Blaze King, Equinox, and clean glass?

5000 sq ft? One of each.

jeff_t said:

5000 sq ft? One of each.

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Agreed. Even with shorter winters, a cold day is a cold day. No one stove will heat that area.

With 5,000 sq ft the BK will never be on 'low burn' if this is the only stove. So, the glass should stay clean.

Also, "Our family of 15"?! That poor wife.

With those requirements (huge space, want a view of the pretty fire) maybe a Blaze King isn't the best choice. It is a great stove, but their may be better ones for your situation. Other stoves can generate just as much heat and have a prettier view of the fire. For the Blaze King to generate the amount of heat needed to heat your place its advantage of the ability to slow burn goes out the window. Still, it wouldn't be a bad choice as it is a good stove.

jeff_t said:

5000 sq ft? One of each.

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ditto.
I've been low burning my mansfield this past week and my glass was 75% clean. Just one or two loads/day. But we have a cold front moving through right now and it's been burning since two nights ago and the glass cleaned itself up except for a very small amount in the two bottom corners.

But 5000 square feet? Yeah, AT LEAST two stoves. For no other reason than heat stability during the cold streaks. And I would guess you could manage burn rate to keep the glass clean on both of them. It sounds like an awesome opportunity to teach valuable lessons to thirteen lucky children.

Welcome to the forum mamaboldman.

Of for this situation, an outdoor boiler might work out best. You could still have a wood stove in the family room for the good fire viewing but then it could be a smaller stove just to supplement the OWB.


On keeping the glass clean, the first step is to have good dry wood that has been cut, split and stacked for a minimum of a year. More if you burn something like oak. Around our place we burn wood that has been in the stack for usually a minimum of 3 years or more. Not that long ago we were burning wood that was in the stack for 7-8 years. So what results did we have with that wood and with the wood we are presently burning? Number one is clean glass. Sure, occasionally we have to wipe some fly ash (haze) off the glass but that is quick and easy. We do not get black on our glass even when turning the stove down really low. Another and bigger benefit is that we have cleaned our chimney only one time in the last 5 years. It just does not get creosote so there are no worries of chimney fires. Then we also have the benefit of burning less wood. When you burn dry wood, you burn less but get more heat from the wood.

Good luck in your quest and you have my admiration for that large family. I'll bet it is a happy family too. Congratulations.

mamaboldman said:

Hi, I'm new here, but I've been researching past threads for many days. We are building a 5000 sf home, metal roof, single story, open floor plan. We live in Missouri, so winters aren't too severe. We have unliimited wood and plan on using the wood stove as our primary heat, but will have electric back up. The decision has boiled down to BKK vs Equinox. Our family of 15 really enjoys fires--even though it is completely worthless, we will miss our fireplace in our current home. Of these 2 stoves, will both be useless as far as viewing the fire? My brother owns the BKK and says it's impossible to keep clean if you do slow burns, but in his opinion, it's the best stove out there! The Eq. dealer told me the glass will stay pretty clean, but then again....he's a dealer! I'd appreciate ANY advice you can offer! Have to make a decision soon, and I'm torn! Thank you for your help.

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I have been burning my Equinox 3 or 4 seasons & I will say keeping the glass clean is a relative statement.
Will it get sooted up & black not really.
Will it say clean like a window just washed with Windex ,positively not .
After 10 to 20 hours you will see a frosted look to the glass.
Between the ash & heat this is how it will say until you clean it with a wet paper towel.
You can still view the fire just fine. I dont even bother cleaning the glass but 2 or 3 times per season.
Its a very easy stove to operate & not much maintenance.
A pipe damper is a must have unless you have poor draft.

I dont care for the drop down side door. It is spring loaded to help with the weight of it.
If it was a side swing like every other stove made it wouldn't need springs. totally unnecessary ( dopey if you ask me).
Yes the spring did fail buy other than the door being heavier the door still functions. ( I replaced the spring & coated with antiseeze for lubrication

I only side load the stove I find it much easier

Will it keep up in a 5000 SF .home ? probably not. But it is a great 24 / 7 stove .
A full load ( I mean packed) depending on draft & outside temps will keep stove top 500 for hours them cool down slowly to 300 between 8 or 9 hours. Restarts at 12 hours are simply as open air control , hot coals to the front & load up.
In my application slate floor over concrete & piped out the back into brick fireplace.
Everthing gets hot & says hot . the floor & the red brick.
The colder it gets the more the stove put out.Last year

But Im at about 2500 SF.
Hope this review helps.
doug

The BK is a phenomenal 24/7/210 heater but not the most entertaining to look at unless you are early in the burn cycle and burning wide open. When burning truly dry wood, the glass stays pretty clean at low burn but gunks up pretty quick with less than perfect wood. Buy the Equinox if entertainment is more important than utility, vice versa buy the BK.

I heat a decent size open floor plan house with a lot of glass without a furnace. You might get away with it in that 5000 sq ft house depending on how tight it is. I go back and forth on the boiler but really like the simplicity of the steel box.

If I was builing a new home I'd build it around a big soapstone masonry heater smack dab in the middle of the house. I don't know if there's one big enough for 5000 sq ft but it would sure cut down on the heating bills and be very cool looking.

I certainly can agree to to that BeGreen.

begreen said:

Good suggestion, but I would go for a high efficiency, gasifier, indoor wood boiler located in an adjacent outbuilding setup for this purpose. It could be tied into a radiant heat floor system that would be quite nice for comfort. There are several examples of this type of installation in the boiler room forum here. You can still have a nice wood stove in the family room for chilly nights and ambiance.

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+ 1 to begreen's suggestion. I have owned two Central Boilers (non gasifiers) and they are not very efficient. I loved them, fun to go load outside, mess stays outside, etc... but if I ever owned another it would be a gassifier.

Family of 15 and your worried about clean glass?

Defiant said:

Family of 15 and your worried about clean glass?

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haha. yeah. thats a lot of residents. must make for getting wood pretty easy. plenty of helpers.

ecocavalier02 said:

haha. yeah. thats a lot of residents. must make for getting wood pretty easy. plenty of helpers.

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And you can figure 100 Watts(341 btu) of heat output per body