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

[Ashful]

After all is the cat that heat the stove that the other way around. that is why if you shut the fans the probe goes up into the active zone. my experience by the way.

My own hypothesis is the fan kit pulls heat off the top off the steel firebox, right out of the cat, pushes it out in the room and the thermostat opens to maintain the set temp, compared to the fans being not used.

I can’t remember what stoves you guys are running, and Tapatalk doesn’t show signatures, but the cat probe temperature and thermostat have nothing to do with one another on my BK’s. They may both be affected by the operation of fans, but not in any co-dependent way.

The cat probe shows the temperature of the exhaust from the combustor, and is easily affected by the fans in the Ashford 30’s, as the fans blow air right across the sensing shaft of the thermometer probe. But the “thermostat” is a would coil of memory metal or bimetallic that reacts to its local temperature at the back of the stove, completely separate from what the cat probe is doing or showing. The thermostat does not open or close to maintain anything, in terms of localized temperature at top of firebox or combustor probe temperature.

The probe going up when you turn off the fans may or may not have anything to do with any actual change in combustor temperature, it is affected by the air blowing directly across the thermometer shaft.a\

 

[lsucet]

I think in some how we are saying the same. do to air blowing on top the probe reading is affected, so is the thermostat. That is the reason of higher wood consumption at same setting for low burn without fans. finding a lower setting on the tstat with fan on helps to not consume to much wood. Note that i only run them on low. thats enough for me to distribute heat and since i installed the other stove, i dont use them at all. Just run both stoves in low plus ecofans.

 

[Highbeam]

... for the same thermostat setting? I still don’t understand why lowering the thermostat to compensate for the effect the fan introduces to the thermostat, doesn’t at least mostly compensate for having it running.

Of course, you could then argue that there’s no reason to run the fans if you’re just going to be cranking the stove down lower, but I’m talking principles here. The fan cools the thermostat, which causes it to open wider, for a given setting. Turning the knob lower should compensate, the way the thermostat works.

Poindexter wants the maximum output so he wants the stat on high and the fans on high. At lower settings there is an infinite number of blower setting/stat setting combinations that can yield the same output and the same burn rate.

That 7:1 turn down ratio is a great way to appreciate the wide range of available outputs provided by the BK. It's only about 2:1 on my nc30!

 

[rdust]

Last night kicked off my 8th season with the princess. Still love the stove and would buy again without a second thought.

Tonight’s load.

 

[jetsam]

I'm awaiting the stinkening on my PI. I let the last fire go out after only 2 days because of warm weather. While It was down, I figured I'I do a little touch up with my new can of Stove Brite.

Of course the touch up looked awful, so I would up zapping the whole top, which looks very nice.

No odor yet at 180° stovetop...

Edit: Decided maybe it wasn't going to stink much at 300. Opened the windows at 400. Still not too bad at 625! Closed it down after a while at 650, overall less stinky than expected.

 

[Poindexter]

I can’t remember what stoves you guys are running, and Tapatalk doesn’t show signatures, but the cat probe temperature and thermostat have nothing to do with one another on my BK’s. They may both be affected by the operation of fans, but not in any co-dependent way.

I have an AF30.0, one of the originals. I _think_ on mine the bimetal spring is heated by the steel firebox. When I run the fans, I am pulling heat out of the steel into the house, the bimetal "feels" colder and opens the air valve a bit to increase combustion rate.

The cat probe shows the temperature of the exhaust from the combustor,

yup. Only. The probe shows the temperature of the air at the combustor outlet. It does NOT indicate the cat is active, only if the cat is hot enough to be active if there is food available. I keep harping on this. If one of y'all want to fill a suitcase with seasoned white oak and fly up here with it as a checked bag, I got a spare room. If you come in January, i can show you the difference between a cat 1/3 up in the active zone but inactive on oak coals and how much heat comes out of a cat 1/3 up into the active zone and active on smoking spruce. You will be expected to come outdoors with me to consume Guinness at -30dF. Several of them, we can watch my stack plume and the northern lights and tell lies until the beer runs out.

and is easily affected by the fans in the Ashford 30’s, as the fans blow air right across the sensing shaft of the thermometer probe.

