2020-21 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

[Dustin]

Anyone doing hot reloads yet this year? I finally did my second full load of the season last night, turned it down to medium after the water was baked out, and let it burn out. The cat was almost (but not quite) stalled this morning so I turned it up to full throttle as I was leaving for work.

Looking for our first possible flurries of the year tonight. I am usually burning 24/7 in mid September, so not complaining. I will have to put the rumbly tires on my truck pretty soon.

Finally burning here. This morning it was chilly outside so I made a big hot fire. Finally burnt all that paint off and set the fire alarms off. My eco fan on top of the stove went insane and started wobbling it got so hot... oops!

I had no intention of lighting up tonight. Forecast to be a low of 53. But as I looked at my weather station I have I notice it at 52 at around 6pm... then 50..then 48 and dropping.

Loaded the king up half way (biggest load yet) got the cat engaged, let it burn for 20 mins. Thermostat to medium, let it burn another 15. Set it a little lower than medium and it’s cruising along with a glowing cat, no flame, and little whisps or smoke here and there. House at 75

 

[Poindexter]

I've been following your weather. Might have to journey north to address ADEC concerns. Hope all is well. Go get Brewster burger for me!

I should visit Brewsters as a local (regional) business deserving of my support. What burger do you like? None of them suck, it's a good burger joint. I have built a parrilla at my house, though my local BK dealer has clay firebricks priced too high to line it with clay firebrick. My parrilla is lined with concrete patio tiles (free on CL) instead. If you are hankering for an open fire cooked ribeye instead of a burger all you got to do is stand outside in the cold drinking Guiness with me (while masked) instead of hanging at Brewsters with the hottie waitresses (no mask) while waiting for your food. I don't look so good in a short skirt, but I can saute a pan of mushrooms no problem.

Your call, it's my round; but sucking Guiness through a straw is NFG. I crust my steaks around 1100-1200dF if Condor is reputable, my tuyere gets glowing hot. Given my parrilla is 48" long if you are one foot off it to the right and I am one foot off it to the left we can unmask and drink Guiness like God intended.

 

[Dustin]

I’m SURE this has been answered before. But, this is what this thread is for right?

How low, is too low? (KE40).

I ran the stove at medium low since about 6pm tonight. Before bed just now, I turned it down to LOW. As low as she goes. I’m currently looking at a pile of ashy, coal wood. Just a dark red glow through the door.

Flue temp 300
Cat very far into the active zone
Very light, almost hard to even see with a flashlight smoke or steam from the chimney.

On my tube stoves, is I shut it down all the way I would see far thicker smoke than this. I guess I can describe it as a light, light occasional smoke?

So, what I’m getting at is, how low is too low? Can I run this thing into active on a full load of wood, get the fire going really well, then shut it allll the way down? Is that fine to do if the cat tells me it’s staying active on the thermo?

What damage can I do by doing this?

Can I stall the cat and have the thermo tell me it’s fine?

Can I over feed the cat and damage it? Like shutting down hard on a big flaming firebox with the cat meter pegged all the way to the right and cat glowing bright red?

And thirdly, please tell me how I can break my stove...

Wow, that was a lot of questions. Thanks for indulging my OCD post

 

[Poindexter]

I’m SURE this has been answered before. But, this is what this thread is for right?

How low, is too low? (KE40).

If the cat indicator stays in the active zone, you are golden. If the cat stalls, you need to open the open the bypass, and the throttle to wide open, and then not turn it down quite so far next time around.

The main variables are outside (ambient) temperature, stack height and the moisture content of your fuel. If your fuel is at 10%MC and the outdoor ambients are -40dF you can turn the stove down really low, but you probably won't want to.

Once you have your fuel supply MC dialed in you want enough stack height to run the stove at say medium or high when outdoor ambients are in the +40s DF. Then when shoulder season sets in you can light off half or a third of a box full at wide open throttle and do the pulse and glide thing until the weather cools a bit more.

The colder it gets, the better your stove will draft, and the lower you can go on the throttle setting. Get our wood pile dialed in, figure out what your acheivable annual MC is, then adjust your stack height so you can run pulse and glide in the shoudlers with what MC you can get year after year.

At my place I have to run on high throttle when overnight ambients are +40dF, I just run half a box of wood and do the pulse and glide thing. At -40dF I have a locomotive on my hands for draft.

