Not really a machine. Just a big steel box with a few moving parts.
Think of it this way, we could trade stoves and leave everything else as is. I would go on getting the same results I get and you yours.
2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)
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Not really a machine. Just a big steel box with a few moving parts.
Think of it this way, we could trade stoves and leave everything else as is. I would go on getting the same results I get and you yours.
Southern New England, 15% m/c mixed hardwood, 2x6 construction, 2x10 ceiling joists 2010 construction with plenty of r-value, 26' flue, stove with 1" ash, pretty decent size splits, keep guessing?
How big is the place? I imagine it must be large if a 500* SST is required to maintain a 70* interior temp.
My Princess with around a 300* SST will maintain interior temps with temps in the upper 20's. Right now it is 26* outside and I'm burning down coals from my morning load(7:30am, currently 10:2x) the SST is 370ish and I added a degree or two into the house since I started burning the coals down. If I needed to maintain a 500* SST to maintain heat in here my Princess burn times would be reduced significantly. I'm heating just shy of 2K in south eastern Michigan in a house built in the early 1980's so the construction/insulation sucks.
Edit: I have no idea how I typed SST for stove top temp for this entire post!
I must've been sleeping when I typed it out.
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Yes I'm 2600 wide open floor plan. Mind you temps are 30-40's here. I just need to make people aware not even close to everyone will see 20+ hr burn times, burn times meaning useable heat. Sure 30 hrs down the road I can have enough coals to get another load going, but the sure as chit won't heat my homeHow big is the place? I imagine it must be large if a 500* SST is required to maintain a 70* interior temp.
My Princess with around a 300* SST will maintain interior temps with temps in the upper 20's. Right now it is 26* outside and I'm burning down coals from my morning load(7:30am, currently 10:2x) the SST is 370ish and I added a degree or two into the house since I started burning the coals down. If I needed to maintain a 500* SST to maintain heat in here my Princess burn times would be reduced significantly. I'm heating just shy of 2K in south eastern Michigan in a house built in the early 1980's so the construction/insulation sucks.
True, this is why usable heat is different for everyone. Threads like this one provide plenty of real world results so perspective buyers can get a good idea of what to expect. If I had a King in my place I have no doubt I would get 24 hour burns(usable heat) darn near all winter long.
Quentin2
Burning Hunk
I agree rdust, 500 top seems pretty high to maintain throughout the burn.
Diesel head, you got similarities with me, king, new construction. Your burning hardwood me soft. I just got home, I loaded 20 hours ago my top is 350 my cat 650. Stove room is 77, upstairs is 72 in center of house, far extremities probably 69. It's 29 outside. Total 2850 to heat. I had the blowers on all the way low, stat at bottom of normal 1.5.
It is peculiar that your not getting more similar results. 26 and 2800 is a lot for a stove to heat. You say open floor plan, do you have massive vaulted ceilings and lots of windows? I have some vaults upstairs but it's only 10'6" guessing. I could see if you had 15'+ of ceiling in big rooms that your heating needs would be greatly increased.
I don't know what the construction standards, differences and similarities are between our towns. I do know my home is five star energy rated, whatever that means. I also spent a bit of money on insulated cellular shades on every window in my home minus bedrooms. These make a huge difference in draft from windows. I get terrible wind routinely, it's blowing right now.
Diesel head, you got similarities with me, king, new construction. Your burning hardwood me soft. I just got home, I loaded 20 hours ago my top is 350 my cat 650. Stove room is 77, upstairs is 72 in center of house, far extremities probably 69. It's 29 outside. Total 2850 to heat. I had the blowers on all the way low, stat at bottom of normal 1.5.
It is peculiar that your not getting more similar results. 26 and 2800 is a lot for a stove to heat. You say open floor plan, do you have massive vaulted ceilings and lots of windows? I have some vaults upstairs but it's only 10'6" guessing. I could see if you had 15'+ of ceiling in big rooms that your heating needs would be greatly increased.
I don't know what the construction standards, differences and similarities are between our towns. I do know my home is five star energy rated, whatever that means. I also spent a bit of money on insulated cellular shades on every window in my home minus bedrooms. These make a huge difference in draft from windows. I get terrible wind routinely, it's blowing right now.
Another thing to keep in mind is most of us who have a King or Princess place our stove top thermometers on the steel over or just aft the cat.
