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

[ratsrepus]

It seems as though there has been a lot of negative criticism on BK stoves lately. I have less creosote, burn less wood, have a warmer house for longer then any stove Ive had, Never had a chimney fire or come close. Operating the stove is not like running a giant diesel engine on a cruise ship. I fill it with wood, set it and forget it. I know how to season my wood, I installed my chimneys in a professional manner, so i never expected any problems and haven't. This is simple wood burning 101, not rocket Scientology.

Oh and my chimney smokes way less than the other stoves

 

[darktower007]

When I was first looking for wood inserts... I looked TONS of them. I went was going to buy either a Drulet or US Stove for like $899 whole shebang for $1500. I didn’t know then that US Stove was not a very good unit.

But then I found out on this forum that some are made in China, and most insert problems or questions you have to go through the dealer. Well.. my local dealer in TN was an
a$$ clown. So I kept reading about Blaze King. Of course no dealer is within 200 miles of me. So I reached out to the manufacturer (which I have several times) for questions. I didn’t reach a person in India either, I was on hold for 30 seconds and I got my questions answered. This is why I spent 4 times my original budget on an inset.

Dumb decision? Time will well... but at least I know I can reach out to you guys and the people that make the inserts and not be forced to go through my hopeless dealer trying to sell me a $4300 NEO 2.0!

I wonder how many people have bought BK from this forum? I am one for sure. [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lsucet]

No, over the course burn cycle, not when the stove is out. So the temp will rise a couple degrees after the half-load burn, then fall a couple. The coals last a while so the heat cycle is a pretty long time, obviously. Maybe the little bit of soapstone, or the thermal-mass 1" wall covering smooths the temp swing out a bit, but I've noticed pretty much the same situation at my BIL's 1500 sq.ft. stick-construction house with the Fireview in it. Not a big swing over the course of a day in mild weather when he lets the stove burn out.
That's my point, you can do it either way and the house temp won't vary much in mild weather, so the slow burn isn't really needed. I'm pretty sure I could do it just as well with a tube stove in that weather. The cat is an advantage to me when burning full loads in colder weather, where it will smooth out the heat curve and not roast us out at the beginning. But with a tube stove, there are ways around that, with a jacketed stove or a couple partial loads if you want. If you're gone all day, roasting out the stove room a little isn't even a problem for the daytime burn.

Woody I know you know way more than me about cat stoves and about stoves in general, I am in Pampers. There is point here that can make a big difference for some and for sure it makes it for me. Last night I was lazy and don't want to bring wood inside, just load whatever was here inside that it was about less than 3/4 of a load and not loaded tight.
Went thru the night on low. I just running one stove for the last four days. Temp not being dropping more than 22 over night here for the last few days. At 5:40 AM the house staying between 64 and 71. Turn air up. Take care the horses, get my coffee and back to low again on my way out to work. Flames going in there cat pegging at the end.
Come back around 6pm, just some coals in there, cat at 11 o'clock. Went outside quick and got 4 normal splits ( on the skinny side ) keep it going and dial it down.
Look the time I am writing and the conditions.
The point is that a tube stove at this point of the burn all what it has about heat is just those coals.
I am not only having heat from the coals. Look the heat the cat is giving also. I know I am not teaching anything cause you know better than me the differences. The house is between 65 and 72 right now and I still have to load for the night. One stove only. Never was able to accomplish that with the tube stoves. MY SCENARIO.

 

[tarzan]

Got to hand it to bholler though, not many other chimney sweeps advocate so strongly for cleaner burning stoves.

I’ve ran tube stoves, smoke dragons and now a cat stove. My main reason for switching to a tube stove from a smoke dragon was constant creosote build up and the looming threat of a chimney fire. The tube stove was so clean burning it completely eliminated that issue but didn’t have the turn down capability I was used to (and wanted) with the smoke dragons.

So....after much research I realized a cat stove had the low and slow capabilities I wanted along with the clean burning technology that would allow me to sleep soundly without worrying about a chimney fire.

The cat stove is nowhere near as clean burning as the tube stove, I could have realistically ran that one four seasons without a chimney sweep! But it’s not the creosote producing machine that kept me up at nights the smoke dragons were on a low burn either.

Everyone should run what most closely meets there criteria, I’m just glad I found one that so closely meets mine.

