2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 3 (Everything BK)

[jetsam]

Weather update: Winter again. Dogs indifferent.

 

[black smoke signals]

I’m adding this to the mix on the high draft THE WIND 40-60 mph not uncommon sometimes I have to check weather forecast before I build a fire this is why I don’t set it and forget the wind can sneak up. BK or any other brand of stove will get tested where I live. My stove is a keeper just want to feel safe with the variables I have. How about adding a few 90degree elbows and dual exhaust LOL

 

[allan5oh]

Well I think my parents are going to bite the bullet for a princess. Now I have to work on my in laws.

 

[Woody Stover]

I know a lot of folks on here are put off by the fact that the door gasket must be removed to get at the glass gasket. I’m here to tell ya, it makes changing both gaskets a breeze!
Other stoves typically use furnace cement to adhere the gasket, which is hell to remove! Also, the glass retainer nuts, or worse, screws are exposed to the fire at all times. This almost always requires grinding/drilling/tapping just to change the glass gasket... gI can change a set of BK gaskets in less than 10 minutes, not bad!

Does your shop do much of that kind of work? I wouldn't think most of the people that buy stoves ever think much about gasket maintenance. I don't think many of 'em get that far in the manual. How do you round up this type of work, send 'em a card in the mail like the auto-repair shops do? "Fall maintenance special! Get your stove ready for winter with our 10-point checkup!" Or do they have operational problems, and end up calling you? More likely, you check over their stoves when you sweep their chimney and point out stove maintenance issues if you see 'em?
As far as I've seen (not very many stoves,) if the door gasket isn't subjected to a lot of heat, e.g. protected by the front of the stove, they use silicone to adhere the door gasket. My Fireview and Keystone side-load and have cast iron load doors and they get hot, so they use cement for the gaskets. Really, I find removing either silicone or gasket cement to be tedious. I've just been using an angle grinder with a cable-twist wheel...makes short work of both silicone and cement.
I have yet to strip the head of a screw or break it off, and have done glass gaskets on several of the stoves in my sig including the Dutchwest, which you would think would be more likely to strip or shear off a retainer clip screw, since corrosion has had more time to work on those. I've been lucky I guess. Sure, a lot of stuff in a stove gets hot but anything I've worked on has come loose pretty easily. I am careful, though, and use penetrant if I think I need to. If you are trying to do 'em all in ten minutes, you might shear a few and have to drill 'em out. Goodbye, ten-minute job!
Your shop hasn't carried the BK line too long, have they? It will be interesting to see how they hold up over the long haul, when they get years of use and wear on them. Not sure how long any of their current models have remained unchanged for many years, or if their are any long-time BK owners of those models on here (ten years plus.) Seems we see a lot of newb traffic on this thread.." I just got my BK a week ago, and love it!"
There have been enough reports here of people that ground down the BK bolt/stud arrangement and/or re-glued the door gasket with a full length of silicone, rather than a dotted line, and got less smoke smell if they had that issue. I'm going to avoid that type of arrangement, but to each his own. Until now, 'BK' and 'easy maintenance' are not terms I have associated, but I'll grant you that the chances of ever shearing a stud or nut on that setup is probably close to zero.
By the way, next time you do one of these ten minute door-and-glass gasket jobs, fire up your phone, get a video and post it. I would enjoy seeing that..

 

[Woody Stover]

I’m adding this to the mix on the high draft THE WIND 40-60 mph not uncommon sometimes I have to check weather forecast before I build a fire this is why I don’t set it and forget the wind can sneak up.

Doesn't the thermostat handle that..stove will get hotter and the thermo will cut the air?

 

[webby3650]

