with the Napoleon 1450, we passed the 1 cord mark by early December.

Heck, I've burned a cord this year. Okay, maybe not quite, but I know it's over half.

 

[jeff_t]

Hi there guys, I'm a Woodstock Ideal Steel owner. I was on the fence with buying a Blaze King. The stove is working out great, but I wanted to see how it compares in a few ways.

Do Blaze Kings have issues with too much coal accumulation or does the thermostat take care of that?

When the cat is finished is the charcoal body of the log left over?

Do you ever need to stir the coals to the front to help them burn down?

I'm sure they are both very comparable in quality and efficiency. I'm just curious how they compare. Thank you.

The thermostat doesn't swing that much. 'Too much' coal accumulation depends on what each of us needs for heat.

I'm finding wide open air on a big pile of coals works for me for a few hours. I see temps of 400 or so on top, but 600+ on the front. But understand, this stove is deep, like 6"+ below the door. That is a lot of coals, if the stove isn't too full of ash.

The way the 'airwash' works on my stove, it burns front to back in the middle, then out to the sides, if that makes sense. I'll end up with some chunks that resemble part of a split, but they fall apart easily. I use a hoe to pull it all up by the door, at least twice to get it all burned up.

This is what's left of last night's load. It's 75° in here, so I won't mess with this for at least three hours.

This is cold weather burning. Milder temps, like 20s and 30s, don't require as much attention.

 

[JA600L]

Thanks for the response. I would say that I am seeing similar results.

I'm thankful for companies like Woodstock and Blaze King for their commitment to efficiency.

 

[Badger]

Thanks for the response. I would say that I am seeing similar results.

I'm thankful for companies like Woodstock and Blaze King for their commitment to efficiency.

I have similar responses to jefft.

Too bad you're not in MN. I'd like to take an IS for a spin and I have a princess right now. We could have swapped for a couple months!![emoji1]

 

[BKVP]

The thermostat doesn't swing that much. 'Too much' coal accumulation depends on what each of us needs for heat.

I'm finding wide open air on a big pile of coals works for me for a few hours. I see temps of 400 or so on top, but 600+ on the front. But understand, this stove is deep, like 6"+ below the door. That is a lot of coals, if the stove isn't too full of ash.

The way the 'airwash' works on my stove, it burns front to back in the middle, then out to the sides, if that makes sense. I'll end up with some chunks that resemble part of a split, but they fall apart easily. I use a hoe to pull it all up by the door, at least twice to get it all burned up.

This is what's left of last night's load. It's 75° in here, so I won't mess with this for at least three hours. View attachment 150330

This is cold weather burning. Milder temps, like 20s and 30s, don't require as much attention.

I posted a picture once before of a coal fork that I built in our shop. With 1/2" spacing, I have found the 10" long forks do a great job helping to deal with large coals. When I burned a bit of honey locust in the shop last week, I was able to use the fork to rake coals forward, but also dug down to the bottom and raied all sorts of goodies to the surface.

If I had to do over, I might use 3/4" spacing instead of 1/2". Nevertheless, the coals burn down more completely!

Since I burn NIELS at home, coals are not an issue. As I recall, I never had an issue with Doug Fir or Tamarck either. Hard woods seem more prone to coaling than soft woods. We use black walnut, honey locust, silver maple and black locust in the shop stoves. We are working towards the new ASTM cord wood test method which requires wood with specific gravity. Google "Specific Gravity of Cord Wood" and you get a pdf file with 158 species. Great document with all sorts of data.

+1 on Terry and his crew...great dealers for many lines of hearth products.

Chris

 

[Poindexter]

Well it didn't work out for me yesterday. It was warm enough here that running the stove on high had the living room up to 90dF, the wife turned the thermostat down and you can guess the rest.

I ended up with an inactive cat after 7ish hours, but I had a chunk of charred/ burning spruce left over from the enormous split, about soccer ball sized. I wrangled that piece forward and got a couple more hours out of the burn with an active cat.

If Alaska winters are going to be his mild for the next 30 years I ought to downsize from the Ashford 30, trade it out for an Ashford 20.

 

[Highbeam]

If Alaska winters are going to be his mild for the next 30 years I ought to downsize from the Ashford 30, trade it out for an Ashford 20.

Better check the specs, the 20 series box pumps out more heat on low than the 30. Plus much lower burn times on a full load. The only reason a 20 is desirable is if you just can't live with the couple extra inches of physical size the 30 has.

 

[Rossco]

No 'Coal' problems from my unit. Depends on the wood, install & burning practices I guess.

It's a crazy -4C here at the moment (25F) and nice and warm in the house.

Lovely.

 

[shoot-straight]

my ashford certainly handles the coaling problem MUCH better than my hearthstone did. it seems to burn the wood more completely, and put at more heat though the coaling stage too. dryer wood helps alot.

