2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 1 (Everything BK)

[lsucet]

I'm thinking of getting rid of my King, the damn thing is just boring !!
Can anyone recomend a stove I have to load every 6-8 hours ??
Thanks in advance !!

Yeah, the one you have now. Just put less wood in it.

 

[lsucet]

Well now is when I am going to reload both for the night. House between 71 and 65 and outside temps, well see the pictures.

 

[webby3650]

I'm thinking of getting rid of my King, the damn thing is just boring !!
Can anyone recomend a stove I have to load every 6-8 hours ??
Thanks in advance !!

Oh that’s easy! Just pick any “pretty” stove on the market that’s advertising 12 hour burns. Then you should be able to squeeze 6 hours out of it.

 

[pjohnson]

I'm thinking of getting rid of my King, the damn thing is just boring !!
Can anyone recomend a stove I have to load every 6-8 hours ??
Thanks in advance !!

For a little excitement I turn the fan on and off and play with the speed. When I really need an adrenaline rush after 16 to 18 hours I’ll open it up and stirr the coals throw in 3 or 4 splits to make it till my bedtime reloading.

 

[kennyp2339]

I'm thinking of getting rid of my King, the damn thing is just boring !!
Can anyone recomend a stove I have to load every 6-8 hours ??
Thanks in advance !!

Regency's are very popular in our area (good for parts and service)

 

[ratsrepus]

Get a condor cat probe with NUMBERS!

Got mine yesterday, checking them out as we speak. Sometimes numbers are not a good thing, I thought Id be pretty cool by installing and oil temp gauge on my Harley, well now I spend to much time looking at the oil temp worrying about how hot this sucker runs, before I paid no attention to it.

 

[kf6hap]

Hmmm. Condar has a ceramic cat for the ashford. Has anybody used one. If so, how did you like it?

https://www.woodstovecombustors.com/wood-stove-brands/blaze-king.html

 

[Highbeam]

Regency's are very popular in our area (good for parts and service)

I see what you did there!

 

[Highbeam]

I only run at 50% open for 20 minutes as recommended by the manual.
Getting the damper in there is going to be a bit of a job I can tell. I also have to make a hole in the living room wall to get better circulation so I guess I will be making a lot of messes.

Anyways, I got a pic of the cat tonight and circled where it is cracking.
View attachment 236868

Thought I would also share my room temp report graph for the last 24 hours. Top line is the room with the stove in it. Seems to be running pretty long and smooth.
View attachment 236869

It goes through pine very fast. About 8 hours max. Oak goes for about 12-16 depending on the fan speed.

The circled area may not be a crack at all. The ceramic cat on a bk is made up of three square cats pushed together. Pull down your flame shield to check that you aren’t just looking at the butt joint.

Cracks in a ceramic cat are normal. Run it. I have had a cat crack in a diagonal and loose little chips. As long as the thing doesn’t fall out it’s good to go.

 

[kennyp2339]

@Highbeam and everyone else, I added the duravent dvl adapter, is the outside jacket suppose to sit flush to the stove top or is it suppose to be 1/4" proud all the way around, the inside crimped end of the adapter is pretty much even with the very bottom of the flue collar (looking inside through the baffle plate.

 

[jetsam]

Yeah, the one you have now. Just put less wood in it.

I do that during shoulder season. On my days off, I will run full loads of sticks, bark, splitter shavings, etc. You can get 4-8 hours out of that stuff on low, even though the firebox is half full of air and the surface area of the fuel is tremendous.

It's all about air control!

 

[Highbeam]

@Highbeam and everyone else, I added the duravent dvl adapter, is the outside jacket suppose to sit flush to the stove top or is it suppose to be 1/4" proud all the way around, the inside crimped end of the adapter is pretty much even with the very bottom of the flue collar (looking inside through the baffle plate.

The outer wall must not set on the stove top. The insertion depth must be determined by the tight fit of the taper only. I think that they like air to enter the bottom too.

Here’s mine. The nondamper version. More like 3/8” gap.

Inside the firebox, the tip of the inner wall taper hangs down maybe 1/8” into the firebox. Enough to cut your knuckles. You want the appliance adapter to seal well on the taper.

 

[Highbeam]

And no, you can’t screw this to the stove collar without hacking it.

 

[jetsam]

Well now is when I am going to reload both for the night. House between 71 and 65 and outside temps, well see the pictures.

5°??? Here's mine!

 

[AlbergSteve]

I'm thinking of getting rid of my King, the damn thing is just boring !!
Can anyone recomend a stove I have to load every 6-8 hours ??
Thanks in advance !!

Any other stove would do.

 

[lsucet]

5°??? Here's mine!

