Blaze King Sirocco 25 insert
- Thread starter mellow
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BKVP
Minister of Fire
We've had 30's to low 40's around here so I've been running the stove all day and night for several days.
I loaded it up last night around 5 pm, woke up at 6 am this morning to an active cat Yet. I did a reload (not even trying to fill the box) and tonight when I got home the cat was just outside of active after 12 hours, plenty of coals for another reload.
I've been very pleased now with burn times now.
I loaded it up last night around 5 pm, woke up at 6 am this morning to an active cat Yet. I did a reload (not even trying to fill the box) and tonight when I got home the cat was just outside of active after 12 hours, plenty of coals for another reload.
I've been very pleased now with burn times now.
Agreed, but in mellows case he was looking for cooler fires and longer burn times. He can always crank it up if he wants clean glass as he probably should for about an hour each week in the shoulder season anyway too burn off all the junk that accumulates in the box from burning low and slow.
Hrmm.. I don't think it is a draft issue since I was able to cut down the air on my previous cat insert and kill the flames. I will have to break out the incense sticks and see where the extra air is coming from.
when I run it on high for 30 minutes it cleans it off a little bit, but there is still a decent amount left on the glass.
One thing I will note about this insert is the wide door, I extended my hearth out to 24" but the door when opened all the way is 30" so you do have possibility of hot coals riding on the door gasket and going past your hearth (had this happen once and have burn marks in my carpet). I have solved this issue by unlatching the door then opening the door slightly then closing it a couple times to shake off the hitchhikers back into the stove/ash lip.
gregbesia
Feeling the Heat
Mellow, with this colder weather upon us, what kind of burn times are you seeing now? Any luck with the low and slow burn?
I am still working with @BKVP so take this with a grain of salt, I am getting 10 hour burns with it set on low, but I am getting some flames in the firebox so that might be hurting my burn times. Work has been crazy the last few weeks so I haven't had time to weigh and analyze my wood.
gregbesia
Feeling the Heat
I haven't had any hot coals hanging onto the door, just some pieces of ash that fall right off when I open the door. They haven't gone much past the insert onto the hearth. I have noticed a lot more ash sticking to the door when I load up the insert E/W. When I load it up N/S I don't seem to get as much sticking to the door (15" length splits).
My wood is 18-22" from my last cat insert so I have been loading E/W right up to the window, which allows it to fall on top of the gasket.
Mellow, I see you are no longer a fellow Appalachian 52 Bay burner. Congratulations on the new Blaze King. Once it gets cold where you live I will be very interested for you to compare the heat output of the Sirocco with your former 52 Bay.
So far the heat output has been about the same, an edge going to the 25 due to the glass being bigger so it radiates the heat more out front.
Ease of use has gone up dramatically, the wife is loving the turn to here and walk away factor of the tstat. She was already used to the damper routine with the Appalachain but having to deal with the air sliders on the door always annoyed her. Having a set point to turn the tstat to has really impressed her, not to mention it looks A LOT better and the fans are much quieter.
I have been able to really test out the SC25 with the temps in the teens around here. With the fixes to the tstat it is running great now, it will run on Low or High or in between, whatever I want and it will kick out the heat to keep our downstairs 76 with the temps below 32, on high this thing is a heating monster and I have to turn it down.
Now that it is cold enough to run on High-Medium for longer periods I have been able to clean up the glass very nicely, only the corners will have a small amount of creo left on them.
So let's talk burn times:
One thing to note, the only other insert the Wife liked was the Jotul since it only had the 1 air lever to mess with and it looked good. She did not like the Bay 52 since it had 2 air sliders and was a bit temperamental in how it would run. With the SC25 I have not had a single complaint, once again the simplicity of the single air control and the good looks has won out so both of us are now happy, I have my Low burn for longer burn times and she has ease of use. I will add that it took a while for her to get used to the damper on the Bay 52, but now that she understands it she was able to pickup that aspect of the SC25 very easily, so your mileage might vary depending on past cat damper experience.
