2018-19 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 2 (Everything BK)

[BKVP]

Apparently I need to check this thread more often. How old is the Jameson? That 21 year Bushmills is probably heavenly.

Gold Reserve is 21 Year The Middleton Very Rare is 25 Year. I brought them back from Ireland 2 years ago. All three remain unopened! I will open one I retire, 1 when my granddaughter or grandson (s) get married. The other when when I am done with the house remodel.....probably the soonest of the three.....

 

[jetsam]

This is definitely a threadjack, I don't even own a BK, but I'm supremely jealous of those totes. Nice tractor, I moved some wood with mine today, but not in such a convenient way.

No, we discuss toys and booze in here pretty often!

If you never check this thread, you will probably never get free socks from the internet. Just think what you've been missing!

 

[SpaceBus]

Now all you need is a Blaze King, some forks, and baskets full of wood! Ohh, and a really good counter weight!

My stump grinder weighs 1000 lbs, so plenty there and I've got forks sitting around for pallets and such. I don't know about a BK tho my Morso heats the whole house and then some.

 

[SpaceBus]

Gold Reserve is 21 Year The Middleton Very Rare is 25 Year. I brought them back from Ireland 2 years ago. All three remain unopened! I will open one I retire, 1 when my granddaughter or grandson (s) get married. The other when when I am done with the house remodel.....probably the soonest of the three.....

Ah, then go for the Bushmills first. Save the 25 year for the gra daughter, and the Jameson for the grandson. Boys are always rougher around the edges, just like Jameson.

 

[SpaceBus]

No, we discuss toys and booze in here pretty often!

If you never check this thread, you will probably never get free socks from the internet. Just think what you've been missing!

Clearly quite a bit!

 

[jetsam]

Clearly quite a bit!

More than you know! We also discuss the many benefits that a stove with astonishingly good turn-down can have, especially for those who have long burning seasons or well-insulated houses. Have you ever considered upgrading that Morso to something that may need loading once a day and a new fire started a couple times a year? Tell us about the space you're trying to heat. ..

 

[Woody Stover]

Same cat...

So what is "fecralloy?" Never heard that term, is it a brand name?

IW Harper is spectacular. I had to get local store to order it...

I think I saw that Harper 15-yr. in stock locally. I'll have to check that out..supposed to be tasty for that proof range. Don't recall how much it was, but I haven't gone over 70 bucks yet..I doubt my palate is refined enough to warrant it.
If you haven't tried it yet, check out the Russell's Reserve Single Barrel. I just tried it for the first time (in a 'store selection,') and it might be my favorite to date. Just a little little over 60 bux IIRC, and definitely worth it. Got another one coming this afternoon.
I haven't messed with the Scotch. I'm a "wood guy" and I like that Oak char flavor. Plus I live within 10 miles of Kentucky so I'm required to drink bourbon, heheh.

 

[Highbeam]

What the fec is fecralloy? It’s metal. Same cat he said. Also valuable is that the ceramic version is cheaper, swaps right in, and less likely to clog.

 

[jetsam]

What the fec is fecralloy? It’s metal. Same cat he said. Also valuable is that the ceramic version is cheaper, swaps right in, and less likely to clog.

I just had a fancy new idea for next season. I still have steel in my PI, which came from the factory with ceramic.

I am going to fold some very thin steel sheet metal until it is very nearly doubled over, and cut narrow strips to go around my cat in place of the single use roll gasket. This will block most of whatever small amount of air was going around the cat. Any time I shut down for cleaning, I can also pull the cat and shopvac it, plus get any sweepings hiding behind it. Last year I was put off by the $7 gasket and only cleaned it once, and it was a third plugged by that time. If I sweep 3 times next season, I'll be able to pull the cat 3 times!

 

[Highbeam]

I just had a fancy new idea for next season. I still have steel in my PI, which came from the factory with ceramic.

I am going to fold some very thin steel sheet metal until it is very nearly doubled over, and cut narrow strips to go around my cat in place of the single use roll gasket. This will block most of whatever small amount of air was going around the cat. Any time I shut down for cleaning, I can also pull the cat and shopvac it, plus get any sweepings hiding behind it. Last year I was put off by the $7 gasket and only cleaned it once, and it was a third plugged by that time. If I sweep 3 times next season, I'll be able to pull the cat 3 times!

That other good cat stove brand, one of them, has a reusable gasket. I’ve been jealous of that feature a time or two. Luckily my particular setup is not prone to clogging so removing the cat just isn’t required.

 

[begreen]

If I sweep 3 times next season, I'll be able to pull the cat 3 times!

Why the need to sweep 3 times in one season? Is the wood high moisture content?

 

[AlbergSteve]

Why the need to sweep 3 times in one season? Is the wood high moisture content?

I swept 3 or 4 times this season and my wood is 13-18%.

 

[begreen]

That would bug me. I'm sweeping once a season and am thinking of going 2 seasons. Typically I am only seeing less than a cup of sote after 3 cords burned, but maybe you're burning a lot more wood?

 

[Ashful]

I swept 3 or 4 times this season and my wood is 13-18%.

Wow! I aim to sweep every sometime during my fourth cord on each stove, which would be once per year, for most people. How much wood are you burning, that you need to sweep 3-4 times in one season?