Does your shop do much of that kind of work? I wouldn't think most of the people that buy stoves ever think much about gasket maintenance. I don't think many of 'em get that far in the manual. How do you round up this type of work, send 'em a card in the mail like the auto-repair shops do? "Fall maintenance special! Get your stove ready for winter with our 10-point checkup!" Or do they have operational problems, and end up calling you? More likely, you check over their stoves when you sweep their chimney and point out stove maintenance issues if you see 'em?
As far as I've seen (not very many stoves,) if the door gasket isn't subjected to a lot of heat, e.g. protected by the front of the stove, they use silicone to adhere the door gasket. My Fireview and Keystone have cast iron load doors and they get hot, so they use cement for the gaskets. Really, I find removing either silicone or gasket cement to be tedious. I've just been using an angle grinder with a cable-twist wheel...makes short work of both silicone and cement.
I have yet to strip the head of a screw or break it off, and have done glass gaskets on several of the stoves in my sig including the Dutchwest, which you would think would be more likely to strip or shear off a retainer clip screw, since corrosion has had more time to work on those. I've been lucky I guess. Sure, a lot of stuff in a stove gets hot but anything I've worked on has come loose pretty easily. I am careful, though, and use penetrant if I think I need to. If you are trying to do 'em all in ten minutes, you might shear a few and have to drill 'em out. Goodbye, ten-minute job!
Your shop hasn't carried the BK line too long, have they? It will be interesting to see how they hold up over the long haul, when they get years of use and wear on them. Not sure how long any of their current models have remained unchanged for many years, or if their are any long-time BK owners of those models on here (ten years plus.) Seems we see a lot of newb traffic on this thread.." I just got my BK a week ago, and love it!"
There have been enough reports here of people that ground down the BK bolt/stud arrangement and/or re-glued the door gasket with a full length of silicone, rather than a dotted line, and got less smoke smell if they had that issue. I'm going to avoid that type of arrangement, but to each his own. Until now, 'BK' and 'easy maintenance' are not terms I have associated, but I'll grant you that the chances of ever shearing a stud or nut on that setup is probably close to zero.
By the way, next time you do one of these ten minute door-and-glass gasket jobs, fire up your phone, get a video and post it. I would enjoy seeing that..

We do tons of service, we sell to lots of people that hire out everything. The kind of people that call before there’s even a problem. We’ve sold BK for about 12 years. Sold them back in the late 70’s/early 80’s too.

 

[Woody Stover]

We do tons of service, we sell to lots of people that hire out everything.

Many of them probably have a little extra cash to toss around as well, and you guys are obviously the happy recipients of that. If they've got plenty of cash though, you wonder why they mess with wood heat..? I like to get in there and do it myself so I didn't mind buying a stove with no local support.

 

[lsucet]

If they've got plenty of cash though, you wonder why they mess with wood heat..?

Adventure my friend, Adventure.

 

[Woody Stover]

Adventure my friend, Adventure.

Where's the adventure with a BK? Those things runs on auto-pilot.

 

[lsucet]

Where's the adventure with a BK? Those things runs on auto-pilot.

Isn't that the route we all are going anyway?

 

[Woody Stover]

Isn't that the route we all are going anyway?

Yeah but in some cases maybe it's time we wake up and start steering..

 

[kennyp2339]

Where's the adventure with a BK? Those things runs on auto-pilot.

The adventure occurs by not tending a fire all day, its amazing what I can do outside and not worry about rushing back home to keep things stoked

 

[jetsam]

I just spent 30 minutes poring over Google Maps for local canoe routes to try.

I may be ready for spring.

 

[kennyp2339]

I just spent 30 minutes poring over Google Maps for local canoe routes to try.

I may be ready for spring.

I know your from LI but check out the wallkill river by me,

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[Ashful]

Listening to you fellas talking about controlling your draft using dampers and dialing down your t-stats makes me wonder how many BK owners out there are just letting their above spec. drafts roar without issues. I think that you guys are the exception to the rule when it comes to stove tinkering and observations - I think the vast majority of stove owners who have invested in a BK are likely just using the stove with the assumption that if it's a position on the dial, they can use it. Since you don't hear of a lot of issues as a result of this, I wonder how much the tinkering is really worth it in the end, or if it's more of a hobby and passion for the folks on here to tinker with their technology?

Okay, I’ll bite. The stove ran just fine on the “crazy stupid high” draft provided by my 30 foot chimney. Never an issue with overfire, run away, or any sign of loss of control. But, as I’m trying to heat an almost infinite heat sink (my heat requirements are close to 3000 gallons of oil per year PLUS two heat pumps PLUS two propane heaters PLUS some electric resistive), I want to give this stove as much of a fighting chance as I can.

I’ve also had the aforementioned issues with clogging combustors at extended high burn rates. This only happens on weekends, when I am free to run wide open all day long, and am not hampered by making my reload schedule match my work schedule (as I type this on the road, having left the house 12 hours ago).

Third, I like to tinker. I’ll admit that. If something can be done more optimally than the way I’m doing it now, I’m game.

I think that anyone hooking a BK to a stove that has an over-spec strong draft is unlikely to have any problems, especially if said stove has a ceramic cat. My circumstance of requiring very high heat (how many folks run multiple back-to-back full loads of oak at wide-open throttle?) and a very tall chimney are probably fairly unique.

 

[tarzan]

Are you guys chucking wood in from across the room? You would have to miss the hole pretty badly to not only hit the flameshield but also knock it clear up out of the mounts. On my princess the flame shield is above the door opening, way out of harm’s way.

Nope, I'm deliberately taking out the flame shield occasionally to give the cat face a quick brushing when it becomes clogged at a bad time to shut down.

