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

[ratsrepus]

You do realize there are plenty of other stoves out there that can easily burn overnight dont you?

Yes, but can they burn all day, then burn all night and part of the next day on one load?

 

[Woody Stover]

You do realize there are plenty of other stoves out there that can easily burn overnight dont you?

I'm doing it pretty easily with a firebox half the size of his Princess.

 

[Diabel]

All this talk about BK and dirty chimneys.....

I think BK should supply with each sale a set of chimney tools instead of a super cedar puck haha.


I am heading to the cottage today. Before I light the Princess, I will have a look up the pipe. I really hope not to have a black gooey surprise in there. After all, I have about 12 burning days in it, I think about 4 cold starts.

 

[bholler]

Yes, but can they burn all day, then burn all night and part of the next day on one load?

No but neither can the pricess in my house unless it is in the 60s. At that lenght of burn it will be putting out next to no heat at all.

 

[ratsrepus]

I knew thats what you were going to say.

 

[MtnBURN]

You do realize there are plenty of other stoves out there that can easily burn overnight dont you?

Yes...and I'm sure those stoves work well in areas where it only gets cold every-so-often and waking up to a few coals is an "overnight burn". Knock yerself out with those! Been there...done that. I'd be here all day if I named off the stoves i've ran over the years that can't hold a candle to these BK's. (Regency being just one...LOL)

They work very well here...and that is all that matters. I'm completely happy with all aspects of these stoves...as are most users of the product.

It's only those who don't have one who seem to go on and on about how they don't/can't perform as well as _______ stove can. Who f-in cares?

 

[MtnBURN]

I'm doing it pretty easily with a firebox half the size of his Princess.

That troll bridge wood burns fuckin hot, huh?

 

[JKanor]

Finally cold enough here in NE PA to run the stove again. Nights in the teens and days around 30 and I'm still on a 24 hour burn cycle with my princess. Heating a 1900sqft split level keeping the downstairs 75 and upstairs 70. Stat is set at about 2 o'clock on oak and ash.

The pic was last night at 23 hours of burn from a full firebox when I went to reload and raked the chunks forward.

 

[Ashful]

I knew thats what you were going to say.

That’s why we love bholler. Predicable. Reliable. :lol

 

[Ashful]

Situation:

BK Ashford 30.1
6 feet single wall pipe
10 feet insulated liner
9 hours into a 24 hour burn
Steel cat new in fall 2016
9 splits of oak + 1 split of sycamore, full firebox at 10pm last night
Cat probe holding well into active region, maybe 10 o’clock on the dial

Chimney smoke, which I guess I never considered an issue:

Thoughts? This isn’t what everyone sees? There has never been any buildup on my screen at the cap, and liner stays relatively clean after a full year, so I’m not sure why visible smoke is a big deal to everyone, all of a sudden.

Lay it on me, I’m wearing my special socks today.

 

[dh1989]

I posted a while back about reloading on coals and smoking out the neighborhood. I’m trying a new reload method that seems to be working better.

Old method:
Stack wood on hot coals. Fill box and close door to crack. Once ignited close door. Wait for flue probe 400F or cat active. Close bypass. Thick gray smoke rolls out across the neighborhood for 20-30 min as cat ramps up, then plume goes clear. Dial down thermostat.

New method:
Stack wood on hot coals. Fill box and close door to crack. Once ignited leave door cracked (don’t latch) to allow a blow torch of air to run across the wood. Wait for flue probe 400F (comes very fast). Latch door. Quickly close bypass. Verify cat glow and wait a minute or so and turn thermostat to 3 o’clock to snuff out almost all flames. Very small amount of thick gray smoke out of the stack that doesn’t go very far. Smoke lasts 20-30 min as cat ramps up, then clear plume.

Time will tell if my new method plugs the cat with creosote. So far 20-30 min in the cat is glowing bright orange and has been staying clean. Been trying this over a week now.

 

[MtnBURN]

Different woods, different results. I notice the oak smokes a bit.....and the pine has a small tell tale whisp of blue from time to time....but if i burn "tipi" wood (cottonwood)...no smoke whatsoever. Burn a 5 x 5 pile in the open to see what I mean. Serious flames...no smoke. And that troll bridge wood...well..it evidently makes all non-BK stoves burn for days.

I should take a pic of my neighbor burning his Lopi if you think that is "smoke" coming from yer chimney. He's 1/2 mile away. The other day I looked up and saw massive smoke.....and actually thought his house might be on fire. Shot up there to see. Nope...just firing up the stove! (he has about 10 cords of wood to feed it with...LOL)

 

[jetsam]

We had a really warm day this week and I've been burning extra-terrible wood (40%+, right out of the woods), so I decided to let the fire go out and sweep.

My cheap endoscope happened to arrive from Amazon the same day, which was fun and useful. I learned two things:


1) The bypass door does not have the gasket on it. The bypass gasket is on the flat surface around the bypass opening, and the door swings down to hit the gasket. This means that chimney sweepings land on and around the gasket. Every sweeping, put on your longest welding gloves and clean the crud from all 4 sides of the gasket. My bypass door definitely closes better now.

2) Even if you run the brush all the way into the firebox, you can end up with a small pile of crud in the angled part of the internal flue, below the collar. You can reach it with a paintbrush or similar from inside. It wasn't much, and I doubt it could build up too high because the brush pushes some of it down with every pass, but gravity doesn't do the job due to the angle of the flue.

Ashful, I don't think your smoke is crazy but it's more than I would see 9 hours into a burn, especially on such a low setting. Although your special socks would undoubtedly shield you from any criticism, I don't think any is warranted here- because I think that the moment when you happen to look at the chimney is such a small sample that we all have randomly-skewed ideas of what our exhaust looks like.

