2019-20 Blaze King Performance Thread Part 1 (Everything BK)

[Diabel]

Did a cold start today, put the smaller wood at the front and had an active cat in exactly 5 minutes. Meter had barely moved yet.
View attachment 253656View attachment 253657View attachment 253658View attachment 253659

Don't know how much of that is smoke, it's minus 4 F here. Probe didn't show active until another 5 minutes passed.

I hope that is steam

 

[Highbeam]

I hope that is steam

essentially impossible to tell. My bk looks like that for the first hour or so after a cold start even when it’s above freezing. The bk can really send up a cloud! The noncat with the same fuel is clean within 10-15 minutes but since I reload it 4-5 times as often it kind of evens out.

 

[Ashful]

essentially impossible to tell. My bk looks like that for the first hour or so after a cold start even when it’s above freezing. The bk can really send up a cloud!

Exactly. This was my point when we argued over plume, ten days ago. Not only is it outside our control, if we are running dry wood and achieving active cat, it really means very little.

Load dry wood, keep that cat active, and let BK and the EPA argue about the rest of it.

 

[MacinJosh]

Load dry wood, keep that cat active, and let BK and the EPA argue about the rest of it.

Funny!

 

[Diabel]

I started a new thread on this but did not get too far with it. I am hoping that @begreen Is correct though.

“It was a pleasant day today and I decided to clean my chimney. I have only put about 1/2 cord through the stove last season and maybe 10 stove loads this season. I brought my sooteater from the city and this meant be a 15min job from bottom of the clean out up. My plan was to only clean from past the thimble up as I did not burn that much last year and I did not feel like removing the cat, cleaning behind it and replacing the cat gasket. Plus, most of the bad stuff accumulates at the end of the chimney run as per forum experts.

As I loosened the butterfly nuts, the bottom lid would not come loose. It came out with the help of a screwdriver (no damage to the chimney). What I found was 2” of brown ice buildup at the bottom of the clean out. Very strange! I broke the ice through and proceeded to clean the chimney.

To my surprise, there was hardly any deposits, maybe 1/2 of a cappuccino cup, and only at the first 2’ from the bottom. There was 0 deposit in the last 19’ up to the cap. That is a good thing.

Now, what the heck was that water/ice doing there? We have had some wild rains along with winds off the lake in the past month or so, but I am a bit concerned. Would the water be coming through the cap down. Or is something else going on here.“

On the other hand this got me thinking. If I get lots of plume (now I strongly believe it is steam) maybe the steam is condensing and accumulating at the bottom of the clean out. Solely, basing this on next to zero creo accumulation in the last 3/4 of the flue system and when I broke up the ice it was yellow not truly brown as stated earlier.

 

[sprawlnstall]

Im running a king on 6” exterior pipe 8” double wall inside without a problem

Very tempting, I do have a solid draft now so I'm guessing it would work. The insurance company and BKVP would not approve.

 

[Indiana wood]

Do I need one of these? Bk king burning almost all midwestern hardwood. Right now I have magnetic. Can a bk be over fired?

 

[Indiana wood]

 

[Highbeam]

Exactly. This was my point when we argued over plume, ten days ago. Not only is it outside our control, if we are running dry wood and achieving active cat, it really means very little.

Load dry wood, keep that cat active, and let BK and the EPA argue about the rest of it.

I still care about smoke and wish to be stealthy but I do believe you’re right that there’s only so much the operator can do. Good fuel, active cat, done.


I’m not worried about the epa but my neighbors. I want to be a good neighbor and so far have zero complaints about smoke but they don’t seem as enthused about my nude sunbathing!

 

[Highbeam]

Do I need one of these? Bk king burning almost all midwestern hardwood. Right now I have magnetic. Can a bk be over fired?View attachment 253717

Probe for double wall and magnetic for single wall. You want to monitor flue temps because they can fall very low and gunk up your flue even with an active cat.

Using normal fuel, operating per the manual, with functional gaskets and an otherwise healthy stove you can’t overfire your king.

 

[Ashful]

...most of the bad stuff accumulates at the end of the chimney run as per forum experts.

This is aside of your main issue with water or condensation in the flue, but on this point I suspect you listened to the wrong expert, or only caught half of what they wrote. I see accumulation in the first 2-3 feet of pipe, and the last 2-3 feet of pipe, but it’s usually clean everywhere in-between. I’ve heard others here echo the same or similar statements.

