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

HotCoals said:

That may sound like a lot of money but but divide 10,15 or more years into and it's not imo.

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Compared to other premium stoves, the cost is not crazy. These things are built very well. Nice welds, paint, etc. After pushing almost thirty cords through a noncat and then switching to this cat stove three years ago I have no regrets. For full-time, year round heating with firewood a good cat stove is a huge advantage.

I should add that what really makes the bk excel is the ability to burn low and slow. I am away from the house for 11 hours per day in a relatively mild climate with a very long burning season of 9 months. Low and slow is how I run the princess for about 3/4 of the season. When I need full power at 650 degrees I just turn it up. Otherwise she just cruises along. That range of output is why I would recommend the bk.

Highbeam said:

I should add that what really makes the bk excel is the ability to burn low and slow. I am away from the house for 11 hours per day in a relatively mild climate with a very long burning season of 9 months. Low and slow is how I run the princess for about 3/4 of the season. When I need full power at 650 degrees I just turn it up. Otherwise she just cruises along. That range of output is why I would recommend the bk.

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This is exactly why I bought the Sirocco. In the dead of winter here, I can get 12 hours out of a load and have a 70ish degree house on return

The minor smoke smell is just a small hiccup and will be fixed once I shut down for the season.

Not to be disrespectful but in Canada's winter time you can get twelve hours burn and at the end of the cycle house is still at 70? I am asking because I am thinking about getting either princess insert or go all out and get an Ashford with a chimney system for my rec room downstairs in hope of heating the whole house with it.

Here in New Brunswick with my fairly tight house, yes. Some mornings when it was -30 or so, it may have been a little lower than that, but for the better part of the winter, the house hasn't dropped below 70 unless we were not home from work yet at the 12 hour mark to reload.

It is like night and day from the previous stove we had. If the house wasn't as tight as it is, I think it would be a bit harder to get 12 hours, we would probably have to drop to 10 or 8 hour cycles, or go up to a King, or, *fingers crossed*, a Sirocco 40 hits the market

We discovered that none of our windows or doors had foam applied between the rough opening and the frames before being trimmed out, so that, along with an OAK is on my list of things to do this summer prior to next season. I will be interested to see if the OAK works or not in a basement application.

Well if you can do it in Canada I am certain I can have the same if not better results in ct. My house is 2x6 construction fairly well insulated but was built in 1994 so there might be a little leak here and there. Thanks for you respond.

So what's the deciding factor between a king vs a princess?

kennyp2339 said:

Macinjosh- roughly $3,000 - $ 3,500 after tax ball park

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Thanks!

HotCoals said:

That may sound like a lot of money but but divide 10,15 or more years into and it's not imo.

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Completely agree!

MacinJosh said:

So what's the deciding factor between a king vs a princess?

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Couple of factors
Size of the fire box you desire.
King is huge fire box of 4cuft of i recall correctly
Princess is considered a 3cuft box
Flue size
King is 8"flue
Princess is a 6"
Cost would be a deciding factor as well, in my household anyway

MacinJosh said:

So what's the deciding factor between a king vs a princess?

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King has a huge fire box there for more fire power and longer slow burns but king requires 8" flue vs 6" for princess there for it's not only buying a new stove but a completly new chimney system.

Thanks guys. I still need to get my local fireplace guy to inspect my chimney and flue.

MacinJosh said:

So what's the deciding factor between a king vs a princess?

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If you've got the room for a king, can support the 8" chimney size, and afford a little extra cost you get the King. The King will burn low just like the Princess but is 4.32 cubic feet vs 2.85 cubic feet of the Princess. I'm heating just shy of 2k with the Princess and usually load 2 times a day during the brunt of the winter if I had a King I'd probably go 24 hours between loads most of the winter or a full load and a partial load.

I would've bought a King but found my Princess for a steal and already had a 6" liner in my chimney so to support the 8" chimney would be a pretty big undertaking. I have no regrets have a Princess but if I ever expand my family room like we've talked about I'll be installing a King in place of the Princess.

MacinJosh said:

So what's the deciding factor between a king vs a princess?

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Flue size. The king has a low burn output slightly higher than the much smaller princess but still way below what a small noncat puts out.

