Blaze King Build Differences - What makes them 'better'?

[pgmr]

I really wish it would shut down lower because with the air closed as far as it will go, which is where I have been running it virtually all of the time, it still gets too hot in warmer, 40*, weather.

I've noticed on our Buck 80, when all of the primary inlets are closed, most of the flame seems to be coming from the center of the stove. The 80 has individual controls for left, right and center inlets. Each is simply a rod connected to a flat plate that slides to cover or uncover the inlet opening.

During one of these low burns, I discovered that pushing down on the center control rod will pivot the plate upward (which will seal the the inlet more tightly) and reduce the amount of primary flame. Now when I want to have a really low burning fire, I hang a 1.5 lb. steel dumbbell weight on the center control rod.

IIRC, the 91 uses only two control rods - one for the primary left and right and one for the center. The control rod might be too long to use the same method I did, but if not, you might be able to tighten up the slot that the plate slides in with judicious use of a hammer.

 

[Hiram Maxim]

But then again, very few folks have a Room of Heat as nice as yours, or as redundantly equipped. Do you use the 30NC much?

Thank you Sir,

Unfortunate the 30NC (aka the back-up) sits idol and cold most of the time.

I almost should put a balloon in the chimney so I don't loose any heat?

 

[HotCoals]

But then again, very few folks have a Room of Heat as nice as yours, or as redundantly equipped. Do you use the 30NC much?

Thank you Sir,

Unfortunate the 30NC (aka the back-up) sits idol and cold most of the time.

I almost should put a balloon in the chimney so I don't loose any heat?

Cool idea!
Then if you forget it's there and fire the stove up..it goes pop! lol

 

[bogydave]

If the Blaze King burn longevity and heat output stories here can be credited as at least true in part...

...And not to tall tales about 36 hour burns...

I know I am not addressing your actual question, but it sounds as if you don't fully believe the claims of the folks on this forum. Perhaps that is understandable...I don't really know because I have never been around wood stoves, at any point in my life, until I bought a BK, a year and a half ago.

Before I purchased the BK, I researched a lot...mostly on this forum. I bought the BK because of the claims...I was looking for something that was not going to require a lot of work and attention from me. Mostly because I'm lazy

.

I am glad I trusted these guys. Based upon my experience so far (1-1/2 seasons), the vast majority of the performance claims seem to be quite accurate.

Thanks fdegree. It's good to hear that some one believed the posts several BK owner wrote about.
But now your performance opinions don't count, you are like us other BK owners now, not fully believed. :lol:
It hurts for a while, then you get over it, but sometimes still post your performance observations for some to believe & others to scoff at.
It was -17 last night, I did not get a 24 hour burn, but the furnace didn't kick on either

 

[Hass]

Truth be told, I had never even heard of Blaze King before I joined up here. I was looking at getting a napoleon stove... Boy would I have been upset with my expectations.
The guys here literally were the salesmen for the stove. I knew exactly what I wanted from you guys here. Maybe hearth.com can get commission from sales?

 

[nate379]

The King would be overkill for my house on all but a few days a year. Also it's physical size would take too much of my living room.

With the Princess I'd have no trouble making the house 90* if I wanted to. Sure some of that comes down to have a well insulated house of course. I suppose the longer burn of the King would be nice at times, but I don't mind throwing in a load of wood every 12-16hrs.

-20* last night, it's -14* right now (1PM). I threw a load of wood in the snow at around 10PM. I just filled the stove again a few mins ago, plenty of embers to catch the fresh wood on fire. It's still 70* in the living room by the stove and the master bedroom (furthest away) is 67*.

Not sure how I heard about this site, but I already owned my stove before I got on here.

 

[ohlongarm]

Last night high winds zero to -3 wind chills 13 hour burn on 84# of wood house stayed 72 * at the 13 hour mark,8am threw in 3 oak splits on a coal bed not much though,set on 2.5 at 3:30 pm house 71* just threw in 3 more splits and will load her up tonight before bed. Today high 16* lots of wind. I'm happy.