When we see for instance, 500* stove top provided by a smoldering fuel load and an active, glowing cat it's not the same as 500* with visible flames and a less active, not glowing cat.
While the temps may register the same on the stove top, the small cat just under the stove top can not heat as much surface area as does the load of wood in the fire box.
Hope I put that in a way that makes sense!
When we see for instance, 500* stove top provided by a smoldering fuel load and an active, glowing cat it's not the same as 500* with visible flames and a less active, not glowing cat.
While the temps may register the same on the stove top, the small cat just under the stove top can not heat as much surface area as does the load of wood in the fire box.
Hope I put that in a way that makes sense!
low e windows and all that jazz, R21 walls, r-30something cielings. Yes to the stove room being a "great room" with tall ceilings, overhead loft. temp is within 1° 1st floor to 2nd floor. it convects unbelieveably.
MMCM(SS)USNRet
Member
Yesterday I took the plunge and did the hour long hi temp burn for the first time. I reached and maintained 725dF STT and the cat probe was at 6 o'clock...waaaay hot. Before did this I went back to page 9 of this thread and read forward to refresh my memory of the consensus reached by all who contributed to that particular discussion and convinced myself I was doing the right thing. Unfortunately, I didn't re-read far enough forward to reach the discussion about overheating the cat on page 15 until last night. I pulled the probe this morning to see if the "zero" point had drifted...it had not. I keep it set to the first tick mark at the bottom of the "Inactive" band at room temp. Looking at the probe face comparison photo on page 20 I was running way above 2000dF cat temp. I've had it pegged like that briefly during the 30 minute hot-burn-after-loading procedure also, but I hadn't maintained it that high as long as I did yesterday.
There are many opinions here about how to operate this stove, with everyone making valid cases for their particular circumstances. The weekly hour-long WOT burn may not be as pertinent to hardwood users as it is to those of us who aren't so fortunate. The wood available to me is beetle-killed lodgepole pine. When the tree gets infected it tries to maximize pitch production to flush out the eggs, so the worst-infected wood has dried sap running down the sides. Some of that gets dislodged by handling and processing, but I'd wager there isn't much wood fuel out there that generates more creosote. Over the five years of owning this stove it's been interesting trying to overcome that particular challenge. I was told by my vendor and by BK customer service several years ago that I should just load it and return the thermostat to the previous setting as soon as the new load caught, that there was no real need for burning it hot as long as the fire was "lively" before I turned the stat down. I was cleaning the stack annually and finding varying amounts of creosote, from quite a bit to a LOT (how's that for talking technical?). I ended up I having a small chimney fire last year (caught it very quickly, no damage to home or Selkirk chimney), so I'm now REALLY paranoid about creosote buildup. Thanks to this thread I've become religious about burning WOT after every load and I'm checking my stack once a month until I have a reliable reference for how well that is controlling the buildup. I think the weekly hour-long hot burn, never mentioned in the manual but prescribed here by BKVP, will help, but I don't want to damage the stove. What I want is to be able to burn all season without having to sweep. I realize that may not be achievable, particularly in a season like this with so much shoulder weather.
So...how bad did I screw up burning that hot that long?
Edit: Now that my brain is fully engaged on this point I wonder how much effect this is having on the creosote in the stack. The original postings were discussing how to clean up the firebox.
There are many opinions here about how to operate this stove, with everyone making valid cases for their particular circumstances. The weekly hour-long WOT burn may not be as pertinent to hardwood users as it is to those of us who aren't so fortunate. The wood available to me is beetle-killed lodgepole pine. When the tree gets infected it tries to maximize pitch production to flush out the eggs, so the worst-infected wood has dried sap running down the sides. Some of that gets dislodged by handling and processing, but I'd wager there isn't much wood fuel out there that generates more creosote. Over the five years of owning this stove it's been interesting trying to overcome that particular challenge. I was told by my vendor and by BK customer service several years ago that I should just load it and return the thermostat to the previous setting as soon as the new load caught, that there was no real need for burning it hot as long as the fire was "lively" before I turned the stat down. I was cleaning the stack annually and finding varying amounts of creosote, from quite a bit to a LOT (how's that for talking technical?). I ended up I having a small chimney fire last year (caught it very quickly, no damage to home or Selkirk chimney), so I'm now REALLY paranoid about creosote buildup. Thanks to this thread I've become religious about burning WOT after every load and I'm checking my stack once a month until I have a reliable reference for how well that is controlling the buildup. I think the weekly hour-long hot burn, never mentioned in the manual but prescribed here by BKVP, will help, but I don't want to damage the stove. What I want is to be able to burn all season without having to sweep. I realize that may not be achievable, particularly in a season like this with so much shoulder weather.
