How long is it safe to burn an ashford 30 on high? My glass is dirty from the low and slow burns and want to get it cleaned up.
2015-2016 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)
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Ashful
Minister of Fire
According to manual.... forever. But that assumes your draft meets the narrow specified range. Those with taller stacks find they can not actually burn on highest setting indefinitely, so the answer to your question depends on installation parameters.
HarvestMan
Burning Hunk
When I visited a local BK dealer he told me you cannot run the stoves wide open all the time or it would destroy them. I just ignored him as it seemed more a generalization than something specific to BK. I've never run any stove wide open for extended periods and would not expect to do so with a BK if I owned one. However, there does seem to be a class of wood stove user that believes stoves are indestructible and load/run them that way - perhaps he thought I was in that class of user.
I really just wanna burn it on high long enough to clean the glass up. But I'm not sure if that's an hour or 90 minutes or what.
I think it depends on how dirty the glass is. For my setup with a princess it would vary between an hour or three on WOT. But I also had a very poor draft last year (my first year burning). Things may change this year.
Agree, BK's Bi-metal stat works great at keeping a nice steady temp/burn.. Works as designed... and darn good
Fast forward to middle of winter, How do most post deal with coaling ? Turn it to 3.5 and burn em down, crack the door open and burn them down or small wood splits to burn em.
The bi-metal doesn't move the air flap this much. It's slow and steady.
BTW, RC servos are very reliable by design. It's the receiver that wigs out when the voltage gets low. This has no receiver. The Controller is a simple servo driver circuit. No power = no move.
Worse case, it freaks out and goes wide open... No problem, it's a BK, it runs for a month that way anyway
Did i mention it will run most of the winter on a small servo battery if the power goes out. and if all of this fails i have to get out of the chair and go old school and turn the knob...lol
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
I ran mine on high for about 6 weeks in the depth of last winter, with the fan kit on high more or less the full six weeks as well. I had a good bed of coals all the way through, loading to the gills with birch at bedtime and when leaving for work, loading to the gills with spruce when first home from work and when up around 0200 to pee anyway. NB: I followed the break-in procedure in the manual -exactly- to finish cure the enamel.
The first few times I got home from work at -35dF with a 20 mph wind and saw nothing coming out my stack I was afraid I was burning oil, but I feel pretty good the cat was active the entire six weeks., or at least hot enough to be active.
The stove enamel looks great. The cat has what a 6-8-10 year warranty on it, can be replaced by a 9 year old with a basic socket set and costs $135 once out of warranty? Just bring it Old Man Winter, my kids didn't name the stove Bouche because of the hair on my arms, and I am not giving the neighbor kids asthma with my stack output.
Up here recommended stack height for a BK is 15' minimum, 30' maximum. If you live south of 64 degrees north latitude your local BK dealer may provide a different target range for stack height.
The cats, especially the steel cats, are way more expensive than 135$. They are easy to swap. No sockets required just a screwdriver to pry the old one out.
robk
Member
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
I priced a replacement last year when mine needed more than 10 minutes from a cold start to being glowing bright red edge to edge.
Would $235 be more reasonable? Given the length of the warranty it wasn't that expensive I thought, esp compared to replacing the stove.
robk
Member
Do you guys with the princess insert use a thermometer? I'm new to all of this and it's amazing how complicated burning wood can seem. Heh.
The thing about burning and the BK is every set up on here is different. I burn the way the stove / wood / draft / ambient temps allow.
Just throw some good dry wood in. Turn it up if it's not hot enough and turn it down if it's raging. Make mental notes of temps, wood etc.
Lots of good info here but I burn the way I want and how I Like. Spend some time with the unit.
I have a stove top thermometer as well as an ir gun. When I first got the insert I would shoot that ir gun all over that thing thinking I was gonna hurt it
. Now load wait for the cat to go active close the bypass turn the air down after 20 minutes and check back in 15-20 hours. Nothing about this thing is complicated but if you wanna talk about drying wood we could go on for days 
.
. Now load wait for the cat to go active close the bypass turn the air down after 20 minutes and check back in 15-20 hours. Nothing about this thing is complicated but if you wanna talk about drying wood we could go on for days .
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Maybe you should wait 'till you actually own a BK, to decide on that. This forum is full of people who burn their BK's wide open all day in the middle of winter, one of them just seven posts down from yours. In fact, searching back a few pages in this very thread, you'll find BKVP stating that there's no problem in doing so. The stove is engineered to be self-limiting, thanks to the t'stat, if you provide the recommended draft. Those who exceed the rather narrow range of prescribed draft may not be able to do the same, hence my comment about installation parameters.When I visited a local BK dealer he told me you cannot run the stoves wide open all the time or it would destroy them. I just ignored him as it seemed more a generalization than something specific to BK. I've never run any stove wide open for extended periods and would not expect to do so with a BK if I owned one. However, there does seem to be a class of wood stove user that believes stoves are indestructible and load/run them that way - perhaps he thought I was in that class of user.