It is indeed possible to turn the fans off and see the cat probe creep back up into the active zone, under a limited number of conditions. A well seasoned operator, by the third winter or so of operation, should be able to avoid this. I think of it, going into my fifth heating season with the stove, as a preventable stall.

But but, the cat is active, it's just the fans causing the probe to read inactive when the cat is active. Mmmm-Hmmm. I judge that one by what outfit my wife is wearing. Fans or no, right or wrong, I keep my needle in the undisputed zone.

But the “thermostat” is a wound coil of memory metal or bimetallic that reacts to its local temperature at the back of the stove, completely separate from what the cat probe is doing or showing. The thermostat does not open or close to maintain anything, in terms of localized temperature at top of firebox or combustor probe temperature.

I agree. I think the tstat is heated by conduction from the steel firebox. Running the fans pulls heat off the steel into the room, less heat to conduct to the bimetal, air valve opens.

The probe going up when you turn off the fans may or may not have anything to do with any actual change in combustor temperature, it is affected by the air blowing directly across the thermometer shaft.a\

I do agree it is "possible" to have the combustor engaged, and the fan kit running, have an active combustor eating smoke and putting out the BTUs to prove it, and have the needle in the inactive zone. I also think that is a razor edge to walk on.

The actual thermocouple junction in the probe, at least on mine, looks to be pretty well centered on the back face of the cat. While airflow 5 cm away on the outer shield of the sensor will affect the indicator "a little", I struggle to see this as a significant factor at low and moderate fan speeds.

Weather forecast suggests tomorrow, yet again, will be a lovely day for a Guinness.

 

[chemie]

I have an AF30.0, one of the originals. I _think_ on mine the bimetal spring is heated by the steel firebox. When I run the fans, I am pulling heat out of the steel into the house, the bimetal "feels" colder and opens the air valve a bit to increase combustion rate.

As pointed out by BKVP, AF25 doesn't have bimetal spring. It only has like a "switch" mechanism. For those running AF25, what is your experience of wood usage and burn time with and without fans on?
Last night at 7:00 PM, we (yep, I and wife with the observations of son, and daughter, lol) loaded the stove 3/4 with irregular size and shapes of pines I found through CL. With no fans on, cat was active (barely but was still on the red line) until 7:30 AM. I think considering it is pine, not perfect size or shape, and not fully full stove, 12 hrs is a good burn time ?
Speaking of active zone of cat, when you set your swithc, do you set it so that needle is barely on red or a bit further ? I have been observing ( with the help of our little daugher who almost constantly checks if the needle is on the red every half hour or so) that the needle falls back to the gray line from time to time, and I need to tweak it a bit higher to put it back to the red zone. What could be the reason for that ? Or is it normal?

 

[Niko]

I know this has been asked a lot. I emailed condor and asked if my blaze king king needs a gasket for a cat replacement. This is what I got back from a email.

Hi,


We don’t encourage the use of gaskets around any combustor. Here’s why: gaskets are designed to swell, doubling in size when heated. The swelling of the gasket plus the intense heat exerts enormous structural pressure on a combustor.


I recommend simply installing your combustor without a gasket. Gaskets become brittle even with limited use and can be costly and irritating to replace.


Nevertheless, gaskets are available on our website to purchase separately.

so that being said what should I do?

 

[Ashful]

I know this has been asked a lot. I emailed condor and asked if my blaze king king needs a gasket for a cat replacement. This is what I got back from a email.

Hi,


We don’t encourage the use of gaskets around any combustor. Here’s why: gaskets are designed to swell, doubling in size when heated. The swelling of the gasket plus the intense heat exerts enormous structural pressure on a combustor.


I recommend simply installing your combustor without a gasket. Gaskets become brittle even with limited use and can be costly and irritating to replace.


Nevertheless, gaskets are available on our website to purchase separately.

so that being said what should I do?

Use a gasket. I can't believe Condar is still giving this advice, this has been discussed many times here.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

for the heck of asking what happens if you did not use the gasket?

 

[jetsam]

for the heck of asking what happens if you did not use the gasket?

There's a not-so-small airspace around the outside where some unburned volatiles will go. I doubt it's a high percentage. I used a gasket despite Condar telling me not to.

