Introduction Mike @ Blaze King

[BLAZE KING]

Hi my name is Mike and I am the Technical Manager at Blaze King & Valley Comfort
And am happy to help with any Technical or sales inquires into any of are products New or Old Please post or PM me for any required information.

 

[builderbob]

Welcome.

You are a very lucky person to be living in beautiful Penticton, British Columbia. As a kid some 50 years ago, my family vacationed there several times. Over the years since, I have taken my own family there on vacation several times.

Penticton is located in a valley with 300 days a year sunshine (+ or -), nestled between one mountain range separating it from Vancouver and the coast, and other mountains to the east which become the Canadian Rockies. The town is nestled also between the shores of two lakes. Municipal beaches at both the north and south ends of town. I believe it is Skaha(?) lake at the south end, the water seemed to me always warm and pleasant, since Skaha was a smaller lake, and the water at that end of the lake was very shallow quite far out from shore. The lake at the north end of town is dozens of miles long, and subject to the wind blowing down the lake from the north. It always seemed much colder to me. And often windy.

The beauty of the area never fails to disappoint. Nor do all the fresh fruit---peaches, apples, berries grown in the area.
I believe in the last few decades it has also become quite a wine producing region.

Forgive my waxing eloquent. I saw your location listed as Penticton, and all the good memories came flashing back.
I am sure you can give a better "Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Board" narrative than I can.

BTB (born in Washington, now in Oregon)

 

[BLAZE KING]

Thank you for the welcome yes Penticton is lovely I live in Summerland 7 miles up the lake from Penticton the only thing you missed was the many many wineries I think the area now has in access of forty. Blaze King have a factory in Penticton and also one in Walla Walla in Washington.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

hi mike ,
and welcome, i am mike also , im the customer service manager at englands stove works. glad to have you aboard. im happy to see any industry rep (especally us tech guys) to add to the discussion, i am a fan of your product line especially that monster firebox wood unit you produce, great stove. welcome to the best hearth discussion group on the web. we have a great group a mix of homeowners, dealers, and a couple industry reps as well as our resident code official. craig owns the URL but the site is really everybody's. looking forward to "working" with you. have fun , and welcome aboard

mike holton
england's stove works

 

[Shane]

Glad your here Mike. It's been nice seeing more and more industry folks from the manufacturing level.

 

[Gooserider]

WELCOME ABOARD MIKE - hope you won't mind if we call you "BK Mike" or something like that, just so we can tell you from "Englander Mike" :lol: I'm very glad to see industry folks here, as it's good to have experts on particular brands, especially if we get wierd technical questions.

Gooserider

 

[webbie]

Hey, Welcome Mike.

Maybe you can even convince Chris to list your Product line here! He contacted me 3 years ago and wanted to do so, and I called him back twice....but that is as far as my sales calls go! I'd rather spend my time BSing on the Forum and improving the site!

Oh, and that comment from Mike Englander about me owning the URL, but "we" owning the forum. Well, that is somewhat true, but sometimes I have to be the 5 star General (I like Ike) and steer the armies in the right direction. We also have moderators and other nice folks that try to keep things as nice and family friendly as possible - of course, we know you Canadians are naturally nice anyway!

 

[begreen]

Hi Mike, welcome. It's great to have you aboard.

 

[BLAZE KING]

Why thanks for all the warm welcomes there really dose seem to be a great depth of knowledge on this forum. I have only been in Canada for a year and working for Blaze King for five months also new to Wood burning although I have been a Gas fitter for 26 years, so still have a lot to learn about wood burning. But as with most things there is more technology to it than meets the eye and have found it moor interesting than I first fault.
Craig if you would like to e mail me some details to me on advertising and costs I will discuss the options with the owners

 

[elkimmeg]

Welcome good to see anouther manufacturer represented here

Many on the east coast may not be familliar with your brand and how is you distributorship setup for the East and north east

PS there have been quite some battles Pacific Energy and Blaze king going on here. It seems PE owners have a hard time comparing their stoves against a 4.2 fire box size

the other interesting and appealing Blaze king attribute is it effeciency ratings and very clean burning GPH nunbers and fantastic burn times

 

[keyman512us]

Nice to see you are "on board" Mike... Gas fitter eh??? Probably the closest reference to a 'plumber' we have yet to see...(Just a little 'ribbing' from an 'electrician'..lol)

Welcome to the site...

