2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

Ok guys, is this normal?

First time running the stove all day yesterday. With draft set at 1.5 and stove top temps ranging from 375 to 450. Blower running on low and cat thermometer staying somewhere in the first half of the active zone.

While outside, was monitoring the stack and noticed it ranged from no smoke to whispes of smoke to a steady lite smoke.

Yeah, kinda normal; depending on the wood moisture level. At about 20-23% I have the same. *Just be sure to run your stove on high about once per day for perhaps an hour to keep it cleaned out, then slowly back it down every 10 minutes or so in small increments to your desired setting. With my 8% wood, I'll see a wisp every once in a long-while; mostly CO2 and even then, I still use the *procedures noted above. It's more evident with me tho when it's cold enough to see your breath

Well the stove is not 100% emissions free even in cruise.

Dieselhead said:

What's your guys procedure for a hot reload? I'm talking cat active, about half a Bellys worth of wood left but say going away for a day or so and want to get it full again.

I read opening the door on a hot cat isn't great for it. Do you open the bypass and let it cool down then open to reload?

Then I imagine leave the bypass open and the air open and let the new wood get going and the cat back up to temp then shut everything back down?

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That's pretty much what I gleaned from the manual, what my local dealer suggests and what I do. Besides possibly thermal shocking the combustor, opening the loading door with the cat engaged pretty much assures a room full of smoke in 0.62 seconds. You won't do that twice, ask me how I know ;-)

Same timing after work, but in the AM I flip the lever to bypass and turn the thermostat up to 3. Go feed the house cat while the remaining coals light back up.

Crack door, wait. Open door slowly, etc, just letting the flue gasses get moving so I don't get a bunch of smoke in the house. Once I got the door open i kinda wrangle my chunks around with the poker like implement that came with the stove.

I don't have a bunch of free time in the AM, so I kinda try to have a line of hot coals running across the front of the floor just inside the door- quickest way I have found to get the cat back into active. Once I have enough coals along the front edge to assure a pretty quick warm up I load mine front to back. I know the book says side to side and it works OK side to side, but I don't like having splits roll off the top of the burning pile into the window glass while I am not home.

Fill it up to the brim. I put the door handle in the closed position with the door open, and then I close the door to where the latch hook meets the latch eye so the door is just barely cracked open while the new load is getting lit up.

While I am waiting for the flue to come up to temp with the door cracked I throw some clothes on, move the water that just came out of the distiller into the humidifier, refill the distiller with tap water and get both of those moving again.

Once I have lit wood and a hot flue, close the door, leave the thermostat on three and wait for the cat to get active....Once everything is hot enough I engage the cat, leave the thermostat on three and go to work. My wife gets up about an hour later to a pretty warm house and turns the thermostat down to some other lower number before she leaves for her work.

In the afternoon, repeat. I tend to bring wood up from the garage to the stove once a day. I come home from work to an empty fireside wood box, put the first load from the garage into the firebox and then make a second trip while I am waiting for the flue to heat up. Deal with the humidifier and distiller, I am done for another twelve hours.

Poindexter said:

That's pretty much what I gleaned from the manual, what my local dealer suggests and what I do. Besides possibly thermal shocking the combustor, opening the loading door with the cat engaged pretty much assures a room full of smoke in 0.62 seconds. You won't do that twice, ask me how I know ;-)

Same timing after work, but in the AM I flip the lever to bypass and turn the thermostat up to 3. Go feed the house cat while the remaining coals light back up.

Crack door, wait. Open door slowly, etc, just letting the flue gasses get moving so I don't get a bunch of smoke in the house. Once I got the door open i kinda wrangle my chunks around with the poker like implement that came with the stove.

I don't have a bunch of free time in the AM, so I kinda try to have a line of hot coals running across the front of the floor just inside the door- quickest way I have found to get the cat back into active. Once I have enough coals along the front edge to assure a pretty quick warm up I load mine front to back. I know the book says side to side and it works OK side to side, but I don't like having splits roll off the top of the burning pile into the window glass while I am not home.