 

[shoot-straight]

Have a pipe damper on my 30' insulated liner. I dont use it all the time, just when it's really cold or lots of wind. It does make a difference in those conditions. In warmer temps it chokes me off too much. I have a small bend (double 25 deg) just a foot above the box so I have to overcome that.

Damper was mandatory on my previous non cat under all conditions.

 

[ratsrepus]

Okay, I’ll bite. The stove ran just fine on the “crazy stupid high” draft provided by my 30 foot chimney. Never an issue with overfire, run away, or any sign of loss of control. But, as I’m trying to heat an almost infinite heat sink (my heat requirements are close to 3000 gallons of oil per year PLUS two heat pumps PLUS two propane heaters PLUS some electric resistive), I want to give this stove as much of a fighting chance as I can.

what the hell you trying to heat, the capitol building?

 

[Ashful]

what the hell you trying to heat, the capitol building?

lol... here we go again. Quick summary: we have 60 windows, 26 of which were built and installed prior to 1779. We have 9 exterior doors in the heated envelope, half of which are also 240 years old. About half of our total square footage is un-insulated stone construction. Our total heated square footage is 4% - 5% of the Capitol Building, depending on how you count it (net vs. gross).

On cat cloggage, I shut down tonight for another cleaning. This was last done two weeks ago, so what you're seeing is just from two weeks of two loads per day, with maybe a third load jammed into each Saturday.

Here's my flame shield:



Combustor before vacuuming:



Combustor after vacuuming:



I think at this point, it's more than just mechanical clogging. I think it's probably nearing end of life, and that's highly exacerbating the (previously minor / infrequent) clogging problem I already had.

 

[begreen]

Proportionately we probably have about as much glass area. 2 loads per day is what we average. 3 on extra cold days. 9 yrs now, no clogging.

 

[Niko]

lol... here we go again. Quick summary: we have 60 windows, 26 of which were built and installed prior to 1779. We have 9 exterior doors in the heated envelope, half of which are also 240 years old. About half of our total square footage is un-insulated stone construction. Our total heated square footage is 4% - 5% of the Capitol Building, depending on how you count it (net vs. gross).

On cat cloggage, I shut down tonight for another cleaning. This was last done two weeks ago, so what you're seeing is just from two weeks of two loads per day, with maybe a third load jammed into each Saturday.

Here's my flame shield:

View attachment 222546 View attachment 222547

Combustor before vacuuming:

View attachment 222548 View attachment 222549

Combustor after vacuuming:

View attachment 222550 View attachment 222551

I think at this point, it's more than just mechanical clogging. I think it's probably nearing end of life, and that's highly exacerbating the (previously minor / infrequent) clogging problem I already had.

Those are steel cats right? I Was thinking getting one for my next cat but not sure what im gonna do. I def give you props as i will be handling 2 stoves this upcoming winter and it requires work both on loading and making sure you wood supply is on par. But im going to be spending money lil by lil to better insulate the house(the most expensive part)and the stoves will be run on super low.

Im sure you have your setup down to perfection. But if you could do something to better it or to say would you do something different what would you do?

 

[ratsrepus]

Ashful, I would think what you do would get old real quick. Your feeding 3 stoves and still use 3000 gal of oil? Lotta work and money dude. Any idea how much wood you go through every year. Wouldn't two kings have worked out better than the ashford's?

 

[jetsam]

Ashful, I would think what you do would get old real quick. Your feeding 3 stoves and still use 3000 gal of oil? Lotta work and money dude. Any idea how much wood you go through every year. Wouldn't two kings have worked out better than the ashford's?

Some insulation would have worked out better than two kings, but the angry ghosts of some long-dead scottish stonemasons keep tearing it out when he puts it up.

Luckily he still has 18 more chimneys to put BKs on as soon as he can get all those vengeful undeads trained to CSS firewood.

 

[allan5oh]

Help me out with my math here. Parents curreby stove can load one 10" split about 22" long. They burn elm mostly and I estimate the average piece that size would be 14 lbs and about 100,000 btu. 70% efficiency puts us at 70,000 maximum output for an overnight burn. By morning the stove needs a restart as it's colder than a whores heart.

The princess can load 60 lbs or 400,000 btu. At 85% efficiency that's 340,000 but output or nearly 5x the current stove! Not to mention it will be better at managing those btus with the thermostat. I doubt it will be those numbers with elm but we have ash to be cut down as well.

 

[black smoke signals]

Doesn't the thermostat handle that..stove will get hotter and the thermo will cut the air?

You have to understand at 40-60 mph winds the t/stat has to be fully closed on my stove. The wind will lift the t/stat plate (has hole in it) back a forth choo choo effect against the seat. I would think this isn’t good for the life of bimetallic spring. This is why I can’t set it and walk away without checking weather. I live at 6200 ft on top of a hill and most of the time I choose not to burn with high winds.