2013-2014 Blaze King Performance Thread(everything BK)

shoot-straight said:

i cant seem to get my cat therm past 1:00 or so. are you running a blower?

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Don't run the blower until you get it up to temp, after I put the blower on the thermo reads a little lower but its actually as hot as the thermo read before I turned the blower on. If the thermo shows inactive with the blower on its not a true reading, you have to turn the blower off and see what it reads.

sasquatch said:

Is that pretty close to what they usually run ?

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That sounds like what a Princess usually runs, I thought the kings were closer to or over 4k.

Zanimal, what speed are you running your fan on? I find that if I run the fan any higher than medium-low, I get less heat into the room, and it cools down the cat-stat too much, which means even less heat. We're comfortably heating 1,800 sq/ft with our Princess insert. It's currently in the teens outside this afternoon.

Also, when I load the stove I burn it hot for about 20 minutes before I close it down to get an even amount of coals on the bottom so that the wood burns evenly from then on. The cat, which is producing the heat for the room, uses smoke as its fuel, not wood. It just happens to be the wood producing the smoke. If the wood is burning evenly throughout the firebox it produces more smoke, if it is burning in just partial areas of the firebox the cat might not be getting enough smoke to stay as hot as it needs.

We're trying our best to help you figure this out.

wireedm said:

what speed are you running your fan on?

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I do not have a fan.
Was really hoping to avoid that because we have a very quiet house and the blowers I heard in the store were very loud.

Zanimal said:

I do not have a fan.
Was really hoping to avoid that because we have a very quiet house and the blowers I heard in the store were very loud.

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In my very humble opinion, I would get a fan. During a long burn, the cat is the only part of the stove at high temperature because the wood is just smoldering to create smoke. On low, we can't hear our fan running with the TV on.

I'm a little confused about the cat being the hottest part of the stove.
If the cat produces the most heat. Then why is it positioned so that there is a direct rout from the back of the cat up and out the chimney? Should there not be some kind maze for the air to flow through to transfer heat to the outside of the stove?

There is also no TV in our house to make noise. The addition of any fan would be unwelcome noise.

Zanimal said:

I'm a little confused about the cat being the hottest part of the stove.
If the cat produces the most heat. Then why is it positioned so that there is a direct rout from the back of the cat up and out the chimney? Should there not be some kind maze for the air to flow through to transfer heat to the outside of the stove?

There is also no TV in our house to make noise. The addition of any fan would be unwelcome noise.

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Zanimal, that is one of the things I don't quite understand either, it would seem that the heat would go right out the chimney, and I think some of it does when the air is opened up wide open. That is why some have suggested turning the air down some. There is a balance in there somewhere in getting the proper air setting with the amount of heat you are needing. You have not been able to find that spot yet. I do know that on a slow and low burn, there is very little heat going up the chimney. So little, that some dealers have a demo chimney vent that will open, and you can stick your hand in the vent right above the stove, and will not burn you, yet the cat is active. We on hearth.com sometimes joke about this being BK's "alien technology" I am wondering if your thermostat handle has moved from its proper position on the shaft, and that is throwing you off some.

As for the fan, when run slow, most of the fans don't make much noise. I have used a router speed control to slow one down to reduce the noise, yet still get some air movement. I don't like a lot of air moving, as it feels cool to me, yet my stove needs just a little movement to get hot air out where it needs to be. Before you invest in a stove fan, maybe you can find a small quiet fan in the house somewhere and set it behind the stove and see if that makes a difference one way or another, or maybe you have a ceiling fan in the room, turn it on and change the settings and direction to see if that helps.

Zanimal said:

I'm a little confused about the cat being the hottest part of the stove.
If the cat produces the most heat. Then why is it positioned so that there is a direct rout from the back of the cat up and out the chimney? Should there not be some kind maze for the air to flow through to transfer heat to the outside of the stove?

There is also no TV in our house. The addition of any fan would be unwelcome noise.

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When the cat is the only part of the stove glowing orange (besides any firebrick), it's the hottest part of the stove. But, the cat isn't that big. Blaze King's are designed to burn long, using the cat as the efficient heater from the smoke. It's quite fascinating to see our cat temperature almost pegged but the stove turned down to 1 or 1-1/2, and not seeing any smoke at all coming out of the chimney. That hot cat is only heating a small portion of the stove on top. It sounds like your cat is doing its job, but If there isn't a fan to move any air across that area the process isn't quite complete and I wouldn't expect much heat into the room.

