2020-21 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

[Indianawood]

Im sure im gonna catch some slack from this. I wanted to share my experience (1week) so far with the magic heat relaimer.
This post is really intended for those of us heating large sq ft and needing all the heat we can get out of our blaze kings. I am heating 5000 sq ft.
Before anyone starts screaming creosote, remember that this device is placed after the catalyst has done all the work eating the majority of creosote forming byproducts.
My smoke is still clear and drafting fine.
Would I recommend one? 1 million percent yes!
It adds a lot of "free" heat" (see picture, bottom number, top number is cat)
It has an internal thermostat that automatically turns the fan on and off depending on flue temp.
Fan rarely if ever comes on when below the 3 o'clock position on swoosh.
Pros
Adds heat that would otherwise be wasted
Allows me to heat my house exclusively with wood down to at least 10f.
Satisfying to recover otherwise wasted heat

Cons
Fan not real quiet, especially when coming on or off

My chimney is very easy to clean using the soot eater bottom up method. Time will tell whether i have extra creosote. Maybe I'll have to clean twice a yr instead of once. Well worth the extra heat generated.

 

[jetsam]

Have you noticed any gain in lifespan by cleaning more often? I was thinking the next mild weekend of letting the fire go out again and clean and check everything out. I guess everyone has to weigh things out differently. I for one have days where I’m gone 12-15 hours and I don’t even hurry to get to the stove now so $150 cat which looks easy to replace, heck , you couldn’t give me one of the other stoves now with free delivered wood.

Hmm. Cleaning does perk it up noticeably for a while, but that addresses masking (where the catalyst is covered by something- mineral depositation or just ash sitting on the surface). It doesn't help with flattening- that's not reversible.

Agreed, it would make me sad to go back to a burn cycle where I feel like I need to get up early to reload, or start fires every day after work. I could do it, but I am old and lazy now.

 

[rdust]

Emptied ashes for the first time of the season today. Four ash pans fills a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[jetsam]

Im sure im gonna catch some slack from this. I wanted to share my experience (1week) so far with the magic heat relaimer.
This post is really intended for those of us heating large sq ft and needing all the heat we can get out of our blaze kings. I am heating 5000 sq ft.
Before anyone starts screaming creosote, remember that this device is placed after the catalyst has done all the work eating the majority of creosote forming byproducts.
My smoke is still clear and drafting fine.
Would I recommend one? 1 million percent yes!
It adds a lot of "free" heat" (see picture, bottom number, top number is cat)
It has an internal thermostat that automatically turns the fan on and off depending on flue temp.
Fan rarely if ever comes on when below the 3 o'clock position on swoosh.
Pros
Adds heat that would otherwise be wasted
Allows me to heat my house exclusively with wood down to at least 10f.
Satisfying to recover otherwise wasted heat

Cons
Fan not real quiet, especially when coming on or off

My chimney is very easy to clean using the soot eater bottom up method. Time will tell whether i have extra creosote. Maybe I'll have to clean twice a yr instead of once. Well worth the extra heat generated.

Yeah, you'll catch some flack here!

The penalty you need to pay for that reclaimer is frequent flue inspections (inspect the top every week, not twice a year) until you get a feel for how it's going, and you need to be really sensitive to changes in flue temp. For example you inspect every week in January and everything is fine. In March the weather warms up and it blows the tarp off a woodpile and rains on it for a week. Now you are burning much lower with wetter wood, and both of those things lower flue temps greatly.

Not all of your VOCs are caught even by a new cat, and it only gets worse as the cat ages. And then you have that one load where you're late for work and the stove has been running on low for a week because it's 50 out, and you don't have time to let it blaze and warm up before you hit the door...

I don't think you're crazy for using it if you are willing to put in the work, but don't recommend it to others who aren't educated and willing to do the same.

 

[Indianawood]

Yeah, you'll catch some flack here!

The penalty you need to pay for that reclaimer is frequent flue inspections (inspect the top every week, not twice a year) until you get a feel for how it's going, and you need to be really sensitive to changes in flue temp. For example you inspect every week in January and everything is fine. In March the weather warms up and it blows the tarp off a woodpile and rains on it for a week. Now you are burning much lower with wetter wood, and both of those things lower flue temps greatly.

Not all of your VOCs are caught even by a new cat, and it only gets worse as the cat ages. And then you have that one load where you're late for work and the stove has been running on low for a week because it's 50 out, and you don't have time to let it blaze and warm up before you hit the door...