So...how bad did I screw up burning that hot that long?
Edit: Now that my brain is fully engaged on this point I wonder how much effect this is having on the creosote in the stack. The original postings were discussing how to clean up the firebox.
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BKVP
Minister of Fire
You and your stove are going to be just fine....Merry Christmas.
Quentin2
Burning Hunk
If your worried about it getting too hot at an hour wot, why not just go 30 or 40 min. If bkvp isn't worried I wouldn't be. I will try to do a 15 or 20 min wot every few days or so. My wood piles too precious to me, don't like to waste it. Good luck
Quentin2
Burning Hunk
i guess 500 stt might not be that unrealistic to maintain. Not working today so went down and took this photo at 12 hours into burn.
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I should say I did not look at it any other time then startup and now at 12 hours. This past week at 20 hours when I get home from work it's been consistent around 300 stt and 600ish cat.
Happy holidays
Edit: set at 1.5 or bottom of normal, blowers on low
I should say I did not look at it any other time then startup and now at 12 hours. This past week at 20 hours when I get home from work it's been consistent around 300 stt and 600ish cat.
Happy holidays
Edit: set at 1.5 or bottom of normal, blowers on low
MMCM(SS)USNRet
Member
Merry Christmas to you, Chris. Would you still recommend that I repeat this weekly or should I adjust the variables (fuel load, split size, stat setting, et al) to achieve a lower stt or cat temp? Do you have a target stt in mind (the cat appears to have a mind of it's own based on amount of smoke being generated)? Is this doing anything toward my goal of minimizing creosote buildup in 10' of double-wall stovepipe and 9' of triple wall chimney or is it only effective in keeping the firebox cleaner? And, yes, I know i'm overthinking this but I used to operate nuclear power plants so I can't help it without intervention.
BKVP
Minister of Fire
The weekly high burn is just to keep down build up during the season. If you look back to the first time I mentioned it, it was during the shoulder season when so many folks were looking to get big long burns due to mild weather. With most of the moisture in the fuel being dealt with in the first few hours, some folks load a full load and then just run off or go to bed. That can result in sauna like conditions, regardless of which brand of stove or technology is being used.
Well, in many places it has cooled off and running the stoves hotter will help with this as well. You can just look into the left rear and right rear corners and look to see if there is too much build up.
As for cats, they have a mind of their own. (Yes gas flow/release can generate some amazing temps even when there is little or no fuel in the stove.)
I have had temps in excess of 1400F with as little as 1lb of fuel...it was heavily charred, about the size of a softball and the cat was hovering around 575, tail end of long burn. I opened the door, whacked the chunk of wood and closed the door. The cat just took off and it was amazing how fast it climbed to 1400F.
Run your stove where the cat stays active (with the fans off as air movement can give a false reading on ALL THE CONDAR thermometers as the spring under them gets hit by the fan air movement) and also keeps you comfortable.
Merry Christmas!
Winter is so hit and miss at the moment. The -32C we encountered recently are just bad memory's now. The 30" of snow that fell over night has all but gone. The new year is when the cold will bite back.
I live in the East Kootnay region. South East. It's normally a great place for sledding but not at the moment.
8" pipe would have been my instal preference, if you're a serious burner and have a million square miles of wood like we have here.
I sometimes have to chuckle at some of the recommendations in this thread. Burn WOT for 1 hour? I don't have time to babysit this stove, I woke up this morning late for work. So only threw a few splits in to keep it going until the wife gets up (Left it on 1.5, threw by-pass, opened door, threw wood in, closed door & By-pass, turned fans back on) The wifes got a 2 yr old and a 3 month old baby to 'Babysit'
You don't need to faff around if you have dry wood.
NinjaTech
Burning Hunk
Right now I'm burning these little end trimmings. SWMBO's sisters fiance took down some dead trees on their property a while back and cut and split all of it. They cut if to length for their fireplace and were giving away a bunch for free, but the way they cut it its about 2 inches too long to fit in the stove. Had to trim about two cords of splits to get them to fit so I have this giant pile of end trimmings I have been burning the last few days. Talk about the cat going crazy with all that surface area.