 

[Peter B.]

Well...

After all the unsolicited testimonials, there's still no hard answer about just WHAT Blaze King <design or construction> makes them do what they do... when other stoves won't.

PB

-----

 

[HotCoals]

It's Magic!

 

[ScotO]

One piece of advice i can give is, if yoru gonna get a blaze king, dont bother with the princess, go straight for the king. unless you have a tiny house and like a small firebox. i went from king to princess, and hate the small firebox size, its really hard to use the smaller size, even compared to the englander 30.

+1

My belief is even if you have a small house go big. But I'm always about overkill.

I will add that since installing my Outside Air for combustion my glass stays really clean.

Personally, I could care less about clean glass as once the stove is set, I generally don't even look at it until the next day.

Me Too, Hiram!!

 

[ddddddden]

Alien Technology.

 

[ScotO]

well I will say it is an ugly stove, if you ask me. I totally do not like the look of the door on the front of it, among other things. BUT THAT BEING SAID, I am all about the efficiency of the unit, and I think the amount of testimony you will find here on Hearth.com speaks volumes about the performance of the stove (not every person on here can actually be on the Blaze King salary, can they?!?) I will definately consider one in the next couple of years, and if they come up with a better looking stove for the King line, I WILL BE BUYING ONE........ ;-)

 

[Hass]

Well...

After all the unsolicited testimonials, there's still no hard answer about just WHAT Blaze King <design or construction> makes them do what they do... when other stoves won't.

PB

-----

There never will be an answer, because BK will not say why. None of us are willing to cut apart our stoves to have a look. If someone really wants to know WHY they're so much better, then they can do it. But I can't justify cutting apart a 4k piece of equipment just to see how the air flows in. If you want to spend your money on a stove and have it sent to my shop, I'll be more than happy to cut it apart for you and we can research WHY they're so efficient. Until then, it just is.
Hell, I bet we probably could patch it back up afterwards and send you a frankenking.

 

[Osburning]

(broken image removed)


I think the Englander Tshirt factory just went outta business

 

[ohlongarm]

Another interesting fact about my King no matter how hard I run it,or how hot, I've yet to this day ever heard any signs of protestations from the unit.Creaks,rattles pinging ,popping ,cracking,or whatever those noises were when I ran my other stoves that boy runs as quiet as the proverbial mouse.

 

[Woodrow]

I'm new to the site and am just starting to learn about the various wood home heating options. Currently I'm leaning strongly towards an FPX 36 Elite and went to a showroom to see one. While there they had a few Blaze King units fully loaded with wood and burning away happily. The largest unit they sold was very impressive and the salesperson was saying it's the best free standing wood burning stove they had (and they had a big selection). The really amazing thing was that the flu pipe coming out of the largest BK had a sliding opening in it that you could actually insert your hand into (for demonstration purposes). This big stove, packed full of burning logs and the salesman put his bare hand directly on the flu pipe just a short distance from the stove (maybe 3 feet of pipe length away from the stove's throat). It was only warmish hot to the touch, but certainly not blistering hot like you would expect. He then moved the sliding "valve" mechanism on the pipe so that you could insert your hand directly into the path of the stove's exhaust. To my shocked surprise the air passing through the pipe was merely lukewarm and it was clean and clear - no noxious smoke or fumes. I was truly amazed. That big stove had not only incinerated all of the sooty smoke coming from that substantial load of wood in the box, it also had extracted nearly all the heat from the burned gases and delivered it to the showroom premises via radiation and convection. Incredible!