 

[webby3650]

That would bug me. I'm sweeping once a season and am thinking of going 2 seasons. Typically I am only seeing less than a cup of sote after 3 cords burned, but maybe you're burning a lot more wood?

Same here. I can usually go 2 seasons before I need to sweep. Never have I swept mid season.

 

[BKVP]

With my King set up, I sweep every 2 years. When I burned NIELS, it was 3 years. Fir, tamarack seem to require less cleaning than when I burn locust, walnut and maple.

 

[Alpine1]

A once a year sweeping is more than enough for both my stoves. I could sweep the Ashford every other year, but since I clean the wood cooker, I go a step forward and clean the BK too. Only pine & spruce here.

 

[Highbeam]

That would bug me. I'm sweeping once a season and am thinking of going 2 seasons. Typically I am only seeing less than a cup of sote after 3 cords burned, but maybe you're burning a lot more wood?

Very often we, and even manuals, recommend frequent sweeping. It’s a safety thing and you can’t sweep too often. I doubt that any of us burning good fuel in a modern stoves needs to sweep three times per year. Just like I don’t need to change the oil in my truck so often. Perhaps a better question would be how much debris are you getting at each of these sweepings?

I have found the princess makes more flue junk than a noncat. I think that low flue temps are the biggest reason.

I’m a once per year sweeper in both stoves and I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever needed a sweeping. What’s the trigger? A certain thickness of creosote is the usual spec but I’m sure that it varies through the stack.

 

[begreen]

Of course one should sweep as frequently as needed. That's well understood and no one is trying to suggest differently. Different setups are going to perform differently. I am curious to whether this the wood, a cold exterior flue, a long piping route, etc.. In the past 20+ yrs. I have only had to sweep twice in a season one time. That was due to damp wood. This is why the question.

 

[Highbeam]

There are people that never sweep!

Lots of inexperienced people read these forums so I would like to set a good example. Myself, I sweep annually and the way to assess the year’s performance is how much or little debris was collected.

I don’t just sweep as often as needed because you can’t easily assess the need from your living room. Maybe I’m just hopelessly committed to routine scheduled maintenance.

 

[Ashful]

Of course one should sweep as frequently as needed. That's well understood and no one is trying to suggest differently. Different setups are going to perform differently. I am curious to whether this the wood, a cold exterior flue, a long piping route, etc.. In the past 20+ yrs. I have only had to sweep twice in a season one time. That was due to damp wood. This is why the question.

Pipe length is definitely a factor, for any stove at the top of the efficiency heap, particularly those without the absolute best particulate output specs. I get almost nothing from my 15 foot pipe, but the build up is noticeable at the top of my 30 foot pipe, after the same volume of wood burned.

I get popcorn out of that pipe, which I have heard some say is an indication of a chimney fire, but I have never heard one here. I suspect it’s just creo down low in the pipe that gets baked during a hit bypass cycle.

 

[SpaceBus]

A once a year sweeping is more than enough for both my stoves. I could sweep the Ashford every other year, but since I clean the wood cooker, I go a step forward and clean the BK too. Only pine & spruce here.

Do you have the giant pines with the football sized cones? I remember the western coast of Italy having just monstrous pine trees.

 

[jetsam]

I could probably get away with sweeping once a year.

My sweeping schedule is really 'every time the stove is cool enough'.

I would have swept twice this year, but I had to pull the cat to unplug it, so I swept while the cat was out and that made three.

I have a 15' straight-shot flue, it's not a big production for me to run a brush through it.

 

[AlbergSteve]

Don't know why. I've got just over 16 feet of stack straight up, all of it outside. I'm religious about checking MC when I'm putting wood in the shed, checking 6 or 8 splits per cord using two moisture meters. The cedar is 13+%, the fir about 15-18 with the odd stick at 20. I did notice the last part of this season that I'm getting a lot of grey/white smoke throughout most of the burn. Cat seems to be working fine since the thermo is high active even on the long slow burns. We do burn on low 90% of the time because our normal winter temps rarely dip below 0C. We still manage to keep 2500 ft of house at or above 20C all winter long. This year we burned about 4.5 cord. Most cleanings I'm getting 2-4 cups of creosote.
I posted earlier this year about the amount of creo I was getting from the top 4-6 feet plus the plugged cap but didn't get much response. I had to take the bird band off because twice I was getting smoke roll out so bad it wouldn't draft because it was blocked.

My Regency F2400 with 24+ feet of pipe, all outside, would go 2-3 seasons without cleaning and then I would get about 3/4 of a cup of fine black powder out of it.

The bonus with my current setup is it's goes through a flat roof, so doing a complete sweep takes about 30 minutes - that includes removing all the pipe, sweeping on the ground and reinstalling. The Selkirk Ultimate One uses tool free locking bands so it makes it pretty easy. No wrestling with twist lock pipe.

 

[Alpine1]

Do you have the giant pines with the football sized cones? I remember the western coast of Italy having just monstrous pine trees.

Nope, we have black pine and scots pine here on the Alps. Those you mention need a Mediterranean climate to survive, and are common along the coast of Tuscany and Lazio. It’s Pinus pinea and produces edible pine nuts. Too cold here for them!