Still loving my Ashford. I ordered the fan kit today. It's running fine without but I hear good things about them and it should even out the temps a little.
Now the colder weather has set in I'm probably averaging 16-18 hour burns depending on my wife! She likes it a fair bit hotter than me. If it was just me I could be pushing 20 hour burns. Really happy with the stove. I'm burning half the amount of wood I used to. Almost done with my first cord. Seem to be averaging about 1/6 a cord a week. I usually load at night at 10ish. The following day at around 4pm I throw 3-4 splits on and turn it a little higher. It's nice to have the flames and my wife enjoys the extra heat. That'll keep us going to about 10ish when I load it full. Sure beats last winter loading the stove every 3-4 hours and waking up to a cold house and stove.
I'm going to split my wood larger now. How big do you usually split? I only had about 9 months to season the wood I'm burning so I split everything to about 4 inches so it would season faster. I found a few larger pieces for overnight burns and it seems to push the burns a little longer.
Every time my in-laws are over they admire the stove. I don't think it'll be long before they get a Ashford 20.
Now the colder weather has set in I'm probably averaging 16-18 hour burns depending on my wife! She likes it a fair bit hotter than me. If it was just me I could be pushing 20 hour burns. Really happy with the stove. I'm burning half the amount of wood I used to. Almost done with my first cord. Seem to be averaging about 1/6 a cord a week. I usually load at night at 10ish. The following day at around 4pm I throw 3-4 splits on and turn it a little higher. It's nice to have the flames and my wife enjoys the extra heat. That'll keep us going to about 10ish when I load it full. Sure beats last winter loading the stove every 3-4 hours and waking up to a cold house and stove.
I'm going to split my wood larger now. How big do you usually split? I only had about 9 months to season the wood I'm burning so I split everything to about 4 inches so it would season faster. I found a few larger pieces for overnight burns and it seems to push the burns a little longer.
Every time my in-laws are over they admire the stove. I don't think it'll be long before they get a Ashford 20.
Shane. I hope you like the fan. For us here at my house the fan is like the stoves super charger.
As for split size, 6" to 8" with a few largish rounds mixed in has been working fine for me. But of course, your mileage may vary.
As for split size, 6" to 8" with a few largish rounds mixed in has been working fine for me. But of course, your mileage may vary.
I am getting spillage from my princess during every reload that I need to restart the fire or attempt to do a 'burn off'
Even when getting smaller logs and kindling super hot with a lot of flames, I am getting spillage while loading the big stuff.
I have 15 foot from top of stove to the chimney cap, straight.
Would putting more footage on top of the chimney do anything to help this? It is becoming unbearable with the lingering smell. I do not want a cabin.
I am doing everything right. Bypass open, t-stat on 3, opening door slowly, getting a HOT burn going before reloading fully.
Thanks for any help!
Even when getting smaller logs and kindling super hot with a lot of flames, I am getting spillage while loading the big stuff.
I have 15 foot from top of stove to the chimney cap, straight.
Would putting more footage on top of the chimney do anything to help this? It is becoming unbearable with the lingering smell. I do not want a cabin.
I am doing everything right. Bypass open, t-stat on 3, opening door slowly, getting a HOT burn going before reloading fully.
Thanks for any help!
aansorge
Minister of Fire
OAK? That is a good question, Rossco.
I've heard blaze kings like some pipe. 15 ft is on the short end of acceptable. I'd add three more feet and I bet that will help a lot. I have 25 ft on my King and can only get a little smoke if I whip the door open super quick.
I've heard blaze kings like some pipe. 15 ft is on the short end of acceptable. I'd add three more feet and I bet that will help a lot. I have 25 ft on my King and can only get a little smoke if I whip the door open super quick.
No OAK. I didn't know that it helped with negative pressure? I was ok with using warm air for combustion and I didn't really like idea of drilling hole through wall.
I think I will try to add more pipe, if that doesn't work, I will explore the OAK. Thanks guys.
I think I will try to add more pipe, if that doesn't work, I will explore the OAK. Thanks guys.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
My stack is about 20ft, I get a little spillage if a rush opening the door to, but if I slowly open it no problems at all, add the 3 ft, it will help
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