Chinook burn times

[Hass]

I'll post everything about the chinook from here on that I learn...

But first a little background on what it took to get here.
When I wanted to buy the stove... I called up a dealer near rochester (an ace hardware store actually) to get it ordered and I'd pick it up asap. When I called the man knew nothing of the Chinook. He asked me for a model number on the stove so he can order it. He also asked me if I wanted a gold trim door or anything special, which the chinook has no option of. But the part that annoyed me most of all... Was that my very first question I asked was if he keeps Blaze King Chinooks in stock or if he has to order them. He told me they had a few of them but after the cold weather came they sold out. If he had a few of them, certainly he would've known a little bit about the stove. So finally he ended up telling me he would call me back in a little while with a price... After about 2 days later I heard nothing from him... So I remembered Franks in Syracuse is a member here and I looked him up. It was about an hour and a half further than the other dealer but I wanted to make sure I bought the stove from someone I could trust. I found his email, and sent him a request asking if he could sell me the stove. He responded within a half an hour with all the info... and about a half an hour after that I had the stove paid for and he put the stove in the order to blaze king that day. I ended up getting the stove that weekend... It was a night and day difference between BK dealers. One didn't know a thing about the stove... and Franks knew every question I asked. He even lit up his Chinook display model that morning before my dad and I got there! It was a pleasant surprise to see it in action
I sent Frank an email the other day thanking him for all his help and he told me he managed to get 36 hours with fans running on his Chinook over the weekend.
Frank even found a local source of chimney pipe for my dad and I to go to instead of driving all the way out there.
A+ To frank at fireside chatts.

If I ever have a question about something, there's always someone available to answer it.. Franks was there while I was installing it, and BKVP here on the forums responds to my questions incredibly quickly.
I've nothing but a great experience with the Blaze king company.

Now a little about the Stove...
Over all, it's actually not a bad looking stove in person. I bought the one with curved sides, BK does offer a model with flat sides. It slightly changes the side clearances by a tiny bit.
When the stove was being shipped or packed or moved... Something looks like it got smashed in to the lower portion of the box. the box was crumpled in, but I didn't see any damage to the stove. There were some paint scuffs on the top corners of the stove. Frank gave us a can of stove paint though to take care of that.
I'm am somewhat picky about quality as it's actually my job to look for defects. Obviously the stove isn't perfect, you can tell some things are slightly higher than others, a little crooked... I don't know if things are supposed to be like that or not but it does stick out to me at times. I doubt most people would even notice really. The welds are pretty sub par, but will no doubt do the intended job. There is spatter left on the stove, a few boogers are down near the loading door that I scrapped off. There's quite a bit inside the stove near the bypass. I don't know if they welded that part after it was assembled or not, but that would be a good reason for the spatter and lack of fusion on the welds. The only thing that really did bother me and cause a little bit of trouble I included in pictures. Right on the stove collar, there's a sloppy mig weld that has a start/stop with a lazy fix. It would've taken no more than 30 seconds to put a grinder/dynafile to it and smooth out the start/stop and make sure it doesn't leak. On the other side of the stove (the back side of the stove) it's very lumpy and my DVL connector pipe actually was rubbing and was being help up on it because of how high the weld was. I was tempted to just take a grinder to it myself, but I didn't want to in case I had to warranty the stove or anything. I didn't want to do something that would nullify it. So I just shoved the DVL connector on there and made it fit... It took ended up pushing the inside of the DVL pipe away from the stove collar so it's not as tight of a fit as it probably should be, but I used up a bunch of rutlands to make sure it seals. Could have also taken a little wire wheel or brush to the welds to clean them up... but now I'm just being picky.
Aside from that, everything looks fairly good.
The Ash pan was easily installed, weighs a ton... Holds a pretty good amount of ash with a carrying handle. The Fan kit is included in the Chinook price and already installed for you.

Here's the lumpy weld that held up my DVL pipe. Notice that the vertical seam isn't welded on the inside. They must be fairly confident that outside weld sealed it up. I'm not so confident about it, but I'm not the QC on the project here

Start/stop

American Pride... This picture is absolutely necessary.

 

[Hass]

Temp #2

#3

start of a current attempt at a long burn is with 45.6lbs of Pine/Catalpa. Probably 60/40 mix.

It's 45 degrees out, and the it drafts like a champ. 16' of total chimney to the cap.

 

[ohlongarm]

Aside from the Mfg quirks it's a nice unit and I'm sure it will serve you well keep us posted.Good luck with it.

 

[bogydave]

I like the Made in "North America"
That can mean Canada, Mexico or the USA
Seems like it burns wood fine,
Looking forward to reading how well it does heating for a season. Have fun.

