2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

[Rich2343]

Pool & Spa Outlet
160 Galley Road Canonsburg Pennsylvania
15317 US
Telephone: 724-873-7665

They have two stores, so they may have stock. Don't hesitate to use our look up option on the website and try other areas as well.

Thank you.

Thank you Chris

 

[becasunshine]

Yes, that's what's on my business card anyway. Thank you for the compliemnts regarding your stove. I hope you enjoy it for many decades.

Chris

Chris, my husband is home tonight from a week long business trip. We never planned for me to do the shakedown cruise with this wood stove by myself but that's what happened. We had a Nor'easter, temps dropped, we have dry wood, I'M GOING TO USE THIS WOOD STOVE.

Tonight I vacuumed out the fire box (with a certified ash vacuum) and started the stone cold stove from zero with nothing but newspaper, one Super Cedar fire starter broken into four pieces and an average load of wood.

I followed your advice and the advice from our stove shop owner. I started the whole thing much slower. I put the load of wood that we'll use overnight tonight in the stove, on top of a bed of crumpled up newspaper. It's not a huge load of wood and there was plenty of air gaps. I disengaged the cat, turned the control to "high," lit the Super Cedar and the newspaper, closed the door but didn't latch it, and let it catch.

When the bottom logs were burning well and the cat thermometer was about a third of the way into active, I latched the door and engaged the cat. I left the burn control on "high" for a few more minutes, until it was obvious that the logs were still lit, then I stepped the control down from "high" to the middle of "normal" over a few minutes time.

Perfect! We have a pleasant, shoulder season burn that's not running us out of here.

Before we go to bed I'll turn it down one more time, to the lower margin of "normal." Based on this week's experience with the stove, it will stay lit and that will be plenty of heat.

I told my husband before I started that he wasn't going to believe how easily this stove lights, stays lit, establishes a burn and is easy to control. The stove made me look really, really good. It lit up just like that, went right into an active state on the cat, stayed lit, and the burn control is excellent.

We won't have to touch this stove again until sometime tomorrow evening, if then. Neither of us has ever been around a wood stove that was so easy. No fiddling, no struggling, no messing with it. My husband was super impressed.

Incidentally, the HVAC circulating fan trick is working really well with this stove in this house. Based on our experience with our pellet stove in town, I didn't have high hopes for that. It's working really well here. I keep the fan set on "circulate." It comes on about once every 15 minutes (I haven't timed it) and stays on for about 5 minutes. It really does seem to move the heat around the house.

Thank you for your help, Chris- this stove is AWESOME.

P.S. Edited to add: I DID NOT SET OFF ALL OF THE SMOKE ALARMS TONIGHT EITHER. So starting it slower is the way to go for us. Could be that we're finished curing the finish, too. That being said, the smoke alarm that is almost directly over the stove is not engaged- the rest are. I will put that alarm back up on the ceiling in a few minutes to make sure it won't lose its mind on us before we go to bed.

One of our neighbors stopped by yesterday and commiserated over the smoke alarm issue. He recommended replacing the smoke alarm over the stove with a heat alarm. He told me what to look up on Amazon. Sure enough, the company makes a heat detector that will replace the smoke detector and plug right into the existing system. I monitored the temperature of the ceiling at that site to make sure that it doesn't get hot enough up there, even during start up, to trigger the heat alarm. Looks like that will work, so I plan to order that heat alarm from Amazon.

 

[Highbeam]

What do you mean by, "a third of the way into active"? I understood that just as soon as the inactive/active line is crossed it is time to engage.

 

[becasunshine]

What do you mean by, "a third of the way into active"? I understood that just as soon as the inactive/active line is crossed it is time to engage.

Huh. Really? I thought you had to wait until everything was all lit up. In lieu of waiting for all of the logs to catch, I waited until the cat thermometer was about a third of the way up before engaging the cat- but not all of the wood was charred at that point.

