2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

[tarzan]

I promise I didn't mean to cause confusion!

From my manual and posts here, I was confused!

rdust, x2 on a cat a year if that's what it took.

I got it now. Let's move on, sorry for the confusion.

 

[tarzan]

Ok all of you turn off your computers and watch the game tonight. You'll have smoke coming out of your ears if you are not careful!!

GO COLTS!

 

[Dieselhead]

Thanks for chiming in Chris. And for the record I don't watch foosball it's for the devil

 

[Rossco]

Feel free to reload while cat is hot. No worries...

Chris

The 'Eyes' have it, this topic is adjourned.

Iam Suprised at the amount of cracked CAT's.

Off to work. This is how's she looks.



Good night, god bless. See y'all in the morning.

 

[BrotherBart]

Typical manufacturer. Cat cracked? Log off and watch football.

 

[Rossco]

Watch football Ha Ha. I wish. Heading up 8000ft for another 12hr's in paradise.

Enjoy!

 

[HotCoals]

I promise I didn't mean to cause confusion!

From my manual and posts here, I was confused!

rdust, x2 on a cat a year if that's what it took.

I got it now. Let's move on, sorry for the confusion.

You're on top of it .

I don;t think on the way down from a load that loading the stove with the cat probe reading 11:00 or less is going to hurt anything.
But the cat will get hit with a bunch of cool air when you open the door so it is good to think some about that.
Anything over 12:00 or so on the probe you should not need to reload anyways unless someones timing is way off.

 

[rdust]

Typical manufacturer. Cat cracked? Log off and watch football.

Not really anything "typical" about Chris. You know he's the odd man out coming on here as a manufacture to represent his product.(Mike from Englander also does a good job) I wish more manufactures would become active.

 

[tarzan]

Nobody going to "like" my go colts post.

I realize Chris and Hot Coals could get beat up over it tonight, but the rest of ya!

 

[BrotherBart]

Not really anything "typical" about Chris. You know he's the odd man out coming on here as a manufacture to represent his product.(Englander also does a good job) I wish more manufactures would become active.

Four have. Chris and Mike are still in the business but fyrebug, SBI, got a job out of the business. The other guy just got tired of being hammered. At least two others just lurk.

 

[BKVP]

Go Colts!

 

[RustyShackleford]

Open bypass, open door, reload, close door, char load, close bypass and enjoy. You're not going to hurt the cat unless you don't open the bypass before opening the door.

Exacto-mundo; I have NEVER worried about reloading the stove while the cat is still active. I'm not even sure charring the load is that important; my understanding was the main reason was in case there's something unwholesome near the surface of the wood, that would damage the cat if it wasn't allowed to burn off and go directly up the chimney - most likely moisture (even surface moisture on otherwise dry wood, e.g. recent rain or snow).

I agree that people seem to be worrying WAY too much about this stuff, and that such talk (not necessarily here) might be a reason that lots of people seem to be afraid of buying a catalytic stove.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I'm confused why you think that everyone has gone and replaced the OEM cat meter with a numbered one like you have ...

Good point, yeah. But actually I don't think the specific temp is that important - just knowing if you're hot enough to be active, mainly. I think we've pretty much decided here that you don't need to worry too much about the cat getting too hot (in a catalytic stove, at least). I replaced my thermometer mainly because the OEM "Inactive/Active" one had gotten so crufty I could barely see the markings.

I propose that they decided that this monitoring is not necessary ...

Agreed - and they were probably right.

 

[HotCoals]

You see i don't really consider this "performance" thread to be just the basic info. Maybe that is bad on my part..i dunno.
But yes as long as the probe is around 10-11:00 on a cold start and I know the wood has been charred for 15-20 mins I shut the air right down and let her cruise without worry about cat stalls which mostly happen from the wood not out gassing enough. If I shut the air down at 9:00 I ccan get and have had stalls. Sometimes I'll let it go and then she will fire off latter on it's own but in the mean time there is considerable smoke coming out the chimney and i don't like that.

 

[BKVP]

You see i don't really consider this "performance" thread to be just the basic info. Maybe that is bad on my part..i dunno.
But yes as long as the probe is around 10-11:00 on a cold start and I know the wood has been charred for 15-20 mins I shut the air right down and let her cruise without worry about cat stalls which mostly happen from the wood not out gassing enough. If I shut the air down at 9:00 I ccan get and have had stalls. Sometimes I'll let it go and then she will fire off latter on it's own but in the mean time there is considerable smoke coming out the chimney and i don't like that.

Hotcoals,
Your specific experience relates to your specific application. Draft, moisture content wood density, dimensions of cord wood and other factors influence specific applications.

Casual viewers and new stove owners will not always remember this point and will read in this thread yours and others experiences and expect the same.

I know I'm preaching the the choir, but you and others know from experience and performance attributes how to properly operate your stove and your expectations.

And then all that changes when the zip code changes. I've said it before but it bears repeating....you and others here have saved me many, many tech calls. For that I am indebted to you all.

Keep up the good work.....I may hire you all!

 

[HotCoals]

Hotcoals,
Your specific experience relates to your specific application. Draft, moisture content wood density, dimensions of cord wood and other factors influence specific applications.

Casual viewers and new stove owners will not always remember this point and will read in this thread yours and others experiences and expect the same.

I know I'm preaching the the choir, but you and others know from experience and performance attributes how to properly operate your stove and your expectations.

And then all that changes when the zip code changes. I've said it before but it bears repeating....you and others here have saved me many, many tech calls. For that I am indebted to you all.

Keep up the good work.....I may hire you all!

I have a lot of free time since I don't work a 9-5 anymore..just sayin'. lol

Great to have you around here!
My hat is off to you!