Fill it up to the brim. I put the door handle in the closed position with the door open, and then I close the door to where the latch hook meets the latch eye so the door is just barely cracked open while the new load is getting lit up.

While I am waiting for the flue to come up to temp with the door cracked I throw some clothes on, move the water that just came out of the distiller into the humidifier, refill the distiller with tap water and get both of those moving again.

Once I have lit wood and a hot flue, close the door, leave the thermostat on three and wait for the cat to get active....Once everything is hot enough I engage the cat, leave the thermostat on three and go to work. My wife gets up about an hour later to a pretty warm house and turns the thermostat down to some other lower number before she leaves for her work.

In the afternoon, repeat. I tend to bring wood up from the garage to the stove once a day. I come home from work to an empty fireside wood box, put the first load from the garage into the firebox and then make a second trip while I am waiting for the flue to heat up. Deal with the humidifier and distiller, I am done for another twelve hours.

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Man I cannot get my head around leaving the stove on 3 for a whole hour.

Once I get it active I turn it down. Then the heat starts to roll. When I left the Thermo up higher it just blew the heat up the flue, Cat not lit up, burning the wood instead of cooking it.

Even with the warm ambient, draft robbing weather I couldn't leave it up there. I would be afraid of an 'Over fire' situation.

Rossco said:

Man I cannot get my head around leaving the stove on 3 for a whole hour.

Once I get it active I turn it down. Then the heat starts to roll. When I left the Thermo up higher it just blew the heat up the flue, Cat not lit up, burning the wood instead of cooking it.

Even with the warm ambient, draft robbing weather I couldn't leave it up there. I would be afraid of an 'Over fire' situation.

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Yeah, I never could burn my Princess that high either, it was usually at the first or second dot (insert has 8 or so dots).

24 hour loads on a cold stove and 36 on a warm stove for this time of year. This will change to 24 hour loads in a month and 12 hour loads in January and Feb.

aansorge said:

24 hour loads on a cold stove and 36 on a warm stove for this time of year. This will change to 24 hour loads in a month and 12 hour loads in January and Feb.

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aansorge what stove do you have .? Also how hot is your stove during Jan/ Feb.?

My stove is a King. I don't have a pyrometer for my stove but it is working to heat a rather leaky large house in Minnesota. I use my other stove (in my signature) on the really cold days to fully heat my home with ease. 3000 sq ft.

Rossco said:

Man I cannot get my head around leaving the stove on 3 for a whole hour.

Once I get it active I turn it down. Then the heat starts to roll. When I left the Thermo up higher it just blew the heat up the flue, Cat not lit up, burning the wood instead of cooking it.

Even with the warm ambient, draft robbing weather I couldn't leave it up there. I would be afraid of an 'Over fire' situation.

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I am about to find out. I last loaded the stove at 5PM yesterday. Took the wife to the airport this morning early, she is in Arizona visiting one of the kids for a week. Good time to let the stove burn out and get cold. I have run about two face cords of 16" splits through it since late August when I cleaned the flue last. I wanted to get out to a full cord before I cleaned the chimney, but opportunity is knocking.

So I loaded the stove last night at 5PM. I maintained an interior temp of 80-85dF for 23 hours and 36 minutes, at 4:36PM today my interior temp dropped from 80 to 79 dF. At 5PM today I had enough coals left in the ash bed to get the stove going again without needing a match, so my first (almost) 24 hour burn. Yay! My overnight low last night was about +24dF, daytime high was +34dF, stove pretty much cruised with the thermostat set at 1.5. In all fairness, knowing I was about to clean the flue and shovel out the ashes I did open it up a couple or three times to re-arrange the charcoal chunks for complete combustion.

Once the stove burns out and cools off I'll brush the chimney to see what I get. I also want to let the oil furnace burn for a couple days, I got hot water baseboard primary heat and some of that water hasn't moved in six weeks or so.

I do have a magnetic thermometer on my double wall stack. General consensus is the actual temp of my flue gasses is "about" double that shown on my magnetic thermometer. But I do know how hot I had to keep the flue last year to get grey powder instead of shiny black sheets out of the flue, I was looking for "350dF" indicated as kind of a minimum sort of average number to find grey powder in the chimney sweepings last year.