I hope I didn't injure anything by waiting. The stove didn't do anything weird. (Please don't ask me to define what "weird" might be. The stove didn't catch the house on fire or scare the dog or make waffles or anything.)

I'm still learning; be gentle with me.

 

[HotCoals]

Huh. Really? I thought you had to wait until everything was all lit up. In lieu of waiting for all of the logs to catch, I waited until the cat thermometer was about a third of the way up before engaging the cat- but not all of the wood was charred at that point.

I hope I didn't injure anything by waiting. The stove didn't do anything weird. (Please don't ask me to define what "weird" might be. The stove didn't catch the house on fire or scare the dog or make waffles or anything.)

I'm still learning; be gentle with me.

You did everything fine.
You could close the by-pass sooner if you wanted to as long as you leave the air(t-stat) up till the wood is charred good so that the cat has plenty of food and won't die..lol.

You did good!

 

[becasunshine]

You did everything fine.
You could close the by-pass sooner if you wanted to as long as you leave the air(t-stat) up till the wood is charred good so that the cat has plenty of food and won't die..lol.

You did good!

Thank you for the feedback, HotCoals! It helps- I am learning!

 

[Rossco]

Some good advice from BK users on this site. New and veteran members.

Just remember: Every set up is different. You will get the ideal burn from your set up once you have established Ambient temps (Draft) wood quality and personal preference.

I think I have it down to a T then my mixture of wood changes for example and the whole thing changes, leaves me with scratch marks on me sweeeed!!

 

[Poindexter]

I like getting the needle up into active a bit before I engage the cat too. Maybe half a fingerwidth or so. Burns a little bit more wood maybe, but over the ten year warranty of the cat I am thinking less than a face cord of "waste" and my cat should always be happy.

 

[becasunshine]

You know, this thread does bring up an interesting question:

How do we train our BK stoves to make waffles?

(I heated up our previously cooked dinner, corned beef with root vegetables, on the BK top the other night. Just put it in a large enough pan to prevent boil over, put a lid on it and parked it on top of the stove for a couple of minutes. Voila, dinner!)

 

[Poindexter]

I am 24 hours in to burning big chunks instead of small splits like Highbeam suggested on the previous page.

Its looking good for getting "some" heat out of the stove without going crazy making a bunch of heat. +25dF outdoors tonight, stove was cruising on high with two enormous splits in there, 10x10x10 inch triangles 16" long with a bit extra on the rounded side. All that was lit was a 10x16" face on each of the two splits, so lower smoke load to the cat, good airflow with the thermostat on three. Cat probe was running 1/3 to 1/2 up into the active range, indicated stack temp on my second thermometer is pretty close to what I was seeing with the last cord I burnt, so not too terribly worried about creosote.

I did do a hot reload earlier and it went darn smooth. My chunk in the front (I am loading EW for this) burns away quicker than the chunk in the back. With a glowing chunk in the back and 2-3 inches of coals in the front and Tsat on 3 I switched to bypass and waited for the smoke to clear out of the firebox. Crack the door, open the door, put another enormous chunk on the coal bed, close the door. I stood up to see that the cat was still in the active range, it was, my chunk on the front had burst into flames, I flipped the lever to engaged.

Done. Awesome. The most time consuming step was clearing the smoke out of the firebox to open the door.

Now my biggest problem is guessing how much of the wood for next winter to split big and how much to split small. The big chunks I have were split three years ago and have been off the ground and under cover ever since. I think I am am going to leave a fair bit of spruce big and make room for half a cord or so of big birch chunks on the sunny side of my seasoning rack.

 

[HotCoals]

Just so you guys know.
I have seen from a reload ,or especially a cold start the cat temp be halfway and the cat still not active at all.
The cat probe will pick up the stove top temp not just the temp from the end of the probe because the coil is right on the stove top.

 

[Highbeam]

There's a big spread between two 10x10 logs sideways and 20 3x3 splits stacked in there like a log cabin. I suggest that for longer, lower burns, that you load the larger 6x6 splits like a package of hot dogs. You can get ten of them in a princess/30 box pretty easy. Char until the needle is past the active line, engage cat, and then spin the stat to your low setting.