The air is traveling so slow at that point that if there was a maze in the stove after the cat you would end up losing most of your draft.

I'm basing my opinion on our Princess insert and I'm not the sharpest pencil on this forum, someone else might want to chime in if I'm off-base on this.

Zanimal, you have done a good job of documenting the temp inside the room, outside, and you have said at one point that you had a stove top temp of somewhere around 600, but I haven't seen any indication of what your cat probe has been reading when you close the bypass or start to turn it down other than just into the active zone. It may not have any numbers on it, so when we talk about the readings we sometimes use a clock position, or where it is in relation to the active/inactive line. Have you ever had the cat probe read anywhere beyond the active line for any period of time? If you have not, let it climb a bit higher before lowering the air control. The cat probe should also climb higher when you close the bypass, yet have the air open, is it doing that?

Zanimal,
Are sure you don't have the central air turned on?
Seriously though do you even have insulation?
Something is wrong...those temps are ridiculously low.

Zanimal, one more thing to think about on the fan. When we built our house we brought over our old earth stove, a radiant stove, and when running hot enough to get any heat upstairs, it was too hot for the space it was in, much like you are doing now with your stove in the basement. When I brought in the Royal Heir, it is a convection stove, and it makes the current space much more tolerable, yet it does require a fan to do a good job. If you are used to that radiant heat that your old stove put out, that fan may make more difference than you think. I don't think this is the total answer to your stove problems, but may be a portion. Get a slow moving fan behind that stove, or go ahead and get the fan, and put a speed controller on it, to slow it down to a tolerable level.

When you begin to reduce the air to the stove, does the wood have a pretty good char on it?

rdust said:

If you need/want heat without a fan I'd look towards a radiant designed stove.

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I thought that was what I was getting. Looks like a hunk o iron and weighs half an elephant.

daleeper said:

The cat probe should also climb higher when you close the bypass, yet have the air open, is it doing that?

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Yes it does do this. It climbs until just over about 3/4 way through the active zone and then starts to slowly decline.
It is advertised to put out consistent heat for 10 hours on high and my cat probe will read about 1/3 way through the active zone after only 3 hours.

I have never seen the cat probe exceed the active zone. I was told not to fill the stove with small pieces which I think would be required to do this.

daleeper said:

When you begin to reduce the air to the stove, does the wood have a pretty good char on it?

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There is some char yes. It does appear to be scalding hot in the stove. Even if I throw in a big piece it will ignite almost instantly.

Why is the stove so heavy if it is not designed for radiant heating? And why is the fan even optional?
The old Jotul F118 that was in this room before the Ashford was light in comparison.

Zanimal said:

I thought that was what I was getting. Looks like a hunk o iron and weighs half an elephant.


Yes it does do this. It climbs until just over about 3/4 way through the active zone and then starts to slowly decline.
It is advertised to put out consistent heat for 10 hours on high and my cat probe will read about 1/3 way through the active zone after only 3 hours.



There is some char yes. It does appear to be scalding hot in the stove. Even if I throw in a big piece it will ignite almost instantly.

Why is the stove so heavy if it is not designed for radiant heating? And why is the fan even optional?
The old Jotul F118 that was in this room before the Ashford was light in comparison.

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That part doesn't seem right at all.
Probably has already been asked but are you sure the by-pass is closing good?
When my stove is on low with a night load my probe will be pegged for a good 2-3 hours it seems..then maybe another 4 hours before it even thinks about being at less then half on the gauge.

HotCoals said:

When my stove is on low

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Never had the stove on low.
I do shove the bypass lever into the locked position and there is never any smoke coming out of the chimney when it is closed.

This is just about as high as it gets.
The highest stove temp I have seen is just under 650 for a short period of time. But it has been said that is not a good indicator of how the stove is functioning.

Zanimal said:

Never had the stove on low.
I do shove the bypass lever into the locked position and there is never any smoke coming out of the chimney when it is closed.

This is just about as high as it gets.
The highest stove temp I have seen is just under 650 for a short period of time. But it has been said that is not a good indicator of how the stove is functioning.