 

[keyman512us]

Very Interesting Mike...

I just checked out the blaze king site...you guys have a 'boiler' coming out soon???

Keep us (me especially..lol) posted on that boiler...

 

[Todd]

Welcome aboard Mike,
It's nice to see another stove manufacturer represented here. One question I have for you is what you think of catalytic technology, and if you think it will improve or go away?

 

[BLAZE KING]

Todd my honest opinion on Catalysts, when I started at Blaze king five months ago I new absolutely nothing about Catalysts and after doing a little research I found quite a lot of negativity to them usually from ignorance my experience is that the only ones I have ok for replacement under warranty (five Years) were due to constant over firing of the product and misuse. If you burn clean properly seasoned wood and give a light dust and vacuum off occasionally they will last a long time. I have seen stoves with the original catalyst still in place and working that are approaching twenty years So yes I think they are the future, that is definitely catalytic most of the new products we our designing now are catalytic.
And hay keyman in the UK I was a Gas Service Engineer and never a cowboy plumber and always made that known to customers, as most of the plumbers we had were not of the highest standard. But hay electricians dont get me started.
Mike

 

[keyman512us]

lol Welcome aboard Mike...You're gonna fit right in here...

 

[cbrodsky]

Welcome aboard Mike,
It's nice to see another stove manufacturer represented here. One question I have for you is what you think of catalytic technology, and if you think it will improve or go away?

C'mon Todd - he just joined! Give him at least a couple weeks before we start a cat/no-cat debate!

:lol:

-Colin

 

[BrotherBart]

Welcome aboard Mike,
It's nice to see another stove manufacturer represented here. One question I have for you is what you think of catalytic technology, and if you think it will improve or go away?

C'mon Todd - he just joined! Give him at least a couple weeks before we start a cat/no-cat debate!

:lol:

-Colin

With Blaze King being a steel Canadian cat stove that doesn't come in red and doesn't burn pellets or coal we could get a half dozen of the favorite arguments all rolled into one!

Of course there wouldn't be any BTU and burn time arguments.

 

[titan]

Hi Mike, come on in....the water's warm here.I've long been intrigued by the King Classic and it's impressive stats.What sealed the deal against Blaze-King during my last stove-search was simply aesthetics{mainly my wife's}.Long story short: if BK can fab. a more eye-pleasing stove{and maintain the high performance#'s},then I want one.Whoever said"function before fashion" wasn't happily{groan} married!

 

[elkimmeg]

Welcome aboard Mike,
It's nice to see another stove manufacturer represented here. One question I have for you is what you think of catalytic technology, and if you think it will improve or go away?

C'mon Todd - he just joined! Give him at least a couple weeks before we start a cat/no-cat debate!

:lol:

-Colin

With Blaze King being a steel Canadian cat stove that doesn't come in red and doesn't burn pellets or coal we could get a half dozen of the favorite arguments all rolled into one!

Of course there wouldn't be any BTU and burn time arguments.

BB I understand BK is thinking of a new color a** end brown its big and nasty and puts humungeous btus

I now know the reason Roo is on vacation his worst fear has arived The 4.2 firebox puts out more heat longer and cleaner than the whore house red.

He never could come to grips with the comparison now he gets to ask the company and a person having a bit more knowledge making it real hard to dispute.