 

[Highbeam]

The "North America" thing bothers me too. That could actually also mean any of those little tiny countries north of Panama as well. Seems they should be able, and proud, to say "Made in America".

 

[SolarAndWood]

The "North America" thing bothers me too. That could actually also mean any of those little tiny countries north of Panama as well. Seems they should be able, and proud, to say "Made in America".

I suppose they might catch some flack for Proudly made North of the Rio Grande with twin flags on it.

 

[Hass]

I figured it said Made in America because they're made in US and Canada. They have a plant in Washington, and one somewhere in canada.
Canadian made goods are ok by me... neighbors have to look out for each other!
Except Mexico... they're the bad neighbor that always throws garbage in your yard.

 

[HotCoals]

I did buy mine from that Ace Hardware.(Jim)
I'm from that area originally(Sodus). I know the guy and he would not budge on price..but ok.
At least he knew what the BKK was..lol.
Ordered it after looking at his display...pretty much like our old BKK but with a cat.
I'm one of the few that has had trouble with the paint peeling off the top.
He was not concerned and told me what paint to buy..so I did..he says they do that...cat stoves.
I was trying to get a back up cat out of the deal..but no way..I don't think he had the power to do that.
I have not done anything else about it but there is something going on with a few others on here.
I paid 3200 with tax and the gov kicked a 1/3 back..otherwise I might not have bought it because the old stove was usable yet..just needed another crack by the door welded again.
I would buy another one and recommend it to people.
I gota say your stove is very nice.

 

[Todd]

Nice stove, hope you have some better hardwood to test out for us. Keep us posted please.

 

[North of 60]

Nice stove, hope you have some better hardwood to test out for us. Keep us posted please.

If he gets more than 10hrs on that southern wimpy pine then its still kicking a$$ with the smaller fire box.

 

[Hass]

Nice stove, hope you have some better hardwood to test out for us. Keep us posted please.

If he gets more than 10hrs on that southern wimpy pine then its still kicking a$$ with the smaller fire box.

My dad did some work at my house and left at about 2, said there was still a good amount of wood left in it. That would've been about 22 hours. I'm working 14 hour days at work so i won't get home till later... Well see if she's still going

 

[Hass]

I called it quits after 13 hours at work... Got a little too sleepy for comfort.

so I got home at about 645pm... I started the fire from cold at 3:15pm yesterday. The stove top was just under 200. It normally sits at about 250-260 on the lowest setting. My house was holding between 70-72 the entire time, which is a good thing because it was approx 40-45 all day. So my fear of overheating the house with it is a moot point. I have a 792sq/ft house for reference. The cat was a couple of hairs above the "active" mark. It appeared the fire was dying down, however there still were 2 splits slightly charred left in the stove on the far side... there weren't many hot ashes around them that I could see. I could also see a few chunks of unburned wood under ash and in one corner. So more or less I have to reload, so I turned it up to #3 and the stove came right to life. I ended up opening the bypass and raking the coals so I can reload on top of what was left. When I opened the stove door, I noticed the inside walls of the stove all over are coated in a goopy tar like mess. It's also kind of bubbly, I don't know if it's creosote or the stove paint. It seems to scrape right off, it almost seems kind of watery. When I woke up this morning I could see a large amount of smoke swirling around inside the stove. Perhaps the firebox temp drops so low that creosote can accumulate inside it since all the heat is being produced by the cat? I highly doubt this, but I don't know. The flue gas temp sits right around 210-220 during low burn. If my stove sets on fire when I reload it, we'll know if it was creosote or not

So 45.6lbs of wood softwood is AT LEAST 27 hours while maintaining cat active. This fire was from a cold start so I imagine that consumed much more wood than a normal reload on a hot stove would have taken.
After I lit the stove off last night, I decided to burn it on 2.25 for about 2 hours to heat up the house, it was fairly cold so that burned up a good amount of wood it looked like. So I absolutely do not doubt 30 hours on softwood is no problem. Perhaps after 15-20 hours you just need to do a quick opening of the bypass, rake the coals around and then close the bypass to get all the wood together.
What I've noticed in all of my burns so far is that the fire tends to favor one side (typically the right side). I use my super cedar in the middle, then the fire will smolder on low off to the right, then maybe all of the coals are too cold to ignite the remaining wood on the left side. Which is what happened today it looked like. So maybe the key is to start the fire in either the front or rear or in a corner. That way it won't divide the wood in the firebox.

