The Blaze King Performance Thread

[HotCoals]

I went to bed it was 75 in the room next to the stove room.
Woke up at 6 and it was still 71 and it was cold last night..still cold about 6f right now.
I had room for 3 smaller splits when I left for work,,when I got home at 5 it was 69 in the next room..plenty of wood left...cold and breezy all day.

Here's the deal.
I notice that when having a fire if i turn it up a little the stove will warm up and the t-stat will close..seems fine.
But when away for 9 hours the stove will cool some and to me the t-stat does not open enough to bring the heat back up.
I know that it did open some cause turning it down I heard it click shut.

That's the only area that I can see that could use a little tuning...that and a better air wash..lol.

Anyways when I got home I put another 3 splits in..and cranked her up.
1.5 hours raised the temp 5 degrees in the next room..I'm more then happy.

I'll be burning down coals on high by 8:30 till maybe 10 ..then the night load.

Still can't get over that 740 I seen last night with no flame...that cat did pig out..lol.

 

[HotCoals]

I just checked the temp on the dog house where the t-stat lives.
Noticed the warmest spot was halfway up from the label to the seam of the top cover..176F.
I'm going to be checking that at diff times through the cycle in the next few days to see what goes on there...how much swing.

 

[rdust]

I notice that when having a fire if i turn it up a little the stove will warm up and the t-stat will close..seems fine.
But when away for 9 hours the stove will cool some and to me the t-stat does not open enough to bring the heat back up.
I know that it did open some cause turning it down I heard it click shut.

The t-stat is less than perfect but I still think the benefits out way not having one.

We've both said it, these stoves really show their stuff in the shoulder season but become more mortal during the colder weather. I'm still plenty happy getting 12 hours between loads in weather like this(low 20's today for the high) out of a 2.8 cubic' firebox. I just got done loading for the night, the stove top was still 350* but it's too chilly outside for that to be real meaningful.

 

[iceman]

Rdust, that means you will have to load 2x a day!
Now I don't feel as bad as I need 3! One at night, one before I go to work and a small one after work to get me till about 730-8...
Shoulder season I can get away with 2, but when the cold sets in I believe anything under 400 isn't helping the other end of the house...
One thing I can say is even with the summit at 700+ with stove turned down it doesn't blast you ... When it gets more air them it will blast you even with the same temps.. weird I know
I truly believe there is no stove out there that can do the shoulder season lime BK, which is for many half the battle, as far as those bitter days go it seems we are very close if not even, but I still give you the edge because you can "turn" yours down, mine has to go through the "cycle" which can be scary at times! We just can't say ok its warm enough turn it down! That is where the king excels, I love my summit and would keep the secondaries, what I really want is that t-stat!
Please report back more info as I believe tonight will be the first real test for many of us!
And thanks to all for taking the time to report stove temps and surrounding temps!

 

[HotCoals]

I notice that when having a fire if i turn it up a little the stove will warm up and the t-stat will close..seems fine.
But when away for 9 hours the stove will cool some and to me the t-stat does not open enough to bring the heat back up.
I know that it did open some cause turning it down I heard it click shut.

The t-stat is less than perfect but I still think the benefits out way not having one.

We've both said it, these stoves really show their stuff in the shoulder season but become more mortal during the colder weather. I'm still plenty happy getting 12 hours between loads in weather like this(low 20's today for the high) out of a 2.8 cubic' firebox. I just got done loading for the night, the stove top was still 350* but it's too chilly outside for that to be real meaningful.

No doubt the t-stat helps.


Pretty sure there is a label that says something like..do not enter under penalty of law..like those that are on mattress .
I been known not to pay attention to those also...lol.

It's only like 2f right now..house is cozy.
My old BKK non cat was nowhere this good..not even close.

 

[HotCoals]

Ok..just loaded night load..did it early..tired ..not much sleep last night.

Just loaded 9 of my bigger splits on a good size hot coal bed..bigger then I wanted..but almost like last night.
Weighed it out and it came to 60lbs..ash..18 months old..same age as the ash last night.

