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

[bholler]

It's putting wood in them every 8-12 hours. And starting more than 1 fire a year. Yuck!

Yeah 90% of the time I was loading the princess at 8 to 12 hours as well. Yes I start a couple more fires in the regency than the princess but really not a big deal.

What I do like about the bk is the more even heat. In this house I never had very big temp swings with the regency. But the bk is absolutely better.

 

[Ashful]

I am glad a bk will work for you. But there really is no need to check any stove all day if it is setup correctly and in good working order.

Ahem... except that all non-thermostatic stoves require one to manually turn up the air in several increments as the load is consumed in the latter half of the burn cycle, if you want to maintain constant heat output. I used to do this when I was home on weekends with my old stoves, as the house temp would start dropping in the second half of the burn cycle. Thermostatic stoves do this automatically, by opening the air as the temperature drops.

BK doesn’t make the only thermostatic stoves, but they do seem to be one of the few who have a thermostat that works really well, and maybe the only one using a thermostat to hit 2020 regs.

For someone just aiming to have a target temperature when they arrive home at the end of the day, this may not matter at all. But for someone who is home all day, governed constant heat output might be desirable.

Edit: doh! Saw you just posted the same, while I was in the middle of typing. [emoji3]. The only difference is that your house is better than mine, we nosedive fast to 55F if the stove stops putting out heat.

What I do like about the bk is the more even heat. In this house I never had very big temp swings with the regency. But the bk is absolutely better.

 

[bholler]

Ahem... except that all non-thermostatic stoves require one to manually turn up the air in several increments as the load is consumed in the latter half of the burn cycle, if you want to maintain constant heat output. I used to do this when I was home on weekends with my old stoves, as the house temp would start dropping in the second half of the burn cycle. Thermostatic stoves do this automatically, by opening the air as the temperature drops.

BK doesn’t make the only thermostatic stoves, but they do seem to be one of the few who have a thermostat that works really well, and maybe the only one using a thermostat to hit 2020 regs.

For someone just aiming to have a target temperature when they arrive home at the end of the day, this may not matter at all. But for someone who is home all day, governed constant heat output might be desirable.

Edit: doh! Saw you just posted the same, while I was in the middle of typing. [emoji3]. The only difference is that your house is better than mine, we nosedive fast to 55F if the stove stops putting out heat.

Yeah I have never had to do that.

 

[kennyp2339]

I have never had to do any of that in any of the stoves I have used. You do realize you are comparing a cheap entry level tube stove to a top of the line cat stove right.

absolutely, there is a difference, I went from a Dodge Omni to a Maserati

 

[kennyp2339]

Yeah I have never had to do that.

Winter is coming We got @bholler in one corner of the ring.. waiting for @Woody Stover to show up.

 

[kennyp2339]

Nah, Woody was an ass. Bholler just tells it like it is. Blunt honesty. No comparing these two.

Yeah but its not the same without them, I def like Bholler's input, he is a great asset to this site and helps a ton of people, I like woody to because he gets you thinking from a different point of view, especially when he hits the whiskey.

 

[Alpine1]

And then there’s Manly...

 

[gregbesia]

I have a small house ~1200 sq ft. With my old stove ( Englander 13 ) it was too easy to overheat the house. To avoid that we would start 2 fires every day. At the same time, I could never have an overnight fire and would wake up to stone cold stove. Now with the BK Princess insert , it’s too easy to get 12 hours of controlled burn . No more temperature swings in the house and full night sleep. I understand that not everyone has to like it, but that’s the beauty of the free market.

 

[jetsam]

I have a small house ~1200 sq ft. With my old stove ( Englander 13 ) it was too easy to overheat the house. To avoid that we would start 2 fires every day. At the same time, I could never have an overnight fire and would wake up to stone cold stove. Now with the BK Princess insert , it’s too easy to get 12 hours of controlled burn . No more temperature swings in the house and full night sleep. I understand that not everyone has to like it, but that’s the beauty of the free market.

This is why I'm always telling everyone who can fit an 8" flue to get a King.

Why suffer through frequent reloads and temperature swings when you can have neither?

If you go too small, you end up burning a Princess on medium or high all the time, and you may as well get a tube stove if you are going to do that.

 

[jetsam]

I have never had to do any of that in any of the stoves I have used. You do realize you are comparing a cheap entry level tube stove to a top of the line cat stove right.

You, sir, have never had to burn down coals or remove ash from any stove? You'll be wanting the gas stove forum, links are up top.

 

[Highbeam]

This is why I'm always telling everyone who can fit an 8" flue to get a King.

Why suffer through frequent reloads and temperature swings when you can have neither?

If you go too small, you end up burning a Princess on medium or high all the time, and you may as well get a tube stove if you are going to do that.

You might be surprised to see that the king and princess have a similar output range. As I recall, the princess is more popular in Alaska. The king has that awesome long burn time!

 

[bholler]

You, sir, have never had to burn down coals or remove ash from any stove? You'll be wanting the gas stove forum, links are up top.

Yes of course I remove ash. I take ash out every few weeks. I have never really had a problem with having to burn down coals no.

 

[Ashful]

This is already getting boring, and it's only September! Pace yourselves, gentlemen.

 

[Woody Stover]

Someone once told me that a BK stove cannot be over fired. Chemie just posted proof of a classic over fire case.

Maybe the stove wasn't overfired but I still believe that you can overfire a cat by glowing it bright orange or yellow..even though you will see some here urging folks to not worry about it. That cat looks like some of the old diesel-foil jobs.

This is already getting boring, and it's only September! Pace yourselves, gentlemen.

