Blaze king disappointment

[paulnlee]

Well,,,,,, is'nt that special ??

Your point?

 

[Woodheat58]

$275 a month for propane is just insane to me. I feel like I'm just giving the gas company money and I don't like that. Hence the wood.

Well, yes, it sort of is, if you compare it to being able to get wood for nothing.

But it is not really terribly out to lunch for a monthly fossil fuel or electric heating bill, relatively speaking. Which is kind of telling me that maybe your house could be better, but it isn't 'bad bad'. Would also seem to indicate that the BK should be doing better heating the place - for whatever reason.

I have an electric boiler for backup heat. If I had to use it full time, it would likely cost me somewhere around $25/day when it is cold out. My father has oil and a pretty tight house - he'd be over $300/mo.

This is really why the BK upsets me. I spent 2200 and then another 360 (condor cat) thinking I would be FREE from using the propane, as in never having to turn it on. This is what I did on the weekends with the Timberline, wake up balls cold, fire up the Tline, and be roasting a couple hours later. I thought with the BK I could turn it down to low (40 hr burn time) and fire it up to roast me out. This could not be further from what I am doing. The BK will keep it up to 60 or 62 overnight but then only get to 68 no where near 76. If it's really cold I need to crank the gas on. Basically, my whole reason to purchase this was thinking I would never have to use propane again, which I now see I could not be more wrong

 

[maple1]

I don't know but - have no clue really - maybe someone else can verify that your cat isn't supposed to have a gasket, like you said you were told?

I have never owned a cat stove, but kind of thought they all used gaskets. Could be off base though...

 

[Rickb]

Ok dumb question. I read this thread as it was growing but I don't remember if it was said do you have a fan?

As others have said dry wood is a game changer. In my 2.0 blaze king the heat output feels almost double at 16% moisture compared to 22%. I can usually tell how dry the wood is by how it lights. At 22% It takes 20-30 minutes to get the cat up to temp on bypass, vs 16% its a raging inferno at 15 minutes.

Also I can say for a lot of heat fast you have to have a fan... I have a smaller better insulated area but my little stove can take my 700sqft room from 65F to 71F in 1 hour on low with the fan on. It will maintain 71F with the fan off. I also have ducted fans pushing air from the colder main floor down to the stove room.


Just food for thought. Will be interesting how your stove performs with a bunch of 2x4/2x6 scraps.

 

[mar13]

"...Timberline that came with the house. I really did like it and it would heat the house from 52 after dying out overnight to 76 by 8pm on days when it was in the mid 30s and above. Problem was it would eat wood and would not keep a fire overnight."
and, "The BK will keep it up to 60 or 62 overnight but then only get to 68 no where near 76."

Apart from all the technical questions about the stove and wood, I think this also raises the question of personal preferences for home temperatures & variability. I think many - perhaps not a majority - folks would prefer to bounce daily temperatures within a narrow band (even if it's within the 60s) rather than have a 24 degree swing (52 to 76). Not owning a BK , in part due to clearance issues, the thought of a BK's consistency does seem appealing.

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

I'd like to thank everyone for their help. I'm going to try some "true" dry 2x4's or pallet wood and see that the difference is.

$275 a month for propane is just insane to me. I feel like I'm just giving the gas company money and I don't like that.
Hence the wood.
After reading everything here the King is more of a radiant high heat output monster, good high heat over a long period of time. My old Timberline was a fire breather in that it put out a ton of heat in a short time, allowing me to heat my place very fast. Now the difference here is my s***** insulation allows the King's heat to go right out the walls or through the ceiling into the attic and gone. So, my solution is to spend a few grand on insulation and keep the King, go back to a Timberline or Fisher or something of the antique era and pony up for more wood. That's about what I can do.

Just remember to NOT use any wood with chemicals- ie weatherproofing or such.

 

[mar13]

I'd like to thank everyone for their help. I'm going to try some "true" dry 2x4's or pallet wood and see that the difference is.

