2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

Thanks for the comments. We burn red fir, white fir, pine and tamarack. No oak. The T6 doesn't have any issues keeping my house warm, it's a great stove. Sounds like Id probably go through the same amount of wood with a BK the heat would just be distributed differently. I watched a video on you tube for a BK demo and the guy put his hand through the cut away of a flew after shutting the bypass. Are the flue temps really that low or was it was it a joke?

jeff_t said:

I guess it would be interesting to know some more info.

I'm guessing a lower density softwood is being burned. Ten to eleven hours shouldn't be a problem for a T6 with good hardwood. Is the Quad still being used, or is the PE doing all the work?

In this situation, I'd be looking at a bigger stove, or a second stove.

There ain't no magic in a Blaze King. It evens out the early part of the burn cycle, with a lower peak in stove temps, and stretches that peak out for a proportionally longer time. After the offgassing is over, you are still left with a pile of coals.

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I should have mentioned that the Quad Yosemite is in our cabin and not in our house. The T6 does all the work in our house.

The t6 is a dang nice stove for a noncat. The bk does offer one thing that the t6 can't, that is the ability to burn low and slow. If, this is an important if, you can sufficiently heat your home on the lower settings then the bk will allow superior heating but not save much wood.

Red fir is not a real tree, you probably mean Douglas fir and six cords is a lot but not unheard of in a needy house in Spokane.

W

BKVP said:

If I were you I would get a real hot fire and have it burn out those deposits. We recommend at least one real hot fire for an hour each week. Doing so will keep that acidic creosote from eating away at your stove parts.

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what stove temp do you consider to be hot.?

Ok, so i pretty much have read this whole thread. Dont know if I missed this but what are you guys doing to clean out the ashes on a ultra? Theirs the little black plug per say between the firebricks, so are cleaning the ahses out with some coals inside just to keep the stove hot? Are doing it with a cold stove? Do you leave the plug inserted all the time and pull it out just to clean the ash? Need to clean the ashes out soon and was hoping i can leave the stove hot while cleaning it..

I clean my Sirocco with the stove hot between reloads when needed. Just leave the coals to light the next load.

I used my ash pan once. It's okay, I suppose.

I'd rather shovel.

mfetcho said:

I watched a video on you tube for a BK demo and the guy put his hand through the cut away of a flew after shutting the bypass. Are the flue temps really that low or was it was it a joke?

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That's no joke. I have done it myself at a dealer that had one of those flue demos.

I clean mine out once a week or so, I never let the fire go out. I just move the big coals to the side and rake the ashes down the hole. Make sure to put the plug back when your done. I can't imagine having a nice Ashpan system and not using it. Their design is so much nicer than others I've used.

daleeper said:

That's no joke. I have done it myself at a dealer that had one of those flue demos.

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I think this is were the BKs really shine over tube stoves. Both are capable of running efficient as far as burning clean. I think the BKs do a better job of scrubbing the extra heat provided by the gases without sending it up the stack.

Niko said:

Ok, so i pretty much have read this whole thread. Dont know if I missed this but what are you guys doing to clean out the ashes on a ultra? Theirs the little black plug per say between the firebricks, so are cleaning the ahses out with some coals inside just to keep the stove hot? Are doing it with a cold stove? Do you leave the plug inserted all the time and pull it out just to clean the ash? Need to clean the ashes out soon and was hoping i can leave the stove hot while cleaning it..

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With our evergreen species of wood and the deep belly of the princess firebox I can go months without emptying ashes. When I do empty them it would be several loads from the tiny ash pan. Plus why screw around trying to sift them through a tiny plug in the firebox floor? Open the door, shovel them out, dump the bucket in the compost pile.

I believe that almost all ash pans are installed as a marketing trick so that a segment of the market will buy based on the presence of the ash pan. Look at wood furnaces or even pellet stoves. Those ash pans are huge.

The plug in the princess firebox is supposed to stay there until you empty the ash and then you have to put it back for burning. Fish for it through the ash with that bk hook tool. You can leave the stove hot.

Rich2343 said:

W
what stove temp do you consider to be hot.?

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I ran a "self clean" cycle yesterday on mine. Half load, stat on three, for an hour. Stove temp at 600 and cat meter pegged at the top of active. Did a good job at drying and cleaning firebox tar.

tarzan said:

I think this is were the BKs really shine over tube stoves. Both are capable of running efficient as far as burning clean. I think the BKs do a better job of scrubbing the extra heat provided by the gases without sending it up the stack.

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That's what makes me think I might go through less wood. Less heat going out the flue should mean more heat in my house. Reading more about cat stoves intrigues me to want to try one.

