...."try to imagine"????....You mean....just like you IMAGINE....DAILY HERE.... how BK's are to operate/own/etc.etc.etc. WITHOUT EVER OWNING ONE ???....you comment regularly as if you have one and know all of the ins and outs regarding their operation/performance/EFFICIENCY/etc.....or that you've ran enough "other" stoves to simply "know" how they run....
I don't imagine that I know exactly what it would be like to run a BK in my situation. There's also nothing in your signature to indicate that you've run any other stoves, cat or not, so I don't guess you'd know how similar your BK would be to other cat stove. Because I don't know exactly what my experience running a BK here would be, I ask a
ton of questions on this thread. But what's the usual response? Precious few answers, mostly the now-legendary BK-thread chirping crickets, or an attack rant.
I'll admit, I've brought the rants on myself on due to some of my snarky comments, which rub some people the wrong way if they don't realize it a lot of it is tongue-in-cheek and good-natured ribbing. It might be evident that I can take as good as I give, by some of the "likes" I dish out. Ribbing is hard to convey when typing on the internet, so I'm trying to tone that down and not piss off as many of my fellow stove brethren.
I have the pan....but as I've said previously...never use it.... After I got the stove(s) and saw the plug system/etc...I instantly couldn't see fiddling with the hot plug....emptying the ashes ....and then taking/leaving the ash pan outside in the snow overnight to let it cool before dumping it
That was my point. You've "never used it," so you are imagining what it would be like. If it was as much of a PIA as you are describing,
no one would
ever use an ash pan! You have to get in there and try it, perfect the process, then decide it's for you. I've described how I do it. Your response...cricket chirps.
once you actually try it you figure out how to do it efficiently.
What I do is dump the ash into the pan, then let the pan sit in the stove for a day or two...or more with a deep-bellied stove. Then you pull the pan after any coals in it have burned down, when it's pretty cool. Then take it outside and dump it into the can, bring pan back to the stove.
have you actually tried using ashpan?
Honestly, no. I've/we've always had an ash bucket.
OK, at least beca says she's never done anything other than shovel 'em out.
Your response to webby's question...more crickets, so we can assume that you have never done anything other than shovel. Maybe this is your first stove, there's nothing in your signature to indicate otherwise.
I'm an experimenter and a tweaker, I'm always open to discovering a better way. You've got a BK with a pan in your house, and don't even experiment with it. I don't get it.
But as I've said, if you wanna shovel 'em out, go ahead. All these differences really don't amount to a hill of beans..we all run our stoves and stay warm. It's not like we live somewhere in the world where we are in a fight for survival, just getting enough food and clean water, or our infrastructure has been wiped out by a hurricane or a 'quake. We might get our chance to see what it's like soon enough, though..
I tried the ash pan and it is pathetically small for the size of stove it resides in IMO..a 6.5 deep by 8.5 wide pan is not very much when you are in the deep of winter pushing a stove I assure you...larger ash pan? I would probably use it
Yeah, with that huge belly in your stove it's not all gonna fit at once. Shoveling out occasionally might be less messing around for you than having to more often take a pan outside and dump it. That's gotta take a while shoveling out a full belly though, and it might end up being a similar amount of messing around in the long run. Me, I always found it to be a lot of messing around, shoveling out into a shallow pan and trying to minimize the amount of dust that inevitably escapes. Shoveling into a bucket means less trips outside but I found it to be harder to contain the dust than shoveling into a shallow pan, where the dust created is right at the bottom of the door opening, and seemed to get sucked in better.
Depending on how diligent I am at burning down the coals, I can go a month without having to shovel out the ashes..yes, I use a shovel and pail rather than the ash pan...I supplement with an air source heat pump which runs down to -20 or so.
That's the BK big-belly advantage, right there.
Ya, I'm hoping the mini-split that I'll eventually get, will work at lower outdoor temps. Not that it gets super-cold here...it would be a long, long time, maybe never, before it got to -20 in our neck of the woods.
have you actually tried using ashpan?
So are the other BK ash dumps as easy at the one on your Princess? Are they all the same size?
Besides, who wants to get ashes in the cinnamon rolls?
What do you use to prevent your buns sticking to the pan, some of that Sangre de Crisco?
does not look like it is going to warm up any time soon!
I don't know if that woodchuck in Punxsutawney is gonna his shadow when he sticks his head out of his hole, but I bet we're looking at six more weeks of winter here.
When it cools down enough I will check it....I was in no way shape or form trying to imply the ash pan and shovel method is a one size fits all....as it surely isn't for everyone...just relating my thoughts and experiences and preferences.
Now that's an open-minded response.
I liked Jotul’s grate system far better than any ash plug system. But, it’s also way more likely to leak and fail, and it may be impossible to hit 24+ hour burn times on a grate system.
Well, I got my stove at the end of 2010 and I've never adjusted the ash door or replaced the gasket. I just now did a dollar-bill test on it...tight as a drum. Not that it makes any difference in my case..my stove has a 1/4" hole in the back of the ash pan housing to burn down the load in the back of the stove more evenly. I've never experimented with partially blocking that hole in an attempt to burn longer but it's something I could do at some point if I wanted.
When comparing the burn rate range performance of BK to... well, any other stove on earth, there’s such a huge gap
Yeah, there sure is a gap in those burn rate ranges. Looks like the BKs have a range of a little over 20K BTU/hr. or less, while the Woodstocks are around 30K or more. Just doin' my job here, dispelling the fake news.
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Ashford 30.1 (AF30.1), Chinook 30.1 (CK30.1), Sirocco 30.1 (SC30.1) 0.80
6100-28600
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Chinook /Sirocco/Ashford 30 0.97
11200-27300
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Chinook / Sirocco/Ashford 20 1.3
11400-22700
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Sirocco SC25, Ashford AF25, Boxer 24 (BX24) 0.9
10097–26290
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Ashford 20.1, Chinook 20.1, Sirocco 20.1 1.3
8822-27550
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Blaze King King Catalytic KEJ 1107 1.8
9100-39800
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Princess Insert PI 1010A 2.0
7200-29500
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Princess 35 PE35 2.1
9200-29600
Blaze King Industries, Inc. Princess PEJ 1006 2.4
12000-35600
Woodstock Soapstone Company, Inc. Absolute Steel Hybrid 211 o.5
14,426-45,317
Woodstock Soapstone Company, Inc. Ideal Steel Hybrid 210 1.0
12300-57000
Woodstock Soapstone Company, Inc. Progress Hybrid Soapstone Stove #209 1.3
12500-73200
Woodstock Soapstone Company, Inc. Catalytic Fireview Soapstone Stove #205 1.4
10900-42900
Woodstock Soapstone Company, Inc. Paladian 202, Keystone 204 1.9
8500-35000
I burn my BKs on days where the high temp might peak in the mid 70’s, and get away with loading every 36 hours with constant active cat in the shoulder seasons.
Well, that's great for you in your stone ice cube of a house but most of the rest of us quit burning when it gets into the 60s.
I was in no way shape or form trying to imply the ash pan and shovel method is a one size fits all....as it surely isn't for everyone...just relating my thoughts and experiences and preferences.
< Brandon, MN
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