2012-2013 Blaze King Performance Thread(everything BK)

[Woody Stover]

OK, I had to delete my "18 hours on Red Maple with the FV" post when I found out my wife had tossed in some wood at one point.
I will now kick back and read in wondrous awe of the 24-hr plus burns. I guess they don't call it the Blaze King for nothing.
I'll make do with 12 hrs for now but this year I've finally got some dry high-output wood so 16 should be possible. I'll also be interested to see what the Buck 91 can do when I get it up and running. There's no substitute for the big fire box you guys have to work with though...
Carry on, I'm going to get a bowl of popcorn.

 

[Highbeam]

What kind of flue temps are you guys seeing on a low burn?

Pretty rock steady at 400 measured with a probe meter at 18" above the stove as directed by condar. I would run this meter up to 1250 with the non-cat stone stove and low fire cruise at 800. Way less heat shooting up the flue with BK.

 

[Dairyman]

Does no one have the Sirocco? Or know someone with it? Looking at getting this if our new home builders ever get our new house done.

Welcome to the forum Rick, evilgriff has one. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/first-thoughts-on-my-new-bk-sirocco.92546/#post-1214420

 

[Rickb]

Welcome to the forum Rick, evilgriff has one. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/first-thoughts-on-my-new-bk-sirocco.92546/#post-1214420

Thanks for the link will bump it up and see if he has any good burns with it yet.

 

[rdust]

rdust- when you have to re-load next week, I want to see a pic. of the glass then. Just say'un.

Took these earlier tonight, the one with flames is when I turned the t-stat up around 6pm the other is about 8pm right before I took the kid up to bed and past out with him.(I hate loading at midnight)

 

[rdust]

We have ignition on tonights load! Outside temp in the mid 30's, stove was a tick under 300*, inside temp 72* when I reloaded. Tonights load is all elm since my pine got all wet from the sideways rain.

 

[HotCoals]

What kind of flue temps are you guys seeing on a low burn?

About 250-275 a foot and a half up or so..single wall.

 

[Todd]

What kind of flue temps are you guys seeing on a low burn?

When I burn at 1.5 my internal flue temps on double wall pipe 20" above the stove collar settles in at 400 and cruises there for many hours then slowly drops down to 200-250 by the end of 24 hours.

 

[Waulie]

Thanks guys.

I've been running about 320 on my single wall pipe about 10" above the stove with the PH on a low burn. Sounds pretty similiar to the BK. I do want to get a probe. It's fun to watch flue temps drop and stove temps rise after engaging the cat.

Are you guys engaging with flue temps at 500? I've been engaging at 350 measured externally about 10" above the stove. Running it up to 350 really seems to reduce cat stalls and the cat just seems to perform better all around.

 

[Todd]

Thanks guys.

I've been running about 320 on my single wall pipe about 10" above the stove with the PH on a low burn. Sounds pretty similiar to the BK. I do want to get a probe. It's fun to watch flue temps drop and stove temps rise after engaging the cat.

Are you guys engaging with flue temps at 500? I've been engaging at 350 measured externally about 10" above the stove. Running it up to 350 really seems to reduce cat stalls and the cat just seems to perform better all around.

My experience with single wall stove pipe temps is the external temps are roughly half the internal temps and if you purchase a probe for you single wall the radiant heat coming off the pipe will give you higher readings. I compensated for this by pulling out the probe about 1" and it seemed to be more accurate. (Condar probe)

I really don't use flue temps as a guide for engaging the cat, BK has a cat probe right on top of the stove which works very well. Soapstone is much slower to react so it's a good idea to go by flue temps for a WS.

 

[Todd]

I find pine burns nearly as long as hardwood in the shoulder season. Probably doesn't generate the same heat but still really good burn times. It sure makes me look at the half acre or so of dying scotch pines I have a little differently.

Yep, that's what I just found out. Plenty of wood left in the box after 13 hours but it wasn't putting out the heat that a similar load of Oak does. I ended up throwing some more splits in to give it a little boost.

 

[rdust]

Smoke spillage on reloads?