Waiting for my chimney sweep. Did some poking around my ashford. I may have found one of the reasons I haven't been getting eak performance from it. My combustor is downright loose. It was actually slid out a bit.... Guess I need a new gasket. I pushed it in as tight as I could get it in the meantime. I don't think the fit was right from the get go. I don't know if the installer even checked it on the install. How tight should it be?

Best place to order one online? Not gonna go through dealer. Too far.

shoot-straight said:

Waiting for my chimney sweep. Did some poking around my ashford. I may have found one of the reasons I haven't been getting eak performance from it. My combustor is downright loose. It was actually slid out a bit.... Guess I need a new gasket. I pushed it in as tight as I could get it in the meantime. I don't think the fit was right from the get go. I don't know if the installer even checked it on the install. How tight should it be?

Best place to order one online? Not gonna go through dealer. Too far.

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That cat should be solid in there. No wiggle.

shoot-straight said:

Best place to order one online? Not gonna go through dealer. Too far.

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http://www.firecatcombustors.com/ACIG-2-p/sku_acig-2.htm

Wrap the cat and secure it with a piece of masking tape. It should slide in easily. The gasket will expand when it gets hot and the tape will burn off.

That is assuming it is similar to the princess and king.

shoot-straight said:

Waiting for my chimney sweep. Did some poking around my ashford. I may have found one of the reasons I haven't been getting eak performance from it. My combustor is downright loose. It was actually slid out a bit.... Guess I need a new gasket. I pushed it in as tight as I could get it in the meantime. I don't think the fit was right from the get go. I don't know if the installer even checked it on the install. How tight should it be?

Best place to order one online? Not gonna go through dealer. Too far.

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Often times the cat will slide forward during transit and needs pushed back into place. They fit pretty loose before it gets fired, if it slid back into place id say your fine. Was the gasket visible? If it didn't rip or fall out, it's probably fine.

I can see it. Its kinda crumbly. I think I will replace it. 2"?

Highbeam said:

I ran a "self clean" cycle yesterday on mine. Half load, stat on three, for an hour. Stove temp at 600 and cat meter pegged at the top of active. Did a good job at drying and cleaning firebox tar.

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Bingo!

Highbeam said:

I ran a "self clean" cycle yesterday on mine. Half load, stat on three, for an hour. Stove temp at 600 and cat meter pegged at the top of active. Did a good job at drying and cleaning firebox tar.

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I did the same yesterday evening. Loaded the stove about 3 hours before I went to bed so I figured, why not.

Cat meter didn't quite make it to pegged but very close.

More surprising to me was the stove temp. My biggest worry was over firing the stove but once it reached a little over 600f (according to my Rutland that was pretty close to actual in past years) it sat there.

Once I adjusted the thermostat to a setting of 1 in two steps it climbed up to 650f for a while before settling in.

Stove was cleansed, reloaded before bed and now that I know it's not going to have a melt down I will do it as needed.

tarzan said:

I did the same yesterday evening. Loaded the stove about 3 hours before I went to bed so I figured, why not.

Cat meter didn't quite make it to pegged but very close.

More surprising to me was the stove temp. My biggest worry was over firing the stove but once it reached a little over 600f (according to my Rutland that was pretty close to actual in past years) it sat there.

Once I adjusted the thermostat to a setting of 1 in two steps it climbed up to 650f for a while before settling in.

Stove was cleansed, reloaded before bed and now that I know it's not going to have a melt down I will do it as needed.

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I know that our Princess was at 634'F on the stove top Friday night at the end of our start up routine, before we got her settled into a nice mid-range burn.

I let her burn for about an hour or so on high as well before I turned her down for the over night.

This is what the inside of our box looks like today. Granted we've not had that many fires but we are in shoulder season, so we are burning on the lower settings.

Are the dark corners in the back the beginnings of creosote build up? Or is this what a clean fire box looks like? The stove burned on low overnight and has had embers in it all day.

The wood is dry. Moisture meter says about 12% on any given piece.

becasunshine said:

I know that our Princess was at 634'F on the stove top Friday night at the end of our start up routine, before we got her settled into a nice mid-range burn.

I let her burn for about an hour or so on high as well before I turned her down for the over night.

This is what the inside of our box looks like today. Granted we've not had that many fires but we are in shoulder season, so we are burning on the lower settings.

Are the dark corners in the back the beginnings of creosote build up? Or is this what a clean fire box looks like? The stove burned on low overnight and has had embers in it all day.

The wood is dry. Moisture meter says about 12% on any given piece.

View attachment 143120

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I can't tell if the dark corners are creosite on this phone but if so it is a neglegable amount.

Looks good

OH, I have another question. We've used newspaper and Super Cedars to start our fires.

Does anyone here have any experience with rolling newspapers into fire starter logs to use as kindling?
Sort of considering it...