Yeah, I gave up on it after two pages when I began nodding off. I forgot you would eventually get around to taking pokes at me when you got too bored.

its not the same without them, I def like Bholler's input, he is a great asset to this site and helps a ton of people, I like woody to because he gets you thinking from a different point of view, especially when he hits the whiskey.

Carry on, and wake me up if anything happens, heheh.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

forgive the dumb question but what is a tube stove?

 

[bholler]

forgive the dumb question but what is a tube stove?

A stove that acheives secondary combustion by introducing fresh air into the firebox under a baffle through air tubes

 

[lsucet]

.even though you will see some here urging folks to not worry about it.

I am one of them. I am still standing firm on it.
No way to control that. It depends on many variables. Regardless how low is your settings it will happen at some points of the burn.
Either way, is good to hear from you and know you are sound. I was wandering. From this end, you always welcome.

 

[Woody Stover]

I am one of them. I am still standing firm on it.
No way to control that. It depends on many variables. Regardless how low is your settings it will happen at some points of the burn.
Either way, is good to hear from you and know you are sound. I was wandering. From this end, you always welcome.

A lot of it depends on what wood you are burning, how much of the new load you allow to get burning and so on. If you load up with soft Maple or Pine on top of a big coal bed and you have the air open for a while, you will have a lot of wood gassing and the cat will burn hotter. If you are there to watch the stove, you can cut air to keep 'er under control or run some flame in the box for a while to eat some of the smoke. Not all people can do that of course, or they don't have dense woods to burn that will gas in a more controlled manner.
And thanks for your kind words. Makes me feel warm inside like a low, hours-long cat burn.

 

[lsucet]

A lot of it depends on what wood you are burning, how much of the new load you allow to get burning and so on. If you load up with soft Maple or Pine on top of a big coal bed and you have the air open for a while, you will have a lot of wood gassing and the cat will burn hotter. If you are there to watch the stove, you can cut air to keep 'er under control or run some flame in the box for a while to eat some of the smoke. Not all people can do that of course, or they don't have dense woods to burn that will gas in a more controlled manner.
And thanks for your kind words. Makes me feel warm inside like a low, hours-long cat burn.

Then, you dont need a stove to stay warm, a candle should work for you.
It will be too much hassle for me moving the bed next to the stove every winter for the sake of staying warm and babysit the cat.

 

[MissMac]

I just vacuumed it from the front with Dyson. This is how it looks. I still see tiny deposits in the cells but nothing like they are clogged fully. Of course I dont know how is the other end.
Is this much of deposit a sign of clogged cat? Or it looks normal now? Do you guys bacuum your cat regularly during the season?
After removing the shield I realized that the top part of the cat looks like out of shape and there is a gap. It looks like the cat as if had a weight on it causing it to sink resulting with squeezed middle cells. Is this normal?
View attachment 247301 View attachment 247302 View attachment 247303 View attachment 247304 View attachment 247305 View attachment 247306 View attachment 247307

this doesn't look right at all - your cat is warped.

 

[MissMac]

Anyone else besides poindexter light a fire yet? I just lit one, it's rainy and windy here due to the storm/hurricane. It will probably be a few weeks before I light it up again. There is also the issue of 2/3 of the first floor has no insulation right now...

yup, i've been having small evening fires for the last week.

 

[MtnBURN]

It's not gonna be long. 42F this AM. I have about 4 cords split/stacked and 3-6 more coming within the next month. We'll decide how much we'll take when we see the first load. The wood I got from the guy last season is really nice stuff.

I'm heading into season 5 on 2 of my stoves.....season 4 on the other. Time for new gasketing and to snag a new cat for the house stove (burns all the time from Oct-May)....and I wanna pick up a spare just to have on hand.

Is there a good one-stop shop kinda place to grab all of these needed items? I saw the recommendation for Firecat Combustors earlier in this thread but it looks like they only sell the cat(?). Anyway.....any info would be appreciated if you've walked this path previously.

 

[Highbeam]

It's not gonna be long. 42F this AM. I have about 4 cords split/stacked and 3-6 more coming within the next month. We'll decide how much we'll take when we see the first load. The wood I got from the guy last season is really nice stuff.

I'm heading into season 5 on 2 of my stoves.....season 4 on the other. Time for new gasketing and to snag a new cat for the house stove (burns all the time from Oct-May)....and I wanna pick up a spare just to have on hand.

Is there a good one-stop shop kinda place to grab all of these needed items? I saw the recommendation for Firecat Combustors earlier in this thread but it looks like they only sell the cat(?). Anyway.....any info would be appreciated if you've walked this path previously.

midwest hearth on amazon is the firecat online store. They have other stuff too.

 

[Woody Stover]

Then, you dont need a stove to stay warm, a candle should work for you.
It will be too much hassle for me moving the bed next to the stove every winter for the sake of staying warm and babysit the cat.

Heheh. I don't need to babysit the cat; Once I have the load burning the way I want, which is easy to do, I cut the air and I am done until it's time to reload, with nary a chance of the cat overheating. Sure, I could make it glow yellow if I really wanted to, but why? Even though my house loses lots of heat, my stove is keeping up well at low/ medium output so why try to push it harder than needed, and end up with a shriveled cat? Besides, the way I get more heat during an Arctic blast is to run some flame in the box, not try to get more heat out of the cat.
No problem for me to stay warm right now...I'm bustin' and haulin' Ash at a neighbor's house.

 

[MissMac]

any of you fellas ever run balsam fir through your BK? i just started a small fire, with some balsam in there, and holy turkeys, i swear i could see sap and resin dripping from the cat shield for a few minutes there. ever smokey!! and, disclaimer - every single stick that went in was measured on fresh face of split between 15-18%MC