Probe for double wall and magnetic for single wall. You want to monitor flue temps because they can fall very low and gunk up your flue even with an active cat.

This is exactly what I have, a probe on the stove with the double-wall, and a surface thermo on the stove with the single wall. But I’m quoting this since it’s so immediately applicable to Diabel’s statement, it’s not uncommon to see accumulation in the stove pipe close to the stove.

Using normal fuel, operating per the manual, with functional gaskets and an otherwise healthy stove you can’t overfire your king.

I just ran another load thru my stove at wide-open throttle last night. I wasn’t even home, loaded before heading to a Christmas concert, and house was toasty when I got home. In BK we trust.

 

[Highbeam]

In BK we trust.

At some point you have to trust the equipment to operate as designed. Anytime we go to sleep or away from home with a fire burning we are trusting that the welds hold together, the glass doesn't shatter, etc.

 

[Indiana wood]

Ok so I understand, do I really need one? My stove is rarely ran low. Big house and basement install. Do I really need the information?

 

[Woody Stover]

Ok so I understand, do I really need one?

It's giving you more immediate feedback on the state of the burn than a stove top meter does. As Ashful said above, he uses the info to assess whether he can close the bypass and get cat light-off. Others have said that if forced to choose, they would sooner have a flue meter than the stove top.

 

[Indiana wood]

It's giving you more immediate feedback on the state of the burn than a stove top meter does. As Ashful said above, he uses the info to assess whether he can close the bypass and get cat light-off. Others have said that if forced to choose, they would sooner have a flue meter than the stove top.

Ok. We are looking for 4 to 500 degrees? To light cat

 

[TheIglu]

Anyone one else waiting a long time for parts orders from BK?

My friendly local shop has ordered 4" outside air plates twice. First order was never fulfilled two months ago to replace normal stock, most recent order placed a week and a half ago is also a no show. Says most BK parts orders are in within a week.

Ordering my stove, with options, only took 4 days to arrive in New England. Backorder on the larger outside air plates possibly?

 

[Woody Stover]

Ok. We are looking for 4 to 500 degrees? To light cat

Here's the Ashful post I was recalling: https://www.hearth.com/talk/posts/2402970/

 

[Nigel459]

Ok so I understand, do I really need one? My stove is rarely ran low. Big house and basement install. Do I really need the information?

I asked the same question a few years ago in the BK thread. BKVP himself told me nope, not needed. Go buy a nice bottle of your favourite instead.

( In BK I do trust, but that said, I do have one and I do like seeing the flue temps...!)

 

[Highbeam]

I asked the same question a few years ago in the BK thread. BKVP himself told me nope, not needed. Go buy a nice bottle of your favourite instead.

( In BK I do trust, but that said, I do have one and I do like seeing the flue temps...!)

I agree that you could survive without a flue meter. You need a cat meter on the stove to fulfill the manual's directions. Don't even bother trying to measure stove top temperature!

 

[Woody Stover]

nope, not needed. Go buy a nice bottle of your favourite instead.

Twenny bucks ain't gonna get me a bottle of my favorite.

I do have one and I do like seeing the flue temps

No such thing as too much info, in my book.

 

[Nigel459]

Twenny bucks ain't gonna get me a bottle of my favorite.

I was just quoting the veepster.... haha I remember having that exact thought, not many single malts in that range...

 

[Nigel459]

Anyone know how small/big is the "EPA hole" in the BK flapper of the 20 boxes? I'd look at mine but it's currently 700 kms away

 

[Poindexter]

The main two things I do with flue gas temp probe is keep the indicator below 1000dF during regulated cold starts, and know when I am down to just carbon at the back end of a burn.

 

[aaronk25]

Probe for double wall and magnetic for single wall. You want to monitor flue temps because they can fall very low and gunk up your flue even with an active cat.

Using normal fuel, operating per the manual, with functional gaskets and an otherwise healthy stove you can’t overfire your king.

Just keep in mind if the draft is excessive, then yes you can over fire a BK. You mentioned operating per the manual, which that is in the manual .05 on high .06 MAX., so I guess you covered it, but I just wanted to highlight that.

I don’t think the stove will melt as the thermostat will dampen it down some but the thermostat is designed to operate within a certain draft specs. Maybe cook the cat would be the worst of it. Other stoves, could be really bad.


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[Woody Stover]

The main two things I do with flue gas temp probe is keep the indicator below 1000dF during regulated cold starts

So you've observed that the burn gets dirtier if you exceed that flue temp..if you have the air open too far, in other words?