Blaze King 101...

  • 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.
Well, as with any manufacturer, a tad one sided. Never the less, I hear it is an awesome stove.
 
I noticed when the guy reloaded with that one huge split, he closed the door and immediately engaged the cat. I thought you were suppose to wait 10-20 minutes before engaging? Maybe you don't have to wait with a hot stove and a steel cat?
 
If it's already burning hard, you can usually turn the cat right back on as long as the wood is really dry. I believe(though I don't have sound) he was talking about the importance of moisture content right around the same time he put that monster of a split in.
 
Todd said:
I noticed when the guy reloaded with that one huge split, he closed the door and immediately engaged the cat. I thought you were suppose to wait 10-20 minutes before engaging? Maybe you don't have to wait with a hot stove and a steel cat?

Thats how I operate my stove Todd. Just load it and go. Notice the low moisture content he mentioned. Some people would say that is to low and would cause overfiring. It has a very good turn down and will snuff the main flame out in seconds. Its still a ceramic combustor. Thats why Ive always had a hard time with understanding the extra fuss of operating a cat stove that people talk about. Does the Woodstock have a visible stop on the slide damper? This was an excellent video in my biased opinion. :)
Guilty as charged. N of 60
 
Some good points in the video including the preference for 45's connecting to the primary flue. However, my wife would kill me if I kept my rubber muck boots in the bedroom. What's with that? And although they recommend no larger than 8" splits, they show a healthy 12" half-round being end fed into the stove. Perhaps a little visual discontinuity there. :) Not to knock the stove, I wish they were a bit more attractive. Conceptually, I love the thermostatic damper and long catalytic burns. But my wife would only accept a straight steel box in the garage. Me too. That's just the way it is. Now if it had an attractive cast iron jacket...?
 
Hogwildz said:
Well, as with any manufacturer, a tad one sided. Never the less, I hear it is an awesome stove.

Believe it or not, even though the video is from the manufacturer, it actually was pretty accurate. I burn all spruce and have to empty the ashes only after about 1- 1.5 cords. The two adjustments to the stove they demonstrate in the video are nowhere in the manual - annoying!
 
Todd said:
I noticed when the guy reloaded with that one huge split, he closed the door and immediately engaged the cat. I thought you were suppose to wait 10-20 minutes before engaging? Maybe you don't have to wait with a hot stove and a steel cat?

Todd,

It sounds like you are really thinking about that BK! Have you heard anything else about the improved woodstock?
 
EasyEd said:
Todd said:
I noticed when the guy reloaded with that one huge split, he closed the door and immediately engaged the cat. I thought you were suppose to wait 10-20 minutes before engaging? Maybe you don't have to wait with a hot stove and a steel cat?

Todd,

It sounds like you are really thinking about that BK! Have you heard anything else about the improved woodstock?

Always thinking, but I doubt I'll switch out stoves any time soon. Haven't heard a thing recently about the upgrade, how about you?
 
north of 60 said:
Todd said:
I noticed when the guy reloaded with that one huge split, he closed the door and immediately engaged the cat. I thought you were suppose to wait 10-20 minutes before engaging? Maybe you don't have to wait with a hot stove and a steel cat?

Thats how I operate my stove Todd. Just load it and go. Notice the low moisture content he mentioned. Some people would say that is to low and would cause overfiring. It has a very good turn down and will snuff the main flame out in seconds. Its still a ceramic combustor. Thats why Ive always had a hard time with understanding the extra fuss of operating a cat stove that people talk about. Does the Woodstock have a visible stop on the slide damper? This was an excellent video in my biased opinion. :)
Guilty as charged. N of 60

Woodstock recommends waiting at least 10 minutes during reload before engaging the cat to drive out any remaining moisture in the wood. Even 15-20% moisture content is a good amount of water and will hit that cat as steam if engaged too soon, won't it?

Don't real know what you mean by slide damper? The Fireview bypass damper doesn't slide, it's hinged in place and opens or closes with the lever.
 
Glad I saw the video. I have been torn between whether to get a Blaze King or an old Franklin.
 
BrotherBart said:
Glad I saw the video. I have been torn between whether to get a Blaze King or an old Franklin.

<snort>
 
Todd said:
EasyEd said:
Todd said:
I noticed when the guy reloaded with that one huge split, he closed the door and immediately engaged the cat. I thought you were suppose to wait 10-20 minutes before engaging? Maybe you don't have to wait with a hot stove and a steel cat?

