Blaze King Question

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nate379

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On the Blaze King, where does the fresh air come into the firebox? I know the outdoor air kit is connected in the back, but how does it vent into the actual stove?


I have been burning for about 3 months now, pretty much 24/7. I noticied that the back wall of the stove has quite a bit of cresote on it. I am able to scrape if off fairly easy with the ash poker, so I'm going to let the fire go out today and clean everything out well tomorrow with a scrapper. Also will pull the chimney to check.

The top inside the firebox seems to be fairly clean as well as the sides and the glass, not really sure what would make the back collect cresote?

Some folks say to clean the chimney at least once a year, but I don't see any harm in doing it more often.
 
Can't answer your question about the outside air kit, but I can contribute to creosote build-up inside the stove.

The King has a steel plate on the left, right and rear of the inside of the firebox...these plates block my view of the sides and rear, but I can see creosote build-up in all 4 corners. So far, no build-up in the chimney. I have only been burning 24/7 for about 3 weeks.
 
If you open the door to your stove, you will see a long horizontal slot across the top of the door opening. The air comes in at that point and then washes across the front door glass. This is how it is in their current models. Some of the older ones had up to three air inlets. You can check out the manuals on their web site for the older ones and their design.
 
The BK brochure has a nice cutaway schematic showing the routing. I recall BBC's statement about all primary air coming in through the glasswash. Seem to recall a secondary air feeder for the cat but that might be the woodstocks.

My heritage has a black, creo covered back wall too. Very little air back there to support combustion but that smoke gets burnt before it hits the chimney in either the secondary fire of my non-cat or the cat of your BK.
 
Pictures. Last one was after I emptied out the stove (ash was up to the top of the firebricks!) and scraped most of the back wall. That is what came off.

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Looking at the pictures, your firebox has more than mine by a mile. I do run my stove on high each day for an hour as recommended by BK. I also NEVER load her up and shut it down right away. I always load her up, burn high for an hour then shut it down for the night. I get about 1 cup of crud out of the stack each year. When the stove does have any build up. scraping was too much work, so I just burned it on high for a few hours and the inside looks primo!
 
If I burned on high for an hour I would burn down the house! 15-20 mins and it's plenty hot to be in "active" so I engage the cat and kick it down to #2 for a bit, 15-20 mins and then I dial it down to where I want it, usually around #1 or a bit lower.

I forgot it on high once for about 45 mins and the temp gauge was almost off the white section on the BK thermostat and over 800* on my Rutland T Stat.

Burning kiln dried lumber scraps, spruce and birch. The spruce/birch was seasoned over a year and moisture meter is showing 16%-22% depending on what log and where I measure. It's dry enough I can just about light it with just holding the lighter to the log for a bit.

I'm going to pull the pipe off the stove this evening to check and clean it, I hope it looks better than the stove does.
 
Yup, That's from burning low and slow while the wood is still wet. My box looked like that too. If possible follow BBC's advice on burning wide open for an hour or so, then slowly shut it down 3.5 -3, 3-2.5, 2.5-2, etc.. That is what works for me.

As for the air? Look at the top pic in your post. At the top of the pic you can see the angled steel just above the cat. The air comes through there. If you look just to the left and right of the cat near the rear of the stove you can see 2 tubes. The air from the t-stat comes through the tubes to the front of the stove.
 
Thanks for the photos Nate, I've never really seen the inside of the firebox before. It certainly looks well built and detailed--hold down shields for the firebricks, standoff plates on the sides.
 
So is 800* stove top temp ok? With it running at #1 it runs about 450* stove top temp, BK T Stat runs about 12:00 position or so.

Glass stays pretty much clean other than a little bit in the bottom 2 corners. Did have problems with it turning all black early this season but it was me trying to learn the stove is all. I was loading the stove full and trying to turn it down too much to not overheat the house when I should have just put in a few logs instead. Now I can load it fully, but it's quite a bit colder outside now.

