2016-17 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)
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Side panels help reduce radiant heat which affords closer clearances. Pay attention to the change in clearances if the side panels are removed.
In office buildings I used to replace my graduated thermostat covers with blank or "Warmer-Cooler" covers. It solved endless argument.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
Shayne
New Member
Thank you HB much appreciated. So 3 o'clock is 1.5 and 4 numbers at 60 degrees starting at 0. Helps reading older threads.
Regards
EDIT: Is this Jetsam for real?
Pretty constructive post dude.
Regards
EDIT: Is this Jetsam for real?
Pretty constructive post dude.
Thank you HB much appreciated. So 3 o'clock is 1.5 and 4 numbers at 60 degrees starting at 0. Helps reading older threads.
Regards
EDIT: Is this Jetsam for real?
Not exactly.
1 is at or near 1 o'clock
2 is at 3 o'clock
3 is at or near 5 o'clock
There are dots between the numbers that would represent .5, the last dot is at 6 o'clock which would represent 3.5
Edit to say that these are by the numbers on my stove. To further complicate things, I have heard that not all stoves share the same numbering.
Shayne
New Member
From Tarzan's last post I am starting to understand this one. New model change the dial, got it.
Regards
Yes they changed it. A few years back and some folks are still not over it. Highbeam summed it up very well. No 2 setups are the same, too many people were getting hung up in the fact that their stove wasn't performing as well as their neighbors on the same number setting. Remove the numbers, remove part of the problem was the thought. The insert always had dots rather than numbers as far as I know, the stoves all had numbers until a few years ago, now we have the *swoosh*... O,clock references are just fine, it works.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Yup, that's how board people get owning these stoves, normal people are busy loading, adjusting the air every hour, looking at stove top thermometers then comparing it to smoke pipe ones, bringing in more cut firewood for the midnight, ext.. we just sit here and argue about numbers because there's nothing to do since we have long burn timesOh yeah
I can't seem to string enough cold days together for 24/7 burning. I guess I could check out some of the "I had enough coals to relight after eight hours" threads. For the life of me I can't understand why you'd want to make burning wood more work than it already is.That said if that's what you have and it works for you by all means. If I had to wake up in the middle of the night to load my stove I wouldn't burn wood. I just went from soft maple to my 3 old year white oak. Told the wife this thing was boring going 12 hours now I gotta wait almost thirty lol. Goal for this year get more soft wood so I'll have something to do!
[emoji23]The numbers were removed from the dial a few years ago. God please! Don't get this started again
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Shayne
New Member
Bored new princess owner here that is why I am here raise Sh!t about dials.
Of course even if two were burning the same species hardwood in exactly the same build home with one harvested and living in Northern Canada and one from Washington State the growth rates of the species would be different and hence the BTU output. Way to many variables in the equation to determine that.
I have a question how much did your consumption go down when you switch to a BK Cat stove and what were you running prior? That would freeze some of the variables based on average temp over the long term, same fuel, same house, same stack etc. The princess is stated as 81% efficient which makes me feel like I am doing something, not just for the air but for the forest, but I have no data on what my old one was or if it is as simple as 81-x when it comes to consumption. Now it appears that we burn at warmer temps since this stove purrs so nice which will also complicate it a bit but I am interested in what others experiences were regarding consumption after the switch.
Regards
On average I think it is safe to say that I'm burning 1/3 less wood with the BK than I have in the past. This would be with smoke dragons and one tube stove. Ironically the tube stove was the least fun to run do to the fact that it only ran at virtually one setting that often left me wanting less heat and or a bigger firebox.
The hardest variable to duplicate is winter, no two are alike here. We're not burning 24-7 yet and in recent past winters we were 24-7 by mid Nov. or before.
The hardest variable to duplicate is winter, no two are alike here. We're not burning 24-7 yet and in recent past winters we were 24-7 by mid Nov. or before.
I'm constantly changing stoves here, it's my thing. I always have a Blaze King and some other stove, typically a non-cat. The BK does the majority of our heating, the other is mainly just for our front room or when the temps are in the teens. The non-cats I've had easily consume 3x the wood the wood the BK consumes. Same environment, same wood. They have a beautiful fire and typically make too much heat, leaving me with burn times that are disappointing.. There will always be a Blaze King on my hearth!Bored new princess owner here that is why I am here raise Sh!t about dials.
