2012-2013 Blaze King Performance Thread(everything BK)

[rdust]

I say 'deal with the burn times', just because I tossed in 6 splits about 10 hours ago, the Cat is still too active to open the door(800ish) and I don't want to risk any damage to it. Yes, by-pass is open and Stat closed, this burn just wants to keep cooking. It's all good.

Why do you have the bypass opened when the cat is still active? It's sounds like there is still some fuel for it to eat. I'm not sure why you want to waste potential heat up the pipe. Personally I don't open the bypass until I'm ready to reload.

Where the did advice come from not to open the door when the cat is still too active? I'll open my door at any point as long as I bypass the cat for a few minutes first. If I waited for the cat to be room temperature before opening the door I'd never be able to time loading the stove.

This is why I like this thread you get to see how others have success running their stove.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

rdust- I had the bypass open because I was ready to reload, but the stove wasn't. I was tired and knew the remaining fuel in the stove wasn't going to carry it until morning, so I just sped things up.
I don't like to open the door unless the temp. is right at the active mark. I may be silly, but I don't want to let room temp. air hit the Cat and cause possible warpage.

 

[ohlongarm]

rdust- I had the bypass open because I was ready to reload, but the stove wasn't. I was tired and knew the remaining fuel in the stove wasn't going to carry it until morning, so I just sped things up.
I don't like to open the door unless the temp. is right at the active mark. I may be silly, but I don't want to let room temp. air hit the Cat and cause possible warpage.

If you open the bypass you will not do any damage to the cat when the stove door is opened.

 

[nate379]

The BK stoves can be dialed back to a pretty low temp, BUT there is a limit. It will certainly depend on the location, install, house size, insulation, etc.

My house is about 1400 sq/ft single story and I guess well insulated/sealed. I have no trouble keeping my house in the 70s with -25* outdoor temps with the stove running around 1.5 on the dial.

With temps in the 30s I have to make small fires (3-4 cottonwood splits) for the stove to run ok and to not overheat the house. If I just loaded it completely full it would hit 90*+ in the house without trouble, OR I'd have to choke it down to where it's barely burning and turning the firebox into a nasty creosote mess.

It's been in the 40s (yeah... ) for the last couple days and I let the stove go cold. Easier for me to spend a few $$s to run the boiler an hour or two than mess with the stove. Don't have a great draft and it's way too easy to overheat the house. IMO just amount to wasting firewood.

 

[Highbeam]

We're just about always between 35 and 45 outdoor temps and I load the stove to the gills everyday. Only a 1700 SF rambler with updated windows, crawl, and attic insulation but some most walls still have relatively low insulation levels. Anyway, the stove is great at keeping the temps up with a constant burn at stat setting of 1.75 and 24 hour reloads. If it's closer to freezing then 24 hour burns are not quite enough to keep us in the 70s and I need to throw some more wood in the box and bump the stat to 2 for awhile.

My wood is pretty low btu stuff, no hickory here, but I just don't understand how anybody can let the stove go cold when it hits 40. I'll be burning well into June when temps are into the 50-60 range so long as I want a house in the 70s.

 

[nate379]

*SIGH*


Like I said, it all depends on location, house size, insulation, etc, etc, etc.

It sounds like your trying to heat the equivalent of a screen room. Of course you will have to run the stove hard, even at warm outside temps!...How is that hard to understand?!

At 30* outside temp, I will make a small fire a day and it's plenty to keep my house in the 70s.



I heat my house on 3-3.5 cords of firewood a winter... "winter" being over 6 months (Oct-Apr)

Heating degree days for Tacoma ~ 4,900
Heating degree days for Palmer ~ 10,500

Think just maybe that my house is insulated a bit better?

 

[Highbeam]

*SIGH*


Like I said, it all depends on location, house size, insulation, etc, etc, etc.


Think just maybe that my house is insulated a bit better?

I burn 9 months out of the year, september to april since our temps are so mild. The house is not a screen room, I've sealed and insulated everything but the remaining walls to "modern" levels. Still an older house but I suppose your home in AK is smaller and built that much better. You really do have a tight house Nate, that's a good thing in AK.

You're the one member who seems to live in a coleman cooler. Construction so far above average that your results are extraordinary and do not jive with the rest.

Sorry to make you sigh.

 

[hack]

hack, everything should be fine. Things may have gotten a little warm but one time with some internal glowing parts won't cause any issues imo. The stove top temp was completely acceptable so I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for the reassurance! All seems to be ok.

Supposedly, according to the manual, any setting between 1 and 3 is "normal" for the stove. When things start glowing I would do the same as you and shut something down. The fans are optional and do not figure in to the normal range. 2.5 is high though and I notice a ton of wasted heat and smoke out of the chimney at settings that high. Point is that maybe you would get more heat at #2 or 2.25 with the fans at 50% letting the cat eat.

Surprised that the intake bottom lip was glowing. All of the intake air dumps over that lip and also the cold glass is right there. I do expect glowing of the cat enclosure and the often deformed bar that runs across the bypass opening. Do you think it was just a good reflection from the cat?

