2015-2016 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

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My last burn I was begging for the thing to go out. Temp rose here in jersey. It was over 80 degrees in the house with the windows open. Damn thing stayed hot for a day and a half. It's horrible having these problems:) Thanks for an amazing stove blaze king!
 
My last burn I was begging for the thing to go out. Temp rose here in jersey. It was over 80 degrees in the house with the windows open. Damn thing stayed hot for a day and a half. It's horrible having these problems:) Thanks for an amazing stove blaze king!
Thank you for making the purchase.
 
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When you guys start a cold stove do you use Colored newspaper?
We don't have to restart our stoves. They are like the Olympic torch
 
My last burn I was begging for the thing to go out.
Swoops and numbers aside, I'm really amazed by this little Ashford 30. I've been running since Friday night, precisely TWO splits per day, running 24 hour shifts. Each day, I look in there after 16 hours, and there's still a half a split left, looking like it's gone out. I turn up the air, and flames re-appear! Just amazing.

Each night, I throw in a scrap or two of lumber (eg. furring strips) and two new splits. It takes off inside a minute, without a match, and I'm back up and running. Can't wait to see how it runs on a full load, when things turn cold.

I never used to light my stoves until after Halloween, lest they'd heat us out of the house. They could not burn nearly this low and slow.
 
Turn it down when you get home, you can hear when the inlet closes.
Well I am home now and your right, I can hear the click. I happens about 1/8 of an inch before the sticker that has the number 1 on it. So unless I am hearing something else it does not close at about the 2 o'clock position . On mine it happens after you turn it back beyond the number 1 that I put on the stove,.. and that was an arbitrary starting point that I chose .DISCLAIMER:: YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY ha ha Thanks DRZ

Edit: well you are very right about the draft closed position changing when the stove is hot. Right now the cat thermo is about at the 5 o'clock position and the draft at wide open 6o'clock. So while it is quite in the house I slowly turned the draft control down towards closed. At the 3 o'clock position I heard it click closed so I set it at maybe 4 o'clock and am done fiddling with it till it is out of wood. But I bet as the thermo comes done some from buried the closed draft position will change as well? Thanks jeff ,..Learning to love the rig
 
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Well I am home now and your right, I can hear the click. I happens about 1/8 of an inch before the sticker that has the number 1 on it. So unless I am hearing something else it does not close at about the 2 o'clock position . On mine it happens after you turn it back beyond the number 1 that I put on the stove,.. and that was an arbitrary starting point that I chose .DISCLAIMER:: YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY ha ha Thanks DRZ
It happens at a different place, depending on temperature of the stove at that moment. At higher temps, it closes earlier.
 
Thanks Ashful makes sense,
I use to own an Ashley cant remember the model that also used a similar spring actuated damper. It was black heavy gauge sheet metal with an automatic damper that was also run by a spring. That damper plate also had a dial within it ,like an old rotary phone dial with assorted holes so once you chose the size hole,.. that way stove could also always have a source of air even if you closed the manual damper dial completely.
That was a hell of a stove my friend has one in a camp up in the county ( far northern Maine) it works very well heats a 24'square 2 story camp with zero insulation . It is a dam keepers camp built in the early 1800's back during the hay day of log driving. That same friend had one of these stoves in his barn and gave it to another friend of mine. That friend completely re conditioned it last fall and now heats a wood working shop with it. That stove brings back a lot of memories I was 18 and heating my own home , well me and a co-signed payment book. P.s. the stove was an Ashley 25 hfr
 
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Fellow BK members, ha, like saying that after several years of lusting for one! Anyway I am hooking up the pipes and wanna try a quick smoke check with paper and maybe a little wood, it was delivered with the flame shield laying in bottom and not sure which way it goes in. Any help? You know with the two little angled tabs toward the cat and the triangle pointing down maybe? Probably ought to mention it is the Princess Ultra with fan,stainless (blue) door and the two bars on top.
 
Yep. Angled bits up, narrow edge down, sits on tabs in cat frame and upper door frame lip:
(broken image removed)
 
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Swoops and numbers aside, I'm really amazed by this little Ashford 30. I've been running since Friday night, precisely TWO splits per day, running 24 hour shifts. Each day, I look in there after 16 hours, and there's still a half a split left, looking like it's gone out. I turn up the air, and flames re-appear! Just amazing.

Each night, I throw in a scrap or two of lumber (eg. furring strips) and two new splits. It takes off inside a minute, without a match, and I'm back up and running. Can't wait to see how it runs on a full load, when things turn cold.

I never used to light my stoves until after Halloween, lest they'd heat us out of the house. They could not burn nearly this low and slow.

I'm glad you're liking it and appreciating the low and slow that only a bk can deliver. I remember back when I was convinced to make the bk upgrade. I just couldn't believe it was possible to burn so long and also to put a full load in there and not get roasted out. The firebox capacity is really just the size of the fuel tank to feed that cat, not directly related to output like most stoves.
 
I've been waiting for BK to come out again with the KING model insert. I've got an old one downstairs. Had it since 82. I like that it sticks out farther than most stove inserts today, so you can put your water kettle on top, so you don't dry out as much. I can't fit a kettle on my lopi. I keep waiting every year for one to come out.
 
I've been waiting for BK to come out again with the KING model insert. I've got an old one downstairs. Had it since 82. I like that it sticks out farther than most stove inserts today, so you can put your water kettle on top, so you don't dry out as much. I can't fit a kettle on my lopi. I keep waiting every year for one to come out.
Unfortunately I don't think you will see one come to market either. It costs so much money to produce a stove that there has to be a very large market that wants that stove. This cost is almost all safety testing and EPA testing. It takes a ridiculous amount of money to get a stove to market!
These huge old inserts like you have will fit very few fireplaces. In general, a 3 cubic foot insert is about all that will fit by the time you get a liner hooked up to it. Even that takes some firebox/damper modification just to get a 6" liner down. An 8" liner and a bigger stove would be out of the question most of the time. The few huge inserts that are still in production can also be used as a freestanding stove, doing this nearly doubles their market. So it's slightly more appealing to the manufacturer.
 
So was measuring my chimney pipe this morning for insurance and whatnot, and it ends up the pipe only reaches 20" above the peak, so I'm going to be adding another section of class A.

Current height is 15'6. How tall should I go/ if this was you, what would you do?

18" section to bring my total to 17'?
4' section to raise it to 19'6?

At what point would I have to start worrying about too much draft?

Also, I don't have a flue probe thermometer yet, and don't really see the need.. but then again, I don't know. How useful are those?
 
Operating / burning process question,
So does my princess work like this. You build a fire and when it gets going well you close the by-pass and set the draft control. The cat is now up and running well into the active zone bty.
So the wood being super heated produces gas and smoke the cat burns this gas along with smoke keeping it burning and in fuel. Because the cat is hot and burning it keeps the fuel wood hot and producing gas and smoke which the cat burns . While it is doing this it keeps making the wood fuel produce gas and smoke which it burns over and over and over till the fuel is exhausted? Is this what is happening inside ? Kind of a temporary perpetual motion machine
 
The cat doesn't really keep the wood hot, by the time your stove is up to temp to close the bypass, the wood is burning. When the tstat closes, your wood essentially starts to smoulder, which creates the smoke to feed the cat. When the stat opens, it burns like any other combustible with the cat eating the smoke and gas.

That's the simple version.
 
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FYI BK OWNERS...I met StumpShot last night in Missoula. Great guy man. Anyone that shows up with a Gunwerks cap is my buddy instantly!
 
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