2020-21 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

[Nealm66]

That’s awesome. If we had more weather like we’re having now, I think I would be ok with the king model and I wouldn’t hesitate pulling the princess and re piping and put a king in its place. Not just for the burn times but I think a bigger stove would look better in the stove room. But sadly, just too much mild winters here ha ha!

 

[Highbeam]

That’s awesome. If we had more weather like we’re having now, I think I would be ok with the king model and I wouldn’t hesitate pulling the princess and re piping and put a king in its place. Not just for the burn times but I think a bigger stove would look better in the stove room. But sadly, just too much mild winters here ha ha!

It’s not just our moderate winters but our homes are insulated well too. The princess is very popular in Alaska where winters are much colder than western Washington.

I think the “normal” stove size is a princess or 30. The exception is the king size. You sure don’t hear many king owners wishing for a smaller stove though.

 

[stoveliker]

It’s not just our moderate winters but our homes are insulated well too. The princess is very popular in Alaska where winters are much colder than western Washington.

I think the “normal” stove size is a princess or 30. The exception is the king size. You sure don’t hear many king owners wishing for a smaller stove though.

But the latter is because BK's can be squeezed so well. So even if the King can on max put out about 25% more BTUs per hr than the Princess, at the lowest setting it's from 12k to 14k BTUs per hour, so not *that* different. Hence King folks can reach almost the same output as the Princess - so no need to complain. The range is just larger.

 

[Nealm66]

Man, it would be an interesting experiment to swap it out especially with the tax credits. I suppose a guy could try light loads on a dark screen setting. Wife has a 4 degree comfort window lol, could be epic fail lol

 

[BKVP]

Man, it would be an interesting experiment to swap it out especially with the tax credits. I suppose a guy could try light loads on a dark screen setting. Wife has a 4 degree comfort window lol, could be epic fail lol

Or just buy a second stove and place it next to the current one!

 

[Nealm66]

I’m pretty sure I can sell everything I currently have and not get hurt too bad. My only concern would be idling the big king model too much. But, here’s my current swoosh setting. What do you think?

 

[EvertonPete]

When you all are burning a load, what percentage of time do you have flame or just glowing coals?

 

[Holiday]

When you all are burning a load, what percentage of time do you have flame or just glowing coals?

0% of the time for me except when burning in the load at beginning. In my opinion the idea is to let the cat make the heat over a long period of time and that's why I bought this stove. Long period meaning anywhere from 12 to 24 hours depending on heat requirement.
If I wanted a flame I would have kept my tube stove as they are good if being run harder and just kept doing the 3 to 6 hour reloads

 

[Nealm66]

It depends on the weather. 30-40 outside I like to run with no flames total black screen 69-70 let’s me use the kitchen oven to cook a roast. Slight flame flicker puts me 72-74

 

[MissMac]

Todays BK task: burn down the stove to just ash, clean all ash out cause the arctic air is coming for Thursday & Friday, gona need every inch of my fire box Friday - 30mph winds high temp of 20, lows friday night into the single digits, Snow storm possible Sunday night into Monday for the northern Mid-Atlantic and Eastern New England.

I did something similar about a week ago. We've been in minus 30*C territory for the last week, and I've been running 3 loads/day - one 12 hr while at work, and 2 smaller loads on med-high. in between to really kick out the heat and warm the house up. With the 2 new large windows we put in this summer, i've been able to keep the house around 20-22*C despite the bitter cold - with no furnace at all!

 

[Holiday]

I put 4 windows in last year as well, best thing ever.

 

[BKVP]

When you all are burning a load, what percentage of time do you have flame or just glowing coals?

I have flame about 20% of the time...by choice! I can have flame 100% of the time if I make small diameter/weight loads and run it hotter.
But I have a King because I like a big fuel tank!

A car like a Camry with a 40 gallon tank would be awesome. Mileage would decrease slightly to added weight, but a round trip down to see mom in S.Cal and drive halfway back on a tank...pretty amazing. That's why I have the King....that and I listen to a Fairbanks dude that said if I run it hotter, the wife would.....nevermind.

