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

[Ashful]

Yep, we are on the same page.

Hmm... this is going to be an interesting one to watch. There is a learning curve, and although I’m sure you’re following all the instruction you’ve read here and in the manual, you will learn things that improve your burn times. In the meantime, well, I guess 12 hours is still better than any other 2.3 cu.ft. insert on the market!

 

[chemie]

Hmm... this is going to be an interesting one to watch. There is a learning curve, and although I’m sure you’re following all the instruction you’ve read here and in the manual, you will learn things that improve your burn times. In the meantime, well, I guess 12 hours is still better than any other 2.3 cu.ft. insert on the market!

I agree and hope that I will learn and improve things to extend burn times. I can’t compare to other inserts since this is our only experience. But so far we are happy -both aesthetically and performance - that we went with BK AF25.

 

[Ashful]

Someone here with actual experience on such a thing can correct me, but I’d suspect the max burn time on a 2.3 cu.ft. non-cat would be around 8 hours, based on all reports I’ve read here.

 

[Tegbert]

Someone here with actual experience on such a thing can correct me, but I’d suspect the max burn time on a 2.3 cu.ft. non-cat would be around 8 hours, based on all reports I’ve read here.

My lopi is 2.15 cuft and a cat and with a full load on low I may get 7 hours out of it usually 5.5-6. But I can’t load it full enough to take advantage of the space as it’s only an e/w burner.


Lopi Rockport
Blaze King Ashford 25

 

[Highbeam]

Someone here with actual experience on such a thing can correct me, but I’d suspect the max burn time on a 2.3 cu.ft. non-cat would be around 8 hours, based on all reports I’ve read here.

With a noncat, everybody has their own opinion on what burn time is. The bk has a cat meter that is either active or inactive to indicate a fairly effective end of burn.

My heritage freestander was 2.3 cf and I could relight from coals in a warm stove after 10 hours.

 

[Ashful]

With a noncat, everybody has their own opinion on what burn time is. The bk has a cat meter that is either active or inactive to indicate a fairly effective end of burn.

My heritage freestander was 2.3 cf and I could relight from coals in a warm stove after 10 hours.

Good point, the ability to relight from coals is irrelevant. I can do that beyond 40 hours, on my BK. There are always some golf ball-sized coals hiding in the ash, but they aren’t heating my house.

 

[darktower007]

Ashford because the princess is ugly lol.

Ha! Great point. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MissMac]

So here's a few pics of getting the wood shed initially loaded up with wood. In the one 134329.jpg, i'm half way through that outside face of Manitoba maple, and have dug back two rows to get into the jack pine that comprises most of that stall. Took some MC readings on some fresh splits that i brought in from the middle of the pile, where i'm sure the "least" amount of drying happens, and those jack pines are all between 13.4-15.3% MC, on the biggest hunks i have. So i'm pretty happy with that, and so's the stove! In that other picture, you can see all the birch I got - that stuff has been seasoning since the summer of 2016, and although it's buried behind a couple of rows of jack pine and Manitoba maple, i've dug a few splits out and they are around 15-16% too! So, although i budget only 1 stall/winter, I do have 2/3 stalls available for burning this year if need be! All my wood goes straight into the shed once processed, and doesn't see any sun really. But there sure is a good breeze that blows through it. Seems to be working just fine!

I've really found that my bigger splits of jack pine are helping extend my burn times in the Sirocco 30.1 - i'm consistently getting 15-17 hrs when i put the bigger rounds in, and they are short (12-13") so i'm not even optimizing the full amount of wood room in the stove. Adding some of the maple and birch into the mix i'm sure is going to help me stretch times when it gets colder and i want to run the stove hotter.

Now that i'm all-in for a full season of burning, i'm going to check the flue/chimney once per month, just to catalog what the different tstat settings/weather conditions do to my flue. I checked it yesterday, and it looked pretty good. Some whispy razor thin curls of shiny black creo, but not a lot, and just sporadically down the one side of the pipe - actually come to think of it, it's the windward side of the pipe. Wonder if the wind actually affects the cooling to cause the buildup on this side? Hmmmmm...

 

[jetsam]

I used well seasoned oak but may be pieces were not so big?
Does fan shorten burn time dramatically?
Especially for Ashford 25 insert users @Tegbert, @jetsam, and others , what is your burning times?

I have a Princess Insert, not the Ashford... I don't know how different the Ashford is, but I think the Princess is both a little bigger and a little less flush, which are both burn time advantages (less flush is an advantage because I don't have to turn the fan on until winter really sets in).

