BKVP
Minister of Fire
In fact, regulators research shows 80/80 rule on wood heater owners. 80% burn 80% on two lowest burn rates.
2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 3 (Everything BK)
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AlbergSteve
Minister of Fire
I have a few pics up starting around post #485ish. I think the most important part is getting the joint of the gasket smooth. I offset the inner core about 1.5 inches then wove the loose ends of the outer braid in to each other - I didn't just butt them together. Just a continuous 1/4 inch bead of hi-temp RTV to bed the gasket, enough to hold it in- you don't want it squeezing out everywhere. Wait 24 hours before install. I placed the joint above the latch instead of below the hinge. Because the 1 inch gasket is so dense, Dennis may send out some shims for the hinge side, depending on how the old your Ashford is, there seems to be slight variations in how the face/door was attached.
There's not a lot of vertical or horizontal adjustment in the face/door, maybe +/- 1/8". When you reinstall the door, check the imprint of the knife edge after a few days(it takes that long to get a good imprint). If it's off, loosen the four bolts/nuts and adjust accordingly. You might need help with the vertical adjustment.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
@BKVP, I’ve always thought your maximum heat output numbers were conservative, to the point of turning off some potential buyers. I mean, one can pack 60 lb. of oak (> 380k BTU) into an Ashford fire box, and rip it down in 4 - 6 hours, without even thinking about it. That’s averaging 64k - 96k BTU/hour, which is likely 50% higher at some point early in the burn, and 50% lower at some point late in the burn.
Yet, you list “Constant output on High = 35k - 38k BTU”. Can you elaborate? Are these numbers based on Balsa wood? They do not reflect my own personal experience, or put otherwise, they imply there’s no way to burn down my 60 lb. load of oak in less than 10 hours. We know this is not the case.
@Woody Stover wants to know.
Yet, you list “Constant output on High = 35k - 38k BTU”. Can you elaborate? Are these numbers based on Balsa wood? They do not reflect my own personal experience, or put otherwise, they imply there’s no way to burn down my 60 lb. load of oak in less than 10 hours. We know this is not the case.
@Woody Stover wants to know.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
I recall at least two members that use(d) max output and still wished for more. @Marshy and @Poindexter burning a king and an Ashford. There have been others that weren’t satisfied with the max output but it often was due to a subspec installation and/or wet wood.
When my house is cold and I need to heat it ASAP I appreciate a big top end but would not trade the low end abilities for a slight reduction in time waiting for the house to heat up in the rare event that we are unable to keep the house warm.
When my house is cold and I need to heat it ASAP I appreciate a big top end but would not trade the low end abilities for a slight reduction in time waiting for the house to heat up in the rare event that we are unable to keep the house warm.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Correct. In fact @Marshy is the only one I remember determining that a King would not work for his needs, in my time here. @Poindexter is a unique situation, but I thought he was making that Ashford work, running it wide open when it gets cold.
Poindexter’s “cold” is a whole other level of hell, that most of us will never know. When you need to get up every few hours thru the night to start and warm up your truck, so the battery and block won’t be frozen in the morning, it’s too cold.
Poindexter’s “cold” is a whole other level of hell, that most of us will never know. When you need to get up every few hours thru the night to start and warm up your truck, so the battery and block won’t be frozen in the morning, it’s too cold.
Marshy's stove location, and install, had a lot of bad juju when it comes to a BK stove..
I sent him my fans to use last winter since I never run em, and it still was'nt makin enough heat ??
Nope not enough heat. Recall, I was attempting to heat 1860 sqft of living space from a 1860 sqft unfinished basement which the only air flow was up my stairwell. My basement also has a garage rollup door. The basement walls are sub grade and only insulated on the exterior with high density foam (maybe r10?). I was only able to maintain about an average 67F on the main floor (exterior weather dependant).
Thanks again for the fans, it was much appreciated.
The average burn time was 7-8 hours with a reasonable bed of coals left which did not require kindling. Just rake to the front and reload from back to front as fast as reasonably possible before it would catch and keep you from reaching in.
The main thing I learned from this experience was about thermal comfort. My thermal comfort was less with the King because it did not radiate heat into my floor like my old Shenandoah would. The King heated my basement air to 80+ degrees but it did not heat the structure the same. Your thermal comfort is highly dependant on radiative hesting. That is part of the reason forced air as a heating source is terrible compared to radiant floor heating. The problem was heating the structure from the basement with my old stove was not very safe due to the surface temps of the wood receiving all that heat. It increases the risk for fire and is taxing on the structure. Those were the reasons I wanted to try a different stove.
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Ashful
Minister of Fire
This is interesting, and I agree with your first two sentences, here. Radiant energy is going to heat that exposed subfloor from below, much more efficiently than convection. I have the exact opposite problem, in my house, so it's cool to see the flip side to this working for someone.
However, you try to extend that to the reason radiant floor heating is better than forced air. While I agree it is, I'm not sure I agree with your reasoning on that.