 

[Diabel]

I listen to a Fairbanks dude that said if I run it hotter, the wife would.....nevermind.

Female attire gets very expensive up north. That dude has a plan...

 

[Ashford]

Hello everyone - I can into a problem yesterday that I’m hoping you can help with. I noticed my Ashford 30.0 wasn’t running well once I closed my bypass. I let the stove cool, removed the cat, and it was about 80% clogged. I carefully vacuumed the cat, installed a new gasket, and put the cat back in place. I loaded and lit the stove, and everything seemed fine until I tried to close the bypass. The bypass would close, but would not cam over. I’ve never had this issue in the 5 years I’ve owned the stove.

I let the stove cool again, and removed the cat a second time (I have plenty of gasket material). Everything looks good around the cat. I thought the metal side shield was blocking the damper, but that is not the case. The camper does close against the gasket, but something seems to be blocking it.

Thoughts on what could be causing this? It’s killing me not running the stove today when it’s 9 degrees out. Thanks in advance.

 

[stoveliker]

Question, I see an icicle hanging off of the chimney cap (it was 16 F this morning with high wind; wind chill of -8 F is what my phone app told me). The load last night was 4-5 yr old, dry oak. Icicle is nicely grey, not black (suggesting the steam coming out of the flue is clean, and it's just the water from the wood oxidation, so all seems well in that respect).

To prevent clogging of the flue at the top by ice I want to run the stove a bit harder for a bit (I remember reading about that somewhere here...). I also want to burn down the coals a bit as I do note that the heat output at the end (3 hrs) goes down a bit, and in this weather I can use more heat...

So, I'm planning to put some small pieces on the coals to burn those down, keeping the air on high. But, should I do that with the cat engaged or should I keep the bypass open to allow more heat going up the flue (and melt something if there is something to melt)?

 

[moresnow]

Question, I see an icicle hanging off of the chimney cap (it was 16 F this morning with high wind; wind chill of -8 F is what my phone app told me). The load last night was 4-5 yr old, dry oak. Icicle is nicely grey, not black (suggesting the steam coming out of the flue is clean, and it's just the water from the wood oxidation, so all seems well in that respect).

To prevent clogging of the flue at the top by ice I want to run the stove a bit harder for a bit (I remember reading about that somewhere here...). I also want to burn down the coals a bit as I do note that the heat output at the end (3 hrs) goes down a bit, and in this weather I can use more heat...

So, I'm planning to put some small pieces on the coals to burn those down, keeping the air on high. But, should I do that with the cat engaged or should I keep the bypass open to allow more heat going up the flue (and melt something if there is something to melt)?

If the Cat probe says it's active. Use it. If you are getting excessive ice build up, run a hot load to shake it loose. Just be ready to hear the incoming as the ice hits the roof!

 

[stoveliker]

If the Cat probe says it's active. Use it. If you are getting excessive ice build up, run a hot load to shake it loose. Just be ready to hear the incoming as the ice hits the roof!

ok, thanks. Yes, the cat was still active. I put 5 sticks in there, criss-cross, got it going with the air full open and the by-pass open (i.e. 35 seconds...), kept looking at my magnetic flue thermometer, on a single wall piece of flue (horizontal, after a 2 ft double wall rise), and when that one reached near 400 F (red zone), which was in 2 minutes, I engaged the cat again to extract some more heat and not overheat the flue.
Keeping the air fully open keeps the flue thermometer right near 400 F.

The icicle is not too bad about 1.5" cross section where it attaches to the flue, and about a foot long (tapered of course). As that's on top of the second story and I'm 3 floors down in the basement with the stove, I don't think I'll hear it. I was more concerned about any build-up in the flue itself, invisible to me. Possibly leading to blocking.

I'll let this burn out before putting on my best load of this winter: 8-10 " long pieces (slabs) of locust - coldest day so far and likely all winter.

