Blaze King Sirocco 20 Help thread #2
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alforit
Feeling the Heat
I never understood why anybody would want such a small cat stove. There's a knob that lets you turn these BKs down. Forget the 20 and build us a 40!
Well I've only had it one night and didn't load it to capacity. From 11p to 10a was still going fine, added a little more wood before leaving. Tonight will be the test night for those 30 hour burns on low as advertised. I'm ecstatic that its keeping the house warm into the morning.
It was sufficient if working correctly to heat up what area I needed heating and some of us need to save a few bucks where we can. It seemed over indulgent to get an oversized stove. As it is, the 30 seems just right. The 20 - I wouldn't recommend to anyone unless they lived in a studio or small 1 bedroom.
I like to run mine hot hot hot for about an hour before turning down low. a 40! In my lil house. Fuhgettabout it!
I'm getting used to the look of black glass. It does mostly burn off, not always evenly. I run it hot for about 20 minutes when I reload at night, then low until it gets reloaded sometime following day. Trying to be efficient with this wood - saving it for when it drops into the 20s again (CA wimp) as I only have 1/2 cord of properly seasoned wood. Its over 70 degrees for the first time in the adjoining bedroom. Very happy. Good luck with your set up.
Charles1981
Minister of Fire
So what is the general consensus regarding the 20 vs the 30? Defective stove for the 20 most likely explanation?
That or too little draft. The 20 and 30 should function the same way minus the 30 is larger. And the 20 should produce enough heat to keep 1000-1500 sqft toasty.
To be clear, the 30 is a great size but is as small as a cat stove should be. I would rather see R&D spent on a 40 size than something like a 20. On low, all of the BK stoves put out about the same amount of heat. The smaller firebox gains you a couple of inches less physical size, maybe save a couple of dollars on this high end purchase, and a much reduced burn time for any given heat setting. Burn times are very very important to real burners.
Smaller than a 30 and you are in "decorative" land or part time burning where burn times aren't as important.
Seeing how it kept my house warm while it was -6 out while still getting 8-10 hour burn times, I would say ""decorative" land" is not very accurate.
Obviously, decisions made with a decorative basis may still result in an effective heater. You made compromises that you could live with in order to have the aesthetic pleasure of a miniature stove. The most obvious compromise is that it only kept your house warm for 8-10 hours instead of a 12-16. Would have been nice to sleep in eh?
These are BK cat stoves. They all have alien technology and there is no bad choice in the line. Just better choices.
Isn't the BK Sirocco or Ashford 30 almost the same size as the Princess? How is this a small stove for a cat at almost 3 cu ft.? The good thing is that it has a 6" flue which makes it much more universal for installation. To me the Sirocco/Ashford 30 seems just right sized for the average home of 2000 sq ft or under.
Correct, the 30 is about the same as the princess which is just under 3CF of thermostatic greatness. The 20 series stoves are the ministoves.
2 cu ft stoves have their place. There are a lot of 1000-1500 sq ft homes that could be happy with this stove, particularly if the place is well sealed and insulated or in a milder climate. It seems like the OPs real issue was a leaky home perhaps with more sq ftg and poorer insulation than first thought. Her dealer turned out to be first rate.
Our first BK King was bought in 86 ,then we went to look at new stoves in 2010 because of the fed tax deal and I knew i wanted a cat. Anyways while in the first stove shop the wife looked at me and said" are these all just miniatures for display?" lol..there were no kings there and that was what she was used to seeing.
The rest is history..I got my way easy..lol.
I think I would burn myself outta here with a 30. Yes you can turn it down but start up is way hot I can't imagine a 30? Call it decorative but I load mine 2x a day and it runs 24/7.
Not sure what you're doing but startup does not need to be "way hot". You must have adopted some odd startup sequence that is not required. All you need to do is get the cat meter to active and then flop the bypass and turn down the stat. The cat probe goes active when flue temps are near 500, that's pretty cold.
Loading 2x a day and burning full time is still a good end result.
Does it say to burn hot or to burn on "high" stat setting. I suspect you are meeting the letter but not the intent.
Again, my conclusion was that the real issue was related to how the thermostat was installed. Low did not equal Low. Medium was the actual Low and past High was the actual High. There was a stop only at 6 o'clock - it ran fine on high. It ran fine on medium. But it conked out whenever I tried to turn it down to low. The dealer only saw it cranked on high. The thermostat on this 30 has a stop at High, High=High (at about 5 o'clock). It does not have a stop at Low so I still have to be careful how far past medium I can go before it conks out. But at least I am aware of this issue and can operate the stove so that it can burn - although probably less than half of the advertised burns of 30 hours ion low
I agree about the dealer - he did come through. Very grateful.
And BTW for whoever checked on the mild temps here: NOAA typically reports at least 10 degrees higher over night temps than the weather.com site - we have had daily overnight and morning frosts with day time temps ridiculously over 70 degrees. Having day after day of frost is this area's version of a polar vortex. Strange weather for here and I am just trying to have late evenings and early mornings with indoor temps at least a little over 60 degrees.
Regardless, all is well now. And thanks to all again for the input.
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