I took it last year, IIRC the hot spot was 600ish. I should have the uncropped version somewhere.
2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 2 (Everything BK)
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I took it last year, IIRC the hot spot was 600ish. I should have the uncropped version somewhere.
lsucet
Minister of Fire
With the type/species of wood that I use the savings is obvious. My whole family notice that, it is not my imagination. With other stoves I used to burn the wood like paper. I match so so burn times posted by others here using hardwood with no problems using softwood. Not possible before.
That's great I am glad you have had that experience. I imagine burning softwoods I would notice allot more difference.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
What (I think) I said was that, even as the combustor degrades, there will still be some temperature at which you can get reburn. Heck, with the introduction of a just a little fresh air and 1100F minimum temperature, non-cats do it with no catalyst at all. Whether we'd call that "active" or not, I'm not sure I want to debate, I'd guess we could go 'round and 'round on that for awhile.
This is exactly what was happening to mine, before I installed the key damper. Actually, I just did it to my new cat a week ago, falling asleep for 90 minutes with the stove on high and the damper open a little too wide. In my opinion, it is 100% caused by high draft condition, and I believe it is fully preventable if you control your draft. The trouble is, with a manual damper, mistakes are bound to happen.
On the subject, I'm running a fun little experiment right now. Instead of letting the stove go cold to clean the cat, I just pulled the flame guard and vacuumed all of the ash build-up off that, and left the cat alone. I've been running it ever since, with care to keep the draft in-check, hoping that the constant exhaust air thru the cat will eventually erode away that light brown crap that had plugged it, and it seems to be working. My stove is almost back to normal performance.
Right there with you, bro. What's next in your pad... a Woodstock? We need to get you on a tear like webby3650 was, a few years back, a new stove every year!
Hey, if there are any automatic draft controls for wood stove applications, I might be interested in checking them out. Anyone?
lsucet
Minister of Fire
Here a family member had a clogged cat on his Ashford. They cleaned it and give it a bath with the vinegar process, I provided the gasket and they are back in business.
Their chimney is not that tall but it is unsure if they are having overdraft. Something to look into it in the future.
I usually switch out about every 5 years or when i find a good deal
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Ashful
Minister of Fire
In my case, it’s just fluff, which is easily vacuumed or brushed away, I haven’t had to resort to vinegar. But I can repeat it on demand, just run my stove on high without closing the key damper, for an extended period. I have done it at least five times, now.
I have one of the taller chimneys I’ve seen on this forum, but definitely not the tallest. I think it’s 30 feet total height, combination of double wall stovepipe and insulated liner, all 6 inch.
Again, if anyone knows of a reliable automatic damper solution for double wall, I’m interested.
Wow, it even burns underwater?
That truly is a magical stove! 
Their ability to put out almost zero heat has no equal in the industry!
Yeah, I'd think running the BK high wouldn't work as well, with the inner baffles blocking heat from getting out. So you weren't running the 3100 wide open to recover in an hour, and stack temp is lower than when trying to recover on high with the BK?
Yeah, we need somebody to test-run some of the hybrids, Woodstock or some of the others. I would think it would be unlikely for you to stumble across a good deal on one of those...they are pretty new. Who knows, though...?
lsucet
Minister of Fire
They had it out for cleaning and decided to give it a bath. About dampers i will like to find a solution also. lol. Unfortunately including the ones we are using are not recommended neither. It is a shame cause it is obvious that most of us cant meet manufactures specs with our setups. The question is, what can be done? None of the options available are approved apparently .
“Their ability to put out almost zero heat has no equal in the industry “
You are right. A feature that I have used a lot this winter. Their ability to run low, their thermostat and their customer service is why I went with BlazeKing. Now I can see they may not be for every house but sized properly in a decently insulated house they work great.
You are right. A feature that I have used a lot this winter. Their ability to run low, their thermostat and their customer service is why I went with BlazeKing. Now I can see they may not be for every house but sized properly in a decently insulated house they work great.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Bk should look into making a auto tune damper coming out of the flue collar, electric to keep closed or at the setting to get the minimum .05” draft, if power goes out then it opens by default for safety... just an idea for the future
And give full open for reloads. I really like the .17 draft for partial reloads without smoke spillage. But with pine caution needs to be used so the flames don’t go way up the black pipe! That is the down side to excessive draft.
Great idea in auto tune damper!
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lsucet
Minister of Fire
with a key damper we are just tricking the system. We are taken away the point of the appliance was tested and the specs are for 6 inches flue. The prove is the higher pressure post the key damper. When the key damper is helping to control in some how the overdraft issue, the blockage to the flue is not good neither. I personally dont like it. If i try to keep from the start the draft into specs with the damper it does burn ugly and it takes longer time to get to temp, due to, i am blocking/restricting the flow. It has to be use as old school, let it rip at first and close the damper once it is at temp. The key here is to be able to control draft at all time but that is not what is happening with a key damper. There is no performance in my opinion.
