2015-2016 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

@BKVP, can you please explain why the sticker for the thermostat isn't on the front side of the knob? It would be so much easier to see this way. Can't I just get a new sticker, put it on the front side of the knob, turn tsat to max, loosen set screw and line up witness mark on knob with full mark on sticker? Then I could draw lines on the sticker to give me repeatability of where to set tsat or to tell my wife where to set tsat. also, when you tell someone to turn it up, they will actually be turning the knob up or vice versa

I just hit the 24hr mark. I would never have believed it if I didn't see it. I still have a lot of coals left. I just opened the bypass and door and stirred them up. The STT and cat thermometer have only dropped slightly. I'm thinking there's a few hours left in her

Woody harrelson said:

and what do you consider an active burn? when does the clock stop?

Click to expand...

Two weeks of burning a new princess insert and trying to figure same thing out. Why does my cat stop glowing orange but the thermometer stays above the 12:00 noon position?? Asked another way, my cat burns strong orange color early in the burn but as I begin to turn the air control down to 1 or 2 (about 5:30 - 6:00PM position) the cat stops glowing orange. the thermomenter stays in the active range (above 12:00 noon) but the cat stops glowing orange?? is this normal. (7 hours into a 5 split load, thermometer reading 250F top center of stove and cat still in active range showing 10:00).

The cat doesn't need to be glowing to work. It's very normal.

I consider burn time to be from when I close the bypass until I have to reload to keep usable heat coming off the stovetop.

blueguy said:

The cat doesn't need to be glowing to work. It's very normal.

Click to expand...

Great news!! I was aftraid that when the cat stopped glowing, it was deemed a "stall".

Now I have to focus on what is the lowest setting that I can set the air control. On the princess insert, the lowest setting is at the 6:00 setting (0 setting)but the dial can be turned to the 7:00 position (reading these posts, it sounds like the dial is 180 deg. to this on some of the other BK stoves?). The air control dial seems like it is very sensitive and at 1.5 setting, you can hear air sounds near the dial but at 1.25 you cannot?? Not sure what this means??

thanks to this forum, I made an informed decision on settling on the BK princess insert as 12 months ago, this was not my insert of choice. Hopefully, as I learn the stove and the temperatures drop I will like this insert much more than the VC winterwarm large that I have operated over the last 17 years.

jkk said:

Great news!! I was aftraid that when the cat stopped glowing, it was deemed a "stall".

Click to expand...

A stall is when it drops out of the "active" range. IIRC, I read somewhere that the cat will glow when it is in excess of 1000*, but I will defer to the experts on that one.

BKVP said:

Not true....other Ashford's may have diffrent chimney and draft making any comparison not accurate.

Click to expand...

Sure, but with two ashfords you have a baseline of two equivalent machines. Then when you compare settings you can consider the other variables. Trying to compare settings on a king and a princess will never be helpful because they have different thermostats.

Highbeam said:

Sure, but with two ashfords you have a baseline of two equivalent machines. Then when you compare settings you can consider the other variables. Trying to compare settings on a king and a princess will never be helpful because they have different thermostats.

Click to expand...

the Sirocco and Chinook are identical to the Ashford as well, only difference is the outer shell... I think.

Wow! I go 3 days not looking at this thread and there are 3 more pages?!? I am chomping at the bit to get the princess fired up with all my mods. Looks like it will be a few more weeks down here. Glad all you guys up north are staying warm!

Mine is on the pallet in the garage. Another 1-2 weeks or so.

Been splitting some more wood. Some rounds from early last year are pretty dry, while others are not, especially some of the center chunks. They're ranging from 17-30%.

The big pile I split last season is somewhere around 6-11%. Much better.

This will be my fist time with a stove. Pretty excited.

Done and done!

Had the 2nd burn in the new to me princess last night and It's obvious that I'm going to burn MUCH less wood than the Hearstone Homestead and have a much warmer house at the same time!

My definition of burn time:
I need the stove top temp to stay at or above 400* to keep the house between 65* & 72* (our comfort zone).

Last night I got 17 hours out of a load of lodge pole pine from the time I closed the bypass until it dropped below 400*.

Here is a pic of the new install.

robk said:

The big pile I split last season is somewhere around 6-11%. Much better.

Click to expand...

Sounds too good to be true. Middle of freshly re-split face?

Yep. I should rephrase: I split it last year, so it's had 2 summers split and stacked. And it's fur, not something hard like madrone.

ok so I stopped the timer at 27 hours. the cat had just dropped into the inactive zone. right now 34 hours later I stirred up the ashes and theres a few hot coals left. the stove is still warm to the touch (100 degrees on thermometer). there's probably just enough coals to get a fire going without newspaper or matches. this is one of the few purchases of my life that wasn't over exaggerated by the manufacturer. I'm very pleased.