If the chimney is fairly clean I'm not going to stress too much over it, but I did see some pics on here of another BK insides and I think it would have passed a white glove inspection compared to mine!


learnin to burn said:
Yup, That's from burning low and slow while the wood is still wet. My box looked like that too. If possible follow BBC's advice on burning wide open for an hour or so, then slowly shut it down 3.5 -3, 3-2.5, 2.5-2, etc.. That is what works for me.

As for the air? Look at the top pic in your post. At the top of the pic you can see the angled steel just above the cat. The air comes through there. If you look just to the left and right of the cat near the rear of the stove you can see 2 tubes. The air from the t-stat comes through the tubes to the front of the stove.
Click to expand...
 
I didn't see your reply to BBC, If I had I would have only mentioned the air inlet.

800 °F for short periods shouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't keep it there for hours on end.
 
NATE379 said:
If I burned on high for an hour I would burn down the house! 15-20 mins and it's plenty hot to be in "active" so I engage the cat and kick it down to #2 for a bit, 15-20 mins and then I dial it down to where I want it, usually around #1 or a bit lower.
Click to expand...

+1 It would roast me straight out the house!
 
Its got to be the wood, mines clean as a whistle inside, Im heating a big space so I run mine pretty hot most of the time.
 
I have a King Classic and mine will build up creosote behind the shields. It's very minimal with seasoned wood. The wood I have right now isn't perfect, so I'm getting a bit more creosote. I scrape it out and burn it hot once in a while.

Mine seems to build more on the back wall. Maybe from the blowers cooling the stove off there?
 
Cleaned the chimney and I'm glad I did it. I got about 2 cups of creosote out of it. Was all black flakey so cleaned out easy at least.

Not sure if that is a normal amount or not, the way some of you guys talk the pipe and stove should stay brand new looking.
 
kgrant said:
I have a King Classic and mine will build up creosote behind the shields. It's very minimal with seasoned wood. The wood I have right now isn't perfect, so I'm getting a bit more creosote. I scrape it out and burn it hot once in a while.

Mine seems to build more on the back wall. Maybe from the blowers cooling the stove off there?
Click to expand...
its cooler back there and thats why ya get a litle build up. that the onl place i get a little. when burning on low. now that its a little cooler firebox is clean. also using 3 year old wood.
 
NATE379 said:
Pictures. Last one was after I emptied out the stove (ash was up to the top of the firebricks!) and scraped most of the back wall. That is what came off.
Click to expand...
What'd ya take all the ashes out for? when you clean the firebox out you should leave a least a couple inches. i took some out for the first time after a month of burning but still left a decent layer on the bottom.
 
Hot burns will clean things up, run your fan on high to keep cat temp below 1700 degrees.


<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td>
DSC_0061.jpg
</td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From fire up the bk</td></tr></table>
 
Man the size of that firebox makes me drool! I am soooo envious!
 
I purchased a few of the North Idaho Energy Logs (8% moisture content) and burn those once a week. With 68,000 Btu's per log, I put four at a time in my stove and let her rip! I had to be careful to make certain there was enough air for that much fuel, so I could not run the stove on less than a high setting. If however I just want some limited amount of heat, I can just put in two of the logs and that works great for medium and low heat output fires....here's a link. By the way, their claim for little ash is true. I once went 30 days burning only their logs and the ash was less than an inch deep across the entire bottom of my King. And the firebox looks awesome inside. Love the picture of the fire!
 
Yeah it does burn better with an ash bed, but it won't take long to build it up decent.

ecocavalier02 said:
NATE379 said:
Pictures. Last one was after I emptied out the stove (ash was up to the top of the firebricks!) and scraped most of the back wall. That is what came off.
Click to expand...
What'd ya take all the ashes out for? when you clean the firebox out you should leave a least a couple inches. i took some out for the first time after a month of burning but still left a decent layer on the bottom.
Click to expand...
 
Really? I thought it was a normal size. The King is quite a bit larger. I would have got that one but it would have taken too much space in the living room.

certified106 said:
Man the size of that firebox makes me drool! I am soooo envious!
Click to expand...
 
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