2015-2016 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

Poindexter said:

@Ashful, when your temperature reading flattens out, trying living with the rattling fans on high for two hours and see what you get.

Please?

Maybe put on a Beethoven symphony to cover the noise and check thermometers after one hour? Even a 37 minute Billy Joel album?

I look forward to reading about how long it took you to find your socks again later tonight.

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After an hour on almost full blast, with fans on about 60%, the temp in the house did not change even 1 degree F. Wife turned tstat on boiler up to 70F, got the house up to temp, then shut it down. Stove has been keeping us at 70F since, but we're not going up at all.

Original builder of this house installed four wood stoves on first floor alone, so no surprise that two for the whole house isn't cutting it.

I have a issues I want to ask about. I don't mean to thread jump but I guess there is no way around it the way this is set up. It has been between 7* and 21* the last few days and my stove is presenting me with a coaling problem. It does not bun the coals fast enough to suit me. This may be caused by my setting on the thermostat, I may be the issue and that is what I want to know. I fill the stove set the thermostat at what is my 3 o clock position and when the wood is gone there is about 8 inch's of coals left. Then I open the thermostat up to 6 o" clock or wide open and it takes hours to burn away the coals. Coals are nice but they don't give enough heat when compared to hardwood that is on fire. I do have the numbers on the stove so that is why I describe it as " O'clock " position.
Is my coal build up problem caused by not running the thermostat high enough? Yesterday it was about 14* outside the stove was set to about the 4:30 position and the house got up to 71* that is the hottest I have had the house all winter. Also I had to wrap the door wooden handle in some tinfoil as it started to turn black as in almost caught fire it got so hot. Sorry if I jumped in " and I am sure I did" but I want to know what you do about coaling in your stove I need heat not coals ha ha. Thanks Jeff

I have an issue I want to ask about. I don't mean to thread jump but I guess there is no way around it the way this is set up.
It has been between 7* and 21* the last few days and my stove is presenting me with a coaling problem. It does not bun the coals fast enough to suit me,( ie ) give me more room for reload. This may be caused by my setting on the thermostat, I may be the issue and that is what I want to know.
I fill the stove set the thermostat at what is my 3 o"clock position and when the wood is gone there is about 8 inch's of coals left. Then I open the thermostat up to 6 o" clock or wide open and it takes hours to burn away the coals. Coals are nice but they don't give enough heat when compared to hardwood that is on fire. I don't have the numbers on the stove so that is why I describe it as " O'clock " position.
Is my coal build up problem caused by not running the thermostat high enough?

Yesterday it was about 14* outside the stove was set to about the 4:30 position and the house got up to 71* that is the hottest I have had the house all winter. Also I had to wrap the wooden portion of the door handle in some tinfoil as it started to turn black as in almost caught fire it got so hot. Sorry if I jumped in " and I am sure I did" but I want to know what you do about coaling in your stove I need heat not coals ha ha. Thanks Jeff

Try raking all the coals forward and load up the back with wood in a left to right direction. The air comes down the front of the stove and burns the coals down nice.. When they are just about gone throw some fresh wood in their place. Which BK do you have? Do you have a fan kit? If you need to run it that hard your stove may be undersized.

Some people run into coaling issues when it's cold. A couple ways people deal with it. Turn the stove up as you're doing, put a small split or two on the coal bed(pine of softer hardwood) with the air cranked or some people toss pellets on the coals.

Okay... screw this. Stove and fans are now at WOT. Let's see what this little puppy can do. Good news is the plenum isn't rattling, now.

Yes thanks sorry for not giving all the info, I have a brand new princess, I do "hoe the coals" up front over and over that is the only way to get them to burn faster. I have a big steel hoe I built for our old, "Old Mill" I will shoot a photo sometime for you to see. It works great to clean out the ashes just hoe all the coals you want to keep to one side and shovel out the rest.
Also
I just 2 minutes ago mounted a (small fan 10") to a header so I an move some more heat from one room to another that has the temp moving up already 2* in 10 min so far.
Yes we have a fan kit and when trying for more heat / burn the coals,.. I run it wide open or matched to the thermostat setting as best I can.
I have not tried adding a split to the coals, maybe I will do that ,but that will just make more coals correct? Also I will add some wood to the back of the stove going east west like you suggested . I bet that may be a plan. I have never tried some pellets I guess I could buy a bag? and use them when burning off the coals. Thanks for the suggestions they may help a lot I will try them all.

I will be gone a while as we have to go pick up a couple of our grandchildren. we have a month old grandson that is in the hospital and we are going to have an overnight with the other two to help out the parents some.

Ashful said:

Okay... screw this. Stove and fans are now at WOT. Let's see what this little puppy can do. Good news is the plenum isn't rattling, now.

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By plenum, do you mean the cast iron shell?