Red oak 15% moisture
15 foot chimney straight up
Stove pipe is double wall
Had Tstat at lowest setting for entire burn

Woody harrelson said:

View attachment 163119 ok so I stopped the timer at 27 hours. the cat had just dropped into the inactive zone. right now 34 hours later I stirred up the ashes and theres a few hot coals left. the stove is still warm to the touch (100 degrees on thermometer). there's probably just enough coals to get a fire going without newspaper or matches. this is one of the few purchases of my life that wasn't over exaggerated by the manufacturer. I'm very pleased.

Red oak 15% moisture
15 foot chimney straight up
Stove pipe is double wall
Had Tstat at lowest setting for entire burn

Click to expand...

Wow dude that's amazing. I did not pack my stove full yesterday as I am planning on sweeping my chimney today. This morning I still had coals so I turned it up in anticipation of heating it for the morning and burning off so I can sweep the chimney late afternoon.

Yesterday morning I threw maybe 5 logs in the stove and before leaving turned my t stat down to the lowest setting. Left the house in the afternoon for 3-4 hours. It hung in there until I got home but barely, cat at very bottom of active range. Maybe with more wood or a colder outside temp it will operate better at the lowest setting. It will be fun to test the been time again when I'm done sweeping.

I've essentially used 4 log carriers worth (you know the fabric kind that you mate the handles together) to heat my house comfortably for 2 days and it's been in the forties. In fact the first full load (not completely full because I didn't try very hard to pack it well) almost blew me out of the house.

With better seasoned wood and the new King it's going to be a comfortable and much easier winter than last year. Even the girlfriend was amazed. No more smoke dragon and wet wood...

P.S. Totally copied your signature- think it's a good idea for now as I'm learning...

mwhitnee said:

Wow dude that's amazing. I did not pack my stove full yesterday as I am planning on sweeping my chimney today. This morning I still had coals so I turned it up in anticipation of heating it for the morning and burning off so I can sweep the chimney late afternoon.

Yesterday morning I threw maybe 5 logs in the stove and before leaving turned my t stat down to the lowest setting. Left the house in the afternoon for 3-4 hours. It hung in there until I got home but barely, cat at very bottom of active range. Maybe with more wood or a colder outside temp it will operate better at the lowest setting. It will be fun to test the been time again when I'm done sweeping.

I've essentially used 4 log carriers worth (you know the fabric kind that you mate the handles together) to heat my house comfortably for 2 days and it's been in the forties. In fact the first full load (not completely full because I didn't try very hard to pack it well) almost blew me out of the house.

With better seasoned wood and the new King it's going to be a comfortable and much easier winter than last year. Even the girlfriend was amazed. No more smoke dragon and wet wood...

P.S. Totally copied your signature- think it's a good idea for now as I'm learning...

Click to expand...

i didn't realize you had a king! I can't wait to see your burn times in the future! Bring on the cold

Once you all get a few months of burning under your belt you won't care about those numbers on the sticker. This is just about the silliest complaint I've seen about a stove. I mean come on.. On your kitchen range do you need exact numbers on the dial to boil water? Or does high, medium, low or little in between work fine? It sure does for me, I don't have to make sure the range is set to an exact mark to achieve the desired results. You don't need to on your stove either. I can't tell you the last time I even looked at it, after a very short time I knew exactly what to expect from the stove on any of the settings.

webby3650 said:

Once you all get a few months of burning under your belt you won't care about those numbers on the sticker. This is just about the silliest complaint I've seen about a stove. I mean come on.. On your kitchen range do you need exact numbers on the dial to boil water? Or does high, medium, low or little in between work fine? It sure does for me, I don't have to make sure the range is set to an exact mark to achieve the desired results. You don't need to on your stove either. I can't tell you the last time I even looked at it, after a very short time I knew exactly what to expect from the stove on any of the settings.

Click to expand...

I'm just an anal freak. It's who I am

Woody harrelson said:

I'm just an anal freak. It's who I am

Click to expand...

Just remember it's still just a Woodstove. You're results will be very different than others considering all the variables. The numbers mean something different to every user, so they can't really be used as a comparison. If it's that important, make your own marks.
I think the whole sticker thing is hokey anyway! I might remove mine and add it to the pile of numbered stickers In the drawer.

webby3650 said:

Once you all get a few months of burning under your belt you won't care about those numbers on the sticker. This is just about the silliest complaint I've seen about a stove. I mean come on.. On your kitchen range do you need exact numbers on the dial to boil water? Or does high, medium, low or little in between work fine? It sure does for me, I don't have to make sure the range is set to an exact mark to achieve the desired results. You don't need to on your stove either. I can't tell you the last time I even looked at it, after a very short time I knew exactly what to expect from the stove on any of the settings.

Click to expand...

It was all Woody this guy posting above me I never really wanted a decal anyway LOL....

Well i am very happy as Blaze king was my very first purchase for wood stove/insert. I researched for like 1 year before I got the stove. Their isn't even a dealer close to me I had to drive 3 hrs away to pic it up. In my area we have about every other stove you can think of probably at least 4 dealers. It was searching the internet that ended me on this website and just sitting back at night and reading the posts from these exact threads. I did also speak with Chris who took the time to help explain to me what blaze king is when I called them years ago. But in the end it was reading posts after post of users getting and explaning the long burn times.