What do other BK owners have to say about how the firebox burns? Does it end up burning your wood thoroughly at the end of the burn? Or are some chunks leftover?

edit;
As far as me having hardwood to test it on, I don't have hard cord wood. I do however, have about 1 1/2 cords of Hardwood oak pallet boards. All 1x6 and 2x4 rough cut. Kiln dried, and I've had them stacked out back. According to the firebox size, I should be able to cram somewhere in the neighboorhood of 110-120lbs of it in there. It should be fairly easy to get it all in there since it's dimensional lumber and all straight.
If 30+ hours comes from 40lbs of pine, what comes from 100+ lbs of hardwood? :O I'm actually thinking the fire might go out if it's on too low.

that firebox is bout the same size as princess so it should be ok.

It has a lower minimum btu than the princess though. Princess gets 20 hour burn time of 40lbs of softwood. Chinook gets 30 hour burn time on 40lbs of softwood from Blaze Kings claims. This was what sealed the deal with me getting the Chinook over princess.

I'm one of the few that has had trouble with the paint peeling off the top.
He was not concerned and told me what paint to buy..so I did..he says they do that...cat stoves.

I'm glad he knew about the king, lol. After him telling you that all cat stoves do that, I'm even more glad I didn't go to him!
Send a message over to BKVP and ask him what they can do for ya.
Thanks for the compliments about the stove, I'm glad you like your king! I don't think I've ever read anyone unhappy with the performance of a BK stove.


also, looking the the pictures there... I didn't even notice the vertical down MIG weld in the picture of inside the stove in the bottom right corner. Vertical down gmaw welds with 70s-6 (or any wire in 98% of cases) are very well known to be prone to cracking especially in areas of heat stress. Usually a severe lack of penetration since the weld just rolls down the metal, and doesn't actually penetrate in to it. It may be suitable in the application, but I imagine they either have a crane or can afford one to do a simple flipping of the stove to get it in position better. I see a lot of posts about people having cracked welds, and if blaze king is supposedly the Cadillac of stove manufacturers, I can only imagine what other stoves look like inside. Needless to say I'll be giving this stove a good look over in the near future.
I'm also definitely getting a wood smell leaking from near the stove collar on low burn. Not on 2 or above.
I'd also like to point out, that when the stove top is about 450+ the convection deck has a noticeable warp in it. Probably at least 3/8-1/2" or so, I'm willing to bet if I pushed the stove to 600 it would be pretty bad. It has always gone back to being perfectly flat when it cools down however.
Although there are many flaws that I can see so far, I am absolutely satisfied with my purchase. It performs as intended, which is what matters most to me in the end.

 

[greythorn3]

that firebox is bout the same size as princess so it should be ok.

 

[Todd]

Impressive burn time for soft wood. Doesn't sound like it puts out much heat at the end but for a small home like yours it may be perfect to just load it up once per day and burn low and slow. I think I'd mix some of that pallet wood in with some of your soft wood at first before trying a full load of it. Kiln dried pallet wood can really take off on you.

 

[rdust]

Perhaps the firebox temp drops so low that creosote can accumulate inside it since all the heat is being produced by the cat? I highly doubt this, but I don't know. The flue gas temp sits right around 210-220 during low burn. If my stove sets on fire when I reload it, we'll know if it was creosote or not

It's not paint, the inside of the stove will get pretty nasty on low burn since the cat does all the work. We're basically smoldering on low burn feeding the cat with smoke but the cat burns up all the crap so the flue stays clean. When you burn it hot it'll clean up the inside. It isn't just the glass that gets dirty on a low burn.

 

[Hass]

It's not paint, the inside of the stove will get pretty nasty on low burn since the cat does all the work. We're basically smoldering on low burn feeding the cat with smoke but the cat burns up all the crap so the flue stays clean. When you burn it hot it'll clean up the inside. It isn't just the glass that gets dirty on a low burn.

Gotcha, I wasn't sure if the firebox really got cold enough for it to accumulate or not. thanks. Does it flare up pretty bad when it does go? Or does it kind of just burn off?
I was surprised at how clean the glass stayed!! at 1.5 It stays perfect throughout the whole burn. When I did it the last two times on 1, it gets pretty yucky in the corners... But there was no build up at 1.5

I decided to crank her all the way up... get it to 600 if I can since it's supposedly safe. That way I can be 100% confident that it's creosote that I'm smelling thereafter, and not residual paint curing.
Running at 2.5 now and heating up.

I measured the warp on the convection deck @ 400 degrees and it was 1/4"
We'll see how bad it gets at temp.

Impressive burn time for soft wood. Doesn't sound like it puts out much heat at the end but for a small home like yours it may be perfect to just load it up once per day and burn low and slow. I think I'd mix some of that pallet wood in with some of your soft wood at first before trying a full load of it. Kiln dried pallet wood can really take off on you.