The BKK has saved me huge money when it comes to heating my house..even over the non cat BKK it is a big diff. Went from on avg 15 fc's to 10-11.
Also the house temp is way more even through the burn. To me the lower output over a longer time is the best part of it. Not 90f at one end and 65 at the other end! Cheers!

Now send me a new cat probe cause all the printing is gone..that should not be on a 4 year old stove.

 

[BKVP]

I have a lot of free time since I don't work a 9-5 anymore..just sayin'. lol

Great to have you around here!
My hat is off to you!

The BKK has saved me huge money when it comes to heating my house..even over the non cat BKK it is a big diff. Went from on avg 15 fc's to 10-11.
Also the house temp is way more even through the burn. To me the lower output over a longer time is the best part of it. Not 90f at one end and 65 at the other end! Cheers!

Now send me a new cat probe cause all the printing is gone..that should not be on a 4 year old stove.

Everyone else is in bed and no one will read this....so PM me your address. I have some Italian friends in your area that can do me a solid.

 

[webby3650]

Everyone else is in bed and no one will read this....so PM me your address. I have some Italian friends in your area that can do me a solid.

Doesn't everyone wake up hourly to check this thread?

 

[HotCoals]

Everyone else is in bed and no one will read this....so PM me your address. I have some Italian friends in your area that can do me a solid.

(broken image removed)

 

[Highbeam]

Doesn't everyone wake up hourly to check this thread?

Pretty much. It's dark, raining, and the bk is humming along. What else is there to do?

 

[05ramctd]

On here more than I am at work. Good education on BK stoves. Plus some free entertainment.

 

[Jeepman401]

Just jumping in to say these stoves are amazing! After 15 years of burning in an old sears circulator stove I found out about these threw an ad in the newspaper. I was going to get a quadra fire but this first week with the BK has shown had I not seen that ad, I would have made a huge mistake.
My house is a small 550 sqft up plus 400 sqft in the basement... old construction. I had no problem heating it with the circulator...I even added a water coil to it to heat my domestic water. My problems where excessive amount of heat, excessive smoke, coming home to a cold home after work or having to drive home to load it up after 4-8 hours in the dead of winter. What the old stove did have was a bi-metal thermostat, like BK. So after looking at reviews online and the stove in the store I knew this was the stove to have.

Loaded the King yesterday at 3 pm, went to work at 6pm, then to the store after work. When I got home the house is within 2 degrees when I left and there is well more than half the wood left some 13 hours later. Amazing. This past week I have only loaded it 3 times, and not gone below 70 and not above 74F even with outside temp of 30 to 55F.
For the past 15 years I have been 55F to up to 90F in the house while being the slave to the stove. I am loving this stove. Thank thank BK!

Now that I have to out, I have dropped down to a 6in pipe then 45 into a straight 12in pipe into another 45 that goes into the clay lined chimney. Its a short basement but the chimney is in the center of the house. I used a dampener to throttle down the old stove because it could overfire...not a very airtight stove.
The BKK has been working fine as far as I can tell with the small pipe, wide open dampener and turning right off the reducer. Running just over 1.5 right now. Is the need for a 8in pipe just to run the King wide open? I can 't see me needing a setting of much over 2 with fans on even in the dead of winter.

 

[Rich2343]

Actually, it's also perpetuated by other stove mfg'ers (e.g. Dutchwest) and by the cat manufacturers. I've been reading (and ignoring) it for years.

I can say that on a number of occasions, I have seen the cat thermometer needle pegged beyond the 2000 degree reading, and that, heading into my 6th burning season (with my BK with stainless-steel cat), the thing is still working just fine. Dunno if a ceramic cat would have tolerated this less well or not. (I replaced the dumbed-down "Inactive/"Active" thermometer with the one with actual temperature readings).

I am also confused about people saying you can't really tell how hot the cat is. Seems like the thermometer works pretty well; yes, I understand it's just a steel spring, but I still imagine it's accurate to within 100 degrees or so. The main problem I have with it - and I'd seek guidance on this - is that the "zero" seems to keep drifting; that is, with a cold stove, the needle is well below the bottom end of the scale. I'll loosen the nuts and adjust it, but after not that many burning cycles, it has drifted again. Wonder if somehow I'm adjusting it incorrectly ...

I really don't get all this "active "inactive" talk. If the thermometer says its active, it's active. It doesn't matter what made the catalyst hot, hot is hot! Heat is what it takes to make the cat active. At the end of a burn the only element that's missing is smoke to burn. If smoke was introduced, it would burn, because the cat is hot. Therefore its active.

Webby if it's in a glowing state its a free 200' of heat. Just the way I see it.

 

[RustyShackleford]

My house is a small 550 sqft up plus 400 sqft in the basement...

This past week I have only loaded it 3 times, and not gone below 70 and not above 74F even with outside temp of 30 to 55F.

Now that I have to out, I have dropped down to a 6in pipe then 45 into a straight 12in pipe into another 45 that goes into the clay lined chimney. Its a short basement but the chimney is in the center of the house.

Wow, if I understand correctly, you have a King in a less than 1000 sq-ft house. That's an amazing testament to the ability of the BK to do long low burns. Though, given all this talk about the necessity of a wide-open burn occasionally to clean out creosote and the glass, I'm wondering how you're going to handle that; wait 'tll one of those cold "Fargo" nights and open the windows, I reckon

Your stovepipe setup sounds bizarre and not recommended. (Could you perhaps post us some photos of it ?) I guess if you're not having problems, that's good, but still, I wonder (and worry) about safety long-term.

 

[Parallax]

I'm beginning to get the hang of my Ashford. A good charring and then close her down (to 1.5 in my application). Easy, peasy. I still have some smell coming off the stove and need to do something about the draft. But the stove itself is awesome.

On a reload, with the cat in the active range, how long should I burn to char the wood before closing the bypass?