I find that on very low burns, the fan lowers my burn times dramatically. On medium/high burns, it does not. I don't think this is a problem of any kind- it makes total sense to me that blowing a big fan across the firebox would cool the firebox, turn up the thermostat, and cause a faster burn. At a very low burn, the fan is removing a really significant chunk of the BTUs that the firebox is producing.

Take it with a grain of salt, because we don't have the same stove or the same wood or the same flue.

I think Ashful is on the right track helping you figure this out with his above posts.

 

[chichas]

So here's question for you other BK owners, how are you starting your fires? I have 2 BK Sirocco 20's and I've found that if I run the stoves like they show in that video on youtube, I get about 12 hours of burn time with some nice coals left over. If I make a small hot fire to get some good coals going quickly and then load the stove up on top of them, I can get up to 16 hours. I'm burning red fir and white fir.

 

[AlbergSteve]

So here's a few pics of getting the wood shed initially loaded up with wood. In the one 134329.jpg, i'm half way through that outside face of Manitoba maple, and have dug back two rows to get into the jack pine that comprises most of that stall. Took some MC readings on some fresh splits that i brought in from the middle of the pile, where i'm sure the "least" amount of drying happens, and those jack pines are all between 13.4-15.3% MC, on the biggest hunks i have. So i'm pretty happy with that, and so's the stove! In that other picture, you can see all the birch I got - that stuff has been seasoning since the summer of 2016, and although it's buried behind a couple of rows of jack pine and Manitoba maple, i've dug a few splits out and they are around 15-16% too! So, although i budget only 1 stall/winter, I do have 2/3 stalls available for burning this year if need be! All my wood goes straight into the shed once processed, and doesn't see any sun really. But there sure is a good breeze that blows through it. Seems to be working just fine!

I've really found that my bigger splits of jack pine are helping extend my burn times in the Sirocco 30.1 - i'm consistently getting 15-17 hrs when i put the bigger rounds in, and they are short (12-13") so i'm not even optimizing the full amount of wood room in the stove. Adding some of the maple and birch into the mix i'm sure is going to help me stretch times when it gets colder and i want to run the stove hotter.

Now that i'm all-in for a full season of burning, i'm going to check the flue/chimney once per month, just to catalog what the different tstat settings/weather conditions do to my flue. I checked it yesterday, and it looked pretty good. Some whispy razor thin curls of shiny black creo, but not a lot, and just sporadically down the one side of the pipe - actually come to think of it, it's the windward side of the pipe. Wonder if the wind actually affects the cooling to cause the buildup on this side? Hmmmmm...

Will you need doors on the shed to keep all the snow out?!

 

[jetsam]

I've really found that my bigger splits of jack pine are helping extend my burn times

I found that too, but I don't really understand it.

In a situation where all the splits are flaming and air is roaring through, of course big splits will last longer, because they have less surface area.

But when the firebox is getting smoldered to ash with a really limited air supply, why does surface area matter so much?

Maybe the answer is that the cat can only eat so much, and with too much surface area you are wasting hydrocarbons up the flue?

 

[MissMac]

Will you need doors on the shed to keep all the snow out?!

you mean the snow that started falling Oct. 2? Yup, you betcha. I got some cheap doors also know as $3 tarps that i hang for the winter. Not very pretty to look at, but the shed faces east (out of necessity when deciding where i could actually build the darn thing), and so if i didn't cover the open face, it would be full of snow and driving rain, and i'd be hooped!

 

[MissMac]

I found that too, but I don't really understand it.

In a situation where all the splits are flaming and air is roaring through, of course big splits will last longer, because they have less surface area.

But when the firebox is getting smoldered to ash with a really limited air supply, why does surface area matter so much?

Maybe the answer is that the cat can only eat so much, and with too much surface area you are wasting hydrocarbons up the flue?

Yes, i think that for sure when i use my bigger splits, i'm feeding the cat at a rate it can handle better as opposed to when i put my rocket fuel 5 year seasoned spruce logs that are 3" diameter. I notice less visible plume exhaust on the bigger splits which to me shows that i'm feeding the cat at a rate it can keep up with - a load of smaller wood = more out the top of the pipe. simply too much for the cat to handle.