Would using something like biobricks help remove some of wood's variability and better replicate more typical ideal wood burning than 2x4s or pallets, so that the gurus could better diagnose the problem?

 

[BKVP]

Ok...taking a booth building break.

1) Condar is flat out wrong. You need the gasket.

2) Are you locking down the bypass

3) Get nominal chimney length to 15' and it will help. That's in the manual.

4) What is behind the brick wall behind stove. You must maintain clearances to "nearest" combustible even if you have a non combustible surface.

5) If that brick is real, prior post is correct. Thermostat spring could be influenced by radiadating heat off the brick.

7) I have a much older house 1895, 30 x 25 living room with 8' ceilings and an adjoining room. On high, with proper install, proper operation and NIELS or 18% or less m.c. fuel, bring the room to 90 degrees very, very fast.

8) Dual blowers make a tremendous difference in getting heat out into the living space.

In conclusion, I have a buddy in a yurt that has the smaller Princess. He lives on the slope near Kotzebue AK. His yurt is 70F when -20 outside.

Go with 1-8 above and report back please....

Thank you for reaching out to this forum. It will help.

 

[ShawnLiNY]

Well,,,,,, is'nt that special ??

Are these temps with stove wide open or dialed back ? I are those temps typical and your not satisfied ? Or are these temps with known dry wood such as pallets or bio bricks ?

 

[ShawnLiNY]

Stove temps:
566 on top

back behind the flue
480

side of stove
467

pipe starts at 363 to 233 at ceiling

Does this help diagnose any problems??

My reply above was to this post , not sure what happened

 

[aansorge]

You said you bought the stove used. Have you ever installed a new cat? That is what makes these stoves work.

 

[lsucet]

You said you bought the stove used. Have you ever installed a new cat? That is what makes these stoves work.

Yeah he replaced it with a condar one without the gasket but it needs a gasket.

 

[Nateums]

I see the same thing over and over again on this site.

People blame the stove for their house not being warm enough, and will try everything under the sun to make more heat except insulating and air sealing their house.

That is the problem, not the stove.

 

[BKVP]

OP, I can assure you that if the 566F was on high, full fire box of fuel as described in prior post, the temp you are seeing is quite below higher recorded temps.

Was this directly in front of the flue collar? What device was used to get temps? IR gun? Bimetallic thermometer?

 

[maple1]

I see the same thing over and over again on this site.

People blame the stove for their house not being warm enough, and will try everything under the sun to make more heat except insulating and air sealing their house.

That is the problem, not the stove.

That might be contributing here, and if fixed would no doubt make things better, but his LP use kind of indicates to me that it isn't the whole problem. It's not real bad, IMO.

 

[Ashful]

Wood is coming in at 21 or less on the meter. A mix of oak, hickory, ash, black locust.

I've never measured a fresh split cord. I'll try that.

If you’re measuring 21% on he outside of an old split face, you are likely burning wood that’s over 30% (or even 35%). That’s not going to work in this stove, period.

Well, the OP was happier with a smoke dragon because he needs insane heat output.

I don’t buy this. He’s living in 1800 sq ft, with half of that closed off. Heck, that’s not a house, it’s not even a big room!

The King can heat many times that, in most climates. Heck, one of my Ashfords is heating at least 2.5x his space with no aid from central heating, and bleeding out to 4x his space with some aid from the central heat. That part of the house isn’t “poorly insulated”, it’s totally un-insulated.

I have seen stove top temps, but no mention of cat probe temp? That’s the only one we care about, here.

 

[maple1]

I re-read the thread.

Seems chimney height is borderline w.r.t specs (is it a straight shot all the way up or are there bends?), wood was being measured at 20-22% but not on fresh split surface (there was also a question if the meter had prongs or not, which wasn't answered), and the cat has no gasket.

Those are 3 factors, I suspect wood quality and the missing gasket are the first impacting ones to address.

