2013-2014 Blaze King Performance Thread(everything BK)

drastic said:

Hi all. Id like to ask you as BK owners a question, maybe two. I have been thinking about the princess ultra I live near Tracy, CA so it mild here. my house is just over 2100sqft I have a thread started about the specs. of my house in another area. Would i be crazy to install this stove? Any thoughts from owners would be great -pms or posting in the other thread i started (so my dumb questions do not over take this thread) would be welcome thank you in advance to those owners willing to share their input and expirences with me. Oh i guess I should point out that this would be my first wood stove

Click to expand...

You would prolly be fine with the princess...King would be overkill is my thought.
Do you know the heating degree days from last year?
Maybe you could tell us what you heat with and how much it may cost for a year?
The King is great heater but you will be dealing with a somewhat black glass on low burn.
Woodstock sells some nice soapstone stoves that seem to be able to keep the glass cleaner that might work and look nicer in your environment...just a thought.

drastic said:

Hi all. Id like to ask you as BK owners a question, maybe two. I have been thinking about the princess ultra I live near Tracy, CA so it mild here. my house is just over 2100sqft I have a thread started about the specs. of my house in another area. Would i be crazy to install this stove? Any thoughts from owners would be great -pms or posting in the other thread i started (so my dumb questions do not over take this thread) would be welcome thank you in advance to those owners willing to share their input and expirences with me. Oh i guess I should point out that this would be my first wood stove

Click to expand...

I have a princess ultra in a relatively moderate climate heating 1700 SF of 1963 built rambler. Are you worried that the stove will be too big or too small? What is your question?

I am worried that it will be too big. I am currently all electric and my bill month before last was over 600 that is staying at 65F-68F I do not think i have ever seen it below 20F where i live I wish to move away from that and go all wood for heat.

drastic said:

I am worried that it will be too big. I am currently all electric and my bill month before last was over 600 that is staying at 65F-68F I do not think i have ever seen it below 20F where i live I wish to move away from that and go all wood for heat.

Click to expand...

The princess will not be too big. I burn for 100% of my heat, even when it is 50 degrees, and never open the windows.

drastic said:

I am worried that it will be too big. I am currently all electric and my bill month before last was over 600 that is staying at 65F-68F I do not think i have ever seen it below 20F where i live I wish to move away from that and go all wood for heat.

Click to expand...

Princess would be fine.
I'm surprised your e bill was that high figuring where you live...colder then i thought there i guess.

drastic said:

I am worried that it will be too big. I am currently all electric and my bill month before last was over 600 that is staying at 65F-68F I do not think i have ever seen it below 20F where i live I wish to move away from that and go all wood for heat.

Click to expand...

I posted in your other thread, I should have mentioned the Princess would be a perfect size for you, like these guys said, the King would be overkill, if you need some heat in a cold snap you could turn it up and get more heat but most of the time you could run it low and slow.

weatherguy said:

It won't stall on you, the draft is the engine, a weak engine will stall, you need the power then you can find your sweet spot setting and let it idle.

Click to expand...

Bigger engines do not typically get better fuel economy.
The best I can do is about 10 hours of heat output on a thermostat setting of around 2 out of my max of 3.
Even then there is no "consistent heat output". Stove gets hot slowly then cools down slowly as it runs out of fuel.

Zanimal said:

Bigger engines do not typically get better fuel economy.
The best I can do is about 10 hours of heat output on a thermostat setting of around 2 out of my max of 3.
Even then there is no "consistent heat output". Stove gets hot slowly then cools down slowly as it runs out of fuel.

Click to expand...

When you say heat output ends after 10 hours surely you mean the stove cools to a lower temperature but is it cold? I will agree that the first phase of the burn, maybe 10 hours, is hotter than the rest. There is a cycle but it is a much longer cycle than a non-cat or smoke dragon would make.

Might we be facing an expectation problem?

Highbeam said:

Might we be facing an expectation problem?

Click to expand...

That could be true.

Highbeam said:

hen you say heat output ends after 10 hours

Click to expand...

*Edit: Sorry. Looked at the graph wrong and the given info was not representative and there was also supplemental heat during that time.

Blaze King states
Constant Heat output on High36,269 BTU's/h for 10 hours33,582 BTU's/h for 10 hours
Constant Heat output on Low12,090 BTU's/h for up to 30 hours11,194 BTU's/h for up to 30 hours

That is with my thermostat on 2 1/4.
I was told thermostat setting of 1 is low and 3 is high. I do not see why I should accept such a short period of consistent heat output when I threw down the cash for what the stove was advertised to do.