Otherwise the workmanship of the stove was very good, and although I'm no expert, I'm pretty mechanically inclined and able to assess mechanical quality. The BK units appeared to be built with impeccable workmanship and quality. You could tell they were the true wood heater's wood heater. The only complaint I have with them is their appearance. It's not that they're "ugly" it's just that they are plain and their appearance is not conducive to a modern home's decor. I know some of you will find that foolish or petty, but I do have to think of resale value. A stove that a woman might find drab or unattractive in the middle of the living room can and will hurt resale value. And I say "woman" because women are usually the ones that make the buy/no-buy decision when it comes to a home purchase. So speaking for myself, an attractive ZC fireplace like the FPX Elite 36/44 or the Lennox Montecito (Estate), is what I'm looking at instead. But if I lived in a colder climate with brutal winters where appearance takes a back seat, then there is little question I would probably go with the Blaze King. It really was an impressive site seeing those BK's today, I do not think the BK disciples here are hyping anything based on what I saw.

And for the record, I'm not a Blaze King employee or "plant" or any other kind of salesperson that works or profits in any way from the sale of hearth products. I'm a pure consumer looking for his own stove/fireplace.

 

[HotCoals]

I think some of the magic is the fact that if you use wood like ash it will burn pretty good..but leaves lots of coals.
I can heat for 5 or so hours just off those coals raking them to the front and turning the air way up.
Doing that stove top can be 300 or better..plenty of heat for the shoulder.
There is considerable mass to this stove that seems to stay hot very easy off of a good coal burn.
I count that in my burn times...can't speak for others.
But even burning the coals for hours on high the stack temp stays fairly low..about 250 for me..not much heat escaping out the chimney.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

I really wish it would shut down lower because with the air closed as far as it will go, which is where I have been running it virtually all of the time, it still gets too hot in warmer, 40*, weather.

I've noticed on our Buck 80, when all of the primary inlets are closed, most of the flame seems to be coming from the center of the stove. The 80 has individual controls for left, right and center inlets. Each is simply a rod connected to a flat plate that slides to cover or uncover the inlet opening.

During one of these low burns, I discovered that pushing down on the center control rod will pivot the plate upward (which will seal the the inlet more tightly) and reduce the amount of primary flame. Now when I want to have a really low burning fire, I hang a 1.5 lb. steel dumbbell weight on the center control rod.

IIRC, the 91 uses only two control rods - one for the primary left and right and one for the center. The control rod might be too long to use the same method I did, but if not, you might be able to tighten up the slot that the plate slides in with judicious use of a hammer.

Thanks, I'll have to take a look at that. I do only have 2 controls instead of 3. I'm pretty sure the left one, which controls the shotgun air in the middle, shuts down completely but not the right one which is the primary.

 

[nate379]

I don't have a great eye for fashion, but I've never thought the Blaze King to be ugly. There are certainly some stoves I would say are beautiful though, but I didn't walk in the stove shop and go no way I'd buy that stove!

I was at the stove shop today getting a convector deck for my stove. They had a Chinook on display and it looks really nice. The photos in the ad don't do it justice. Comparing the Princess and King to the Chinook, it's about in between in size. The firebox size looks more usable as well, it looks like the cat and it's parts don't hang down as low so wood could be stacked higher. I didn't actually measure anything though, so might just be cause I'm used to my stove having 3-4" of ash on the bottom.

It is spendy though, $3200, I don't know if that includes blowers or anything like that. Had it been available when I bought my stove I would have strongly considered it just because it's more modern looking.

 

[rdust]

Comparing the Princess and King to the Chinook, it's about in between in size. The firebox size looks more usable as well, it looks like the cat and it's parts don't hang down as low so wood could be stacked higher. I didn't actually measure anything though, so might just be cause I'm used to my stove having 3-4" of ash on the bottom.

Princess published size is 2.85, the Chinook is 2.75. If the Chinook doesn't have the enclosure hanging down that would make life easier, that took some getting used to. I now keep filler pieces in a bucket in the garage.

 

[fdegree]

As for the technology that has gone into this stove...I have no idea. But, maybe this will help shed some light on how it functions in order to achieve the long burn times while still producing adequate heat.