My primary stove running tool is this:



Technique is to drop it to the floor right behind the ash lip, and push ash to the back of the stove. This causes the coals to naturally rise to the top, and then I drag the coals forward. It's really the only tool I use in operating the stove, other than a small shovel and bucket for removing ash once a week.

webby3650 said:

By plenum, do you mean the cast iron shell?

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No, the sheet metal panels on either side of the stove, toward the back, just aft of the cast side panels.

Jeff in Maine, adding a split or two to the coals doesn't necessarily add to the coaling problem. It's actually a win/win since the flames from the fresh wood provide you the heat you need while allowing the coals some time to burn down. Running the stove at or near WOT works best while using this method.

You could also turn the stoves thermo setting up a couple hours before you plan to load the stove.

^^ Maybe I never knew I had a problem, but I love our "coals." I thought that was one of the benefits of a wood stove... the wood eventually forms a bed of coals that a) burns the wood down to just about nothing, but b) slowly, and keeps the fire bricks and the stove at temperature and acting like a radiator for a looooong time.

Our stove shop owner told us that the newer stoves actually "cook" the wood as much as burn it up, so I have thought that the bed of coals in the bottom of the stove was a good thing. ???

Of course, we don't live at this location full time yet. We typically burn the stove from Friday night through Sunday. We don't reload the stove on Sunday afternoon. We live with whatever heat the coals that have collected in the bottom of the stove are putting out until we leave on Sunday evening- by that point, it's plenty of heat for us and the house is already warm. We rake the coals out on Sunday evening so they are evenly distributed on the floor of the stove, turn the t-stat down to low. When we come back the next Friday the stove is cold. We clean it out and start all over again.

So how does this build up of coals look? What should we know? How does it cause problems? I'm being sincere here- I never anticipated this problem.

becasunshine said:

^^ Maybe I never knew I had a problem, but I love our "coals." I thought that was one of the benefits of a wood stove... the wood eventually forms a bed of coals that a) burns the wood down to just about nothing, but b) slowly, and keeps the fire bricks and the stove at temperature and acting like a radiator for a looooong time.

Our stove shop owner told us that the newer stoves actually "cook" the wood as much as burn it up, so I have thought that the bed of coals in the bottom of the stove was a good thing. ???

Of course, we don't live at this location full time yet. We typically burn the stove from Friday night through Sunday. We don't reload the stove on Sunday afternoon. We live with whatever heat the coals that have collected in the bottom of the stove are putting out until we leave on Sunday evening- by that point, it's plenty of heat for us and the house is already warm. We rake the coals out on Sunday evening so they are evenly distributed on the floor of the stove, turn the t-stat down to low. When we come back the next Friday the stove is cold. We clean it out and start all over again.

So how does this build up of coals look? What should we know? How does it cause problems? I'm being sincere here- I never anticipated this problem.

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The coals will build up to the point that you can't get enough wood in it to heat the house. It usually only happens if you are asking too much from the stove or in extreme climates.

The coals are a problem for those of us with more house than stove. The house loses heat during the coaling phase, when the reburn system has insufficient fuel to do its job, and produces very little heat.

Thank y'all for the explanation! I get it!

Well I will try the wood on the coals soon right now I have the coals forward and a couple splits in back. I don't have any soft wood or really poor hardwood to do this with I just use regular firewood.
Coals are fine but they wont heat a house, everyone gets excited about coals left over for the next reload well my next reload is at the very lest every 12 hours during the week, every 6 hours or so when I am home all day on the weekends.
The stove will run a bunch of hours in the fall but 30 hour run times for me is when it is 40*+ outside not 7* If I let it go 30 hours this time of the year we would freeze. Enough coals in the bottom of the stove to restart a load is a lot different than fire enough in the stove to heat the house. I should have bought the king I think. Sorry ranting some I guess just pissed a little.

becasunshine said:

So how does this build up of coals look? What should we know? How does it cause problems? I'm being sincere here- I never anticipated this problem.

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Besides too big a house, too small a stove and too cold a weather, another possibility is sub-optimal fuel choice. Some woods have a very brief coaling stage, other will make coals for a long long time.

I got to some poplar in my stack over the last couple weeks. Only 14M BTU per cord, but the coaling stage lasts about 5 seconds, so more frequent reloads, but plenty of room for fresh wood.

If my wife and I move back east (not in the plan) I would try oak in the shoulder seasons for really long burns to take advantage of the long coaling stage and likely switch to pine (shorter coaling stage) in really cold weather. In a Blaze King of course.

Coal buildup is not a problem unique to bk. Any stove will do this when you are trying to produce more heat than your stove is capable of.