Others are getting more than twice mine on equivalent settings

Just adding to the list - at the end of the burn you just described, how much wood was left in the firebox? I have been researching the Ashford / Sirocco / Chinook 30 boxes to death over the last couple weeks, and happened to notice some threads with problems with steel cats having the issues you describe. FWIW, I don't have a BK (yet), however from what I have read the Ashford / Sirocco / Chinook models all come with steel cats vs the ceramic ones in the Princess and King (again, I am not 100% positive of that). Maybe you have a steel cat that is defective that is contributing to the reduced / erratic burn times?

Edit: Also, maybe I missed it, but when you say "loaded the stove", are filling it to the roof or just putting in 3 / 4 splits at a time?

Highbeam said:

Dog hair = those pecker poles somebody sold you

Click to expand...

blueguy said:

Just adding to the list - at the end of the burn you just described, how much wood was left in the firebox?

Click to expand...

No wood left. Two or three coal chunks and ash.
I pack the stove as full as possible.

rdust said:

What is the temp on the front of the stove at that point?(sides of the door and above the door) The top doesn't seem to be a good indicator due to the cast iron top.

Click to expand...

I do not know. All I have is a stove top thermometer.
The areas you ask about are not flat and are also cast iron.

blueguy said:

... come with steel cats vs the ceramic ones in the Princess and King ...

Click to expand...

Can't believe I don't know this, but how does one tell the difference ? And what are the pros and cons ?

Zanimal said:

Yesterday at 2 pm I loaded the stove and the temperature started to increase. 8.5 hours into burn at 10:30 pm the room peaked in temperature, a 6 degree increase in room temperature. 14.5 hours after start of burn at 4:30 am the room temperature was equivalent to the temperature in the room at 2 pm the previous day.

Click to expand...

So what you're saying is that the stove is maintaining your house temperature in February on one load per 14.5 hours. For comparison, I am currently on a 12 hour cycle and fully loading my stove every 12 hours to maintain the constant house temp. Dude, what's the problem?

I know you have no way to measure stove temp but room temp is of little value when we're trying to figure out if the stove is hot.

RustyShackleford said:

Can't believe I don't know this, but how does one tell the difference ? And what are the pros and cons ?

Click to expand...

This is my ceramic. It is a prefect grid of squares. A steelcat is a coil of bumpy foil.

rdust said:

Last night after work I had to deal with snow so the stove didn't get loaded until 10ish. That was around a 15 hour load, the stove had plenty of coals for a relight but the house was cooling fast with a single digit OAT. When I got home from work at 7 which was about 12 hours into the load the family room was 78*, when I loaded 3 hours later it was 71*. Anything over 12 hours and the IAT will start to dip, I'm completely satisfied with this type of performance.

Click to expand...

We've been in a cold snap here.
9 degrees this morning....Hasn't reached freezing for a couple of days. Getting 14 To 15 hour burns. Holding house temps between 70 and 73....Started losing temp also last night when it went into the single digits outside....Had to turn up the blower a bit and the Stat to regain a little........Impressed with what this Ashford can do.

Highbeam said:

This is my ceramic. It is a prefect grid of squares. A steelcat is a coil of bumpy foil.

Click to expand...

Thanks. The one in my Princess is steel. The one in my old Dutchwest was ceramic. Very noticeable difference (in appearance, at least). What are the pros and cons ? Kinda odd, since you (and at least one poster above) seem to say that their Princess came with a ceramic one.

Brag time!
-13 last night. -30 windchill. I loaded the "princess of fire" yesterday at 7am with a full load of 2 year Hedge. I burned it in then set it on 1.5 to cruise. As of 7am this morning the stove still has a few pieces of wood and a nice bed of coals! although, the room temp did fall as low as 68 by reload. stick that in your reburn tube and smoke it. These stoves are the cat's PJ's.

Zanimal said:

I do not know. All I have is a stove top thermometer.
The areas you ask about are not flat and are also cast iron.

Click to expand...

Have you tried running a load through the stove without the cast top on to check the actual stovetop temps?

On another note, I pulled the trigger on a Sirocco 30 to replace my Napoleon 1450. The nearest dealer is ~2 hours away, so it's being drop shipped to my house from the distributor in Quebec. It should be here Monday :D

blueguy said:

On another note, I pulled the trigger on a Sirocco 30 to replace my Napoleon 1450. The nearest dealer is ~2 hours away, so it's being drop shipped to my house from the distributor in Quebec. It should be here Monday :D

Click to expand...

Congrats dude