I don't think you're crazy for using it if you are willing to put in the work, but don't recommend it to others who aren't educated and willing to do the same.

It's ok im a big boy
Remember, with the thermostat it doesn't even come on with low and slow burns. Im coming from smoke dragons where I'd burn wood i just cut, especially oak, great wood right
I knew nothing before this forum.
People on here get worked up about a little smoke and 1/2 cup creosote. Im pretty sure a little creosote build up in the top 1/3 of my chimney isnt a fire hazard.
It seems sometimes this forum is a smoke / creosote/least competition.
Im interested in heating my home, safely of course
My nearest neighbor is a mile away.
You guys have taught me pretty much everything i know. My wood is dry and covered, always!
Burning mainly 1yr old ash. My other wood isnt ready yet

 

[Highbeam]

Im sure im gonna catch some slack from this. I wanted to share my experience (1week) so far with the magic heat relaimer.
This post is really intended for those of us heating large sq ft and needing all the heat we can get out of our blaze kings. I am heating 5000 sq ft.
Before anyone starts screaming creosote, remember that this device is placed after the catalyst has done all the work eating the majority of creosote forming byproducts.
My smoke is still clear and drafting fine.
Would I recommend one? 1 million percent yes!
It adds a lot of "free" heat" (see picture, bottom number, top number is cat)
It has an internal thermostat that automatically turns the fan on and off depending on flue temp.
Fan rarely if ever comes on when below the 3 o'clock position on swoosh.
Pros
Adds heat that would otherwise be wasted
Allows me to heat my house exclusively with wood down to at least 10f.
Satisfying to recover otherwise wasted heat

Cons
Fan not real quiet, especially when coming on or off

My chimney is very easy to clean using the soot eater bottom up method. Time will tell whether i have extra creosote. Maybe I'll have to clean twice a yr instead of once. Well worth the extra heat generated.

Wood furnaces, even Bk used to make one with a cat, use a back and forth set of tubes in the flue system with a huge thermostatic blower on them too . Just like a built in magic heat. If you can maintain adequate flue temperature, draft, and clean it then what’s the problem?

Sure, some dolt could do something wrong and create conditions for a likely chimney fire but he could make any number of other choices that could do that too.

Isn’t 147 degrees too cold?

 

[Indianawood]

Wood furnaces, even Bk used to make one with a cat, use a back and forth set of tubes in the flue system with a huge thermostatic blower on them too . Just like a built in magic heat. If you can maintain adequate flue temperature, draft, and clean it then what’s the problem?

Sure, some dolt could do something wrong and create conditions for a likely chimney fire but he could make any number of other choices that could do that too.

Isn’t 147 degrees too cold?

A 147 degrees is the recovered air temp being blown out of the magic heat relaimer.
Im waiting on some ktype probes to test in and out of the heat relaimer.
I haven't noticed any drafting problems. I do turn it off for a feww before reloading

 

[jetsam]

A 147 degrees is the recovered air temp being blown out of the magic heat relaimer.
Im waiting on some ktype probes to test in and out of the heat relaimer.
I haven't noticed any drafting problems. I do turn it off for a feww before reloading

Not that anyone's likely to run a wire to the top of their flue for this, but if you put a temperature probe at the top of the flue and used that to kick on the heat reclaimer fan at 275 you should see little to no additional creosote issues even up high.

 

[jetsam]

Wood furnaces, even Bk used to make one with a cat, use a back and forth set of tubes in the flue system with a huge thermostatic blower on them too . Just like a built in magic heat. If you can maintain adequate flue temperature, draft, and clean it then what’s the problem?

Sure, some dolt could do something wrong and create conditions for a likely chimney fire but he could make any number of other choices that could do that too.

Isn’t 147 degrees too cold?

"Some dolt" is the guy our stove manuals were written for. We know him well, and I try to include him in my imaginary audience when I'm writing here.

 

[Indianawood]

Not that anyone's likely to run a wire to the top of their flue for this, but if you put a temperature probe at the top of the flue and used that to kick on the heat reclaimer fan at 275 you should see little to no additional creosote issues even up high.