Overfeeding your cat would be running on high throttle for extended periods. I often run on high throttle from Nov to Feb and generally get about 8k hours of active time out of a combustor instead of the more common 10-12k hours found here for combustor life expectancy.


If I had a BK ke40 (please baby please) raging with a combustor indicator near pegged I would likely turn it down about a third to 66% throttle, wait ten minutes, turn it down to half, wait ten minutes and then hit the desired setting under 50% throttle.

The combustor indicator lags about ten minutes. If the indicator is active, the combustor was active ten minutes ago. If the indicator is active, your active. When the combustor indicator says inactive, you went inactive ten minutes ago.

300dF flue, active cat, occasional steam plumes fromt he chimney top, you are in the zone. Enjoy.

 

[Dustin]

My stove top thermo arrives tomorrow.

Is anyone else using one with a BK? If so, is there a good target temp? Too hot temp?

 

[showrguy]

My stove top thermo arrives tomorrow.

Is anyone else using one with a BK? If so, is there a good target temp? Too hot temp?

A stove top thermo is’nt gonna do you much good, because the CAT is right under the top and that area gets VERY hot..

 

[Highbeam]

I’m SURE this has been answered before. But, this is what this thread is for right?

How low, is too low? (KE40).

I ran the stove at medium low since about 6pm tonight. Before bed just now, I turned it down to LOW. As low as she goes. I’m currently looking at a pile of ashy, coal wood. Just a dark red glow through the door.

Flue temp 300
Cat very far into the active zone
Very light, almost hard to even see with a flashlight smoke or steam from the chimney.

On my tube stoves, is I shut it down all the way I would see far thicker smoke than this. I guess I can describe it as a light, light occasional smoke?

So, what I’m getting at is, how low is too low? Can I run this thing into active on a full load of wood, get the fire going really well, then shut it allll the way down? Is that fine to do if the cat tells me it’s staying active on the thermo?

What damage can I do by doing this?

Can I stall the cat and have the thermo tell me it’s fine?

Can I over feed the cat and damage it? Like shutting down hard on a big flaming firebox with the cat meter pegged all the way to the right and cat glowing bright red?

And thirdly, please tell me how I can break my stove...

Wow, that was a lot of questions. Thanks for indulging my OCD post

Cat stoves run almost the opposite of a tuber in that the lower you run the cat stove the more efficient and clean burning it is.

 

[MTASH]

Anyone doing hot reloads yet this year? I finally did my second full load of the season last night, turned it down to medium after the water was baked out, and let it burn out. The cat was almost (but not quite) stalled this morning so I turned it up to full throttle as I was leaving for work.

Looking for our first possible flurries of the year tonight. I am usually burning 24/7 in mid September, so not complaining. I will have to put the rumbly tires on my truck pretty soon.

Yep, lit a fire yesterday morning and did a reload about 8pm last night. Working on my first 24 hr. burn as we speak. Mid 40s highs/upper 20s lows forecast with a lot of wind over the next few days, so I decided to keep it running for now.

We had our first snow flurries on Labor Day this year. That was my first fire but was 'one load and done' because the weather quickly warmed back up.

 

[BKVP]

I should visit Brewsters as a local (regional) business deserving of my support. What burger do you like? None of them suck, it's a good burger joint. I have built a parrilla at my house, though my local BK dealer has clay firebricks priced too high to line it with clay firebrick. My parrilla is lined with concrete patio tiles (free on CL) instead. If you are hankering for an open fire cooked ribeye instead of a burger all you got to do is stand outside in the cold drinking Guiness with me (while masked) instead of hanging at Brewsters with the hottie waitresses (no mask) while waiting for your food. I don't look so good in a short skirt, but I can saute a pan of mushrooms no problem.

Your call, it's my round; but sucking Guiness through a straw is NFG. I crust my steaks around 1100-1200dF if Condor is reputable, my tuyere gets glowing hot. Given my parrilla is 48" long if you are one foot off it to the right and I am one foot off it to the left we can unmask and drink Guiness like God intended.
View attachment 264665

If I get there...deal! Ribeye vs burger...not even close. But Mrs. POINDEXTER, needs to join us and I hate Guiness!! So I'll bring some nice exquisite old Irish wisky!!

 

[Highbeam]

I guess I’m going to need to debark my fuel during those times when stealth BK burning is desired.