When it's warmer outside with temps in the 50's I tend to get a little smoke spillage on reloads. My old stove when it was down to coals there was no flame/smoke left, with the BK stoves you actually have chunks of wood at reload time which will still produce flames and smoke on reload. I find with the cold flue temps on reload if I don't warm the flue up before opening the door I'll get some spillage.(I get impatient some times)

What I've found to help this is once I get the door cracked I turn the air to low/12 o'clock. By doing this you limit the amount of air coming down from the top/front of the stove and there is less turbulence. With less turbulence in the stove the smoke drafts up the chimney better instead of being pushed out the front.

I don't have 36 inches of rise before my 90, I have about 31 inches. I'm going to replace a 90 with 2 45's to see if that helps(I don't figure it will) but in the mean time this method works well. When the stove is running I have no issues with performance and can burn on 1 without the cat stalling so the chimney seems to draw fine any other time. Maybe this will help others that experience similar issues.

 

[Todd]

I also get some smoke at reloads. I'll have to try that 12 o'clock trick. I also open a nearby window which helps some. I only have about 20" rise off the stove then 2 45's and a 3' horizontal before going up 18' so I expect some smokey reloads during the shoulder season but can also live with it since its only once per day.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm going to replace a 90 with 2 45's to see if that helps(I don't figure it will)

I don't have first-hand experience but I think it might improve the draft quite a bit. How much stack have you got up there? Sounds like you don't need much of an increase in draw to contain the smoke.

 

[ohlongarm]

Speaking of handles, my front door handle is very easy to close. It bottoms out with very little effort even though the door passed the dollar bill test four weeks ago. So how much effort is required to latch your front door and does the latch bottom out on the catch?

We are so warm outside in WA that I can't do full loads. I get a big kick out of rdust's photos since that is how I want to be burning this thing but it just gets too hot in the house. We are still in the 50 low to 60 high daily temp swings and rain. Just enough for a four split/12+ hour fire.

I emptied the ash during one of my warm periods and this stove holds a lot more than the heritage. Cripes, a couple inches of depth filled my ash can. No wasted chunks of coal or klinkers.

I've been "selling" this stove to my buds now. I expect to help install the insert model later this year to replace a homemade monster.

Oh and a straight razor blade is the cat's meow for removing the gunk on the glass. I tried ash on a wet paper towel, no dice, bought that rutland cleaner stuff, no dice, then busted out the brand new box blade blades and the stuff just scrapes right off. Needs to be a sharp blade and it goes fast. Even with a clean window, there's not much to see inside. The dirtiness is down low in the corners so you can still see the cat glow which is about all there is to see.

In the corners of the firebox I am getting the most awesome black tar creosote building up. Super glossy and thick but can barely dent it with my fingernail. Truly nasty stuff if I wanted to clean it or if it was in the flue.

That will burn off if you crank her to 800 for awhile,done it not a big deal.

 

[PapaDave]

Pretty sure it's bogydave who has a short-ish rise then 2 45's now. He changed his from a 90 and said it helped.
It's only one more elbow, and some elbow grease.

 

[rdust]

I don't have first-hand experience but I think it might improve the draft quite a bit. How much stack have you got up there? Sounds like you don't need much of an increase in draw to contain the smoke.

I have a lot of chimney, 27' of insulated liner. It's a 5 1/2 liner though, the height helps make up for it. With my Endeavor it was way too much when the temps got into the 20s, it was hard to tame at that point. Going to 2 45's I'll lose some height before the elbow but I'll shorten my horizontal run some which may help. We shall see I have most the pieces to switch it around I'm just waiting on a couple more.

I also get some smoke at reloads. I'll have to try that 12 o'clock trick. I also open a nearby window which helps some. I only have about 20" rise off the stove then 2 45's and a 3' horizontal before going up 18' so I expect some smokey reloads during the shoulder season but can also live with it since its only once per day.

Yep, being once a day makes it pretty easy to deal with and it's not a large amount just a wisp usually before the draw would start taking it up. Try the air trick it's pretty much eliminated any stink getting into the house for me. The Endeavor would put so much heat up the pipe I never had a problem with smoke spillage and that stove no matter when I opened the door.