I just have Sirocco 30 for 2 weeks and really love it. I had notice one thing about CAT meter. I bought Sirocco with convection deck but dealer forgot to give it to me at time I pickup, so I just hook it up and burn it for 2 nights the cat meter can go over 1 or 2 o'clock position most of the time. Since I got my convection deck put on the cat never go over 11 o'clock. Any one notice as me?

I've said before that the Princess reminds me of a smoke dragon and I mean that in a good way. It has the attributes of a smoke Dragon while being extremely efficient and clean burning.

What I missed most about the smoke dragon after I switched to a tube stove was the ability to run the stove according to the weather with no more planning than the turn of a knob. With the tube stove there is not much control over the heat output so I was getting up in the middle of the night to load the stove if it was colder than normal and planning morning and evening reloads down to time and how much wood (fuel) to add in cool shoulder season weather. Admitting, most of the aggravation could have been avoided by running the electric heat on both ends of the temperature swings but that's not why I have a wood stove.

What I didn't like about a smoke dragon was inefficiency and having to clean the chimney in the dead of winter.Not to mention the trouble I had sleeping at night knowing it was about time to clean again. This was especially true after my fears of a chimney fire came true. After that I knew if I was going to keep heating with wood a more efficient stove was a must.

In conclusion to my rambling after one season I can tell the Princess will be like my favorite hunting rifle, once you find it you just know the search is over.

MacinJosh said:

Advantages and disadvantages of a stove with a cat?

Thanks!

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Sushiyummy said:

I just have Sirocco 30 for 2 weeks and really love it. I had notice one thing about CAT meter. I bought Sirocco with convection deck but dealer forgot to give it to me at time I pickup, so I just hook it up and burn it for 2 nights the cat meter can go over 1 or 2 o'clock position most of the time. Since I got my convection deck put on the cat never go over 11 o'clock. Any one notice as me?

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My cat probe has never gone past the 2 o'clock position and I have the convection deck.

Before I have convection deck 2 o'clock is normal even stove top only 400-450 F, now with convection deck stove top 600 F CAT only get close to 12 o'clock. I think cause convection deck rise meter further from CAT make it give out lower temp. I think they should have a different meter with longer stick for the people with convection deck.

The convection deck kit comes with a 4" probe vice the 2" one that comes with the bare stove.

Thanks blueguy. I'll check my probe tonight. I'm remember it look lie 4".

blueguy said:

We discovered that none of our windows or doors had foam applied between the rough opening and the frames before being trimmed out, so that, along with an OAK is on my list of things to do this summer prior to next season. I will be interested to see if the OAK works or not in a basement application.

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Be careful what you use to fill the rough opening gaps. The Great Stuff brand name comes in a separate formulation for windows and doors vs. the formulation for crack filling. The cans are almost identical but the crack fill stuff will make window and door frames warp enough to cause real problems while the window and door stuff will still work fine to seal those small gaps. I assume other brands of foam are also available in multiple formulations.

Well I ran out of my regular "winter wood" burned about 5 solids cords this winter, I remembered I had about a quarter of a cord of uglies stacked up in the back yard with a tarp so I made three trips with the wheelbarrow, hopefully the uglies hold me over, can't wait for the warmer weather, I probabaly have close to 7 or 8 more wheelbarrows of uglies left

Maybe 4 cord burnt here so far. Heating 24/7 with wood.

I've used about 30% less wood with the BK and a relitevely mild winter. A noticably difference in wood handling and only loading the stove once or twice a day for sure. Since I have resorted to purchasing my wood this made quite a difference. I measure my wood by the truck load. Generally burn about ten. This year will be about seven.

We got hammered here for most of Febuary but the rest of the winter months took it easy on us.

tarzan said:

I've used about 30% less wood with the BK and a relitevely mild winter. A noticably difference in wood handling and only loading the stove once or twice a day for sure. Since I have resorted to purchasing my wood this made quite a difference. I measure my wood by the truck load. Generally burn about ten. This year will be about seven.

We got hammered here for most of Febuary but the rest of the winter months took it easy on us.

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Dumbud question because I'm sure this varies wildly depending on where you are from but what does a typical cord of wood go for? Just wondering if it would still be cheaper to burn wood than all-electric heat. Obviously splitting and hauling my own wood would be but never thought about actually buying wood to use.