I was thinking either this, or just do small 1/4-1/3 loads of pallet wood to see how it reacts. They're absolutely bone dry. No color to it, cracks all throughout.

 

[rdust]

Gotcha, I wasn't sure if the firebox really got cold enough for it to accumulate or not. thanks. Does it flare up pretty bad when it does go? Or does it kind of just burn off?
I was surprised at how clean the glass stayed!! at 1.5 It stays perfect throughout the whole burn. When I did it the last two times on 1, it gets pretty yucky in the corners... But there was no build up at 1.5

It'll just burn off, you won't even notice it. Mine stays pretty clean on the sides, the back of the stove usually is where I see it, it's not runny it's more crispy. :lol:

 

[Todd]

I was thinking either this, or just do small 1/4-1/3 loads of pallet wood to see how it reacts. They're absolutely bone dry. No color to it, cracks all throughout.

Make sure you leave out the nails, the galvanized can poison the cat.

 

[Hass]

Make sure you leave out the nails, the galvanized can poison the cat.

Yep, anything with nails in it is in a seperate stack for the shed stove
Mostly all the oak pallet wood are scraps, so they've never been used. Just too short (12-18" or so) to be used in a pallet... So no fear of nails in them. I did however bust up quite a few pallets, and have another 60-70 sitting at the end of my driveway waiting for me to cut up -.-

In other news, the deck was at about 510-520 running on 2.5, so I cranked her up to 3... flue temps are 800 right now, cat thermo is pegged over.
I can already smell paint now, definitely paint and not creosote. So I'm hopeful that the paint hasn't cured fully because I never actually reached the 600 required... But now I think I might be able to reach it if theres enough wood, but I doubt it will hold it there for 2 hours without a reload -.-

I looked it up, and my Ameri vent pipe is rated 1000F continuous, 1400F brief forced firing for 1hr.
We're at 550 stove top and 880 flue right now.

final update;
550 was as high as it got. slowly started to drop off after that.
550 might be the max temp for the stove, or I else it was that I ran out of wood. There was quite a bit of wood in the back of the stove but it wasn't flaming yet.
Perhaps I'll try tomorrow. Definitely smelling a pretty good amount of paint... So I think I gotta get her up to 6... Maybe I'll try some of that pallet wood tomorrow

 

[Hass]

I would like to clear up one thing... perhaps restore some honor to the Blaze king.

This goes back to my burn in fire.
When I was installing the stove, I kept everything in the stove that went with it. This way I wouldn't lose it. My grandfather gave me a lighter for it... Just one of those cheap 99 cent things with a nose/pointer, I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about. Plastic body, thin gauge steel tip (a few inches long, maybe 6"?). It wasn't anything special, just something to celebrate the occasion and maybe so I think of him whenever I use it
So after he gave it to me, I figured obviously I'd lite my first fire with it... So I put it in the stove so I wouldn't lose it.

Then the Inspector comes and goes, so I take everything out (I actually dump everything out on a nearby table I'm so excited) and load up the kindling. I put the sudercedar in, then go to lite it and can't find the lighter! I was pretty bummed, but I figured I just used it for something else or the girlfriend lit some candles with it and didn't put it back. So I grabbed a cheapo lighter I had in the bathroom drawer and lit it up... About 5-10 minutes in to the burn the kindling blew apart in what I thought at the time was a backpuff. During the break in, whenever I was outside I'd smell a hint of burning plastic. I figured it's just the stove cement I used on the stove adapter, or the paint curing up. I'm sure you guys see where I'm going by now...

When I was cleaning the stove today, I noticed a long rod in the stove. I was like what... the hell is this? So I pick it out, and there she is... the only part that remained of the poor lighter my grandfather bought me. When I was cleaning the stove, I also noticed some red baked in with the creosote on the back of the inside of the stove. It flaked right off and I removed all I could.

So... How do you possibly ruin a $4000 stove? Just leave it to me... So the truth is, the stove never backpuffed. I was kind of worried about it, when in fact it was just my brain fart failing to see the lighter. It must have been up in the very front of the stove where I couldn't see it when I emptied the stove. It also would explain why it didn't explode sooner. Luckily for me, the cat wasn't engaged at the time, or for a good time after it... so hopefully most of the crap got burned off before the cat engaged. All this time I've been so careful and don't even burn newspaper in it because of the fly ash... But yet in my haste/excitement I overlooked something that could have been disastrous.
Aw well, best not to dwell on the past.

 

[bogydave]

Bummer Hass
You may not have the lighter but you have a great story to remember it.
Started the new stove off with a BANG!
Go buy one just like it & every time yo use it you'll remember the story