 

[weatherguy]

I finally lit the princess for the first burn of the year, I was recovering from surgery the last cold wave so its a little later than usual. I had some smaller splits of 5 year seasoned oak I started off the first load with the get some good coals, I put 3-4 splits on top of that for the evening, I have some nice, dry, seasoned black birch I split two years ago that im going to load up for the overnight, I'll see how long that load burns into tomorrow.

 

[Monosperma]

Variety of wood makes a huge difference. With ponderosa pine, I had it dialed down to 1, and the cat probe thermo was at 1800, above which I did not want to explore. With piss -err- Siberian elm, I have to dial it up to almost 3 to get the temp to 1600, but the wood in the firebox is not burning down and may keep going strong all night.

 

[Lanningjw]

I finally lit the princess for the first burn of the year, I was recovering from surgery the last cold wave so its a little later than usual. I had some smaller splits of 5 year seasoned oak I started off the first load with the get some good coals, I put 3-4 splits on top of that for the evening, I have some nice, dry, seasoned black birch I split two years ago that im going to load up for the overnight, I'll see how long that load burns into tomorrow.

We both have the insert. Will be interesting to see how long of a burn you get. I think you always do better than my burn times.

 

[Todd]

How many of you guys have loaded your stoves E/W? I did it last night for the first time because I had some longer splits to get rid of and it seems to burn a little different this way but can't really tell if it extends the burn yet. Instead of the usual burn down the middle and leaving chunks on the right or left it was more of a front to back burn and I currently have 2 large splits smouldering in the very back. I think it also helps keep the glass cleaner but after about an hour or so I had a split roll into the glass and she darkened right up.

 

[Hiram Maxim]

How many of you guys have loaded your stoves E/W? I did it last night for the first time because I had some longer splits to get rid of and it seems to burn a little different this way but can't really tell if it extends the burn yet. Instead of the usual burn down the middle and leaving chunks on the right or left it was more of a front to back burn and I currently have 2 large splits smouldering in the very back. I think it also helps keep the glass cleaner but after about an hour or so I had a split roll into the glass and she darkened right up.

I'm not a fan of E/W with my BK, Your 100% correct it burns way different.

On reload, the smoke spillage, take 4-5 full page sheets of news paper (open) light them at the stack opening/ damper to warm up the chimney!

My Grandpa use to do this when ever he started a fire or on reload and by George....Its worked pretty darn good for me.

RDust, once hunting season ends I'll have more time to get into the shop and make some stainless latches

Oh and Ive been doing about 36-40 hr burn cycles this week with mostly 4 1/2 year C/S/S Black Cherry! Thats gonna change pretty quick to 24 hrs......I

 

[rdust]

RDust, once hunting season ends I'll have more time to get into the shop and make some stainless latches

Sounds good, no hurry mine is fine right now but I have a feeling if/when it needs to move again it'll break.

I'm also not an e/w fan I hate reaching into a hot stove to load the rear pieces. I've done it a time or two but that was it.

I'm still maintaining my once a day load schedule easily at this point which makes me happy.

 

[jeff_t]

How many of you guys have loaded your stoves E/W? I did it last night for the first time because I had some longer splits to get rid of and it seems to burn a little different this way but can't really tell if it extends the burn yet. Instead of the usual burn down the middle and leaving chunks on the right or left it was more of a front to back burn and I currently have 2 large splits smouldering in the very back. I think it also helps keep the glass cleaner but after about an hour or so I had a split roll into the glass and she darkened right up.

I tried once. It took forever to get charred and dialed in for a low burn. I didn't have much of a coal bed to work with, and took a lot of coaxing to get burning. I have a bunch of long splits I have to cut down, so if one makes it to the stove, it goes back out to get trimmed.

 

[Todd]

It is a little harder to load it full E/W verses N/S and there is a greater chance of burning yourself as well. Seems like I get the same burn times either way.

Still maintaining 24 hour burns with highs in the 40's. It sure is an easy shoulder season with this stove. Had a little snow this morning but it didn't stick around long.