I don't have much luck with any split that I cant end grab with one hand.

I too like to let the cat gauge needle get a bit past the active line, there's a little white tick there I shoot for.

The whole reducing the stat in stages thing is questionable. Since we are dealing with a thermostat and not the actual draft damper I know that spinning the stat down to my low setting is not the same as slamming the damper shut on a noncat. Let the stat work.

I shoot for long burns and steady heat so hot reloads are very rare. As long as the cat gauge is above active and climbing you are ready to engage.

 

[Highbeam]

Lots of factors with fuel load and no one right way for all situations. You'll have all winter to see what works best for you.

What usually strikes New bk burners as strange is that you can and should stuff these stoves tight with fuel. To the roof! and still control the output to low or high. The fuel load is just an amount of potential energy to be used as you wish.

 

[Highbeam]

Just so you guys know.
I have seen from a reload ,or especially a cold start the cat temp be halfway and the cat still not active at all.
The cat probe will pick up the stove top temp not just the temp from the end of the probe because the coil is right on the stove top.

That's weird. If the cat temp is active and climbing then your cat is active. You do realize that it doesn't have to glow to be working right? What made you think it was not active?

 

[HotCoals]

That's weird. If the cat temp is active and climbing then your cat is active. You do realize that it doesn't have to glow to be working right? What made you think it was not active?

If it's climbing at a rate higher then the stove top next to the probe you are right,the cat would be active.

I'm just saying the cat probe will read the stove top temp even if the cat is not in the stove.

 

[HotCoals]

In other words you could load a cold stove fire it off then close it down to soon and the cat may never fire off or it may latter.
That's why I usually wait till maybe the probe is halfway before cutting the air even though I engaged the cat way sooner.
The wood has to be charred good to give off the gas's for the cat to take off and not stall.

 

[Woody Stover]

Are you THE Blaze King VP?

If you look at his avatar, you'll see that he's a pro fisherman.

In lieu of waiting for all of the logs to catch, I waited until the cat thermometer was about a third of the way up before engaging the cat- but not all of the wood was charred at that point.

That's how I run my cat stoves; Rake the coals forward and get fire in the front of the stove to get the cat and stove up to temp, the light the cat, cut the air and let the burn work its way back through the load. A top-down start with the small kindling stuff in the top/front of the load will get even less wood burning at the beginning (and produce less start-up smoke,) but will put heat in the top of the stove to get the cat up to temp quicker. Less of the load will be gassing and you should be able to run the load at a very low output.

 

[webby3650]

I've never had this issue with my cat. If its says active, or even a little below it, it fires right up every time.

 

[becasunshine]

Beca Sunshine had a catalytic meltdown.

I apologize.

Everyone carry on with their catalytic converters in whatever way works for you. I'm going to call our experience with lighting and running the stove at a lower setting last night a success and be happy with it.

Especially since I didn't fire off every smoke alarm in the place in the process.

 

[aansorge]

Don't worry its super simple running these stoves. Load her up, let the fire get going good, close the bypass, then reduce the air to your normal running point after 10 minutes.

I ran my other stove last night for fun (The Enerzone in my Sig) It sure was trickier to get it going good as you need to have the door cracked open, then shut the door handle halfway. Then all the way. Then reduce the air a little at a time. Much touchier than the King. Beautiful fire though!

 

[Highbeam]

OK, this whole "cat is active, cat is not active, cat never fired off, thermometer is indicating temperature of stove top, cat may not be active even if the thermometer says it is" thing is confusing.

I do NOT want to over think this. One of the selling points of the BK stove is simplicity of operation, less fiddling with it. You don't have to touch it so much. After cleaning and loading and tearing down a pellet stove on a regular to daily basis the whole simple wood burner is a relief to me.

