Question re: burning pine/ softwood. This coming season will be our second year with a BK. First season we ran all hardwoods. I don't have much experience burning softwood, this is our first cat stove. We burn in a finished basement and the heat comes upstairs nicely but we have to run medium/medium high (zero to occasional flames). I scored a bunch of seasoned pine logs which I'm splitting and stacking now, will end up with probably 2 full cords. I'm trying to calculate how much of my hardwoods this will substitute for. I know people have commented how well pine burns in a BK but mostly in the context of low burns. I'm wondering on a higher setting, how pine compares. I know in my tube stove pine is gone in like an hour. I'm hoping to still get 5 hour burns during the day on medium, then at night dial it down low. Also, would you recommend mixing a couple good sticks of hardwoods in? Or just burn off all the pine early in the season with exclusive pine loads and save all he hardwoods for deep winter?
2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 2 (Everything BK)
- Thread starter begreen
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
- Status
lsucet
Minister of Fire
Ashful
Minister of Fire
There are a lot of color-washed opinions of pine vs hardwoods on this forum, but it’s all really just subjectively-qualified BS.
20 MBTU vs 30 MBTU. That’s the difference, no matter how you slice it. Expect to split, stack, move, load, and burn 30% more of it, for the same heat output. There’s no magic, here.
lsucet
Minister of Fire
You are right but it works both way. You hardwood with 18 to 25 MC or more and my softwood of less than 10% MC. At the end is about the same with the hardwood having some advantage but not by much. I burn both an it is easy to drop some softwood in there and everything is back running in no time. Including here in this part of the country hardwood takes long time to dry and still has higher MC.
I am based on burning with a BK and the tstat. A different stove well I don't know much but I still.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
MissMac
Minister of Fire
My first year with my BK i burned jack pine only. If i stuffed the stove full and left it wide open on high, i would get 4-5 hours before reload. Dialling it down to a medium to med-low setting i can stretch that out to 8-10 hours, and on my low setting, around 12-14 hours depending on how cold out it is and when i feel like i want to stuff it full to get some rockin heat again. I don’t run on wide open any more even when its super cold out - i will dial back to a med-high because i’ve found i get the same heat, but longer burn. Burn the pine!
Following the ashful math, just expect a 30% reduction in burn time if all else is equal. If you had been getting a 20 hour burn time, pine will get you 14.
Of course there are some crap hardwoods that are actually less valuable for fuel than pine and there are several different kinds of pine. There is also moisture content and even split size that might effect things but ashful’s math is good.
I burn hard and softwood together and separately most years. We have a lot of both in the pnw and the only real difference I see is that hardwoods make a lot of ash.
Of course there are some crap hardwoods that are actually less valuable for fuel than pine and there are several different kinds of pine. There is also moisture content and even split size that might effect things but ashful’s math is good.
I burn hard and softwood together and separately most years. We have a lot of both in the pnw and the only real difference I see is that hardwoods make a lot of ash.
Really, I don’t think anybody can burn a load of pine in an hour in any normal sized stove without overfire. I purposely run my noncat at maximum safe output and can burn up 3.5 cf of softwood to small coals in three hours but the stove is still hot.
We might have stumbled into a definition of burn time issue.
Nope just me exaggerating. In truth I've never stuffed my tube stove full of exclusively pine but you're right if I did the stove would over fire. I have, however, thrown in a couple sticks of pine to recharge the stove and it disappears pretty quick. The 30% equation sounds good to me, that will save me plenty of hardwoods this year. Thanks for the replies.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I've seen some photos here of stoves that look like they've seen 1 hour loads.
With the BK, feel free to burn 100% pine. I burn almost entirely pine in the coldest parts of the winter, hardwoods the rest of the year.
Ruh roh, the new princess has been removed from the EPA list. Weird. Also noticed that the woodstock guys are testing with cord wood, BK still using crib wood.
BKVP
Minister of Fire
It hasn't been removed. You have to select proper fuel type...there are horrible bugs in the new site/database. I had 2 EPA people try to navigate it today and could not...
I certainly wasn’t impressed with the new site either. I’ll try again later, glad the princess is still there with those excellent specs.
Still kicking around the idea of replacing our NC-30 with a Princess. Would we be better off buying an “old” model princess or wait for the Princess 32’s to hit the market? We’ll be heating our 1600 sq ft ranch. Looking for more control in shoulder seasons and better burn times. Thanks!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
lsucet
Minister of Fire
I will go with the 32. Better emissions and almost the same specs of the old princess.
The only wild card is the cat. I haven’t been able to determine if the 32 uses a new odd cat.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
BKVP
Minister of Fire
BKVP
Minister of Fire
agents.
The PE32 shows up when you look at cleanest buring wood stoves. #2 . #1 is 18k btu VC stove.
Once step 1 heaters come off the list....it should be in top 1-3 most efficient as well.
PROVEN!
Is there any difference in the cats between the 32 and the “older” princesses?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
BKVP
Minister of Fire
We certify all heaters using EPA's suitable replacement program. Lest a supplier have delivery issues, we test with multiple cats.
They are shipping with fecralloy (metal) cats. We have used these on other models with great success.
You might scoop up a deal on a PE1006 at this time.
They are shipping with fecralloy (metal) cats. We have used these on other models with great success.
You might scoop up a deal on a PE1006 at this time.
Right, I’m sure it’s a great cat but is it the same cat (and cheap price) as the current princess which is the same cat as 6 other bk models? Or a new oddball cat that doesn’t fit anything else?
Even the old princess cat saw an 11% price increase over the last two years. We’ve been hearing horror stories about ultra high costs on new model cats. If we assume the long end of manufacturer rated and consumer verified cat life of 12000 hours then that is 500 days. Some more fun math is that a 220$ cat will cost 44 cents per day to operate. Obviously many of us can justify that you get more than 44 cents of value but when a cat costs 400$ things start to get a little tougher. I can't even find the new princess32 cat online yet.
For a full time burner this is an every other year purchase so it’s not a small issue.
Last edited:
BKVP
Minister of Fire
Great news Chris. You must have really squeezed those aliens to get lower burn rates and 84% cleaner emissions out of the same cat!
Quite an accomplishment. Need any beta testers?
I suppose I could take one for the team and volunteer for beta testing as well!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
- Status