EDIT: Scooped a bit by Ashful, slow on the submit finger again....

 

[jetsam]

I don’t buy this. He’s living in 1800 sq ft, with half of that closed off. Heck, that’s not a house, it’s not even a big room!

The King can heat many times that, in most climates. Heck, one of my Ashfords is heating at least 2.5x his space with no aid from central heating, and bleeding out to 4x his space with some aid from the central heat. That part of the house isn’t “poorly insulated”, it’s totally un-insulated.

I have seen stove top temps, but no mention of cat probe temp? That’s the only one we care about, here.

We don't know what his envelope's like. Maybe part of the roof is missing.

His cat probe is going to read a little false-low because of the dilution air from the firebox bypassing the cat where the gasket should be.

I hesitate to just blame the wood in these threads because I didn't burn much that was under 40% my first year, and I heated a lot more than his total space with half the stove. It's unpleasant but it's not the knell of doom if your best wood is 30% (just don't expect long burns or maximum heat).

 

[Highbeam]

Some folks still hesitate to load the firebox to the roof and run a load at max stat setting. Just leave it cranked. It’s just a thermostat, not directly linked to the intake valve.

566 measured on stove top tells me his stove isn’t operating to its full potential.

 

[lsucet]

Lots of variables to can run the stove at WOT. On my 24 ft flue ( straight shut ) at open throttle, by the time the stove gets up to the temp that i like to see before dial it down, possibly half of the load is gone. 700 to 800 df of temp on that flue of 24 ft is a train what i have going on at WOT, lots of heat loss up the chimney and wood consumption before it gets to temp. Now, the one on 19 ft flue with two 45s i can run it WOT and it gets hot quick and without of that loss.
on the 24 ft after the wood catch good my WOT is around 4 o'clock. Wood quality talking about MC not specie, makes a big different on heat like everyone knows.

 

[MissMac]

IMO $175-280/mo heating just on LP doesn't seem all that extreme?

ya, agreed - i've spent over $500/month up here...

 

[Ashful]

We don't know what his envelope's like. Maybe part of the roof is missing.

A King could heat 900 sq ft without any roof! My kitchen is bigger than that!

 

[moresnow]

A King could heat 900 sq ft without any roof! My kitchen is bigger than that!

Hope you like cooking! Your kitchen is bigger than my entire house. Wow!

 

[Woodheat58]

Ok...taking a booth building break.

1) Condar is flat out wrong. You need the gasket.

2) Are you locking down the bypass

3) Get nominal chimney length to 15' and it will help. That's in the manual.

4) What is behind the brick wall behind stove. You must maintain clearances to "nearest" combustible even if you have a non combustible surface.

5) If that brick is real, prior post is correct. Thermostat spring could be influenced by radiadating heat off the brick.

7) I have a much older house 1895, 30 x 25 living room with 8' ceilings and an adjoining room. On high, with proper install, proper operation and NIELS or 18% or less m.c. fuel, bring the room to 90 degrees very, very fast.

8) Dual blowers make a tremendous difference in getting heat out into the living space.

In conclusion, I have a buddy in a yurt that has the smaller Princess. He lives on the slope near Kotzebue AK. His yurt is 70F when -20 outside.

Go with 1-8 above and report back please....

Thank you for reaching out to this forum. It will help.

1. Gasket on order.
2. Yes, handle pulled when cat temp is active.
3. Awaiting time to get on roof and measure
4. That's real brick, but the stove doesn't get hot in the back.
5. see 4
8. When I run the blowers, the cat stat goes down, I like it to radiate max heat

Thanks VP!

 

[Woodheat58]

I see the same thing over and over again on this site.

People blame the stove for their house not being warm enough, and will try everything under the sun to make more heat except insulating and air sealing their house.

That is the problem, not the stove.

House WAS warm enough with Timberline. Cold overnight, very nice and comfy during the day. I never blamed the Timberline for not keeping the house warm, I'm blaming the BK for not heating up to what I expected.