Im thrilled with it and the BK
My old wood chuck furnace and wet wood would create so much creosote that chunks so big would fall off the inside walls of the chimney and partially block the flue. We come home to a home filled with smoke and creosote smell.
The wife hated it
She loves the BK
Both our parents had Earth stoves. Burning wood is in our blood

 

[jetsam]

Im thrilled with it and the BK
My old wood chuck furnace and wet wood would create so much creosote that chunks so big would fall off the inside walls of the chimney and partially block the flue. We come home to a home filled with smoke and creosote smell.
The wife hated it
She loves the BK
Both our parents had Earth stoves. Burning wood is in our blood

I grew up with old stoves too. Never had a furnace, but lots of wood stoves and open fireplaces that we used for heat. (I cringe to even think about it now, how much longer would our backs have all lasted if we just bricked up those fireplaces and used a stove instead...)

 

[stoveliker]

"Some dolt" is the guy our stove manuals were written for. We know him well, and I try to include him in my imaginary audience when I'm writing here.

Well, then I'm some dolt, as yes, I did read and need the manual. I guess you did too when you started using the stove. And I guess even after years of burning without consulting the manual, it's a good idea to check if the manual says something about the parameters associated with the changes you are intending to make.

I'm not offended (see my haha at your post), but manuals are not only for stupid people...

 

[Indianawood]

I grew up with old stoves too. Never had a furnace, but lots of wood stoves and open fireplaces that we used for heat. (I cringe to even think about it now, how much longer would our backs have all lasted if we just bricked up those fireplaces and used a stove instead...)

I am starting to realize that I have a "problem"
These darn BK's use so much less wood that I have way too much wood. The grandson loves cutting wood so I guess I can’t stop. I’ll just have an excess of wood

 

[Indianawood]

Well, then I'm some dolt, as yes, I did read and need the manual. I guess you did too when you started using the stove. And I guess even after years of burning without consulting the manual, it's a good idea to check if the manual says something about the parameters associated with the changes you are intending to make.

I'm not offended (see my haha at your post), but manuals are not only for stupid people...

I think the point being made is that manuals are just a very general guide written in the most vanilla way. It's not an end all but just a very very basic guide. Doing something different than what the guide says doesn't necessarily make it wrong but instead makes it different. Right and wrong is not always black and white

 

[Highbeam]

I read the manual too. In fact, I’ve read the manuals for many stoves I’ve never owned. That doesn’t make anybody a dolt. The manuals can actually be pretty good.

Does anybody remember the prohibition of a flue heat reclaimer device in the flue above a BK? I have no intention of adding one myself.

 

[Nealm66]

That is beastly looking So I wouldn’t cus eventually the stove room will be a home theater room and don’t need to because my setup seems to work but

Im sure im gonna catch some slack from this. I wanted to share my experience (1week) so far with the magic heat relaimer.
This post is really intended for those of us heating large sq ft and needing all the heat we can get out of our blaze kings. I am heating 5000 sq ft.
Before anyone starts screaming creosote, remember that this device is placed after the catalyst has done all the work eating the majority of creosote forming byproducts.
My smoke is still clear and drafting fine.
Would I recommend one? 1 million percent yes!
It adds a lot of "free" heat" (see picture, bottom number, top number is cat)
It has an internal thermostat that automatically turns the fan on and off depending on flue temp.
Fan rarely if ever comes on when below the 3 o'clock position on swoosh.
Pros
Adds heat that would otherwise be wasted
Allows me to heat my house exclusively with wood down to at least 10f.
Satisfying to recover otherwise wasted heat

Cons
Fan not real quiet, especially when coming on or off

My chimney is very easy to clean using the soot eater bottom up method. Time will tell whether i have extra creosote. Maybe I'll have to clean twice a yr instead of once. Well worth the extra heat generated.

huh, I wondered what the fire looked like in these things ( just kidding lol) man I gotta say you’re glass is definitely clean though. That’s a beastly looking setup with those wires hanging off it. It will be interesting to see how it works out for you long term for sure. I think for myself I might have stuck another stove upstairs, maybe even a pellet stove to help pick up the slack but if that gizmo does the trick with no harm or fowl then bobs your uncle

 

[Indianawood]

That is beastly looking So I wouldn’t cus eventually the stove room will be a home theater room and don’t need to because my setup seems to work but

huh, I wondered what the fire looked like in these things ( just kidding lol) man I gotta say you’re glass is definitely clean though. That’s a beastly looking setup with those wires hanging off it. It will be interesting to see how it works out for you long term for sure. I think for myself I might have stuck another stove upstairs, maybe even a pellet stove to help pick up the slack but if that gizmo does the trick with no harm or fowl then bobs your uncle