 

[stoveliker]

If the Cat probe says it's active. Use it. If you are getting excessive ice build up, run a hot load to shake it loose. Just be ready to hear the incoming as the ice hits the roof!

To be clear, my question was related to the concern that the design of the stove is such that an incredible amount of heat gets extracted when the flue gases go the path through the cat to the flue. So I was wondering whether enough heat is going up the chimney with the cat engaged to do what needs to be done (melt anything there). I do see the magnetic flue thermometer dropping now (air still fully open).

 

[moresnow]

To be clear, my question was related to the concern that the design of the stove is such that an incredible amount of heat gets extracted when the flue gases go the path through the cat to the flue. So I was wondering whether enough heat is going up the chimney with the cat engaged to do what needs to be done (melt anything there). I do see the magnetic flue thermometer dropping now (air still fully open).

I believe you will find that running any BK with the bypass open beyond the active point is not recommended. There not really designed for that and it can potentially cause stove damage.

 

[stoveliker]

I believe you will find that running any BK with the bypass open beyond the active point is not recommended. There not really designed for that and it can potentially cause stove damage.

ok. I'm not sure why stove damage, b/c overheating should not be the case (given the thermostat). But better safe than sorry. Thanks.

 

[stoveliker]

Well, that also nicely cleaned my window. Next time I'll make such a fire a bit more in the front of the firebox; the corner closest to one of the sticks is nice and clean. The other corner somewhat less. It had not bothered me much as I had a centra 1/2 width of the window clean enough to see what's going on, it's nice to have a larger area now

 

[BKVP]

Hello everyone - I can into a problem yesterday that I’m hoping you can help with. I noticed my Ashford 30.0 wasn’t running well once I closed my bypass. I let the stove cool, removed the cat, and it was about 80% clogged. I carefully vacuumed the cat, installed a new gasket, and put the cat back in place. I loaded and lit the stove, and everything seemed fine until I tried to close the bypass. The bypass would close, but would not cam over. I’ve never had this issue in the 5 years I’ve owned the stove.

I let the stove cool again, and removed the cat a second time (I have plenty of gasket material). Everything looks good around the cat. I thought the metal side shield was blocking the damper, but that is not the case. The camper does close against the gasket, but something seems to be blocking it.

Thoughts on what could be causing this? It’s killing me not running the stove today when it’s 9 degrees out. Thanks in advance.

Make certain the stainless retainers on each side of the cat are in place...

 

[BKVP]

ok, thanks. Yes, the cat was still active. I put 5 sticks in there, criss-cross, got it going with the air full open and the by-pass open (i.e. 35 seconds...), kept looking at my magnetic flue thermometer, on a single wall piece of flue (horizontal, after a 2 ft double wall rise), and when that one reached near 400 F (red zone), which was in 2 minutes, I engaged the cat again to extract some more heat and not overheat the flue.
Keeping the air fully open keeps the flue thermometer right near 400 F.

The icicle is not too bad about 1.5" cross section where it attaches to the flue, and about a foot long (tapered of course). As that's on top of the second story and I'm 3 floors down in the basement with the stove, I don't think I'll hear it. I was more concerned about any build-up in the flue itself, invisible to me. Possibly leading to blocking.

I'll let this burn out before putting on my best load of this winter: 8-10 " long pieces (slabs) of locust - coldest day so far and likely all winter.

Shoot that sucker with your air rifle! Just kidding...you'll put your eye out kid.

 

[jetsam]

ok. I'm not sure why stove damage, b/c overheating should not be the case (given the thermostat). But better safe than sorry. Thanks.

There were supposedly bypass retainer clips that could be damaged.

1) I'm not sure that's still true on newer stoves (@BKVP ? )

2) I've accidentally run an entire load on high with the bypass open and my bypass still operated normally after. YMMV, but the only way I could have run that load hotter would have been to crack the door.

 

[stoveliker]

So I melted off the next icicle off the cap this morning. With the Tstat on high it took only 6 minutes for it to come falling down (amidst giant clouds of steam ).

It looked pretty clear (part in pic below), but it did stink.