But tonight I'm not going to char it a lot.
I have the air set so just some flame to get some of the load charred.
Then I'll shut her down till flames go out..prolly around 1.5 -2..I will try to set it just below the flapper closing.

 

[Hass]

That's a clean glass hotcoals! I bet you cleaned it just for hearth.com

I just shut mine down to clean the glass and empty the box, and take a look up the flue. Can't really see much up the flue.

When I was cleaning her, bypass open of course... I notice the cat thermo is still Half way in the "active" zone. I'm thinking to myself, NO WAY that cat is that hot... the stove is cool to touch. So I pull out the thermo, and the spring spins freely on the probe. The spring (coil) is still very tight, so it's just a matter of tightening it up I think. I believe it said somewhere in the manual about this... I think I'm going to have to take a look. For now I put the probe back in, moved the pointer to the start of the "inactive" zone, and I'll use it as a rough guide I guess. I don't really know when to engage the cat, so I'll just let it burn for a while I guess :X

This does explain a lot though... sometimes when I get home and the stove burned down to very little coals, enough to relite but not very much... I'll see the cat at 1/2 or 3/4.... When the stove is only 100-150.

 

[HotCoals]

That's a clean glass hotcoals! I bet you cleaned it just for hearth.com

I just shut mine down to clean the glass and empty the box, and take a look up the flue. Can't really see much up the flue.

When I was cleaning her, bypass open of course... I notice the cat thermo is still Half way in the "active" zone. I'm thinking to myself, NO WAY that cat is that hot... the stove is cool to touch. So I pull out the thermo, and the spring spins freely on the probe. The spring (coil) is still very tight, so it's just a matter of tightening it up I think. I believe it said somewhere in the manual about this... I think I'm going to have to take a look. For now I put the probe back in, moved the pointer to the start of the "inactive" zone, and I'll use it as a rough guide I guess. I don't really know when to engage the cat, so I'll just let it burn for a while I guess :X

This does explain a lot though... sometimes when I get home and the stove burned down to very little coals, enough to relite but not very much... I'll see the cat at 1/2 or 3/4.... When the stove is only 100-150.

Actually I did not clean the glass..between those hot cat temps I had last night and then burning on high to burn up some coals tonight..the glass cleaned itself!

At room temp your cat probe should read just below the in-active zone.
It should not spin...there is a screw you loosen to adjust if I remember right also.

Also even if the cat was not in there you would get a reading over the in-active scale just simply from the bi-metal coil picking up stove top temp...could prolly go to half or better.

My plan tonight is not to feed the cat so much fuel(smoke) all at once.
So far I'm succeeding.

One more thing.
Right now if I open the t-stat a little I can hear the air easy...but if I open it all the way I no longer hear it..strange..but the fire sure takes off.

 

[rdust]

Rdust, that means you will have to load 2x a day!
Now I don't feel as bad as I need 3!

:lol: I just have the "baby" going 24 hours in this weather isn't going to happen. Before I bought mine I asked Princess users about their load schedule in the cold weather and most ranged from 2-3 times a day. Burn times when you have a higher heat demand is going to be similar between stoves of similar size regardless of cat or non-cat. I would've loved to have a King but didn't want to deal with the 8" chimney, if/when I expand my family room I'll have a king in it.

The main reason I switched(I have a bunch) was for the shoulder season. Dealing with loading multiple little fires a day got old, it's something to load it once at night and forget about it till the next evening.

 

[ohlongarm]

Loaded last night at 7pm all shagbark hickory,watched the fire at 2.5 for an hour and shut her down to 2 stovetop 750 she ran in the 700's for an hour easily NO fire but the cat was glowing brightly house 77,at 2am stovetop in 600's cat glowing enough to light the room somewhat.House at noon still in 70's very large coal bed raked to front,threw a pice of red elm on top,good to go till tonight. It looks like 12 to 16 hour productive burn times will be the norm for what I'm heating,I'm more than happy with that.