Now we can have mine is bigger than yours mine burns cleaner than yours and let the cat debates begin. Mine is the baddest stove and it has a cat to boot

Im' ready peanuts popcorn get you peanunt popcorn here

 

[Gooserider]

Nice looking stoves, though your website designer seems confused about the difference between "features" and "options", (unless you consider putting the catalyst in a cat stove to be "optional") and I don't know what they are talking about in regards to the firebox depth ruler on that poster...

However they wouldn't make my "short list" because as far as I can tell, you don't offer the one feature I absolutely would require in a new stove - namely a REAR EXIT flue... In my application, and some other setups that I've seen, it is physically not possible to install a top vent stove because the pipe won't fit. This is especially true in the case of installs where a person is putting a stove in front of a fire place and wants to vent into the fireplace opening.

You might want to mention this to your design people, as a feature that might help sell more stoves. One idea that might be useful is to do some variation on the "flip vent" design that you see on cast iron VC's and other stove brands that allows the vent to be installed either horizontally or vertically.

(This isn't a complaint, just a friendly suggestion (and one I make to every top-vent only stove maker I talk to) - I believe in Free Market theory, that says it's your job to offer me more of what I want than the competition - I figure the corrolary is that as a consumer, my job is to tell you what I want... :coolsmile: )

Gooserider

 

[Todd]

Welcome aboard Mike,
It's nice to see another stove manufacturer represented here. One question I have for you is what you think of catalytic technology, and if you think it will improve or go away?

C'mon Todd - he just joined! Give him at least a couple weeks before we start a cat/no-cat debate!

:lol:

-Colin

With Blaze King being a steel Canadian cat stove that doesn't come in red and doesn't burn pellets or coal we could get a half dozen of the favorite arguments all rolled into one!

Of course there wouldn't be any BTU and burn time arguments.

BB I understand BK is thinking of a new color a** end brown its big and nasty and puts humungeous btus

I now know the reason Roo is on vacation his worst fear has arived The 4.2 firebox puts out more heat longer and cleaner than the whore house red.

He never could come to grips with the comparison now he gets to ask the company and a person having a bit more knowledge making it real hard to dispute.

Now we can have mine is bigger than yours mine burns cleaner than yours and let the cat debates begin. Mine is the baddest stove and it has a cat to boot

Im' ready peanuts popcorn get you peanunt popcorn here

Ha Ha, I wasn't looking to start another cat/non cat debate. The cat stove guys won that one a long time ago! :coolgrin:
Just wondering about new burn technology and where the industry is going.

 

[elkimmeg]

Goose and I were told there exist a super cat combustor made of stainlless steel
the cost to produce it so far is prohibited to bring it to market. Same company admitted the off Oem ones were better and that the contractual agrement
cost to much so they went with the same oem supplier. In one sense this is good news research is still continuing..

I even asked if Everburn technology could be combined with the cat I got a smile Everburn technology was developed from cat combustor trechnology..

not confirmed but hinted at Combustor technology can be developed to burn even cleaner lower ignitions light offs and even further reducing emmissions
50 % or more emmisions occure during initial fiiring and kindlong so if the cat lights of sooner that smoke is clensed a lot sooner making burning even cleaner...

What if the internal fire box only needs 250 degrees before cat lite off instead of 500 AND NON CAT STOVES 1000+ The Gph emissions test begins after the stove is brought up to temps

what if a lot is already burnt off first. the super clean combuster at work

 

[Todd]

Mike,
Is Blaze King looking into these new cats that Elk mentioned?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

we arent,
non cat is definately the coming thing. as for the rear facing flue exit, its getting looked at pretty hard , along with some other tricks now that we have corie settled in , the kid gots potential i must say.

 

[webbie]

With the cost of metals going up, it will take a miracle to make cats cheaper once again........then again, that stainless used in many baffles and secondary air tubes ain't cheap either.

As they say, there is an arse for every seat, and if I had to leave my house for 12 hours each day - and I wanted a good fire when I returned, I'd look hard at some of those BK models. More wood in PLUS cat = long, long, burn times.