View attachment 236907

This is a normal winter here. Last two winters were weird. Including when temps dropped to single digits during the night, it used to spike 50-60 degrees during the day. This time is staying low during the day also. Weather station says the lowest was -3, don't know how accurate it is going that low cause it is a cheap one. Last night I started my truck and wife's car and the truck says 2 degrees and my wife's car says 3. Was around 1 am. The sensor for the station is on the north side wall under an overhang. No way of checking with the cars what was the lowest.

This is the first time I am having the chance of seeing how this stoves really work since I have them. If is true that went that low, oh well, they did the job on low like always. Lol. House 70 to 74 this morning. The spike late last night after reload them help alot.

 

[Woody Stover]

Weather station says the lowest was -3, don't know how accurate it is going that low cause it is a cheap one. Last night I started my truck and wife's car and the truck says 2 degrees and my wife's car says 3

With corroboration from the car thermos, the weather station is likely working OK. Man, that's cold, especially if the wind is whipping down the valley, too..
Sometimes (not often) we can go the whole winter here without hitting single digits. But last year we had an extended cold snap, in the teens or singles at night for weeks.

 

[webby3650]

With corroboration from the car thermos, the weather station is likely working OK. Man, that's cold, especially if the wind is whipping down the valley, too..
Sometimes (not often) we can go the whole winter here without hitting single digits. But last year we had an extended cold snap, in the teens or singles at night for weeks.

View attachment 236916

We had a good time on the ice last year. My kids got to ice fish for the first time.

 

[lsucet]

With corroboration from the car thermos, the weather station is likely working OK. Man, that's cold, especially if the wind is whipping down the valley, too..
Sometimes (not often) we can go the whole winter here without hitting single digits. But last year we had an extended cold snap, in the teens or singles at night for weeks.

View attachment 236916

This is now. 20 degrees with the sun out. But it is nice.

 

[kennyp2339]

Installed the damper before lunch today, it was a lot easier than I thought, the adapter slipped right over the flue collar and seated itself good, no need to grind anything so I got lucky there.
I made a fire almost immediately, once the fire got up to temp I closed the by-pass, left the air full on and waited 15min, I then took a draft reading with my meter, it was high @ .18"h20, it was also pretty windy with 15-20 mph gusts at times, I flipped the plate fully closed and got a .08"h20 and now satisfied that I effectively lowered my draft to a more manageable rate.
While I'm only about 5 1/2hrs into this burn, I thinking I'm seeing positive results already, the cat probe hasn't budged from its 2 o'clock position, I have no flames in the firebox, just a red glowing cat, no smells of any sort, the basement and stove area just feels more warm so I guess the heat in transferring better, rather then going up the flue. To understand this concept of thought, think of it as the fire is going and producing 10btu's, before the damper was installed I would immediately loose 4 btu's up the chimney only leaving 6 btu's to get transferred into the room through the stove top, now with the damper I'm 9 for ten

 

[lsucet]

Installed the damper before lunch today, it was a lot easier than I thought, the adapter slipped right over the flue collar and seated itself good, no need to grind anything so I got lucky there.
I made a fire almost immediately, once the fire got up to temp I closed the by-pass, left the air full on and waited 15min, I then took a draft reading with my meter, it was high @ .18"h20, it was also pretty windy with 15-20 mph gusts at times, I flipped the plate fully closed and got a .08"h20 and now satisfied that I effectively lowered my draft to a more manageable rate.
While I'm only about 5 1/2hrs into this burn, I thinking I'm seeing positive results already, the cat probe hasn't budged from its 2 o'clock position, I have no flames in the firebox, just a red glowing cat, no smells of any sort, the basement and stove area just feels more warm so I guess the heat in transferring better, rather then going up the flue. To understand this concept of thought, think of it as the fire is going and producing 10btu's, before the damper was installed I would immediately loose 4 btu's up the chimney only leaving 6 btu's to get transferred into the room through the stove top, now with the damper I'm 9 for ten

Couple questions. Is the damper built in the stove top adapter? Is it interferes with the top deck? What about a soot eater when time to clean?

 

[webby3650]

Couple questions. Is the damper built in the stove top adapter? Is it interferes with the top deck? What about a soot eater when time to clean?

Neither is an issue. Although it’s much closer to the stove top than normally recommended.

 

[kennyp2339]

Although it’s much closer to the stove top than normally recommended.

doesnt affect function, the height recommendation was there to keep small kids from playing with them back in the day

 

[webby3650]

doesnt affect function, the height recommendation was there to keep small kids from playing with them back in the day

Think so?

 

[lsucet]

doesnt affect function, the height recommendation was there to keep small kids from playing with them back in the day

Ok. Then they had no choice than playing with the stoves.