 

[kennyp2339]

Happy to report that with the blower on low speed I'm able to keep my temps upstairs 70-72 deg with 12 burn times with the stove set just below 2 (n in normal), when I had the blower running at high speed I would keep the setting on 2.5 and chew through wood, granted it was pretty cold out but I think I was just taking the extra heat and sending it up the flue pipe, My flue temps were running close to 450 deg. So again I lowered everything and so far very happy, I woke up this morning at 5am there cat was still active, upstairs was 72deg, and it was 15 deg outside.

 

[Highbeam]

I have developed the habit, good or bad, of reaching my hand inside the stove and wiping the bypass gasket clean of junk with each new fire. Sometimes there is quite a bit of junk on the bottom of the cat chamber that must be spalling off of my vertical chimney and falling down into the cat chamber. It's bad enough that I will reach in there and vacuum out the cat chamber every couple of weeks.

Has anybody noticed an accumulation of junk on their bypass gasket area or do you all just grind it in? I imagine that I must be flopping chunks into the back of the cat too with each opening of the bypass.

Also, my stat knob had gotten chunky and harder to turn lately. I removed the stat cover with just two screws, and lubed the shafts of the butterfly and also lubed the tension spring washers that keeps the stat from moving around on its own. Much better now. A little gun oil is all it took. When I had the stat cover off I was running the knob back and forth and noticed that the butterfly was flopping around before lube but now it stays shut and smoothly opens as I go from full closed to full open.

I did the lube job last year too and it will be a regular maintenance item now.

 

[kennyp2339]

I had the junk behind the bypass also, but I thought it got there after I clean the chimney, gonna have to check on it

 

[Rossco]

Year IDE like to clean the stove but it hasn't been off since the 8th Dec 2014, the day I fitted the convection deck and swept the chimney.

The ash is building up but not as much as most, think I will just keep running the thing as is, not worth cooling the house structure off to get a few extra splits in.

 

[rdust]

The ash is building up but not as much as most, think I will just keep running the thing as is, not worth cooling the house structure off to get a few extra splits in.

Why does the stove need to cool off to remove the ash?

 

[blueguy]

Also, my stat knob had gotten chunky and harder to turn lately. I removed the stat cover with just two screws, and lubed the shafts of the butterfly and also lubed the tension spring washers that keeps the stat from moving around on its own. Much better now. A little gun oil is all it took. When I had the stat cover off I was running the knob back and forth and noticed that the butterfly was flopping around before lube but now it stays shut and smoothly opens as I go from full closed to full open.

I did the lube job last year too and it will be a regular maintenance item now.

I noticed mine is starting to get the same way, I just haven't gotten around to lubing it yet, but it's on the list. Good to hear a little oil is all that is needed to get it back to smooth operation

 

[Rossco]

Why does the stove need to cool off to remove the ash?

Yeah I can clean the ash out no worries, I was talking about sticking my hand up and cleaning the by-pass gasket or pulling the pipe to visually check behind the CAT.

Reading back: I meant the other not the other if you catch my drift

 

[Dieselhead]

Why does the stove need to cool off to remove the ash?

Only problem I have with cleaning out a hot stove is when the embers radiate heat off when I'm putting ash in the bucket it kicks ash airborne all over the house, when I used to be able to do it with a cold bed nothing would rise out of the bucket. The ultras ashcan really helps with this situation. Ash flies up the chiminey instead

 

[Rossco]

Only problem I have with cleaning out a hot stove is when the embers radiate heat off when I'm putting ash in the bucket it kicks ash airborne all over the house, when I used to be able to do it with a cold bed nothing would rise out of the bucket. The ultras ashcan really helps with this situation. Ash flies up the chiminey instead

Yeah I like to at least let it cool to the touch before hand.

I just loaded it up and it appears to have 1.5 -2" of ash which is great for a solid month of burning.

Burning Larch, Fir and a little pine. Maybe it's the soft wood that ashes a little less? Or maybe burning hot hot hot for a few days has effectively reduced the build up some.

 

[bobdog2o02]

Yeah I like to at least let it cool to the touch before hand.

I just loaded it up and it appears to have 1.5 -2" of ash which is great for a solid month of burning.

Burning Larch, Fir and a little pine. Maybe it's the soft wood that ashes a little less? Or maybe burning hot hot hot for a few days has effectively reduced the build up some.

Its the softwoods.

 

[Rossco]

Its the softwoods.

Woohoo. Another win for the softwoods eh.

1) Splits easy.
2) Drys in 6 month.
3) Don't rot (Larch dont rot very quick)
4) It don't ash very much.

And Larch is 19.5 on the Richter scale opposed to Oak @ 23. Hardly worth the hassle this hardwood m'larcky.