Pretty sure the bottom lip was glowing slightly, nothing obvious though. Funny you mention the deformed bar. I noticed that a week or so ago when I had my stove pipe apart to seal the joints with furnace cement. Couldn't remember what it looked like new. Is that common? I looked the stove over good this morning when it had cooled down and everything except that bar looked normal! I'll try your suggestions out.

Hack, I can't recall anyone getting a BK that hot, at least not for the past 3-4 years of postings.
I would guess the stove is just fine, but the Cat, just don't know. That sucker had to get reeaaaly hot for that to happen.
look forward to the updates.

For sure! I'll try to avoid that in the future. I wish I knew what temp it reached. Guess I'll have to pick up a IR.

I'd like to hook a manometer up and see what my draft is. Wondering if that is why it got so hot on 2.5.

Thanks again for all the input. It is very much appreciated!

 

[HotCoals]

ok so I loaded the stove around 10:30 tonight.
Charred and did all that..shut her down to 1 as usual, a hour later and the hot spot in front of the probe had dropped to 425 from a high of 500.
Very little glow from the wood and cat.
At this point I usually turn the air up to re char if I see this happening..not tonight..I waited to see what it would do.

Now I check it (1:00) and the hot spot is at 625 and the cat is bright red and the glow from the wood is way brighter,
no wind tonight.
Must be the wood started to out gas better on it's own and got the cat going stronger.
With the cat hotter I swear it drafts more and therefore makes the wood burn a little faster..there is for sure way more glow around the wood...t-stat is still shut since it is on 1.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Lazy T-stat coil is all I can figure. Mine does the same thing, but at a higher setting(2).
Check and see if your "High" temp drops, then climbs back up.

 

[HotCoals]

Lazy T-stat coil is all I can figure. Mine does the same thing, but at a higher setting(2).
Check and see if your "High" temp drops, then climbs back up.

My t-stat is set on 1..it did not move and at 1 I don't think it will even open at room temp..lazy aint the word..lol.

It did drop...after reload it went to 500 then dropped to 425 over a couple hours..then it hit 625..awhile ago.
Just looked again and still holding steady now at 625.
I do think it almost stalled at 425 but then picked up on it's own from the wood out gassing.
I know the t-stat never opened.
Putting out some nice heat now!

 

[Beetle-Kill]

I keep hearing the phrase-"set it and forget it" run through my head, and yet,.....

damn voices.

 

[nate379]

I was posting in reply to the feller that was talking about having it too hot in his basement with the current woodstove he has.

The stove can only be choked down so much, plain and simple.

On low let's say it's pushing 15,000btu an hour. (23,000,000 btu on a cord of birch, stove holds ~1/50th of a cord... 460,000 btu, then figure a 24hr burn and 80% efficient, comes out to ~15k)

If the house has a heat loss of less than 15k/hr, than the temp will rise.

The heat loss of MY house when it's warm out (30s-40s) is less than what the stove puts out on low.

I burn 9 months out of the year, september to april since our temps are so mild. The house is not a screen room, I've sealed and insulated everything but the remaining walls to "modern" levels. Still an older house but I suppose your home in AK is smaller and built that much better. You really do have a tight house Nate, that's a good thing in AK.

You're the one member who seems to live in a coleman cooler. Construction so far above average that your results are extraordinary and do not jive with the rest.

Sorry to make you sigh.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I was posting in reply to the feller that was talking about having it too hot in his basement with the current woodstove he has.
The stove can only be choked down so much, plain and simple.
On low let's say it's pushing 15,000btu an hour. (23,000,000 btu on a cord of birch, stove holds ~1/50th of a cord... 460,000 btu, then figure a 24hr burn and 80% efficient, comes out to ~15k)
If the house has a heat loss of less than 15k/hr, than the temp will rise.
The heat loss of MY house when it's warm out (30s-40s) is less than what the stove puts out on low.

I cant burn on sunny days as i have some passive solar and unless its below 35 on cloudy days the house gets too hot on the lowest air setting. Even though its 3000 SF on 3 floors.
But i would not give up that large firebox as i dont like to be loading the stove all the time

 

[claybe]

She got away from me! I loaded the princess opened the damper and set to high tsat to get the fire going. Went upstairs so things could warm up and forgot what I was doing. I turned to my wife and said what is that smell!?! Ran dow stairs to find the stove roaring at 800 degrees stovetop and the cat was at 6:00 or 75 % of making a full circle Yikes. I closed it down and turned it to low. It took some time, but she came down. Now my chimney cap is a brownish color. Should I be worried about anything? And, If you are reloading, DON'T LEAVE YOUR STOVE ALONE

 

[Todd]

She got away from me! I loaded the princess opened the damper and set to high tsat to get the fire going. Went upstairs so things could warm up and forgot what I was doing. I turned to my wife and said what is that smell!?! Ran dow stairs to find the stove roaring at 800 degrees stovetop and the cat was at 6:00 or 75 % of making a full circle Yikes. I closed it down and turned it to low. It took some time, but she came down. Now my chimney cap is a brownish color. Should I be worried about anything? And, If you are reloading, DON'T LEAVE YOUR STOVE ALONE

Been there, done that. I don't think 800 is too bad, the stove should be able to take that for a short time especially in the bypass mode.