Yes there you go pine fir spruce poplar burn fast and leave almost no coals. I burn all hardwood and right now the thermostat is wide open and the last wood in was at 5:30 2, 4" splits in back of the raked forward coals. Right now there is 30 pounds of coals in the stove 9" deep a foot wide at the base all raked forward. It is 8pm it will be at least 9pm maybe more before I go to bed at that time about 1/3 to 1/2 of the coals I hope to be gone enough so I can fill the stove better. Next winter I will be burning 80% Beach I hope I am working on firewood now so time will tell but that is the plan. Bty my moisture content is 12 on this wood up to as high as 13.2

Highbeam said:

Coal buildup is not a problem unique to bk. Any stove will do this when you are trying to produce more heat than your stove is capable of.

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absolutely my old mill did the same thing

In my old stoves I had a coaling problem due to green wood and then a stove that was to small.

I can and do have a coaling problem in the BK but it's actually because the stove can go so long between reloads. I need to stay on a 12 hour schedule in temps between about 10 and 25F but the stove could go another 4 hours. It's hard to get things perfect, especially since my wood pile is a mixture of all sorts of different wood to the point I could pick up six splits and chances are I would get four different species. To counter this I just use the methods suggested above but the problem dissapears once it gets colder or warmer.

Jeff in Maine said:

I will be gone a while as we have to go pick up a couple of our grandchildren. we have a month old grandson that is in the hospital and we are going to have an overnight with the other two to help out the parents some.

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BTW, good luck with that grandbaby in the hospital, and bless you for helping the parents by picking up the other kids. I hope you have a wonderful "sleepover" with your grandkids and I hope your grandbaby recovers!

Highbeam said:

Coal buildup is not a problem unique to bk. Any stove will do this when you are trying to produce more heat than your stove is capable of.

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Huh.

Jeff in Maine, your dilemma reminds me of our curve with the Napoleon pellet stove in the house in town. The Napoleon NPS40 pellet stove is rated to heat up to 2000 sq. ft. When it was installed the guys from the stove shop looked at our house, looked at our stove, laughed and said, "This stove is going to run you out of here." Our house is a one level bungalow, 1420 sq. ft., brick and block construction with mostly plaster interior walls, no insulation in the exterior walls, circular floor plan with an L-shaped hallway in the middle of the house.

The stove could not keep up- the heat drop off just from one end of this little house to the other was remarkable.

People on the pellet section of this forum worked with me to sort out this problem. What it came down to with us was lack of insulation in this house. We addressed that issue and now the pellet stove carries the house by itself on all but the coldest days. If it is in the lower 20s or below, particularly if it's cloudy/overcast with no solar gain, or if it never gets above freezing for several days, or if nighttime temps are in the teens or single digits, the gas furnace kicks in to help, but not nearly as often as it would have before.

Our existing attic insulation was fine- dry, in good shape and installed properly- but there was not enough of it. IIRC it was R19 batting insulation between the joists, over top of the original rock wool. We left all of that in place, and Hubs rolled R-30 over top of all of it except for the relatively narrow floored portion of the attic, which we use as storage. We also had a company install a radiant barrier in the attic, on the underside of the roof and on the gable walls. We considered installing the radiant barrier ourselves but this company offered a proprietary product that breathes, as opposed to the Reflectix we found at the local big box home improvement store.

Now that we've had the radiant barrier installed, and the additional insulation, the central air conditioner is keeping up better as well.

We can't really do anything (practical) about the lack of insulation in the walls, it is what it is (the anchoring construction of brick and block limits the ability to blow insulation into the gap.) So we worked on air sealing with caulk, foam, and inserts for electrical outlet and switch face plates. It all added up to a solution for us.

Oh, and our windows were already pretty new, previous owners replaced all the original windows with double pane windows, so that wasn't part of our issue. And the insulation under the floor in the crawl space is appropriate.

Maine is much much colder than Virginia so perhaps our experience doesn't translate. Maybe you do need a bigger stove- but the Princess is a pretty big stove herself. Would air sealing and insulation help?

Just a thought.

Jeff in Maine said:

Sorry ranting some I guess just pissed a little.

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I read the whole post and didn't pee at all. Have you tried Kegel exercises?

Jeff in Maine said:

Well I will try the wood on the coals soon right now I have the coals forward and a couple splits in back. I don't have any soft wood or really poor hardwood to do this with I just use regular firewood.
Coals are fine but they wont heat a house, everyone gets excited about coals left over for the next reload well my next reload is at the very lest every 12 hours during the week, every 6 hours or so when I am home all day on the weekends.
The stove will run a bunch of hours in the fall but 30 hour run times for me is when it is 40*+ outside not 7* If I let it go 30 hours this time of the year we would freeze. Enough coals in the bottom of the stove to restart a load is a lot different than fire enough in the stove to heat the house. I should have bought the king I think. Sorry ranting some I guess just pissed a little.

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If it's bad enough to get ya pissed, the results would be similiar with the king I think in that kind of weather. It sucks to toss coals, but sufficient heat is more important. If you have to toss out some coals in extreme cold so be it! You are providing your own nearly free heat from a renewable source. I've never had to toss out good coals by the way, always been able to burn em down with the suggestions above.