Todd,

It sounds like you are really thinking about that BK! Have you heard anything else about the improved woodstock?

Always thinking, but I doubt I'll switch out stoves any time soon. Haven't heard a thing recently about the upgrade, how about you?

Haven't heard anything in a while, the reps are ensuring they are speaking the same thing. I am moving in a couple of months and a quick search has let me know that a BK dealer is 15 mins from my the home I'm purchasing. Not sure if I'm going for whole house heat with the BK or use the Fireview to heat the downstairs common area. Upstairs is on a separate heat pump so I will not use as much electricity.

Ed
 
Lanning said:
Bethel, What 2 ajustments are you speaking of? Jim


1. The door latch assembly adjustment. I was wrong, I just went back and found it in their "gasket replacement" section (pp.36, #9 of Princess freestanding manual)

2. The (internal) bypass mechanism adjustment. That is not in the manual. I was not aware that the mechanism is adjustable, and seems like a pretty important thing to not include in the manual. If anything it's good to know because somebody may want to install a length of telescopic chimney connector to make access easier to that mechanism.

Also: in the manual they repeat 4-5 times that they recommend the use of double wall chimney connector. But then they neglect to mention that no pipe manufacturer makes double wall that will directly fit onto the stovetop collar - an additional adapter is required to make that happen. That was frustrating at the time I installed it, and added an extra 10 days as I waited for the adapter to arrive in the mail.

Also: hearth pad thickness (r value). Other stoves I've owned gave very specific values for pad thickness, but not BK. When I called BK to ask about it they essentially refused to even give me a recommendation for pad thickness (maybe liability?) and said the thickness was up to my local fire department. And the local FD said, "that doesn't make any sense, because how would we know what specs the stove manufacturer made for heat radiation for the bottom of their stove?"

Sorry this turned into a mini-rant but hopefully future BK owners will find this useful.
 
Todd said:
north of 60 said:
Todd said:
I noticed when the guy reloaded with that one huge split, he closed the door and immediately engaged the cat. I thought you were suppose to wait 10-20 minutes before engaging? Maybe you don't have to wait with a hot stove and a steel cat?

Thats how I operate my stove Todd. Just load it and go. Notice the low moisture content he mentioned. Some people would say that is to low and would cause overfiring. It has a very good turn down and will snuff the main flame out in seconds. Its still a ceramic combustor. Thats why Ive always had a hard time with understanding the extra fuss of operating a cat stove that people talk about. Does the Woodstock have a visible stop on the slide damper? This was an excellent video in my biased opinion. :)
Guilty as charged. N of 60

Woodstock recommends waiting at least 10 minutes during reload before engaging the cat to drive out any remaining moisture in the wood. Even 15-20% moisture content is a good amount of water and will hit that cat as steam if engaged too soon, won't it?

Don't real know what you mean by slide damper? The Fireview bypass damper doesn't slide, it's hinged in place and opens or closes with the lever.

Well I had to look up the operation procedures for the Blaze King and the manual states "while reloading wait til the fuel is burning well before closing the damper". It's not real specific about time, but I would still wait some just to insure the cat doesn't foul up or crack from thermal shock.
 
The manual simply requires a non-combustible surface for heath protection. It sounds like they are not concerned about heat under the stove, just spark and ember protection. There are other stoves with similar, simple hearth requirements, not just BK. Usually they have an ashpan and a bottom heatshield built in, which reduces downward radiated heat sufficiently to preclude an insulated hearth.
 
BeGreen said:
There are other stoves with similar, simple hearth requirements, not just BK.

If it's not just BK then I feel better about the lax hearth requirement with regard to thickness - thanks for that input.
 
One other thing worth noting is that BK is now shipping their "King" model with a SS cat (beta testing), but this is not being used in the Princess yet. The SS cat should fire off faster and be far less susceptible to cracking.
 
Wet1 said:
One other thing worth noting is that BK is now shipping their "King" model with a SS cat (beta testing), but this is not being used in the Princess yet. The SS cat should fire off faster and be far less susceptible to cracking.

We have no plan to do that at this time. The larger space opening in the ceramic combustors works superior for our 6" flue collared wood stoves and inserts. The 8" King models produce enough volume and draw for the smaller cell density of the stainless.
BK
 
Status
Not open for further replies.