 

[nate379]

Wanted to put some numbers down

Decided to make a small fire this afternoon at 2PM. Shut the boiler off last night and was 63* in the house, 38* outside. 3 small splits of cottonwood, weighing in at 10lbs total (each was around 3lbs)

Cottonwood is 16,800,000 btus per cord. A dry cord is 2225lbs. That works out to 7550btus per lb, 75,550 btus for the load of wood I put in.
(To compare a 50lb load of birch would be about 370,000 btus)

It's 6PM now (4hrs) stove is sitting at 350* and it's 78* in my house. (Too hot!)

Edit: 12AM now and 70* in the house. Stove is cold.


Have been giving some thought of blocking the hole in the air flapper to get the stove to choke down more, thoughts?

 

[weatherguy]

She got away from me! I loaded the princess opened the damper and set to high tsat to get the fire going. Went upstairs so things could warm up and forgot what I was doing. I turned to my wife and said what is that smell!?! Ran dow stairs to find the stove roaring at 800 degrees stovetop and the cat was at 6:00 or 75 % of making a full circle Yikes. I closed it down and turned it to low. It took some time, but she came down. Now my chimney cap is a brownish color. Should I be worried about anything? And, If you are reloading, DON'T LEAVE YOUR STOVE ALONE

I wouldnt worry about it, Ive done it once or twice, I was actually sitting at my desk reading hearth when it happened.

 

[rdust]

Wanted to put some numbers down

Decided to make a small fire this afternoon at 2PM. Shut the boiler off last night and was 63* in the house, 38* outside. 3 small splits of cottonwood, weighing in at 10lbs total (each was around 3lbs)

Cottonwood is 16,800,000 btus per cord. A dry cord is 2225lbs. That works out to 7550btus per lb, 75,550 btus for the load of wood I put in.
(To compare a 50lb load of birch would be about 370,000 btus)

It's 6PM now (4hrs) stove is sitting at 350* and it's 78* in my house. (Too hot!)

Edit: 12AM now and 70* in the house. Stove is cold.


Have been giving some thought of blocking the hole in the air flapper to get the stove to choke down more, thoughts?

What's your stove top temp on "1" after an hour or so? Mine is usually in the 300* range once the load settles in. I can't imagine roasting myself out of here in those temps with a 300* stove top.

 

[rdust]

I half a@@ loaded the stove last night(this morning) somewhere between 2:30-3:00am after getting home. Around 6:30pm today the stove needed to be loaded and I didn't feel like loading a small load so I filled it up for my overnight load. We were in the mid 20's at best today and they're calling for low teens tonight, we'll probably be in the single digits here.

Anyway here is how I load when I don't want to waste any space. Mostly ash with the small filler pieces being ironwood and hickory.

 

[nate379]

400-500* area is about cruise temp for my stove without the fans on and the air choked all the way down.

What's your stove top temp on "1" after an hour or so? Mine is usually in the 300* range once the load settles in. I can't imagine roasting myself out of here in those temps with a 300* stove top.

 

[weatherguy]

I half a@@ loaded the stove last night(this morning) somewhere between 2:30-3:00am after getting home. Around 6:30pm today the stove needed to be loaded and I didn't feel like loading a small load so I filled it up for my overnight load. We were in the mid 20's at best today and they're calling for low teens tonight, we'll probably be in the single digits here.

Anyway here is how I load when I don't want to waste any space. Mostly ash with the small filler pieces being ironwood and hickory.

Thats a primo fill up, how long did that bay keep you warm?

 

[TX-L]

Have been giving some thought of blocking the hole in the air flapper to get the stove to choke down more, thoughts?

My King doesn't have a hole in the flapper, my neighbor's Princess does. Not sure why the Princess is different.

 

[ohlongarm]

Since we have a bunch of new BK owners this year I figured I'd start a thread to discuss everything BK. This may help limit the amount of BK threads and give us one convenient place to ask questions or just boast about our burn times without ruffling any feathers.

Anyway I'm on my second season with the Princess and it continues to impress me. I getting ready to load after 25+ hours, the load was a pretty full load of scotch pine and elm that was standing dead for years.(some pieces punky) Our overnight temps were in the 30's and our daytime high was 41, we've had 30+ mph north winds all day. House is still a comfy 72 at this point.

Coldest last night so far 10* 5pm solid load of BL,9am today stovetop 500 still, blue gas like flames house at 73 dropped 1* during the burn cycle,the beauty of a BK.

 

[rdust]

Thats a primo fill up, how long did that bay keep you warm?

It actually screwed me up a little! I loaded at 6:30pm and knew it was gonna be cold so I loaded full! I usually load at 7am and have my wife burn it hot for a couple hours in the morning before I get up. Well she didn't turn the stove up at all this morning since the family room was plenty warm. I had to break up the wood the best I could, by the time I loaded the coal bed was up to the bottom of the door level front to back. I hate loading on a 4" plus coal bed but you have to do what you have to do.