 

[iceman]

Loaded last night at 7pm all shagbark hickory,watched the fire at 2.5 for an hour and shut her down to 2 stovetop 750 she ran in the 700's for an hour easily NO fire but the cat was glowing brightly house 77,at 2am stovetop in 600's cat glowing enough to light the room somewhat.House at noon still in 70's very large coal bed raked to front,threw a pice of red elm on top,good to go till tonight. It looks like 12 to 16 hour productive burn times will be the norm for what I'm heating,I'm more than happy with that.

What was your stove top when you reloaded at 12?

 

[rdust]

I must've hit it perfect last night with the t-stat setting, I loaded at about 8pm, at close to 1am when I turned in the stove top was still a touch over 500* with the t-stat set just south of 2. I could watch the coals get red and a few flames would come off the wood for a bit and then the coals would darken out a bit with the flames going out. I watched this cycle happen for hours. It's the first time I watched the t-stat doing it's job. I woke up this morning to 71* in the hallway leading to the stove and a stove full of coals with the top sitting at 360*. My wife didn't burn them down this morning since she didn't need/want anymore heat in the house. I didn't have time to wait for them to burn so I tossed a decent load on top of the coals and headed out the door.

 

[BrotherBart]

What was your stove top when you reloaded at 12?

Black steel. :lol:

Sorry, couldn't help it.

 

[ohlongarm]

Upon reload with 1 piece of red elm on top of the coal bed stove top was 300,cat still active,outside temp was 25 with 20 mph winds,house was still 70.House with coal bed being burned down is 76,my guess alot of that might be solar gain.large bank of southern exposure windows in stove room,now it's 4pm.

 

[HotCoals]

This mourning at about 5;30 I heard the heat pump come on...it is set for 65F.
Well actually just the blower..heat pump is switched off.
so what happens is this..the blower will distribute the heat around and it the blower did shut off after about 15 mins.
If I were to lose maybe 2 or 3 degrees the back up electric furnace would have come on.

Still this is the first time I had the blower come on this season.
I had maybe 2/3 wood left..but the t-stat never opened enough to get her going again...and I left it on 2.
The night before was fine..was around 69 when I got up..theses are temps in the room next to the stove room.
anyways the only thing I did diff last night was not to charr the wood as much as the night before..bad idea I guess.
When I gave it just a little more air the stove came to life.
That t-stat needs a little tweaking.

 

[rdust]

Solar(I think it was him) has posted in the past that if the door seal isn't good the t-stat gets goofy. Have you done the dollar bill test? Mine "appears" to work best if I don't mess with it once I get it settled in. If everything checks out and it's still acting goofy you may want to pull the cover off and watch what it does as the stove cools to make sure it's working right. If I remember reading right the cover will not change how the stove works. RustyShackleford had issues with his being wound backwards and I believe he burned his stove without the cover after getting it fixed. Here's the thread if you want to read up. Faulty T-Stat Thread

 

[jtb51b]

Definitely will have problems with the door leaking. Mine is welded on crooked and I fight it regularly. Supposed to be working out getting it fixed. We'll see. I think if the bypass door leaks you can have problems as well. Charring the wood definitely is the way to go tho. Makes if much easier for the thermostat to open slighty and light it back off.

Jason

 

[SolarAndWood]

If I'm burning stuff that isn't quite ready, I give it a good charring in the beginning to make sure the load gets going. But, I don't find that necessary with the dry stuff even with big splits. By the time I get the stove loaded and the door closed it is usually fully engulfed and the cat gets engaged right away. How dry the fuel is makes a big difference in how the stove burns and how well the tstat can manage the burn.

 

[HotCoals]

Found something out tonight!

When SolarandWood told me he could burn on 3 ..I was like no way that I could...it wouldbe ripping big time.

I found the reason .