Last night the cat glowed at one point but then the glow subsided. The cat was glowing not long after the whole start up routine, when the stove was probably at its hottest overall (even though I started it a lot slower last night.) Once established, the stove was at a nice, low burn, not running us out of the house.

As our stove shop owner said, the stove was "cooking" the wood rather than burning it up quickly. Isn't that part of the reason why we buy Blaze King stoves? This long, slow, efficient, fuel preserving burn?

So later, when the cat wasn't visibly glowing, the cat thermometer was still way into the active range and the flames in the upper part of the fire box near the cat would intermittently appear and disappear. I took this as the cat in operation, burning off the products of combustion in the fire box.

We went to bed with the stove burning just like this. When we awoke later this morning, the wood in the stove was almost completely reduced to embers and large chunks, which are still hot. The stove is still quite warm and radiating. The cat thermometer is in the inactive range but we don't care. We do not need any more heat in the house at this moment and we aren't reloading the stove.

Honestly, I don't want to baby sit the cat. I want to treat it right, light the stove properly, burn it according to the manual, and go on about my life. I'll clean the cat when I need to clean the cat and I'll replace it when it's worn out. Otherwise I just want the stove and the cat to do what they are supposed to do without a lot of fiddling. Is that unrealistic?

How on earth, besides the thermometer, are you guys judging whether or not the catalytic converter is active and engaged? Are you relying solely on whether the cat is glowing or not? Is that a true indicator of cat activity or absence of cat activity?

That's what I was afraid of. If the cat gauge says it's active, it's active. Don't worry about the glow, that is not an indication of activity. Trust your instruments. You are doing a great job running that stove becasun.

Also understand that we are stove nerds, and really dwell on the details and theories. When you burn a bk you have to make problems because the dang stoves are too boring otherwise.

 

[webby3650]

That's what I was afraid of. If the cat gauge says it's active, it's active. Don't worry about the glow, that is not an indication of activity. Trust your instruments. You are doing a great job running that stove becasun.

Also understand that we are stove nerds, and really dwell on the details and theories. When you burn a bk you have to make problems because the dang stoves are too boring otherwise.

Well said.
The thermometer is a probe, it measures the core temperure of the cat. If its hot enough to say "active", then it's hot enough to do its job. Hot is hot, no matter what's heating it up.

 

[becasunshine]

"Trust your instruments. You are doing a great job running that stove becasun."

Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you a million times.

Nobody intended to light me off, I know that. When all I have are the instruments, the instruction manual and very little experience, I want to rely on the instruments. If for some reason I begin to doubt the instruments and I don't have experience to fall back on, bedlam ensues. See: Beca Sunshine's Catalytic Melt Down, above.

Also you really don't want to do that to our stove shop owner. The man doesn't need me melting into a neurotic puddle. I've already called him with a half dozen questions about a stove and an installation that are operating *perfectly.* DO NOT RUIN THIS MAN'S LIFE BY PUTTING DOUBT IN MY MIND.

"Also understand that we are stove nerds, and really dwell on the details and theories. When you burn a bk you have to make problems because the dang stoves are too boring otherwise."

I completely understand this. Not only do I understand it, I know I do it myself sometimes. Oh, you should see me get "on" about something that engages me. (Pity Mr. Sunshine. Light a candle to the God of Husbands on his behalf.)

 

[HotCoals]

Guess I'm getting to deep into it but she did fine..hard to mess it up really.

 

[becasunshine]

Guess I'm getting to deep into it but she did fine..hard to mess it up really.

HotCoals, carry on. I mean that sincerely and without irony. It's not your fault that I had a catalytic melt down (the most efficient kind!) It's my fault, truly.

I do completely understand geeking out about stuff and I do it too. (Oh, I could introduce you to some people who've had a LOT of patience with me when I geek out.) I went from theoretical to practical in 2.5 seconds without anybody in the world telling me to go there. Again, lack of experience talking.

I love my new stove. I don't want to break it. So I'm being neurotic like a first time mama.

Carry on, everyone.

P.S. Edited to tell HotCoals thank you again for your help as well.