Last year's stove for me was an Ovation Country Flame 2600, 2.6cf firebox, epa cert non cat. This year I am running a BK Ashford 30. When I refill the BK I run it with the door cracked until I see "400dF" indicated on my stack thermometer. That's the point I close the door and let the cat finish getting hot before switching from bypass to engaged. In general I see my indicated stack temp drop from 400 indicated to 325ish or so while the cat finishes heating up, this with the thermostat on 3 and the door closed, in bypass.

Freshly engaged, full load with the thermostat on 3 I commonly see the combustor probe 2/3 up from just barely active toward getting overfired, but my indicated stack temps are down in the 300-350 range. Hours later with the thermostat having been on 1.0 to 1.5 I commonly observe the combustor probe perhaps half a finger width or one finger width up into active, with an indicated stack temp around 200dF.

Based on my experience with a different stove I am seeing uncomfortably low stack temps with my BK. OTOH if my combustor is doing it's job I may be pleasantly surprised when I brush out the chimney. I don't recall if it was my local dealer or the BK manual that said to run the thing wide open for an hour or so with every fill up; I have been doing it but didn't think it up myself.

I want to look around the bypass door with a good flashlight while the stove is cold to see if I have any crud accumulated there. So not Monday night, and I am on call Tuesday night, so probably Wednesday after work I'll open it up and brush it out.

From my experience, the BK will generate more creosote (by far) than a non-cat. I got zero creosote from my non-cat after 6 months of burning. I got about a gallon of creosote in the chimney of my Blaze King. I'm sure the blaze king does a great job on emissions, but with the low stack temps the stuff just plates out on the chimney.

Ah well good for you. I just lit mine off for the night and ran it on 3 for a while. Dam I couldn't just leave it like that and go to work. Although you have experience with YOUR set up and have confidence in it. I respect that for sure.

I like to get the cat lit off. Once it's off then am sure the output is fairly clean.

The creosote build up in the flue will drain back into the stove. Although I had a little leakage I think that was operator error more than anything else. The residual build up has sealed the flue I guess. Iam averaging 70-100C on the outside of the DWP, so it must be pretty warm inside. I will check the SS chimney next week.

I have it roaring at 1.5, must be a good flue / chimney set up, when its -20C I will have to run it virtually off.

EDIT: Dam am bored. Wife's watching back to back 'Coronation Street'

So anyhow, she's been on for a few hours. Set @ 1.5



Stove pipe temps. DWP. 80C



About 300C ontop.

Rossco I am in a 30 year old house and I am one of the few people on the planet that lives further north than you do ;-) I read your posts very carefully because you are closer to my climate than just about anyone else here. I have been doing a bunch of maintenance and upkeep on the house since I moved in three years ago; I am closing in on the tipping point to needing either an OAK or a HRV, but I am not quite there yet.

Installing an HRV in two story existing construction with over a meter of blown in cellulose in the attic space is not economical. I could add rigid foam to the exterior, but to do that right I should put a vapor barrier layer on the existing wood siding and then put 8-9" of rigid foam on the outside of the house, with a new layer of weather proof siding on it. So there is $100k just in materials on a $250-300k house, and I would need to take down all the drywall on the exterior walls, take down the existing vapor barrier between the studs and old drywall and then put up new drywall, just not cost effective. If I thought my kids would bequeath this house to my grandkids and the grandkids would raise their children in this house, yup, I might do it.

In the meantime I put up with the air leaks, keep mold at bay, and burn a little bit more wood.

The other thing is my wife likes it "hot". When I leave the house at 0600 with the cat engaged and the thermostat on three I know perfectly well the house is heating right up. I figure somewhere around 0645-0700 she pushes the blanket off the bed onto the floor and keeps sleeping under the sheet. Around 0715 or so the sheet ends up in a wad over on my side of the bed and when her alarm goes off at 0730 she is ready to get up just to turn the stove down. Works for us, happy wife = happy life.

