2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)#2

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
I have the princess set in boring mode, no visible flames, black glass, active cat only.
 
I have the princess set in boring mode, no visible flames, black glass, active cat only.

Me too but it is hard to heat the house this time of year. I feel like a non-cat owner. Cold and then hot and then cold again. Last night we had frost and all the roofs were white, two nights before it didn't drop below 50 overnight.

Partial loads of small splits and I try to run them hot to keep creo accumulations down. I still get 12 hour burns.
 
Yesterday it was 44F when I got up so I started a full softwood fire at 7am. There were still coals when I checked at 6pm and the stove was still radiating gentle warmth. Living room was still at 74F and didn't go below 72F when I went to bed at 11pm. Heat pump never came on. No concerns of creosote buildup.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbeam
Well, my ashford started acting sluggish. Got some smoke smell too! Figured my chimney needed a sweeping. I got my Ashford in Jan last year and had it swept in April to see what was there. It wasn't much. Sweep said once a year seems like would be OK. Now he and I dont think so.

Boy. Was I surprised... And concerned. There was creosote all over my cap and the mesh. The top foot or so was clogged up pretty good too. What bothered me most was there was some light fluffy creosote on the cap (indicating fire on the cap?)

Only got maybe 2-3 cups out 24 feet of pipe in the end.

I guess at a minimum I will sweep 2x a year now. Wood is dry 2-3 year old mixed hardwood. Woodshed kept. My hearthstone was every 2 years... And even then it was less than 1 cup of ash. No creosote to speak of.
IMG_20150324_165812_032.jpg

Thoughts?
 
Well with the cats we run such low stack temps that this can happen.
When you reload how long do you think you burn a hotter fire before backing it down?
 
Thoughts?

Even with the cap having what it does I don't think it looks restricted. 2-3 cups out of 24' of pipe doesn't sound like an issue to me. I doubt it was a fire at the top, you'd have a lot more debris lower in the pipe than just a few cups unless the fire was hot enough to burn away the evidence, but if it was that hot you'd probably know about it. It's not uncommon for the top part of the chimney and cap to get junked up due to the cooler flue temps we run. I'd add a mid season sweep for piece of mind and not worry too much about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeff_t
I've seen several clogged caps this year. Worse than normal! Most were relatively clean other wise. What you've got is normal. Can you get to it to clean the cap out mid season?
 
I took these pics about 5 minutes apart. The first pic was before the bypass was shut, within a few minutes it was all cleaned up! I thought it was interesting.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    85.6 KB · Views: 302
  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    98.1 KB · Views: 324
Well, my ashford started acting sluggish. Got some smoke smell too! Figured my chimney needed a sweeping. I got my Ashford in Jan last year and had it swept in April to see what was there. It wasn't much. Sweep said once a year seems like would be OK. Now he and I dont think so.

Boy. Was I surprised... And concerned. There was creosote all over my cap and the mesh. The top foot or so was clogged up pretty good too. What bothered me most was there was some light fluffy creosote on the cap (indicating fire on the cap?)

Only got maybe 2-3 cups out 24 feet of pipe in the end.

I guess at a minimum I will sweep 2x a year now. Wood is dry 2-3 year old mixed hardwood. Woodshed kept. My hearthstone was every 2 years... And even then it was less than 1 cup of ash. No creosote to speak of.
View attachment 156294

Thoughts?

Yep, what Rick said.

You got so much less with your hearthstone because the higher flue gas temps and velocity took anything that could make creosote right out the top. Along with a bunch of heat that could have been in your house.
 
Yep, what Rick said.

You got so much less with your hearthstone because the higher flue gas temps and velocity took anything that could make creosote right out the top. Along with a bunch of heat that could have been in your house.
I rarely see a dirty flue with a hearthstone. I completely agree, they waste tons of heat up the chimney! The stone can only release heat a certain rate, while the rest of it goes out the top.
 
here is a pic of my stack this am. bypass closed, run hot for about 30 min, then turned down for 15 or so. i checked bypass gasket yesterday. it was pretty tight on the bill test. cat thermometer is about 11:00 or so at this moment.
IMG_20150325_072924_786.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, my ashford started acting sluggish. Got some smoke smell too! Figured my chimney needed a sweeping. I got my Ashford in Jan last year and had it swept in April to see what was there. It wasn't much. Sweep said once a year seems like would be OK. Now he and I dont think so.

Boy. Was I surprised... And concerned. There was creosote all over my cap and the mesh. The top foot or so was clogged up pretty good too. What bothered me most was there was some light fluffy creosote on the cap (indicating fire on the cap?)

Only got maybe 2-3 cups out 24 feet of pipe in the end.

I guess at a minimum I will sweep 2x a year now. Wood is dry 2-3 year old mixed hardwood. Woodshed kept. My hearthstone was every 2 years... And even then it was less than 1 cup of ash. No creosote to speak of.
View attachment 156294

Thoughts?