 

[Woody Stover]

you know way more than me about cat stoves and about stoves in general

Well, I dunno, that might be a stretch..I've only run a few cat stoves and an old smoke-blower, no tube stoves.

22 over night here for the last few days. At 5:40 AM the house staying between 64 and 71. Turn air up. Take care the horses, get my coffee and back to low again on my way out to work. Flames going in there cat pegging at the end. Come back around 6pm, just some coals in there

Yeah, I got lazy too, and didn't load the stove last night. I had loaded about 3 PM (full load, small stove) with Black Cherry and Red Maple. It's not shoulder season for either of us, it got about 47 yesterday and went to 34 last night. Some breeze yesterday, increased to wind last night and now. I loaded up this morning at about the 15-hr. mark. The house was down to 65. So yeah, we can load like it's shoulder season if we're willing to let house temp drop into the mid-60s, which I hardly ever do.

Never was able to accomplish that with the tube stoves.

No, once you load the tube stove, it's going to burn at a higher rate until the wood and coals are gone. That would hold house temp for a day in mild weather, which is what I was talking about originally.
But you might have better heat and a bit lower and longer burns with a tube stove of higher quality, so I've heard. You can surely afford to try one out; You are a wealthy man who could spring for two BKs.

 

[bholler]

It seems as though there has been a lot of negative criticism on BK stoves lately. I have less creosote, burn less wood, have a warmer house for longer then any stove Ive had, Never had a chimney fire or come close. Operating the stove is not like running a giant diesel engine on a cruise ship. I fill it with wood, set it and forget it. I know how to season my wood, I installed my chimneys in a professional manner, so i never expected any problems and haven't. This is simple wood burning 101, not rocket Scientology.

Oh and my chimney smokes way less than the other stoves

What other stoves did you have?

 

[sprawlnstall]

When I was first looking for wood inserts... I looked TONS of them. I went was going to buy either a Drulet or US Stove for like $899 whole shebang for $1500. I didn’t know then that US Stove was not a very good unit.

But then I found out on this forum that some are made in China, and most insert problems or questions you have to go through the dealer. Well.. my local dealer in TN was an
a$$ clown. So I kept reading about Blaze King. Of course no dealer is within 200 miles of me. So I reached out to the manufacturer (which I have several times) for questions. I didn’t reach a person in India either, I was on hold for 30 seconds and I got my questions answered. This is why I spent 4 times my original budget on an inset.

Dumb decision? Time will well... but at least I know I can reach out to you guys and the people that make the inserts and not be forced to go through my hopeless dealer trying to sell me a $4300 NEO 2.0!

I wonder how many people have bought BK from this forum? I am one for sure. [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can relate. I was looking for maximum btus when I installed last year. I nearly pulled the trigger on a drolet ht2000 but tripled my budget and went with the princess. So far I have been happy, this MN winter has been mild. I have only had to run the stove full throttle a few nights. I suspect once the temps fall in the -20 below the princess will struggle to keep my 2000 square feet at 65 degrees. I have never owned another stove but i don't think the drolet or Englaner 30 nc would do much better in -20 temps. The long burn times and never ending shoulder season here makes the up for the extra chimney cleanings and overall btu's. If i had an 8 inch flue I would have a king and my problems would be solved.

 

[lsucet]

But you might have better heat and a bit lower and longer burns with a tube stove of higher quality

I don't have time for that.
This property has six houses. We all family, you can find from quadrafires, jutels, us stoves, Ashford, princess, etc. Average of two stove for house plus some of us also have pellet stoves installed to have different heat sources. Four cat stoves total and another on the way very soon ( sirocco 20 series, cause the area they will install it) the rest are tube stoves. I do know the differences regardless quality and prices.
Those are on hearth at this time. Not counting my Englanders or other previous stoves. I do have good idea.

 

[Ashful]

I would have never bought a BK if it weren’t for this forum. At the time I was shopping stoves, none of the BK’s on the market met my cosmetic requirements. I’d have just bought a VC 2-in-1, or another antique Jotul cat stove, based on the marketing by several companies (VC, Harman, Quad, etc.) about the inconsistent heat output of non-cats.

Then I’d have gotten frustrated with their problems, and probably eventually quit wood burning in stoves, altogether.