Research thermal comfort and you will learn how important surface temperature of objects within your dweling are to your thermal comfort. Then my comment will make mote sense.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
Courtesy tag @Highbeam
Yes I run my Ashford 30 wide open regularly. Yes I have a unique situation. I have run mine on back to back to back 12 hour burns at full throttle for weeks, months at a time. In our own special version of cold up here I have run 3 loads daily, one four hour burn and two tens.
The good news is I haven't done any damage to my stove running wide open often. The bad news is full loads of spruce don't last as long as full loads of birch. Lately I have been running full loads of spruce a notch or two above mid throttle to get to 12 hours with an active cat and reasonable amount of coals for reloading. Got to twist that knob when I get home so the joint is "warm" when the wife gets home.
I have no real way to measure the actual BTUs put out by my stove. In mid to late August I'll run a partial load at wide open throttle in the evening a couple or three times a week. In early September I'll maybe load full in the evening every night, run on high 30 minutes and go for a long burn, and so on up the scale, stove usually goes cold a week or two after the Kentucky Derby.
I am making it work in 1200sqft at -45dF with excellent air sealing and high 3s low 4s overall energy efficient envelope. I have 40" of blown cellulose in what would be an attic in the lower 48.
My father in law worked for Boeing and speaks Arabic. My wife grew up in places like Qatar thinking +110 dF is normal and desirable. I like having wild caught salmon in the freezer.
If we build a retirement home up here we will likely build far enough into the six star rating to keep the rating. I suspect in a six star home, +/- 1500sqft , -45dF outdoor ambient, plentiful softwood fuel at 12-16% MC an A30 ought to be able to maintain indoor temps at +80 dF on 12 hour reloads indefinitely, without breathing hard, unless the grandkids are over opening windows. Keeping +80dF in 1200sqft of 3 or 4 star (at 45 below) is a little more effort.
On paper I am planning oil fired hot water radiant floor heat and wood stove, with wood as the primary and the oil fire just to keep the well insulated floor warm operationally, but on the blueprint and as builts it will show oil fired radiant floor as the primary with wood stove as the supplemental.
I do have both my truck and the wife's truck plugged in tonight, 1 kwh per truck per hour, the head bolt heaters and battery warmers and oil sump heaters are drawing about quadruple the rest of the house combined - but I get to sleep for the night.
ratsrepus
Minister of Fire
Wondering how a princess would do in place of the Ashford. I realize its bitter cold where your at, but having to run an ashford wide open to heat 1200 sq ft well insulated home seems odd to me. Hey, what do I know, I live down south in balmy Michigan
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
When i compared, on paper, the max outputs of A30 v Princess one in each of two identical homes, and then figured out how long each day i would have to run a 1500w eletric in the a30 envelope to match the btus in the princesd envelope, well, it wasnt very long.
One piece of the puzzle is matching wood species btu content to heating needs, with respect to coaling stage time and anticipated reload time. For a lot of my burn season i could probably burn red oak on medium to high throttle, maybe toss one split in the coals after 12 hours and do full reloads every 24 hours - but in 'cold' weather the coaling stage is too long for me.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
Poindexter, I read your post above and can't help but wonder how anyone could be that fond of salmon!
We have lots and lots of salmon and halibut down here in warmer Washington. It’s not just fish keeping him up there.
ratsrepus
Minister of Fire
Maybe everybody's working on their wood pile for next year, I know I've been doing some of that but probably not near enough...
Blaze King King Wood Stove
lsucet
Minister of Fire
Yeah I am with you on that. I reload last night about 7pm, I have ecofans on top of them and they are telling me everything still going strong.lol. temperature outside is 37 df and some snow showers going by, ugly day. 74 to 76 around the house. Did I say I love this stoves?
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Highbeam
Minister of Fire
This is perfect bk weather. A little heat wave with low 60s outside and we’re at 76 inside with a long burn going. All fir, pitch pockets are fine.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
I have 3 of 6 incoming cords already stacked, one piled in the driveway ready to stack. Tsat on high, fan kit on high, +84 in the stove room, wife still in yoga pants.
+31 dF outdoors and i got the back stoop (3x6 feet) cleared of snow and dug a lawn chair out. Nice to have a place to sit outdoors again.
+31 dF outdoors and i got the back stoop (3x6 feet) cleared of snow and dug a lawn chair out. Nice to have a place to sit outdoors again.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
There is still standing water in the ruts my tractor left last time I tried to fetch some wood from my wood lot. If I went out there today, I'd have likely sunk.
This has been the wettest late winter I can remember.
AlbergSteve
Minister of Fire
Hit 12C here today, sunny, t-shirt weather for me, Aaaallmost let the fire go out...Had family here from Halifax via Calgary - they did not want to go back.
SuperJ
Feeling the Heat
@Poindexter ’s thermostat indicator seems to be his wife’s state of dress. That must be half the reason your stove is on high all winter.
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