On the cover over the t stat there are 2 screws holding it on.
There is also one more screw towards the center of the two.
This screw is like a governor ..it stops the flap from going way open
My screw was put in angled up from the factory and the flapper never would hit it.
I took it out and put it back in straight..that helped a little.

So I took the cover back off and drilled a hole from the top..mig'd a nut under the cover and put a 10-32 screw in from the top of the cover..I think 1.5".


It works super!

I can now burn on 3!

If I want more air I can just back the screw out IE: to burn down coals..and the one that BKK put in is still there for back up..saftey first.

Here you can see the screw that BKK put in ..it's on a angle..wrong way.

 

[HotCoals]

My new governor bolt.
Now it screws straight down on the flapper instead of having a screw coming in from the side over the flapper.

 

[HotCoals]

Just a pic of the flapper.
Below it is a hole so when the flapper is shut ..the stove gets air from the bottom only..otherwise it comes up the sides and into the top of the flapper and then through the stove to above the glass.

In this pic I'm holding the flapper further open then it would ever normally go.

 

[HotCoals]

I think I know a way to make the t-stat more sensitive.
That's tomorrow night.

 

[HotCoals]

Solar(I think it was him) has posted in the past that if the door seal isn't good the t-stat gets goofy. Have you done the dollar bill test? Mine "appears" to work best if I don't mess with it once I get it settled in. If everything checks out and it's still acting goofy you may want to pull the cover off and watch what it does as the stove cools to make sure it's working right. If I remember reading right the cover will not change how the stove works. RustyShackleford had issues with his being wound backwards and I believe he burned his stove without the cover after getting it fixed. Here's the thread if you want to read up. Faulty T-Stat Thread

Thanks!

But I read that before how his was backwards.
Mine is going the right way at least...lol.
Thanks again.
Door gasket is great!

The actual bi-metal t-stat is behind another cover..I'm not going in there though..but i have a idea.

BTW..without the cover that flapper opens way up !
Fore sure without my governor bolt or at least the BKK limiting screw.
I bet those screws are not all put in at the same excat spot or angle.
I'm sorry to say I feel that was a fail on their part.
Now if my wife or grandson turn up the stove..they don't have to worry about a roaring inferno.
I have a strong draft also.
But I would rather use this then the key damper.

 

[SmokeyCity]

How is it that these Blaze King stoves seem to burn twice to three times as long as other brands?

Big fireboxes, catalytic, tstat to manage the burn and very good burn control.

Don't underestimate the benefit of an accurate tstat. If i you could put a tstat as accurate as the BKK has onto a 30NC such that it controlled air input as well as on the BKK you would see the 30NC do noticeably better (in hands off mode) and might even get a couple more hrs of useable heat.

If you set a stove at bedtime and leave it to burn overnight there only a relatively small portion of that time where the stove getting optimal airflow for most efficient burning for each phase of the burn. A good tstat changing that mix dynamically would do wonders for all wood stoves.

 

[HotCoals]

let me tell ya something..
The t-stat on a BKK is lazy..really lazy.
It seems to close from heat way better then it opens back up due to stove cooling..I know it for a fact.
The black magic to a BKK is the box size and a cat that is optimally sized to the stove.
Nothing more nothing less.

I had the back cover off and the box that holds the t-stat was around 171F...stove top around 300..end of a cruise.
When I left this morning I made sure the flapper was just barley closed with a 550 stove top..position was a little over 2 on the dial...not all that much wood from around 9 the night before.
Anyways I get home to a decent bed of coals but not really red hot.
Then I looked at the t-stat flapper..it did open some but not much...not enough in my opinion.
If that t -stat did open farther and more often we would not see the long burn times that we see on low to med temp cruise...makes sense right?

Another thing I just did was turn the t-stat to 2.75...box that holds t stat was around 170..I heated up that little box with my torch to 300 and it did close the flapper alrght after awhile.
The t stat seems to work good slowing the fire down to where you like to set the stove...temp wise.
But way to lazy on opening back up.

Still love the stove though and would buy it again unless new magic comes along that works better yet.