 

[Diabel]

I guess I’m going to need to debark my fuel during those times when stealth BK burning is desired.View attachment 264685

That is one shiny floor!! Nice

 

[Highbeam]

That is one shiny floor!! Nice

Thank you. I’m in the middle of filling the cut joints and sealing the surface. I wish I would have done it years ago. All the junk needs to be moved out of the way!

 

[BKVP]

Come do mine..50 ton press brake needs moving.

 

[ethanhudson]

Swept the chimney after my first year with my King, looked good. Everything was fluffy, had about an inch in the bottom of my ash bucket I put under the flue when sweeping. My stove lives on low, so that little accumulation is fantastic in my opinion.

 

[vwmike]

Swept the chimney after my first year with my King, looked good. Everything was fluffy, had about an inch in the bottom of my ash bucket I put under the flue when sweeping. My stove lives on low, so that little accumulation is fantastic in my opinion.

Cleaned mine yesterday for the first time since my princess has been hooked up. Not really any different then when my Summit was in use, just a small amount of light fluffy buildup.

 

[BKVP]

Swept the chimney after my first year with my King, looked good. Everything was fluffy, had about an inch in the bottom of my ash bucket I put under the flue when sweeping. My stove lives on low, so that little accumulation is fantastic in my opinion.

Good job. Proper operation and proper fuel/ maintenance!!

 

[Highbeam]

Swept the chimney after my first year with my King, looked good. Everything was fluffy, had about an inch in the bottom of my ash bucket I put under the flue when sweeping. My stove lives on low, so that little accumulation is fantastic in my opinion.

The way you describe it makes me think you have an "out then up" chimney system where the 22' of class A is all on the outside of the house? That's not much creosote for such a cold chimney. Do you keep it running hot all season?

 

[stoveliker]

So, did my first "kindling only" fire in the new Chinook 30, and then one with 4 small (2") splits. Stank quite a bit from the paint curing. Cat already reached temp on the kindling fire (I did not close the bypass). With the splits, it was of course nicely hot. Got about 4 hrs out of those 4 small splits

Proof below... 4-split fire 2 hrs in or so; pic of the catalyst, and a video.
I'd never seen secondaries (the old DutchWest glass blackened too soon...). That's some fun show there...

It's not cold enough on Long Island yet for a full burn (also b/c with solar and a split system, I have free heating in the shoulder seasons), but I can't wait for some good cold so I can play more with this thing
Looking forward to winter

edit: I see you have to download the video to see it, rather than watch it in the page.

 

[jetsam]

Long Island has a disproportionately high representation here for a place that's so thoroughly paved. (Dix and I live a few miles apart and had similar-looking dogs, so it's okay if you get us confused. Hi Dix!)

I put solar on last year and have been running resistive heat so far- my first year in this house heating with anything but the BK!

As it gets colder, I'll tailor my wood usage to keep my power usage in line (goal is to use 90% of the solar credits generated this year by March).

I have such a small amount of wood ready for this year that I cringe every time I look at it, but I keep reminding myself that I'm not going to use 4 cords this year!

Speaking of which, I should go get some wood laid in for next year... I have a bunch of deadfall waiting for me to drag it out of the woods.

 

[jetsam]

Come do mine..50 ton press brake needs moving.

The floor is already shiny under there.

Take a peek if you doubt me.

 

[kennyp2339]

It's not cold enough on Long Island yet for a full burn (also b/c with solar and a split system

Do I know you from a weather forum in the past?

 

[Tron]

So, did my first "kindling only" fire in the new Chinook 30

Umm, out of curiosity, is your cat probe in the door? I'm asking because I installed a Chinook 30(.2) in February, and my cat probe is on top and reaches down into the cat.

 

[BKVP]

Tron...that's aftermarket Condor surface therm...

 

[stoveliker]

Do I know you from a weather forum in the past?

Nope - at least I don't remember being on a weather forum. Generally I don't like forums - the exception being this place where there are so much kind people with good info available from which I can learn!

 

[stoveliker]

Umm, out of curiosity, is your cat probe in the door? I'm asking because I installed a Chinook 30(.2) in February, and my cat probe is on top and reaches down into the cat.

No, that is a probe I got with my thermoelectric fan - that I used to use on my cast iron DutchWest cat stove. BKVP is correct.
I was happily surprised the top of the Chinook got warm enough to run the fan too, though.

The location on the door is not ideal for this magnetic surface thermometer though, given the "lid" of the door there (2 walls).
If someone has a better location for this thing (just for fun, to best read the box temperature), I'm interested.