Critiques of Blaze King Stoves...Exist ?
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Can it be cleaned bottom up for those that can't or won't go up on the roof? If yes, what is entailed?
Squisher
Minister of Fire
Pull your pipe up some time. You'd be surprised what's laying between the bypass and the backside of the cat.
Squisher
Minister of Fire
Don't need to. With the bypass open I can push the bypass plate up enough to clean that area.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I clean that after every chimney sweeping. I stick a shop vac hose up there, and brush the crud into the hose with my fingers if there's a lot of it. (It has just occurred to me that I should fabricate a "U" for my shop vac, and I could clean it without the brushing.)
The inserts not bad at all since it had an angled flue collar. But on a stove I always pull the pipe up and sweep this area from above.
You always want to vacuum the face of the cat anyway. So yes, sweep away!
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I can take the angled guard plate off mine and shine a flashlight in there, and actually see if there's any crud left.
Thanks for all the critiques.
One big question: why are BK stoves much more $$$$ than similar stoves with similar specs ?
One big question: why are BK stoves much more $$$$ than similar stoves with similar specs ?
One reason is because of the thermostatic control. It's extremely difficult to pass the EPA testing. Each pass/fail costs hundreds and hundred of thousands of dollars. Ever wonder why no one else is doing it?
Webby, just to clarify, with the bypass open I can push the bypass plate up (on the cat side) enough that I can touch the back of the cat. I used to pull the pipe until I discovered I could do this. Now I just open and shut the bypass a few times to get the creosote off the plate, then I can get to it all with my hand.
Can't be, VC had a thermostatic control +/- a couple of decades ago. Even those creosote makers Ashley had one.
So why so much more $$$ ? All wood stove makers have R & D and ISO regs and quality control and marketing and .....
I'm well aware of that.....
Blaze kings control actually works though! These others never ran low or slow did they? To get one dialed in to burn clean at these low output rates is next to impossible.
Its unlikely I'd ever purchase another stove not manufactured by blaze king.
Because they're worth it.
Honestly I didn't believe the "hype" before I bought mine in 2011. I found a new never burned floor model stove that was selling for $1200 so I bought it. It was a deal of a lifetime and didn't cost me a dime after selling my 2 year old Lopi Endeavor. After burning the stove for a week I understood/believed all the hype. At this point the stove just does it's job. It's a repeatable process that's damn near the same load after load. It's never tried to "run away" on me and has always done exactly what I expect it to do. It's really silly how repeatable it is load after load.
I will say my chimney is much dirtier than my Lopi was when I sweep the chimney. I did fix some air leaks in the flue collar this year so maybe that will help some.
Same as with top down. You sweep the flue and then suck the junk out of the cat chamber. I sooteater my bk.
drstorm
Burning Hunk
Good opinions so far but I'll also add some of mine.
Very dry wood or access to compressed sawdust logs/blocks(NEILS,Eco bricks etc) is a must.
The alien technology can't do a thing with moderate and above moisture content wood.
The dealer network.
I hold BKVP and the company themselves in the highest regard.The dealer not so much.
The glass cruds up and yes you can clean it like I did/do with the wet newspaper and ash trick which gets most of it off. However I also left a scratch about one inch long from doing this(very narrow and nearly unnoticeable, but this method does risk that).
They aren't all perfect.mine is close.I don't know if this is a bad weld or another dealer installation mistake but my stove door is slightly unbalanced.
Looking at it straight on it appears like it is hung with the top tilting a bit to the left,like a picture.It was driving me crazy at first trying to figure out why the stove just looked like something was uneven.I figured it out by putting my pinky finger between the door and the steel body of the stove and starting at the bottom and making my way up.Pinky easily fits on the bottom but gets tighter and then completely unable to make it the entire way up.Just a reverse scenario on the other side of the door,bigger gap up top that narrows as you go down.It even makes the door handle appear to not point straight down.
Might be trivial to some,might even be just a bolt that someone will tell me to adjust but either way it's a slight weld defect or once again the dealer.
I don't know if the picture I attach will help,it's best to notice in person about 10 feet back when taking the whole room into perspective.
All this said,I love my BK Chinook 30 and would not trade it for any other manufacturers offerings.
![[Hearth.com] Critiques of Blaze King Stoves...Exist ?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/189/189340-7173e90e1718841b3913740b918ce357.jpg?hash=0xPb-acRLu "[Hearth.com] Critiques of Blaze King Stoves...Exist ?")
Very dry wood or access to compressed sawdust logs/blocks(NEILS,Eco bricks etc) is a must.
The alien technology can't do a thing with moderate and above moisture content wood.
The dealer network.
I hold BKVP and the company themselves in the highest regard.The dealer not so much.
The glass cruds up and yes you can clean it like I did/do with the wet newspaper and ash trick which gets most of it off. However I also left a scratch about one inch long from doing this(very narrow and nearly unnoticeable, but this method does risk that).
They aren't all perfect.mine is close.I don't know if this is a bad weld or another dealer installation mistake but my stove door is slightly unbalanced.
Looking at it straight on it appears like it is hung with the top tilting a bit to the left,like a picture.It was driving me crazy at first trying to figure out why the stove just looked like something was uneven.I figured it out by putting my pinky finger between the door and the steel body of the stove and starting at the bottom and making my way up.Pinky easily fits on the bottom but gets tighter and then completely unable to make it the entire way up.Just a reverse scenario on the other side of the door,bigger gap up top that narrows as you go down.It even makes the door handle appear to not point straight down.
Might be trivial to some,might even be just a bolt that someone will tell me to adjust but either way it's a slight weld defect or once again the dealer.
I don't know if the picture I attach will help,it's best to notice in person about 10 feet back when taking the whole room into perspective.
All this said,I love my BK Chinook 30 and would not trade it for any other manufacturers offerings.
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![[Hearth.com] Critiques of Blaze King Stoves...Exist ?](/talk/data/attachments/189/189341-1c8ac3047661dd15c0c1c5100f398dc5.jpg?hash=0xPb-acRLu)
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All BK's can easily be cleaned from below. Just open the bypass and sweep away!
drstorm
Burning Hunk
Oh,and did I mention the dealer?
I'm sure you must have seen the Blaze King "free fans" promotion with a new stove ad popping up the last few months on this site.
Well,despite seeing this ad before purchase,during the waiting period to install,and after installed.My fans were not free.
Again,dealer issue and not corporate I'm sure.
I'm sure you must have seen the Blaze King "free fans" promotion with a new stove ad popping up the last few months on this site.
Well,despite seeing this ad before purchase,during the waiting period to install,and after installed.My fans were not free.
Again,dealer issue and not corporate I'm sure.
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