Blaze King Belching smoke

Someone just sent me a PM about this yesterday. Below is my response to them:

Yes, I also have a short rise coming out of my stove (BKK). I come off my stove and immediately neck down to 6”. I want to say I only have about 20” of vertical rise before my first 90° turn, I have about 30” of horizontal run before hitting my Tee (a 90°), and then go straight up 35’ (interior insulated flue), all 6".

I do get some smoke spillage if my door is all the way open for a period of time when I go to reload. I honestly think that’s the nature of the beast with this stove since I’ve heard this over and over again from many people, regardless of install configuration. I also had this stove installed in my garage with a straight shot up through the roof, it did the same thing, even with an 8” flue. If anything, it’s better with my 6” flue because it seems to keep the flue temp up a little more.

I think the reason for the smoke spillage when reloading is the flue just stays so cool with these stoves. I routinely see stack temps (18” above the stove outlet) below 200° in the middle or second half of a burn cycle. When I go to reload at the end of a cycle, my flue temp just above the stove is typically ~150° or so, and I’m sure it’s much cooler further up. Obviously this does little to promote a strong smoke-free draft when reloading.

I’ve found two ways of dealing with it. One is to just open and close the door and reload as quickly as possible. This is what I usually do just because it’s easy and the small amount of smoke that comes in isn’t much of an issue to me. The other method works great, but takes more time and work. If I throw several small branches in (3/4” - 2”) and get a roaring fire going for about 15 minutes or so before reloading the stove, this will heat the flue up enough so I can reload w/o smoke any spillage. This works well, but as I mentioned, it takes more time and effort… The other thing you could do is use a draft inducer, but I’m fine with it as it stands.

So at the end of the day, I don’t think the initial vertical run coming out of the stove is as critical as they would have you believe. My experience suggests getting heat into the flue is what’s critical if you’re worried about smoke spillage at reloading. Otherwise, the stove is an absolute dream!

With 8" double wall stove pipe to a ceiling adaptor and class A straight up from there, I can open the door at any point in the burn and get no puff of any kind. I agree that the spec is probably overkill as I rarely open the door more than once per burn cycle anyway.

I just want to chime in to say that with my straight, exterior, 25' insulated stovepipe I NEVER get smoke spillage into my house from my Princess unless I open the door really fast. It hasn't happened once in three months of steady burning.

All the issues I've heard about have been with the King model, I don't recall hearing any smoke spillage issues with reloading the Princess.

Wet1 is right on with what he is saying. Unless you can go strait up, you most likely will have a little smoke spillage. I had a short rise and tried the 90 and the 45's, in my case the 90 worked a lot better especially when it was warm out. (40°F+) I raised my thimble so I now have 38 inch rise but I still get smoke. 2 things contribute to the amount, first is how long I wait with the bypass open to load the stove. If I give it 20-30 minutes I will only get an occasional puff. If I try to load with less than 10 minutes of the bypass being open I'll have a slow stream of smoke. Second thing is moister content of the wood. The more moister the more smoke will escape.

I haven't seen or heard any issues with the Princess either.

Open the handle for the bypass, turn the t-stat on high and leave the front door closed! I use to crack the door to get the flame going, but my chimney temperature dropped. I reasoned I was letting 70 degree air into the stove and cooling it. So by leaving the front door closed and waiting 10 minutes, my chimney got really hot and my spillage problem went away. By the way, try double wall pipe and there are lots of guys here that have said it helped greatly.

As for the suggestion by the guys here to use 45's, yup...I'd do it.

You shouldn't be relaoding that thing till there is nothing but enough coals left to restart a new load.

Hogwildz said:

You shouldn't be relaoding that thing till there is nothing but enough coals left to restart a new load.

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+1 and a new load should fill the firebox every time.

SolarAndWood said:

Hogwildz said:

You shouldn't be relaoding that thing till there is nothing but enough coals left to restart a new load.

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+1 and a new load should fill the firebox every time.

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2x
full load 3x a day like clockwork here. Unless its above 35-40, then sometimes only 2x per day.
Work smarter, not harder.
With that Blaze King, I would imagine it would only need 1x per day load according to the BK secret society

Hogwildz said:

With that Blaze King, I would imagine it would only need 1x per day load according to the BK secret society

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Maybe after I get Tyvek, foam, siding and drywall on the house. Until then, 2x a day to keep the girls happy.

One Load A Day! 34 outside low, 42 high daytime....

BigBlockChevy said:

One Load A Day! 34 outside low, 42 high daytime....

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I'd be more impressed if you could do 1 load a day when the outside temp in single digits or less with 30-40 mile an hour winds.
With 42 degree daytime temp, I can even load 1x a day and still have coals for refill.
Course, not many 43 days round here till march/april.

Hogwildz said:

I'd be more impressed if you could do 1 load a day when the outside temp in single digits or less with 30-40 mile an hour winds.

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We get a lot of those days. That would take a small tight house built for the Yukon or tolerance for low interior temperatures. My biggest load in the stove was 110 lbs of locust. Over 24 hours, that is somewhere around 30k an hour?

All the issues I’ve heard about have been with the King model, I don’t recall hearing any smoke spillage issues with reloading the Princess.

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No smoke spillage problem with my princess unless I open the door with the cat engaged, which your not supposed to do anyway.

Same issue with my king, well not belching but some smoke.
Now I let it burn down to coals, then open just a little & stir.
Then let it burn another hour on "High", then it's time for wood. Turn off the fan & load.
I burn birch, so I have to load quick, the bark starts the new fire pretty quick.

bogydave said:

Same issue with my king, well not belching but some smoke.
Now I let it burn down to coals, then open just a little & stir.
Then let it burn another hour on "High", then it's time for wood. Turn off the fan & load.
I burn birch, so I have to load quick, the bark starts the new fire pretty quick.

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Thats the way it should be done.
Just coals never left any smoke in this place.

SolarAndWood said:

Hogwildz said:

I'd be more impressed if you could do 1 load a day when the outside temp in single digits or less with 30-40 mile an hour winds.

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We get a lot of those days. That would take a small tight house built for the Yukon or tolerance for low interior temperatures. My biggest load in the stove was 110 lbs of locust. Over 24 hours, that is somewhere around 30k an hour?

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Agreed. If all homes were as tight & insulated to specs like that of up far north.
The further south ya go, seems the more lax the codes and less tight & insulated the home.

Not on softwoods!

Maybe something like this?

http://www.drawcollar.com/