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kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
I would argue with that statement, the stove is tested to run at a .05 draft at high burn, if your setup is greater than .05 then the stove is not running how it was tested, it is imperative to have the draft upstream from the damper (means from the stove collar through the primary intake) at the right pressure, this will enable the stove to function as tested with the amount of air to t-stat setting to cat reburn, retaining the proper heat to radiate or heat exchange into the room and not the flue (think efficiency) and not over fire the cat; anything after the damper down stream shouldn't really matter in high draft conditions because its only exhausting or going out into the open with no performance effect.
Now as far as start ups, yes you are correct, its much easier to get the fire going into at least the charring stage before setting the damper.
lsucet
Minister of Fire
I know your point of view and i will mention something and see if people dont rave up cause it is only a conversation and my point of view.
In the past i did use different kind of damper and it does control draft at all time plus the burn was normal, something i dont see it happening with a key damper. Yes, draft is measure at high burn to confirm that an issue can be caused by excessive draft or for some of us that like to go by the book. ( sometimes doing things that are not in the book ) lol. but when draft is controlled without restriction at all time the flue and stove are equal/in harmony at 0.05 or whatever specs all time, and including when intake is closed still having the same results. I did use both back on the day, and it is different. Just saying.
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If your key damper(s) are of sufficient height above the stove there is ZERO difference if the key dampers are responsible for maintaing a .05 spec or if the flue height without key dampers generates a .05 spec. The stove doesn’t know the difference.
What the spec is designed for is a certain amount of pressure drop .05 so the volume of air moving though the stove is correct. Whether the chimney or dampers provide the correct draft doesn’t matter.
The key dampers are static though, but I was pleased to find out that when 2 or more are used in a series, even though they are still static, the result is more variable. I notice that wether it’s 30 or -5 the key dampers are within a few degrees of the warmer/colder position. With one key it requires constant chasing and if the angle of attack of the key damper exceeds it he 10 or 2 o’clock position the draft pulses from the turbulence.
I set the keys to knock the draft down from .17 to .08 and the barometric meter takes it to .04 for normal oops. If it’s cold like down I set the baro at .06. If it’s warm out say 30 I set the baro at .03.
The lower the baro the greater the efficiency but when it’s cold, .03 generates 25% less heat on high that .06 but the burn time drops from 10 hours to 6-7. Lots of coals left but not intense heat.
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Ashful
Minister of Fire
I think you guys are getting hung up on a language barrier (I think Isucet speaks French?). If I can paraphrase what he is saying, and I agree with him, achieving ideal 0.05”WC draft on high burn via key damper does not provide the same performance as achieving it by proper chimney height.
If you have a chimney that provides 0.05”WC without a key damper, it is going to stay closer to 0.05”WC (temperature-dependent) over a wider range of burn settings. But achieving 0.05”WC at high burn via key damper on a very tall chimney will always result in much stronger draft as air inlet to the stove is reduced. This is because the pressure created by the chimney is solely a function of temperature, whereas the pressure drop across the key damper has a linear dependency on air volume.
Turn down the stove = reduction in air volume = reduction in air drop across key damper = greater draft at stove collar from a tall chimney for the same key damper setting.
lsucet
Minister of Fire
I have French for my Father side on me but i just speak Spanish and not so well.
That is exactly what i meant.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
It’s been alleged a few times that I need my oil-fired boiler to keep this joint heated, and it may be true, *I* need it... but the stoves don’t!
Woke up late to 68F inside this morning in the main wing, and 19F outside. Loaded up the BK, and it had the place up to 72F in about two hours. Holding 72F now, but I did rip thru an entire load of hardwood in 5 hours.
So, it seems these stoves could carry this place just fine, I’m just not willing to load at that rate, when I’m running a pair of them.
Woke up late to 68F inside this morning in the main wing, and 19F outside. Loaded up the BK, and it had the place up to 72F in about two hours. Holding 72F now, but I did rip thru an entire load of hardwood in 5 hours.
So, it seems these stoves could carry this place just fine, I’m just not willing to load at that rate, when I’m running a pair of them.
charger4406
Feeling the Heat
I agree they can throw enough heat but there would be a coaling problem I think
to produce the btu's necessary to keep the building a that temp, I assume, not knowing
your heat load requirement, but going by mine I have to run the 2 stoves, f600 burning
8-10hr loads and the ashford contributing during the coaling stages for the f600,
and even then I need the furnace to help out when we are single digits to sub zero, as we will be for the next
10 days/nights except for our midweek snowstorm coming.
if I ran the ashford as hard as you did I probably could keep as warm but would have frozen pipes after a
few days.
to produce the btu's necessary to keep the building a that temp, I assume, not knowing
your heat load requirement, but going by mine I have to run the 2 stoves, f600 burning
8-10hr loads and the ashford contributing during the coaling stages for the f600,
and even then I need the furnace to help out when we are single digits to sub zero, as we will be for the next
10 days/nights except for our midweek snowstorm coming.
if I ran the ashford as hard as you did I probably could keep as warm but would have frozen pipes after a
few days.
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