The built in cat thermometer is geared towards simplicity which is nice for her, in the red your good, grey it needs more wood or turn it up, can't get any easier than that. I have my exhaust thermocouple hooked up just to monitor things and also have the alarm set at 600 incase one of us leaves the bypass open for to long, that would a great addition to have to the insert somehow as it has saved us a couple times so far.
Overall, best insert I have owned yet so far.
Now that it is cold enough to run on High-Medium for longer periods I have been able to clean up the glass very nicely, only the corners will have a small amount of creo left on them.
So let's talk burn times:
- Running on Low with the firebox jammed packed with Oak I am getting 14 hour burn times, this is with the cat just on the edge of becoming inactive according to the built in cat temperature gauge and the fan on Low but heat still coming off the insert, it could probably go longer but heat output would drop. This has been heating my 600 sq ft downstairs very nicely in the 72-74 degree range with temps above 32 and light winds and the 600 sq ft upstairs at 70.
- Running on Medium with the firebox jammed packed with Oak I get about 6-7 Hours, used this setting the most during the extreme temperature drop with temps in the teens with very windy gusts, kept the room at 76 and upstairs was fighting to stay at 68, fans were run on high
- Running on High with the firebox jammed packed with Oak I am guessing I would get about 4 Hours, it produced so much heat I had to kick it back to Medium after about an hour, High cleans the glass very well and Medium maintains the clean glass, fans run on high
One thing to note, the only other insert the Wife liked was the Jotul since it only had the 1 air lever to mess with and it looked good. She did not like the Bay 52 since it had 2 air sliders and was a bit temperamental in how it would run. With the SC25 I have not had a single complaint, once again the simplicity of the single air control and the good looks has won out so both of us are now happy, I have my Low burn for longer burn times and she has ease of use. I will add that it took a while for her to get used to the damper on the Bay 52, but now that she understands it she was able to pickup that aspect of the SC25 very easily, so your mileage might vary depending on past cat damper experience.
The built in cat thermometer is geared towards simplicity which is nice for her, in the red your good, grey it needs more wood or turn it up, can't get any easier than that. I have my exhaust thermocouple hooked up just to monitor things and also have the alarm set at 600 incase one of us leaves the bypass open for to long, that would a great addition to have to the insert somehow as it has saved us a couple times so far.
Overall, best insert I have owned yet so far.
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What is the range of motion for the thermostat knob on your SC25? I feel like mine is very large and it blocks the line to show high and low. Would you say high for you is 6 o'clock? How far does it go the opposite direction?
My blade now fully closes at about the 2 o'clock position when cold (I marked it with a silver sharpie), when the stove is warm it will close sooner but that is how BK calibrates them.
I wanted to do an update to this since the season has just about ended.
The 25 heated my house very well the entire season, we didn't have any polar vortex's this year but we did have some very cold windy days and with this thing set to medium-high it would crank out the heat. I really can't say anything bad about it as it did its job this season and the wife loves the ease of use of this insert, I dare say this insert has been just about perfect with the fixes that @BKVP sent me. The huge glass stays pretty clean as long as you run it on medium-high, anything on low it will darken up but after 30 minutes of burning on medium-high it clears right up.
The 25 heated my house very well the entire season, we didn't have any polar vortex's this year but we did have some very cold windy days and with this thing set to medium-high it would crank out the heat. I really can't say anything bad about it as it did its job this season and the wife loves the ease of use of this insert, I dare say this insert has been just about perfect with the fixes that @BKVP sent me. The huge glass stays pretty clean as long as you run it on medium-high, anything on low it will darken up but after 30 minutes of burning on medium-high it clears right up.
gregbesia
Feeling the Heat
Mellow, thanks for the update. Im still watching this thread and any other info about the 25. My wife does not approve the look of the Princess, but hopefully one day we will own the 25. Im curious regarding the low burn . Our house is small and I think that for the most of the season my heating needs will be slow and steady . Do you think that this insert is capable of that?
I burn low and slow through the night with no issues other than the glass getting pitch black dark, but that is to be expected and burns off quickly. Average burn time for me on low was 13.5 hours with plenty of coals for a quick restart.
gregbesia
Feeling the Heat
Thanks for the update. Typically was that with a full load of wood or partial? How about shoulder season burning?
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