I used to watch the BK posts, and be envious of the claimed performance, but there was no way I’d be putting one of those oddly-proportioned sheetmetal boxes in my house. I think it was one my posts to this effect that generated a back-channel response about the Ashford 30, then in development. My interest was piqued, but they hit some delays, and I ended up buying another two Jotul Firelight 12’s (big cat stove) while I waited. A year or two running multiple F12’s was enough to make me hate them, so I switched to the Ashford 30’s as soon as I was able.

If it wasn’t for this forum, I’d likely have two cast iron stoves mostly just collecting dust, and would not be burning wood for more than ambience today. In fact, I’d have likely torn at least one of the stoves out, to get back to the open fireplaces I used to enjoy so much.

 

[bholler]

I don't have time for that.
This property has six houses. We all family, you can find from quadrafires, jutels, us stoves, Ashford, princess, etc. Average of two stove for house plus some of us also have pellet stoves installed to have different heat sources. Four cat stoves total and another on the way very soon ( sirocco 20 series, cause the area they will install it) the rest are tube stoves. I do know the differences regardless quality and prices.
Those are on hearth at this time. Not counting my Englanders or other previous stoves. I do have good idea.

So why when I asked you about this in the past did you claim to only have experience with Englander tube stoves??? Something isn't adding up

 

[bholler]

Yes, I agree, also most stoves spend 80% of their time at medium or low burn. See article below.

In a wood stove crowded area prone to smoke trapping, a cat stove is the only one that makes sense -to me- as the cat not only eats particulates but a whole host of other bad things too. These "bad" things are rarely talked about.

Shameless plug for BKVP:
http://www.chimneysweepnews.com/Combustors.htm

The thing about that 80 percent thing has been posted many times. And it may be true but the cast majority of those stoves are noncat so their medium to low is not low for a cat stove.

 

[shoot-straight]

Is it a light wall liner or heavy wall? Light wall it is possible but extremely unlikely. Heavy wall no way

Honestly I have No idea. It was an install by a very highly thought of group around here. Wasn't cheap either.

 

[lsucet]

So why when I asked you about this in the past did you claim to only have experience with Englander tube stoves??? Something isn't adding up

Cause those are the ones that belong to me and the one that I burnt every night when installed. I did mentioned other family members here on my last post. But I don't need to be involving others all the time. I was just saying that I am real familiar with both of the technologies. Cause I have been around both for many years. Maybe you misunderstood me.

 

[bholler]

Cause those are the ones that belong to me and the one that I burnt every night when installed. I did mentioned other family members here on my last post. But I don't need to be involving others all the time. I was just saying that I am real familiar with both of the technologies. Cause I have been around both for many years. Maybe you misunderstood me.

Yes clearly I misunderstood you when I clearly asked you what brands you have burn and you replied that it didn't matter all tube stoves are the same. And then over multiple pages of similar discussion no mention of your vast experience.

 

[jetsam]

In fact, I’d have likely torn at least one of the stoves out, to get back to the open fireplaces I used to enjoy so much.

I would never suggest an open fireplace as a heat source if a stove is available, but I sure do miss them. I've lived in a couple houses that were designed to be heated entirely via open fireplace, and I've spent a lot of hours sitting on hearths at night.

 

[lsucet]

Yes clearly I misunderstood you when I clearly asked you what brands you have burn and you replied that it didn't matter all tube stoves are the same. And then over multiple pages of similar discussion no mention of your vast experience.

Thank you for the compliment

 

[bholler]

Thank you for the compliment

Yeah it was a compliment

 

[lsucet]

Yeah it was a compliment

 

[Highbeam]

It seems as though there has been a lot of negative criticism on BK stoves lately.

This isn't a marketing outlet for BK where only the positive makes it through.

It is very important that we recognize strengths and weaknesses of the BK for the sake of current and future operators. Heck, even the manufacturer can benefit from knowing about weaknesses. So when you read something you consider negative criticism it just might be a fair point. Most of us on this thread are BK operators so we know the goods outweigh the bads. Some folks on this thread are just anti cat or anti BK trolls. Everybody is welcome.

 

[pjohnson]

Ahh life’s good the blaze king, king still pumping out heat after 16 hours cabin at 80 sitting in my easy chair, watching my tip ups and catching fish thru the ice. Just to top it off guess I’ll go play with the chain saws, cut and split a little wood.

 

[BKVP]

Happy Holidays to all of you.

