Does about a 1/2 a cord a week sound like too much to be burning??

Battenkiller said:

The 12 cords of wood through the BK King are even more amazing since that stove is only rated at 47,000 BTU. From the BK site (sections in bold type by me):

The Facts on Btu's

There are only two rating methods that mean something to you, the consumer:


1. The first is the Btu output that is achieved during EPA testing. This testing is quite complicated and costly milled woods are burned. This is a standard for all manufacturer testing and is not intended to provide consumers with a model for how a stove will burn in their home.

2. The second method is what Blaze King refers to as the "Real World" method.
These Btu's are achieved during in house testing using the same thing a consumer burns, split, dry cordwood. In our tests, we use fir. The "Real World" Btu's listed are what the average consumer can expect to achieve, with slight variations depending upon geographical location, type of wood, elevation and amount of fuel added. Higher Btu's are possible. If you were to stand in front of your stove and frequently add fuel, burn the unit on high and have optimal conditions, the PE1006 could produce as high as 87,850 Btu's and the KE1107 could exceed 90,000 Btu's!

However, maximum Btu's would only be achievable at a certain "peak" during the burn.

Blaze King does not wish to mislead you, so we give you all the facts.

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So, yes.... these stoves will put out mega amounts of heat, but only for short periods of time. Each addition of wood will drop stove temps a bit for at least a little while, (unless you are standing there feeding small pieces every few minutes like a pellet stove), and overnight burns will not be maintained at near peak at all.

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This is my first year with the King. The 12 cord went through the old stove before I replaced a 50 ft wall of 50's era rotten 6' high panels of single pane glass. Something on the order of 300 sq ft fully exposed on a windy ridge. That stove got stuffed as soon as there was room in it. Replacing that wall of glass and insulating with foam/fiberglass cut our consumption by about a third while keeping the house substantially warmer.

The jury is out on if we will use any less wood with the King. I doubt it is substantially more efficient than the last stove, just has a much bigger firebox. Right now, it is 2F and blowing pretty good. I put a full load, 24x15x18, of well seasoned locust and hard maple in before I left this morning and left it about as high as I run it with the blowers on. Stopped home for lunch and it looks like it will burn for 8 hours before I can reload if I open up the air for the rest of the burn. That rate is a cord every 3 weeks or somewhere around 50K per hour on average. Granted, it would take some work and planning to keep up that rate, but cold is a good motivator.

cmcramer said:

I burn 10 cords...from November to March (and a cord for October + April), using maple and beech I have seasoned for 1.5 years.

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cmcramer said:

But yes....I sure do burn 10 face cords per year.

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Big difference between 10 cords and 10 face cords. 10 face cords isn't bad, 10 cords with a stove makes us think you're heating a 2000 sq' tent.

Didn't we ban the burning of face cords around here?

SolarAndWood said:

Didn't we ban the burning of face cords around here?

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I don't know what a face cord is, is it about the same size as a 1/3 cord?

Here in Michigan people always say a cord and mean a face cord, it's hard when I'm talking about wood with them. I'll say I have 14 cords on hand, I then have to tell them about 42 face cords so they understand how much I'm really talking about. Their eyes typically light up. :lol:

Oops. Sorry guys....I guess I remember now about using the F-word (Face cord) around here....

But it is the norm around my neighborhood.

Glad to learn I'm not burning too much wood!

SolarAndWood said:

Didn't we ban the burning of face cords around here?

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No but we should ban those from this forum that call a "face cord" a "cord". Maybe we could let them back on the forum as long as they disclose in their sig that their supposed cord is only a face cord.

Maybe the mods could come up with a special designation for teeny weeny face cord proponents.

I'm so sick of face cords. A cord is 128 cuft. Period. Anything else is a fraction of a cord.

karri0n said:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/49236/

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Banning the term "face cord" wouldn't help. The problem is that they are not calling it a "face cord". The problem is that they are calling it a "cord" sans the "face". Ban the breed.

madrone said:

I'm so sick of face cords. A cord is 128 cuft. Period. Anything else is a fraction of a cord.

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So a face is a turd then eh.

That's it. I've had enough of this abuse. I'm going back to my 2000 sq ft tent and put some wood on the fire...

cmcramer said:

That's it. I've had enough of this abuse...

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It's a local joke. We have a lot of French, Norwegian and Finnish woodcutters and none of them can pronounce "third" properly. It always come out as "turd". Here there are only real "cords" and I can just imagine them calling a third of a cord (face cord) a turd if following the madrone rule.

Oh Yah, hey!

A turd of a cord dooon't ya know. Just like shooootin' deers with a turdy-turdy!

about .44 cord per week per the cord-wood calculator. For those that have not seen this: http://www.maine.gov/ag/firewood.html
Average weekly wood pile burnt: 8ft x 4ft x 17” average piece length

Did I miss anything?

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Yes you missed something. I plugged your same numbers into that same calculator you linked to, and I got just a tad over 1/3 of a cord (8-foot long pulp cord type of cord).

I had a 4300 step top like yours and heated a 1600 sq.ft. home in Wisconsin. During week-long arctic blasts we'd go through that much wood. I never ran it with the air controls full open except to start it. After it was rolling I would close all the air controls, as far as they would close. If there was ever a need to open it further it was because the wood was wet.