I think I read in the manual to leave the stove on 3 for about 20 minutes after getting the fire established and cat active. This must depend on your set up because in my very limited experience (5 cold starts or reloads) about 10 minutes on high after engaging the cat I have some serious flames, 600 degree stove top, cat is well up in the active zone and I get a strong gut feeling that it's a couple minutes past time to start stepping it down.

Got to say though, it seems to be a very controlable and well behaved stove. So far, it has done what I told it to do.

Poindexter said:

I do have a magnetic thermometer on my double wall stack. General consensus is the actual temp of my flue gasses is "about" double that shown on my magnetic thermometer. Last year's stove for me was an Ovation Country Flame 2600, 2.6cf firebox, epa cert non cat. This year I am running a BK Ashford 30. Based on my experience with a different stove I am seeing uncomfortably low stack temps with my BK. OTOH if my combustor is doing it's job I may be pleasantly surprised when I brush out the chimney. I don't recall if it was my local dealer or the BK manual that said to run the thing wide open for an hour or so with every fill up; I have been doing it but didn't think it up myself.
I want to look around the bypass door with a good flashlight while the stove is cold to see if I have any crud accumulated there. So not Monday night, and I am on call Tuesday night, so probably Wednesday after work I'll open it up and brush it out.

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Whoa, I know you keep your home exceptionally hot in an exceptionally cold climate. I'll keep that in mind.

The outer temps of double wall pipe are absolutely not half of the internal temps. That is for single wall pipe. The only way to measure internal temps on a double wall pipe is with a probe meter. I have one from condar and I recommend them to anyone with double wall.

You don't use flue temps as a signal on when to engage the cat on a BK. They provided you with a cat meter for a reason, use that meter as your gauge for when to engage. As soon as it goes past the active line you are ready to flop the bypass.

Your non-cat sent tons of hot exhaust up the flue, that's how they burn clean. The non-cats burn hot, flood the flue and stove with oxygen, and heat to keep emissions low. The experiences you had with that stove are not going to relate to the BK that burns clean by actually burning up most what would be emissions right in the stove at even low burns. You will just about always have lower flue temps with a cat stove.

Rossco said:

The creosote build up in the flue will drain back into the stove. Although I had a little leakage I think that was operator error more than anything else. The residual build up has sealed the flue I guess. Iam averaging 70-100C on the outside of the DWP, so it must be pretty warm inside. I will check the SS chimney next week.

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So there are a few forms of creosote and then there is water. None of the forms of creosote will easily run back into the stove but the water that may condense in your cold chimney can run back down the flue and take with it (wash) some of the creo down. Your photos looked very thin and dried up like dirty water. We talk about brushing creosote because it is usually black or brown crunchy stuff. The BKs, in my experience, make much more black crunchy creosote than the non-cats but not so much that you need to sweep during the season. I have a 9 month burning season and only sweep once per year.

You cold climate guys certainly have some special conditions though and I recognize that things like -40F outside air might do odd things to creo accumulations.

tarzan said:

Ok guys, is this normal?

First time running the stove all day yesterday. With draft set at 1.5 and stove top temps ranging from 375 to 450. Blower running on low and cat thermometer staying somewhere in the first half of the active zone.

While outside, was monitoring the stack and noticed it ranged from no smoke to whispes of smoke to a steady lite smoke.

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Absolutely. In warmer outdoor temps my chimney is always switching from clear to light blue based on aliens. Light and nearly transparent but a blue emission for sure. When it is bitter cold, the moisture in the exhaust will also form more steam. The cool thing about the steam is that it forms some distance, like a foot or two, after the exhaust leaves the hot chimney. The steam will then disappear another 10 feet or so of travel. It's like a temporary smoke.

tigger said:

Deep thoughts

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“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” Jack Handey

Poindexter said:

over a meter of blown in cellulose in the attic space

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tarzan said:

avoid Brother Bart finding out I had gotten a cat! But I can see he's been peepin round the corner.

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Oh, he's toyed with the idea from time to time.

R'Lee said:

*Just be sure to run your stove on high about once per day for perhaps an hour to keep it cleaned out, then slowly back it down every 10 minutes or so in small increments to your desired setting.