My former stove, and really any stove with direct air control... different story.
HarvestMan
Burning Hunk
I was shut out of low and slow wood burning heaven due to thimble height restrictions. I must be content to peek through the pearly gates and live vicariously through those already in the promised land.
I've already asked BKVP for a rear exit soapstone BK but he didn't think his friends as WS would appreciate that.
If it gets to -35dF with 20mph winds here, I'll likely be burning my Fireview plus the propane furnace to keep warm.
There was a recent thread and numbers were up near 400$ from a bk dealer for a steel cat. You can't buy just any steelcat or you'll end up with diesel foil.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
Got a little behind yesterday, weve been anove freezing diring the day, below on the overnights.
I packed the cold stove with 2x4 sized splits of well seasoned birch. I got from cold stove to engaged cat with clean exhaust plume in 22 minutes.
Ten minutes later wirh the cat probe way up in happy land i turned the fan kit on the stove up to high, left the tstat at wide open, about 5 oclock.
Then i went down the hall, opened all the bedroom doors and used a box fan on the floor to push cool air out of the back of the house to the stove.
13ish hours later the house is still warm and i have enough coals to reload with no match and no kindling, just cordwood.
The probe is just down into inactive by maybe an eighth of an inch. I could be rolling a full load with an acrive cat in about ten minutes...but the sun is up and i dont need too.
I packed the cold stove with 2x4 sized splits of well seasoned birch. I got from cold stove to engaged cat with clean exhaust plume in 22 minutes.
Ten minutes later wirh the cat probe way up in happy land i turned the fan kit on the stove up to high, left the tstat at wide open, about 5 oclock.
Then i went down the hall, opened all the bedroom doors and used a box fan on the floor to push cool air out of the back of the house to the stove.
13ish hours later the house is still warm and i have enough coals to reload with no match and no kindling, just cordwood.
The probe is just down into inactive by maybe an eighth of an inch. I could be rolling a full load with an acrive cat in about ten minutes...but the sun is up and i dont need too.
When you say wide open is that meaning setting against the max open stop? As in, pedal to the metal?
Jeff in Maine
Feeling the Heat
Well we ran the stove yesterday and over night too it was rainy and cold . I filled it at 8 am yesterday morning and at 8 last night she was about done had 2" coals and fell out of the active zone so I re-loaded and away she went.
It ran pretty well till about 11 am today when she needed more wood,.. the wife did it this time and it is going well.
My only issue seems to be that the cat shield is really in the way for loading I could put in another 5 hours of wood if it were up 3 inches higher. I don't puzzle piece in my wood in and I am burning all split wood right now,.. but 24 hours is doable I have done it last time we ran it but more than that is ...well a stretch I think and it is 40*-55* out too.
Next year I will leave some round wood I thought this may be an issue with extremely long burn times needing some rounds each load .I knew this as I was splitting but in my mind better safe than sorry the first year , I may learn something else this winter to be of help next winter. I am open to all learning, I do think that for the amount of heat hours given my old mill would have burned more wood. Last year I burned all 5 cords and scavenged 2/3 of a cord of standing dead hack towards spring. Last winter was exceptionally long and cold too so there's that. I am hoping that I burn less wood now that would be good, Jeff
It ran pretty well till about 11 am today when she needed more wood,.. the wife did it this time and it is going well.
My only issue seems to be that the cat shield is really in the way for loading I could put in another 5 hours of wood if it were up 3 inches higher. I don't puzzle piece in my wood in and I am burning all split wood right now,.. but 24 hours is doable I have done it last time we ran it but more than that is ...well a stretch I think and it is 40*-55* out too.
Next year I will leave some round wood I thought this may be an issue with extremely long burn times needing some rounds each load .I knew this as I was splitting but in my mind better safe than sorry the first year , I may learn something else this winter to be of help next winter. I am open to all learning, I do think that for the amount of heat hours given my old mill would have burned more wood. Last year I burned all 5 cords and scavenged 2/3 of a cord of standing dead hack towards spring. Last winter was exceptionally long and cold too so there's that. I am hoping that I burn less wood now that would be good, Jeff
robk
Member
Stove install pushed to Friday(ish). Good news: our neighbor had a maple cut down and gave us the wood. We only have fir for this season, but I'm stoked to score the maple and get it split and drying for... The future.
Apparently the longer I wish for it to be cold so I can start a fire it works in the opposite direction! 87 here today. Almost a record high. She is ready to go and just sitting there. I think the seasons are definitely changing but way too slow! Come on winter
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