I wait to reload until I’m down to only enough coals to line 1/4 to 1/2 of the bottom of the stove, then...
1. I turn the T’stat up as high as it will go...to 3
2. Open the bypass
3. Wait about a minute or so and open the door
4. Rake the coals forward
5. Reload until the fire box is completely full
6. Leave the door cracked a tiny bit until the fire starts…then close the door
7. Wait for the fire box to be fully engulfed in fire
8. once the cat thermometer is in the active zone I close the bypass
9. I turn the T’stat down to 2.5 for about 5 - 10 minutes
10. Then I turn the T’stat down to about 2.0, which is where I tend to keep it most of the time
11. Sit in my recliner and wait until tomorrow night to repeat

Once the stove settles out from the reload and starts to cruise along, there is rarely any flame activity at all during the rest of the burn cycle. Occasionally, the T'stat will open the air control slightly enough to get a rare wisp of a flame. But, most of the time, the wood simply smolders and sometimes glows orange...nothing more.

Therefore, I am assuming the majority of the heat comes from the cat. You can see the cat glowing in the picture that I have "stolen" from SolarAndWood in one of his posts. He could tell you for certain, but I believe what you are seeing in this picture is the view through the glass door...cat glowing in the top of the stove, and no flames from the wood below it. During most of the burn cycle, the cat temperature tends to stay around 1,000°F - 1,500°F. The temperature of the air going up the chimney is rather cool...certainly cool enough to touch the pipe about 2' above the stove connection, and not get burned.

Since the wood doesn't actually "burn", instead it smolders, it tends to last quite a while.

Since the cat does a good job burning all of the nasties, it heats the space fairly well and doesn't allow much heat to go up the chimney.

I know this doesn't answer your question directly, but maybe it will help in some way.

 

[nate379]

From what it looked, the cat was a few inches higher so where if you could get the wood in the door it would all fit. I did only take a quick look though, while he was ringing up the cost of my items.

I know I have hit that plate/guard (whatever it is) pretty hard a few times while trying to be quick to load wood while it was catching on fire.

 

[bogydave]

From what it looked, the cat was a few inches higher so where if you could get the wood in the door it would all fit. I did only take a quick look though, while he was ringing up the cost of my items.

I know I have hit that plate/guard (whatever it is) pretty hard a few times while trying to be quick to load wood while it was catching on fire.

Yep
That guard is needed, I hit it frequently. Glad it's there or I be buying combustors often.
Maybe we need to de-bark the birch so we have more time to load

 

[greythorn3]

From what it looked, the cat was a few inches higher so where if you could get the wood in the door it would all fit. I did only take a quick look though, while he was ringing up the cost of my items.

I know I have hit that plate/guard (whatever it is) pretty hard a few times while trying to be quick to load wood while it was catching on fire.

Yep
That guard is needed, I hit it frequently. Glad it's there or I be buying combustors often.
Maybe we need to de-bark the birch so we have more time to load

the cat stuff hangin down in the princess is just obserd! i hate that with a passion! really ruins a nice stove. that and the shallow bottom. i consider the princess as a half assed stove.

 

[Patapsco Mike]

"If the Blaze King burn longevity and heat output stories here can be credited as at least true in part, what is it about their design and construction that makes them (apparently) so remarkable… so much (apparently) better than other respected stove brands in these respects?"

Having used quite a few stoves, I'd agree with most that the combination of large firebox, good catalytic converter, thermostat, and deep firebox is what makes these stoves the best. Also, the BK is able to dial down the air more than other stoves. Limiting air is how you keep wood from burning. Lots of wood and little air is the only way to burn for longer. No magic to that equation. There is magic though- the cat that changes that smoldering smoky mess of a burn to clean exhaust.

The BK's also do a nice job of getting the heat generated by the cat into the mass of the stove then into your house instead of losing it up the flue.