I’m still at the 10 split load point but I’ve been splitting bigger and bigger so in the next few years I’ll get to those larger splits and maybe 7 split loads.
2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 2 (Everything BK)
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I’m still at the 10 split load point but I’ve been splitting bigger and bigger so in the next few years I’ll get to those larger splits and maybe 7 split loads.
Yeah
I am used to splitting large for the VC. But it only takes 3 splits that size to fill the box. VC has a strange firebox.
I calculated last week when I was at the cottage Wed through Sun:
5 loads for BK = 35 splits (1 load in a 24h)
At home for the same time period I get
15 loads for VC = 41 splits (3 loads in 24h with one smallish day time load)
Pretty much same heat output
So I read something about too much draft, too little draft being an issue with these stoves. What determines draft and how do I ensure my installer gets it right? Will an outside air kit help with this problem?
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I see absolutely no good reason to ever do a top-down fire in a BK.
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lsucet
Minister of Fire
This season I am more comfortable loading the stove with some big splits and rounds some ash and elm that I split big two years ago. Sometimes I can't put more than five and a lot of space between due to the shape but it burns longer and hotter. The space between makes the char process faster cause it catch quick with raging fire. For sure it has been way less work for me when splitting lately. Also less smoke I think
Ashful
Minister of Fire
My cold-start procedure:
1. Fetch wood and kindling or favorite fire starter (SuperCedar).
2. Level ash bed, then plow a small divot front and center. ("Tunnel of Love", Bro Bart)
3. Set SuperCedar (I usually use a half puck) in divot and light it.
4. Load stove full, ensuring I have some smaller and drier stuff over the fire starter.
5. Wait about 12 minutes for flue probe to hit 500, then close bypass.
6. Run 20 minutes on high, then set thermostat and walk away.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I'm also using 10 splits, but I probably have to spend a bit more time and thought on my Tetris, given my firebox is 3.5% smaller than yours.
You can leave out a few splits and still have just as many lbs since you’re burning that nice oak vs my lesser softwood!
Some of these guys are excellent at stove packing Tetris.
What are the optional side shields for and what do they do?
What about the optional convection deck? What is the purpose?
What about the optional convection deck? What is the purpose?
The optional convection deck looks good and also forces air from the blowers to spend more time in contact with the hot stove top to strip more heat. I built a convection deck for my other stove and it was very helpful. You lose a bit of coking space if that matters to you. Can be added later.
The side shields reduce side clearance requirements for the classic and parlor. They are not optional on the ultra, they are required.
lsucet
Minister of Fire
Outside or inside shields? Convection deck? Well, thats what it is it convect the heat and route the air from the fans to the front.
Outside shields are too for convection and clearance.
lsucet
Minister of Fire
lsucet
Minister of Fire
If you live in the Alps, maybe it never warms up all winter? It went to 32 degrees here, this afternoon. By the time I took a quad load to my BIL and played with his stove for a while, my stove was out by the time I got back home. The house was still at 68*. No problem to fire back up (see later in this post.) Lighting a stove is no hassle at all if you're an expert like I am.
And this post just sails past everyone, nobody even asks "why"...Maybe only clogged with ash, and run-of-the-mill?
Even though you can't hear me,
I'd like to thank you for the heads-up. Gonna have to get me one of those toys..You BK folk act like it's a big deal to start a fire. Sure, I have to have some kindling, which requires some effort to work up, and I need a stock of quick-catching splits..Red Maple is my favorite. Once I have that stuff, starting is a breeze. I might do a top-down, or a bottom start with fast-catching wood on the front. I have a couple of large clinkers I've saved in the stove, I drop 1/7 of a SuperCedar between them and put a couple of kindling Pine fingers on top in the front of the box, and waited about 10 minutes. Then I pack the rest of the stove (Red Oak usually) and put a couple Red Maple splits on top of the kindling in front. Shoots heat to the top, in the front, pretty quickly. When the stove is up to temp, I close the bypass. It's really not any harder than starting off coals (which I usually do anyway.)Here's the Princess Technique: Throw the wood in, the wood ignites because that stove has a 24+ hour burn time and you only need to light it when you let it go out on purpose. You could use your blowtorch if you want to get all fancy.
The one time a year that I actually start that stove from cold is in the fall, and I traditionally start it with a few stoveloads of sticks and twigs policed up out of the yard to warm her up.
You guys just aren't nerdy enough.
If you want the absolute cleanest start, top-down is where it's at.This is why top-down is cleaner; The wood that's catching (smoldering and smoking) is feeding the smoke up into the flames above, which re-burns the smoke resulting in no smoke out the stack, even on start-up.Flames go up not down.
One reason I value your input is that you are running two different stoves. Not many of this BK hoard can say the same. Sure, there are a couple guys who previously ran a cheep-arse tube stove, or a crappy down-draft stove, but...
I'm driving blind as well, having only burned a smoke-blower previously, but never a tube stove. I hope to get a secondary stove at some point, and I fully expect it will heat well and not burn all that much more wood than the cats I've run.
From what you've said here, you are burning a bit more in the VC but not all that much over 24 hrs. You say "pretty much same heat output" but you have two different houses to heat, so who knows for sure..?
Fans. I don't like extraneous noise, so I'm not a fan of fans and I think blowers blow.
There is an optional fan kit (aka blower) that bolts on the rear of the princess and other bk models. The fan kit reduces rear clearances and provides you the option of boosting output. I very seldom run the fans, almost exclusively when I’ve allowed the house to cool and need a rapid warm up.
I just looked to see how wimpy your winter was right now, and to my surprise, not all that wimpy. You might even have some snow to deal with.
lsucet
Minister of Fire
You for example.Many are...
Alpine1
Feeling the Heat
It doesn’t get super cold (we seldom hit -20C in January and February) but the annoying thing is the day maximum temp, that stays between -2 and +2 C from mid November through March, hence the 24 hrs burn.
Where I live, it is not unusual, if it rains a couple of days, to have max daily temp of +7 C in July. Of course, altitude plays a big role, we’re at 1200 meters above sea level.
You guys just aren't nerdy enough.
Nope, I beat up nerds when I was younger.
Just kidding, I’m a nerd but not nerdy enough.I understand how it works. I can honestly say I don’t care about a little smoke out of the stack at start up. It’s similar to my diesel Jetta or Silverado when I start them in the cold.
I ran a Lopi, not a cheap tube stove, my BK runs laps around it. The BK stoves are controllable/predictable not many stoves act the same load after load no matter how you load them. I could add wood with a 600* stove top without fear of it going nuclear if I wanted to.
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