LLigetfa said:

cmcramer said:

That's it. I've had enough of this abuse...

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It's a local joke. We have a lot of French, Norwegian and Finnish woodcutters and none of them can pronounce "third" properly. It always come out as "turd". Here there are only real "cords" and I can just imagine them calling a third of a cord (face cord) a turd if following the madrone rule.

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I'm Finnish, so I'm fine with the turd.

LLigetfa said:

madrone said:

I'm so sick of face cords. A cord is 128 cuft. Period. Anything else is a fraction of a cord.

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So a face is a turd then eh.

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Man, you guys are nasty! Give the poor guy a break, he's just usin' the local vernacular. :lol:

Besides, I kinda like calling a stack of wood 4' x 8' x 16" deep a cord. Gives me bragging rights that I used to feed Big Mo' thirty cords a year. Uh... I mean turdy cords a year.

Around here, a face cord is a stack of wood 4' tall x 8' long x whatever length you cut it to. If 16", there are 3 face cords to a cord, 24" gives you 2 face cords to a cord. 48" gives you a much bigger firebox than I've ever seen.

We also use the term "cord" for both singular and plural. You can get one cord or turdy cord... never cords.

Battenkiller said:

We also use the term "cord" for both singular and plural. You can get one cord or turdy cord... never cords.

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Does that still apply to "face cords"? I tend to waffle a bit on the plural form but it's the same around here, without the S as it is in my sig, turdy six (face) cord(s).

LLigetfa said:

Battenkiller said:

We also use the term "cord" for both singular and plural. You can get one cord or turdy cord... never cords.

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Does that still apply to "face cords"? I tend to waffle a bit on the plural form but it's the same around here, without the S as it is in my sig, turdy six (face) cord(s).

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Come to think of it, they're face cords. But no manly men really ever use the term, so it's a mute point. Anybody buying face cords usually pays dearly to get just one for the fireplace. Besides, you can only get up to 2 of them before you're into a real cord, so the plural form is almost useless. I can't count much past 10 anyway, so I need to go with the full cord or I won't know how much wood I've got.

I live in MI and work in Ohio. Here in lower MI, nearly everyone sells by the face cord, and most all of them call them "cords". I don't buy my wood, I have enough of my own to process, but I look around every now and again and see what the prices are. Even the big firewood places where people buy 5+ full cords from a year, the price is by the face cord.
A face in my area usually goes for about $40-60 depending. More towards the city it gets round $70/face, but always, a face cord. The big question is, how long are the splits, that's a huge question of all "face cords"

Where I work in central Ohio, nobody even knows what a face cord is. It's always sold by the regular or full cord, which IMHO, is the only way to sell or buy wood because you know exactly what you should be selling/getting. Face cord is a loose term and the sellers seem to always make 16 or 14" splits and still call them "face cords".

73blazer said:

Face cord is a loose term and the sellers seem to always make 16 or 14" splits and still call them "face cords".

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That's exactly what's wrong with a face cord. Could be 32 cuft, could be 48.

fishinpa said:

I installed a QF 4300 step-top prior to last winter. I definitely had the '1st year burner blues" not being prepared with fully seasoned wood.

Over last fall I got all my wood split for this year and burning is not quite the chore it used to be, but I'm wondering about the amount I am going through. Does this seem about normal, excessive,. light??

I can not think of what else you would need to know other than Quadra-Fire 4300 (ACC) and we're running it wide open full time when consuming this amount of wood.

Let me know if I missed providing some info.

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Man I run mine 24/7 and that is way to much wood...............

Battenkiller said:

LLigetfa said:

Battenkiller said:

We also use the term "cord" for both singular and plural. You can get one cord or turdy cord... never cords.

Click to expand...

Does that still apply to "face cords"? I tend to waffle a bit on the plural form but it's the same around here, without the S as it is in my sig, turdy six (face) cord(s).

Click to expand...

Come to think of it, they're face cords. But no manly men really ever use the term, so it's a mute point. Anybody buying face cords usually pays dearly to get just one for the fireplace. Besides, you can only get up to 2 of them before you're into a real cord, so the plural form is almost useless. I can't count much past 10 anyway, so I need to go with the full cord or I won't know how much wood I've got.

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Actually, a "mute point" is a fact which can not speak (? huh ? ).....and a "moot point" is a fact of little or no practical value or meaning; purely academic.

I say this entire discussion is moot......so I shall now become mute.

cmcramer said:

Actually, a "mute point" is a fact which can not speak (? huh ? ).....and a "moot point" is a fact of little or no practical value or meaning; purely academic.

I say this entire discussion is moot......so I shall now become mute.

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Well, I admitted I can't count, and now you know my grammer ain't too good neither. What I need is a spell checker with AI. I never was much of an academic, but I suppose that point is academic. Or moot.

Now I'm off to the dungeon to do something about the huge bed of hickory coals that mysteriously appeared overnight. Let's get some warmth in this place... coldest night of the year so far.

Gosh youse guys doon't knoow proper English!

The plural of cord is cord. Youse guys oughta save the S's to make the word "you" plural. Then you'll sOUnd like you knooow somethin' 'bOUt burnin' woood.