Of course even if two were burning the same species hardwood in exactly the same build home with one harvested and living in Northern Canada and one from Washington State the growth rates of the species would be different and hence the BTU output. Way to many variables in the equation to determine that.
I have a question how much did your consumption go down when you switch to a BK Cat stove and what were you running prior? That would freeze some of the variables based on average temp over the long term, same fuel, same house, same stack etc. The princess is stated as 81% efficient which makes me feel like I am doing something, not just for the air but for the forest, but I have no data on what my old one was or if it is as simple as 81-x when it comes to consumption. Now it appears that we burn at warmer temps since this stove purrs so nice which will also complicate it a bit but I am interested in what others experiences were regarding consumption after the switch.
Regards
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
On my same hearth, same house, same wood, same chimney I moved from an EPA noncat hearthstone heritage to my princess for the long burn times. I really wanted easy overnight burns and in a 1700 SF home like mine you overheat if you get a noncat big enough to make it 12 hours so I switched to a cat stove and got those long even burn times.
One side effect is reduced wood consumption. Mine was not too extreme, just a cord less on average. So down from 4-5 to 3-4 but that is still 20-25% and with a much more comfortable house due to the even burning. It is likely that on average my house is warmer so I'm spending more btus.
So I save a cord of wood per year. In my location that is a 200$ savings which quickly pays for a new cat and door gasket every other year if they are needed.
One side effect is reduced wood consumption. Mine was not too extreme, just a cord less on average. So down from 4-5 to 3-4 but that is still 20-25% and with a much more comfortable house due to the even burning. It is likely that on average my house is warmer so I'm spending more btus.
So I save a cord of wood per year. In my location that is a 200$ savings which quickly pays for a new cat and door gasket every other year if they are needed.
I had a century stove with <1 cu. ft. of firebox space. I could only burn for 4 hours without a reload on a good night, and struggled to keep even heat in a 2200 sqft 2-story house with R11 in the walls. I had an unbearably hot living room, and frigid bedrooms.
I think I burn from 2/3 to 1/2 the wood now with the Ashford 30.1, but actually maintain 24 hr burning (so I'm actually getting in more burn time on less wood). The gas furnace no longer kicks on, so we're saving there too. The house has a nice, even heat now too.
I think I burn from 2/3 to 1/2 the wood now with the Ashford 30.1, but actually maintain 24 hr burning (so I'm actually getting in more burn time on less wood). The gas furnace no longer kicks on, so we're saving there too. The house has a nice, even heat now too.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
My wood consumption dropped from as high as a cord per week to roughly a cord per three weeks, when I switched from Jotul to BK.
Wow! I knew you burned a lot, but that's insane! I went through 2/3 of a cord from October 8th through November 26th (over seven weeks). Granted, it hasn't been super cold yet this year.
Happy camper here and perfect timing as our temperatures are going to dive in the coming week. The King was installed today and we are doing the first burn with intermittent smoke alarms. Got the OAK installed through the floor and out with little problem so now I just need to repack insulation and put the sheetrock back up. First load was a lot of limbs with about 2 big splits of tamarack and 2 of fir. Cat needle is pegged and the smell is starting to fade. Will see how long the first load makes it running with it turned all the way up and the fan on high.
Leave the ashes from that first load in the stove. It will perform better with an established ash bed.
Will do. I have a big bed of glowing red coals now. It is burning down faster than I thought it would, but everything (fan and setting) is still on high and we did not fully load the stove. Thinking I can throw a full load in late tonight and really stuff it before dialing it back a bit and turning the fan down some. Looking forward to learning how it performs, but wish I had some of the old oak I used to cut for grandmother in Florida!
Run the fans however you need to heat your home but the scrubber effect will reduce burn times as the thermostat fights against the fans to maintain stove temps.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
So you broke the stove in on high burn with high fans? Did the stove come with instructions for breaking in the paint? I recall smaller fires at first.
You don't need oak. These BKs will burn a very long time on the lowest btu woods available such as cottonwood, pine, or doug fir. Less heat will be available from these woods but it's not like the old days where you needed oak to get long burns and heat.
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