That is normal. Expect the cap, and the top foot or so to gunk up like that on a BK. Crunchy black stuff. Farther down it is usually sooty black stuff. The BK will leave much more junk in you flue than a hearthstone. I too had a hearthstone before the BK on the same flue and had a big increase in debris with the BK.
 
That is normal. Expect the cap, and the top foot or so to gunk up like that on a BK. Crunchy black stuff. Farther down it is usually sooty black stuff. The BK will leave much more junk in you flue than a hearthstone. I too had a hearthstone before the BK on the same flue and had a big increase in debris with the BK.

any concern about all the smoke out the stack? thats normal? webby's stack was much cleaner.
 
any concern about all the smoke out the stack? thats normal? webby's stack was much cleaner.

Describe your smoke. Is it blue, white, light, heavy, intermittent, constant, does it dissipate or linger, etc. I have found that 20% moisture wood smokes a lot more than 12% wood. My smoke is blue and light, intermittent when cruising. Most of the burn is smoke free but the majority of the first two hours the smoke is obvious.
 
Describe your smoke. Is it blue, white, light, heavy, intermittent, constant, does it dissipate or linger, etc. I have found that 20% moisture wood smokes a lot more than 12% wood. My smoke is blue and light, intermittent when cruising. Most of the burn is smoke free but the majority of the first two hours the smoke is obvious.

Why is that? I find that our stack is clear from about 15-20 minutes after starting and stays clear. I only see wispy white steam on very cold days. When in DC at the stove decathalon there were 12 stoves burning including a couple hybrids and there was no smoke showing at all, except for two stoves. One was being adjusted and the other was not working right.
 
Why is that? I find that our stack is clear from about 15-20 minutes after starting and stays clear. I only see wispy white steam on very cold days. When in DC at the stove decathalon there were 12 stoves burning including a couple hybrids and there was no smoke showing at all, except for two stoves. One was being adjusted and the other was not working right.

I wish I knew. Cat temps are always way up, glowing cat, very low teens MC doug fir, it just smokes and always has. Cat stoves are not clean burners based on my experience with this BK. Flues are much dirtier, smokier stacks, and smoke roll out but the tradeoff is vastly superior performance WRT home heating.

I use the same fuel in a non-cat and have the same experience that you do with no smoke at all within minutes of light off from your non-cat.

I don't want to smoke, especially when trying to burn in stealth mode.
 
My cap started to get a little crusty and some smoke would come out the stove when the door was open during reloads, I went on the roof and pulled the cap, wire brushed it, checked the chimney pipe from the top down, only had maybe at best a quarter inch of sooty ashy grey build up inside the pipe, nothing crusty so I didn't do a cleaning, heating season should be ending in the next 3 weeks by me, I'll be fine until then.. After I shut it down I'll do a major cleaning
 
  • Like
Reactions: tarzan
I wish I knew. Cat temps are always way up, glowing cat, very low teens MC doug fir, it just smokes and always has. Cat stoves are not clean burners based on my experience with this BK. Flues are much dirtier, smokier stacks, and smoke roll out but the tradeoff is vastly superior performance WRT home heating.

I use the same fuel in a non-cat and have the same experience that you do with no smoke at all within minutes of light off from your non-cat.

I don't want to smoke, especially when trying to burn in stealth mode.

My experience so far has been similar. I get wisps to steady but light smoke for the first couple hours and at times, beyond. The flue doesn't stay as clean as with my non-cat but still more than exceptable since my non-cat could have made it easily through the four seasons I ran it without cleaning and so far it looks like an annual cleaning will be more than I really need.

I don't have inversions or burn bans or cranky neighbors to worry about so the efficiency of the stove far outweighs any short comings so far. This stove has all the benefits of a smoke dragon without the negatives!
 
Well the box in a cat stove is at lower temps then a tube stove I would think when in low burn...not just the flue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbeam
Will do thanks. I just expected less smoke. I simply don't like the creosote, so I will clean 2x a year.
 
I find to limit smoke is to have a hot fire at first, when I reload, I leave the air setting all the way to the max and get the load burning real hot, after 20 min I turn it down and do a low slow burn with hardly any smoke, I burn pretty much any type of wood as long as it's dry
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbeam
Hey guys, new to burning and trying to figure out which stove to get and what I'm looking at price-wise. There are 37 pages on this thread so I will admit I have not read every post so don't crucify me if my question has already been addressed. :p

So thoughts on the King? I posted my floor plan in my "Wood-Burning Noob Looking for Advice" thread. What can you expect to spend on one? Advantages and disadvantages of a stove with a cat?

Thanks!
 
Advantage: capability of lower burn rates, and thus longer burn times. The King can do 40 hours on low.

Disadvantage: any time you push the limits of a given technology, fun things can happen. Back puffing, frozen chimney caps, etc. however, you can always turn up the burn rate, if you find yourself one of the few experiencing these problems.
 
Last edited:
Macinjosh- roughly $3,000 - $ 3,500 after tax ball park
 
That may sound like a lot of money but but divide 10,15 or more years into and it's not imo.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.