Heating 5000 sq ft i see fire a lot. 4 or 5 o'clock is a normal winter setting. These guys taught me what dry wood is and that helped my glass a lot. I just had to try it. Although people on here seem to scoff at these the online reviews are glowing. Sometimes it pays to blaze your own trail. But like I said, it's only for those needing the heat. 2 stoves seemed like a nightmare. I'd run my geo before I did that

 

[Highbeam]

I am starting to realize that I have a "problem"
These darn BK's use so much less wood that I have way too much wood. The grandson loves cutting wood so I guess I can’t stop. I’ll just have an excess of wood

I’ve sold a cord or two in the past. It can be fun on a small scale. We also have a sort of donation program with the local eagles and elks clubs where they keep a list of those families in our community in need of firewood for heating.

People say that firewood doesn’t get old.

Oh and I too noticed a large drop in wood consumption when moving from a modern noncat to a BK on the same hearth. The savings easily would pay for a new cat every year.

 

[stoveliker]

I think the point being made is that manuals are just a very general guide written in the most vanilla way. It's not an end all but just a very very basic guide. Doing something different than what the guide says doesn't necessarily make it wrong but instead makes it different. Right and wrong is not always black and white

I agree, partly. The point is that the manual provides guidelines for the average user that were translated from the physics or engineering parameters that many don't know how to handle.

And I note that most things that went wrong went wrong because the user went outside of the guidelines in the manual whereas very few things are going wrong when systems are operated within those guidelines.

So vanilla or not, (insurance) statistics alone suggest it's useful to not disparage manual (reading), in particular on a site like this where many novices gather sorely needed info.

I'll get of my high horse now, while I am waiting for the parts to put my BK stove pipe geometry closer to what the manual suggests even though I am running it fine as is. (So pot and kettle is applicable to me here.. - with apologiesbfor said high horse).

 

[Highbeam]

Wood furnaces, even Bk used to make one with a cat, use a back and forth set of tubes in the flue system with a huge thermostatic blower on them too . Just like a built in magic heat. If you can maintain adequate flue temperature, draft, and clean it then what’s the problem?

Sure, some dolt could do something wrong and create conditions for a likely chimney fire but he could make any number of other choices that could do that too.

Isn’t 147 degrees too cold?

Above, I said some dolt could make a mistake and cause danger when using a magic heat. Well I take it back. Anybody can make a mistake and cause danger.

 

[Egmonster]

Hey, you guys know a lot more than me.

I known the catalytic element can get damaged by some things. My wife makes very small fire starters out of paper egg carton sections and fills the cups with a paraffin/wood chip mix. They work amazing!

we only use one to get a fire going and it’s gone pretty quick. Probably long before we shut the damper.

would this pose any issue for the catalyst?

 

[Nealm66]

Hey, you guys know a lot more than me.

I known the catalytic element can get damaged by some things. My wife makes very small fire starters out of paper egg carton sections and fills the cups with a paraffin/wood chip mix. They work amazing!

we only use one to get a fire going and it’s gone pretty quick. Probably long before we shut the damper.

would this pose any issue for the catalyst?

I’m pretty sure the manual says no cardboard if I remember. I don’t have any problem just getting a little kindling going and then add to it but my draft seems pretty good so yours might smoke a bit till it warms up.

 

[Nealm66]

And I don’t think wax is good either

 

[Egmonster]

Darn! Thank you for the input.

 

[stoveliker]

Got creative this morning, hit a whole bunch of short splits, like 8" lengths, so after racking all my coals forward, I loaded the princess by standing the splits up vertically and packing them in tight, the stove seems to be burning them very well, have small candle like flames coming from the front pieces with occasional secondary's, the cat probe is sitting at 2 o'clock, cant wait to see how long this load lasts, I have a ton more of these short pieces in the wood yard.

So, stuffed it full of maple shorties, vertical. Was a cold start, and even though I left canyons for the flames to travel through, the (front, bottom) start was a bit hard. Maybe this works better on a good coal bed. Or with a top down start, but I had only <1" left on the top, so that was a bit hard to set up.
But it's going.

Not sure the back ones are charring...
Have to see how it'll fare when the kindling on the front bottom is al gone.