 

[MissMac]

Yes, i think that for sure when i use my bigger splits, i'm feeding the cat at a rate it can handle better as opposed to when i put my rocket fuel 5 year seasoned spruce logs that are 3" diameter. I notice less visible plume exhaust on the bigger splits which to me shows that i'm feeding the cat at a rate it can keep up with - a load of smaller wood = more out the top of the pipe. simply too much for the cat to handle.

Although I just came home for lunch and checked the fire - low and slow 5.5 hrs into the burn and smoke coming out of the chimney. I give up sometimes trying to understand the stove. How I think it’s supposed to work vs reality.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ashful]

I never worried about smoke out the chimney. It’s a wood stove, isn’t it? As long as the cat is in the active, I assuming it’s doing the best it can, I’ve never had any catastrophic issue as a result of a little smoke out the chimney.

 

[lsucet]

When that can be normal I notice that a good charr after reloads help a lot for the rest of the burn to minimize that condition.
According how tight you load, wood species, etc, the charr time can change. Not always is those 15, 20, 30 minutes. Can be more or less. Sometimes I go for what I am seeing of how the fire is going.
I don't notice any differences on burn time cause I charr the wood real good. If any is not to take into consideration. Some will disagree and I respect that. I also understand that sometimes the house temp can spike and it is not desirable.

 

[Rickb]

So here's question for you other BK owners, how are you starting your fires? I have 2 BK Sirocco 20's and I've found that if I run the stoves like they show in that video on youtube, I get about 12 hours of burn time with some nice coals left over. If I make a small hot fire to get some good coals going quickly and then load the stove up on top of them, I can get up to 16 hours. I'm burning red fir and white fir.

Honestly unless its overcast and under 40 for the highs I only load 3-5 small splits and let it burn out. That seems to keep the whole house around 72 - 73. When it gets really cold out I load 3 - 4 splits and let it run for 5 hours or so then load it with a full load before bed, then its usually 74 - 75 in the house. lol

 

[Highbeam]

I never worried about smoke out the chimney. It’s a wood stove, isn’t it? As long as the cat is in the active, I assuming it’s doing the best it can, I’ve never had any catastrophic issue as a result of a little smoke out the chimney.

I do worry about the smoke but I have come to accept that it can't be avoided with my BK and my fuel. The noncat pukes so much heat and volume of exhaust up the flue that even if the same amount of smoke was being produced it is very diluted and clear to the eye.

Most of the time there is no smoke with the hot cat but I get some blue exhaust every so often.

 

[bholler]

I never worried about smoke out the chimney. It’s a wood stove, isn’t it? As long as the cat is in the active, I assuming it’s doing the best it can, I’ve never had any catastrophic issue as a result of a little smoke out the chimney.

Visible smoke means you are going to be depositing creosote in the chimney. Seeing it occasionally is not a problem. Seeing it all the time is. I have visible smoke way more often than i would like with the princess.

 

[bholler]

I do worry about the smoke but I have come to accept that it can't be avoided with my BK and my fuel. The noncat pukes so much heat and volume of exhaust up the flue that even if the same amount of smoke was being produced it is very diluted and clear to the eye.

Most of the time there is no smoke with the hot cat but I get some blue exhaust every so often.

You are also running an entry level non cat that is known for not being able to shut down very far. I was able to run the regency with pretty low stack temps and still have a very clean chimney

 

[Highbeam]

You are also running an entry level non cat that is known for not being able to shut down very far. I was able to run the regency with pretty low stack temps and still have a very clean chimney

What? I can shut it down and snuff it out. That "entry level" noncat has great control and burns clean.

 

[bholler]

What? I can shut it down and snuff it out. That "entry level" noncat has great control and burns clean.

So let me get this straight. You used to make comments about how noncats were all leaky and full of holes like swiss cheese. And said they all had unrestricted air to the doghouse like your englander. But now you can put it out by closing the intake? What about all of the people here who regularly run their 30s with the air closed all the way? Are they not telling the truth?

 

[jetsam]

I propose that instead of the usual, we have them do some pudding wrestling this year.

 

[Highbeam]

So let me get this straight. You used to make comments about how noncats were all leaky and full of holes like swiss cheese. And said they all had unrestricted air to the doghouse like your englander. But now you can put it out by closing the intake? What about all of the people here who regularly run their 30s with the air closed all the way? Are they not telling the truth?

I don’t understand your confusion. I could always fully control my nc30 by closing the intake. The nc30 in my shop is good like that. I like to run it hot though so I’ve never actually fully snuffed a load of fuel.

I don’t know what other folks’ experience is. Maybe you should ask them if you don’t know.

Every stove and every install is different.