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Well 650 stove top is decent must have felt the heat then.
I don't know your stove and few do at this point. But from what I gather it's like a princess with a cast shell?
I just reread some of your post in this thread and I'm at a loss.
Something is wrong. I'm sorta of thinking you have a bad cat or something in that stove is just not right.
Sorry I'm no help.

Well what you are telling me about it working as a convection stove has me excited, as that is what I want for my space, but that may not be doing you any good. Before the Ashford came along, the King was on my dream list, now it looks like the Ashford has a future on my hearth.

I would get that fan ordered. And go ahead and get some form of speed controller for it. There are some on the market specifically for these, but I just use a router speed controller. I either bought it off ebay, or harbor freight. I don't run my fan all the time, but when it is cold out, it comes on, but not very fast, in fact too fast and it cools the stove off too much.

Looks like your cat probe temp is high enough, at least at the time of the photo. Mine likes to cruze at about the same point that yours does, about 1/3 of the active zone, or a little lower. It seems like I really have to push it to stay up there in the 3/4 range.

Zanimal said:

Yes it does do this. It climbs until just over about 3/4 way through the active zone and then starts to slowly decline.
It is advertised to put out consistent heat for 10 hours on high and my cat probe will read about 1/3 way through the active zone after only 3 hours.

I have never seen the cat probe exceed the active zone. I was told not to fill the stove with small pieces which I think would be required to do this.



There is some char yes. It does appear to be scalding hot in the stove. Even if I throw in a big piece it will ignite almost instantly.

Why is the stove so heavy if it is not designed for radiant heating? And why is the fan even optional?
The old Jotul F118 that was in this room before the Ashford was light in comparison.

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Should have done this before the last post.

When the cat probe starts to slowly decline down to the 1/3 of the active zone, is the air still set on high?

You don't want the cat probe to move beyond the active area for very long if at all. That would be an overfiring condition, and could cause problems with metal warping or weakening from being too hot.

The stove is heavy because it has cast iron over the top of a steel firebox. The issue for you is that there is an air gap between the two, causing it to function as a convection stove. If that cast iron were directly laying against the steel, I'm guessing it would function more like a radiant stove.

rdust said:

I can't heat my house if it's colder than 25-30 very well without the fan running.(I always run them on or near low) The stove room will get toasty but the rest of the house suffers. If you need/want heat without a fan I'd look towards a radiant designed stove. The WS stoves are great radiant type heaters. I have a closed up floor plan so I wanted a stove with a more of a convection design.

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It's cold out! I've been running the blower when it gets close to 0*
This year I've been running the stove at lower temps, and letting the furnace kick on to circulate air into the basement and back bedrooms.

Zanimal said:

Never had the stove on low.
I do shove the bypass lever into the locked position and there is never any smoke coming out of the chimney when it is closed.

This is just about as high as it gets.
The highest stove temp I have seen is just under 650 for a short period of time. But it has been said that is not a good indicator of how the stove is functioning.

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Could you take the cast top off for a load and see the true STT? I saw in one of your previous post that you have a steal cat. Maybe try to get the dealer to give you a ceramic one??

Dieselhead said:

what should one expect to pay for a King ultra, black door, Cat model?

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sasquatch said:

Is that pretty close to what they useually run ?

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I paid 3169 for king ultra about 330 for blowers three months ago

Quentin2 said:

I paid 3169 for king ultra about 330 for blowers three months ago

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Not to be nosey but how many sq.ft. you heating and have you been happy with it ?

Zanimal said:

Never had the stove on low.
I do shove the bypass lever into the locked position and there is never any smoke coming out of the chimney when it is closed.

This is just about as high as it gets.
The highest stove temp I have seen is just under 650 for a short period of time. But it has been said that is not a good indicator of how the stove is functioning.

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that is hotter than i have gotten my ashford. way hotter. you are way ahead of me. consider yourself lucky!

i disagree with highbeam, the cat temp IS a very important indicator of how the stove is running. the stove is designed to have a "hot spot" over the cat which the blowers remove heat from and into your room. you need the blower kit. the hotter the cat gets, the more gases its burning. thats a good thing.

i can get mine pretty hot, but not seeing the burn times i bought it for yet. still fiddling with it. learning. of course, i want it to be perfect after i spent over 3k and its 5 deg outside.