 

[kf6hap]

You do realize there are plenty of other stoves out there that can easily burn overnight dont you?

But will it burn until lunch time tomorrow?

How about dinner?

 

[Ashful]

But will it burn until lunch time tomorrow?

How about dinner?

I think bholler has been pretty clear. He does not contest the phenomenal burn times. He has just said that in *his house*, those low burn rates cannot keep up with demand, in colder weather. So, for his house, in dead-cold weather, the long burn time holds no appeal.

What he’s been quieter about is how those long burn time capabilities have served him through our long and wet fall, when heat demand was lower.

 

[Highbeam]

With all this talk about thermal shock lately, let me ask, has anyone here actually lost a cat in there BK do too thermal shock?

I haven’t. I have however done just about all the things that are supposed to cause a cat to crumble, at least once. Am I just lucky?

Thermal shock can ruin a cat while causing no visible damage. Supposedly, according to bk, is the cause of 95% of cat failures.

I believe they just wear out pretty often but that is not considered a failure.

 

[Highbeam]

I think bholler has been pretty clear. He does not contest the phenomenal burn times. He has just said that in *his house*, those low burn rates cannot keep up with demand, in colder weather. So, for his house, in dead-cold weather, the long burn time holds no appeal.

What he’s been quieter about is how those long burn time capabilities have served him through our long and wet fall, when heat demand was lower.

Exactly. Properly sizing a bk to the application has a great influence on your satisfaction. Plus, well, I'm not expecting much of a conversion here from a diehard noncat fan. The BK would have to be twice as good to be considered just mediocre!

It was 15 at the highbeam house this morning and I threw in an extra three splits of doug fir on my way out the door. Normal 24/7 heating when lows are in the 30s would mean I add no wood on the way out the door, just reload on a 24 hour schedule. Properly sizing the stove is important and I think I'm pretty close here.

 

[jetsam]

On a side note, we have a guest staying in a little-used part of the house. I shut the door to that area and discovered that my Teco zone relay box has been completely dead for an unknown period of time. Oil burner has been offline for months? Years? Never cared before! Thanks, BK!

24v transformer is putting out 5v, can't find one with the same pin configuratuon. Debating whether I just want to bolt one on to the side of the box or buy a new box. That $5 transformer is $35 at the big box stores, too.

 

[sprawlnstall]

Besides thermal shock, high temperature, and burning poor quality wood what else decreases cat life? I believe BK when they say the cat may be damaged from thermal shock without looking damaged but I don't quite understand it. Can anyone explain?

 

[Ashful]

Thermal shock can ruin a cat while causing no visible damage. Supposedly, according to bk, is the cause of 95% of cat failures.

I believe they just wear out pretty often but that is not considered a failure.

You’re getting mixed up here, I think. It has been said that leaky door gaskets are the cause of 95% of cat failures, not thermal shock.

 

[Ashful]

Besides thermal shock, high temperature, and burning poor quality wood what else decreases cat life?

“Poisoning”, essentially burning things with heavy metals content, like leaded paint or galvanized nails.

I believe BK when they say the cat may be damaged from thermal shock without looking damaged but I don't quite understand it. Can anyone explain?

I have never heard that, before today. Thermal shock causes mechanical damage, cracking as a result of unequal expansion and contraction forces within the ceramic. This cracking is not an issue, unless it is bad enough to cause it to fall apart, which I think is pretty rare.

 

[sprawlnstall]

“Poisoning”, essentially burning things with heavy metals content, like leaded paint or galvanized nails.


I have never heard that, before today. Thermal shock causes mechanical damage, cracking as a result of unequal expansion and contraction forces within the ceramic. This cracking is not an issue, unless it is bad enough to cause it to fall apart, which I think is pretty rare.

So thermal shock can happen but is not likely to happen? Is thermal shock only caused when cold air (opening door) hits the cat or can it happen other ways?

 

[Highbeam]

Situation:

BK Ashford 30.1
6 feet single wall pipe
10 feet insulated liner
9 hours into a 24 hour burn
Steel cat new in fall 2016
9 splits of oak + 1 split of sycamore, full firebox at 10pm last night
Cat probe holding well into active region, maybe 10 o’clock on the dial

Chimney smoke, which I guess I never considered an issue:

View attachment 234893

Thoughts? This isn’t what everyone sees? There has never been any buildup on my screen at the cap, and liner stays relatively clean after a full year, so I’m not sure why visible smoke is a big deal to everyone, all of a sudden.

Lay it on me, I’m wearing my special socks today.

View attachment 234894

Visible smoke has always been a big deal to most and it should be a big deal to everyone! The visible smoke is illegal and punishable by a fine of 1000$ for the first offense if it is over a certain low density at the stack and lasts for more than some ridiculously short amount of time like 5 minutes after reload/kindle. Neighbors think you are a polluting redneck if they see smoke and we all know that smoke is wasted fuel. Not unlike "rolling coal" from our diesel trucks.

The burden is on the operator to prove that it is steam and you will be trying to convince a snowflake idiot who has the authority to write that 1000$ ticket.

 

[Highbeam]

You’re getting mixed up here, I think. It has been said that leaky door gaskets are the cause of 95% of cat failures, not thermal shock.

No, leaky door gaskets cause air leaks to flow non-preheated air into the firebox into the cat and cause.... thermal shock.

 

[Highbeam]

Thermal shock causes mechanical damage, cracking as a result of unequal expansion and contraction forces within the ceramic. This cracking is not an issue, unless it is bad enough to cause it to fall apart, which I think is pretty rare.

Extreme thermal shock can cause physical damage but all cats can fail from thermal shock when it compromising the wash coat.

That's why it is so important to have a tight door gasket even on the modern 30 boxes that only use a steel cat.