They are right about the single-use and costly parts, and very right about the irritating part. How nice would it be to just pull the cat to get the shop vac in there every time the stove is cold?

I wonder if there's not a small rope gasket that could do that job and be reuseable.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

yes the space around the cat might be pretty good without the gasket. I know you are supposed to use the gasket and I always will. But if you did not,.. and if the cat would sit there without it,.. which I almost doubt what would be the rest of the harm? Just more pollutants escaping the stove or is there more than that?

 

[Tegbert]

yes the space around the cat might be pretty good without the gasket. I know you are supposed to use the gasket and I always will. But if you did not,.. and if the cat would sit there without it,.. which I almost doubt what would be the rest of the harm? Just more pollutants escaping the stove or is there more than that?

I’ve heard that it can cause the combustor to crack. Probably only the ceramic one but the gasket is cheap so I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to.


Lopi Rockport
Blaze King Ashford 25

 

[moresnow]

Weather forecast suggests tomorrow, yet again, will be a lovely day for a Guinness

Appears we are enjoying similar weather.

 

[DITTY22]

Hello guys I’m new to the forum and after looking at a lot of stoves and changing our minds from the jotul f500 the wife and I picked up our Ashford 30.2 and I installed it in our cabin on last Friday! We absolutely love it!

 

[lsucet]

Welcome. Lot of information here and many experience members in case you need help. Just ask.

 

[showrguy]

Hello guys I’m new to the forum and after looking at a lot of stoves and changing our minds from the jotul f500 the wife and I picked up our Ashford 30.2 and I installed it in our cabin on last Friday! We absolutely love it!
View attachment 231223

You need a dog in that picture... Then it would be perfect !!

 

[DITTY22]

You need a dog in that picture... Then it would be perfect !!

Haha our German shorthair is outside running around I’ll look for a better pic!


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[kf6hap]

Nice picture of the Ashford. I like the corner placement. Heat wise, it makes sense.

 

[DITTY22]

Nice picture of the Ashford. I like the corner placement. Heat wise, it makes sense.

thanks, it’s been our dream to build a hunting cabin and get a wood stove. This week we took off work and got it hooked up and running. I had to turn down the boiler for our infloor heat to 55f because the stove was cooking us out. Had a fire going non stop all week and it was great to come in after hunting to a warm cabin and not be burning all my damn propane up.



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[DuaeGuttae]

Hello guys I’m new to the forum and after looking at a lot of stoves and changing our minds from the jotul f500 the wife and I picked up our Ashford 30.2 and I installed it in our cabin on last Friday! We absolutely love it!
View attachment 231223

I’m a bit envious of that lovely place to bask. Looks nice and like a beautiful cabin in a beautiful setting. Where is Adam?

I’m looking at your picture on a pretty small screen. There’s enough detail to see two beautiful girls, but I can’t tell if those curtains could be in danger of being moved into combustible range. My younger kids have trouble leaving window treatments alone so that just caught my eye. Is replacement possible? Also, what is the surface of the hearth/floor?

 

[DITTY22]

I’m a bit envious of that lovely place to bask. Looks nice and like a beautiful cabin in a beautiful setting. Where is Adam?

I’m looking at your picture on a pretty small screen. There’s enough detail to see two beautiful girls, but I can’t tell if those curtains could be in danger of being moved into combustible range. My younger kids have trouble leaving window treatments alone so that just caught my eye. Is replacement possible? Also, what is the surface of the hearth/floor?

The cabin is located in northwestern Wisconsin, the window treatment are definitely a concern for us also if the kids were to move them back over so we are looking into other options for that. The floor is stamped colored concrete. I was thinking no hearth pad then after it was sitting on the pallet before install I talked with the wife about maybe building one and now that it’s on the floor again I don’t mind it I guess so it could go either way for us.


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[moresnow]

The cabin is located in northwestern Wisconsin

Mmmmm. Great snowmobiling country up that way!

 

[lsucet]

The floor is stamped colored concrete

I think you good there.

 

[jetsam]

I think you good there.

That sounds pretty great, actually. Pour a slab, put down sleepers with foam board in between, plywood and cement board on top, run hydronic pex all across it, and then pour another couple inches of concrete... I would really like that floor. Easy to clean, fireproof, toasty warm all year.