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Manual says that? That's something I recall hearing back in the day of the old smoke-blower stoves, but not in any recent manual I've read. I could be wrong. Maybe not for an hour, but doesn't that happen anyway for a time when burning in a new load? I have an exterior chimney (milder climate) and only get flaky stuff in the top few feet of the liner, where the masonry chimney has all four sides exposed. Below that, it's just powder. There will be some creo flakes that build up in the firebox, so I'll knock those off once in a while...

Poindexter: I ain't knocking your set up, for sure not. Do wat ya godda do I guess. I too live in a slightly drafty house, but this is a good thing. Let the air recycle.

Shall be a good season, comparing stove operations during the dead of winter. You have an Ashford?

High beam: your post some what puts my mind at ease, I will check the 18' of SS chimney sooner rarther than later, I was gonna look today but the magic box is still running and throwing the heat out.

I have noticed how dirty the firebox can get, some flaky crap on the back wall, I knock it off if the stove is cool, it does burn off on high thou.

Rossco said:

Poindexter: I ain't knocking your set up, for sure not. Do wat ya godda do I guess. I too live in a slightly drafty house, but this is a good thing. Let the air recycle.

Shall be a good season, comparing stove operations during the dead of winter. You have an Ashford?

High beam: your post some what puts my mind at ease, I will check the 18' of SS chimney sooner rarther than later, I was gonna look today but the magic box is still running and throwing the heat out.

I have noticed how dirty the firebox can get, some flaky crap on the back wall, I knock it off if the stove is cool, it does burn off on high thou.

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I have 12' of 2 wall chimney wondering if another 3' would make my Princess burn hotter and more efficient .?

Hi all, I just ordered the BK princess parlor, all black. I plan on installing it in the basement. I have a weird setup. I can go through the cinder block wall then standoff the chimney about 14" away from the house due to a small soffit (can't go through due to new gutters) or I can go straight up through the first floor and then through the attic and out the roof (which I'm leaning towards) I'll install the stove, install the ceiling support box then get a length of double wall pipe and a length of double wall slider pipe. On the first floor which is a small dinning room i'll switch to triple wall all fuel (dura vent plus) go up though the ceiling using a fire stop collar that gets nailed to the rafters, from there another couple lengths of pipe with an attic insulation shield, pop on the roof flashing cone and terminate with a cap. I'll probably need a full length of pipe plus a one foot section to get the right height on the roof. I'm thinking I wont need to add the chimney support bars (but that could change) all in all from stove collar to chimney cap I should be about 22 to 24 feet. The stove should arrive at the dealers shop in three weeks. I have off thanksgiving week so I have a little project on my hands. I cant wait!! Also I will start a thread that will be pic heavy.

Rich2343 said:

I have 12' of 2 wall chimney wondering if another 3' would make my Princess burn hotter and more efficient .?

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Cannot answer that fella (Some here could) All I can do is compare. I have::

DWP : 3' - 45 - 12" - 45 - 2' Thimble

EXCEL : 18' Straight up (I think it's 18')

Good luck Kenny

Last night was the first firing of our new BK Princess. <:3~

becasunshine said:

Last night was the first firing of our new BK Princess. <:3~View attachment 141812

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You likey?

HotCoals said:

You likey?

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Why yes I do! But our hardwired, SUPER-LOUD, hyper-vigilant SMOKE ALARMS were not fond of the burn off period. When the owner's manual suggests
that you open a window, THEY REALLY MEAN IT. ALSO, TURN ON AN EXHAUST FAN. OR FIVE. I had to disconnect every alarm even though I had all the windows opened, the doors opened, and every fan I own positioned or turned on to exhaust the house. OMG.

But perhaps not everyone's fire alarms have the same degree of neurosis that our fire alarms have. I did take the one that's almost directly over the stove down. I can't see much good coming out of having that particular neurotic fire alarm hanging right over the stove- although if I am wrong, I welcome instruction. There are six other fire alarms throughout the house, including alarms in each bedroom and in the hallway.

I forgive my neurotic fire alarms. They mean well. They do their jobs remarkably well and I appreciate that. In fact I rely on it.