I see this site as a wonderful tool for so many people. But is it really very, very small in scope of total wood stove buyers, users etc.

My view and that of our staff is we try to help people when they call us with a stove issue. We track that rate and it is well below 1% of our business. For that small fraction (and they are all important to us!) our staff tries to suggest remedies and in 99% of the cases they are resolved very quickly. A much smaller subset are those that doubt our intent and information, (I've been burning wood stoves my whole life sonny) we send them to hearth.com That has both a plus and minus effect. First the benefit. As has been done so many times before, you as a community help them. At times you question their installs, fuel, operation and sanity. You can say things to them we cannot!

The negative part of sending folks to this site, it concentrates the "problem" owners and can give the impression of a "bigger" problem. So I will review our internal policy about referring owners here. Respectfully, there are a very solid core group of wood burners here and they do a SUPERB job helping those with trying to learn, select and operate their choices of wood stoves. On behalf of Blaze King, thank you. But please keep perspective in mind...whether it's smoke smells, improperly wrapped springs, draft issues, chimney fires etc. Hopefully no one is offended by this but I really need to make this point.

There was once a guy that you all tried to help. He had a new stove, new chimney and a smoke spillage issue. This poor guys stove smoked even with the door closed and bypass open. He told you all he had a new chimney, installed by the dealer and a new stove! In the end, he was so frustrated he told the dealer to pull the stove. So when the dealer pulled the stove, loaded in his truck and went back to tell the owner he would be refunding his money......there was a large thud sound. Dealer and homeowner both looked over to the hearth pad and there, stained with wood stove, was his favorite sweatshirt. It turns out there was a delay between the time the chimney was installed and the stove was set in place. The owners wife felt cold air coming down the stack and you can guess the rest!

No we are not perfect. (like when the guy that build the thermostat springs build 4-5 backwards out of run of tens of thousands). We do endeavor to continually improve our products and our service. It's good to have goals and aspirations. You know that firsthand because your goal is to be helpful.

Keep in mind all wood stoves burn wood and produce heat. As much as wood stoves differ in performance, so do the expectations of those owners. Tube stoves, non cats (whichever you prefer..I prefer secondary combustion because they don't all have "tubes") are as equally capable of satisfying consumer expectations as catalytic stoves. But keep in mind not all cat stoves are alike, nor are all secondary combustion stoves. And when a person or many persons fall in love with the performance of that stove, let them love them. And they too should let others love their stoves. We are all in the same user group if you will.

So let's, as the community we are, continue to post helpful and experienced based support to those seeking the collective experience here. If someone wants to brag about how their stove performs, great. If 50 want to brag great. Brag about your stoves' performance if you like. Don't be spiteful at those that like their products and want to share their success and happiness in stove selection.

There are many, many wonderful stoves to choose from. Buy the one that you think will best address your needs. If you are a first time follower of this forum and this thread, the "regulars" here are exactly that...here. Here for you if you want information, experiences and advice. But in the end, it's your investment and your decision.

And in case I forgot to mention it...you guys crack me up! Happy, Merry, Sober Holidays to all.

Chris
BKVP

 

[Ashful]

Sober?

Merry Christmas!

 

[ratsrepus]

And merry Christmas to you ashful

 

[showrguy]

I will say I just hooked up a quick temp oak to it today I will report if it makes much difference

Well bholler ??
I told you you'd see a difference did'nt I ??
I'm 100% sure your house was easier to heat today than it was before you hooked up the OAK...
,

 

[Woody Stover]

This property has six houses. We all family, you can find from quadrafires, jutels, us stoves, Ashford, princess, etc. Average of two stove for house plus some of us also have pellet stoves

Wow, a family wood-burning cult compound! We have a version of that here..four adjacent houses. But only one with two stoves, because there's a rec room in the basement. I don't think they have basements in NM, do they? Why so many stoves, are they huge houses, not very tight, or what?

I don't have time for that.

Well at least y'all got time to run two stoves.. Maybe they should've gotten Kings instead of Ashfords and Princesses?

Four cat stoves total and another on the way very soon sirocco 20

I guess they are only BK cats, since I don't think you have many other cat stove makers out west. Kuma comes to mind..

Sober?

Yeah, when did he start preaching that? I guess he's just talking about if we're driving..
Merry wood-burning Christmas to all!
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fire+special+explosion