2014-2015 Blaze King Performance thread (Everything BK)

[Niko]

Ok how do i measure the danger zone tho while im watching it? The stove top temps?

Not to sound stupid tho but why would blaze king put a 3 or 3.5 if you cant actaully use it for a long perdiod of time? Did i miss anything in the manual, let me go check..

 

[Rossco]

Ok how do i measure the danger zone tho while im watching it? The stove top temps?

Not to sound stupid tho but why would blaze king put a 3 or 3.5 if you cant actaully use it for a long perdiod of time? Did i miss anything in the manual, let me go check..

Every set up is different.

With my chimney and -10C to -30C weather, the draft is voracious, no way I could leave mine on 3. The outside of the Ultrablack stove pipe gets over 150C just charring the wood! It can seriously raw when on 3.

If you have a weak draft then the stove ain't sucking as much air in.

That's my theory on the 1-3.5 stat.

 

[tarzan]

Yes, watch the stove top temp. Anything over 740 with your IR with fan off I would personaly bale.

Do you really need ^ to heat your home?

 

[Niko]

Well just read the manual again but sometimes I forget. It states you can run on 3, with no restriction on time.

 

[Niko]

Ok thanks for temp guide. My draft is awesome and i have no problems. Stove is running great and is worth every single penny. Just like to ask questions and learn. As far as running it that hot well not always and rarely but I do like to make sure it does what it says.

Kinda like having a really fast car, you dont always speed but its nice nowing whats happens when you press the gas pedal.

 

[Rossco]

Think I will stick to 1.5 cruise with occasional 2 when the moods right.

I have super clean glass. Maybe it was the pine gumming it up. The Larch seems to burn super clean.

 

[jeff_t]

It's a steel stove. If you start approaching 800°, you should probably think about turning it down.

While I don't worry that much about it, burning at those high settings makes a lot of flame. I assume that's okay and the engineers designed the flame shield to do an adequate job of protecting the catalyst from flame impingement, but some folks get concerned about it.

If I need the heat, I don't hesitate to crank it up.

 

[tarzan]

Well just read the manual again but sometimes I forget. It states you can run on 3, with no restriction on time.

As Rossco aluded to, everybody's 3 is not the same. Draft, wood, and weather will play a factor.

I don't remember my manual stating I can run on 3 with no restrictions but you may well be able to.

Still, I would do a test run while I was there to monitor temps.

Again, Why?

 

[tarzan]

Ok. Never mind the, why? I type slow.

 

[Niko]

just read the manual again page 24. From blazeking.com

For a king stove
OPTIMAL THERMOSTAT SETTING

Any thermostat position between 1 (Low) and 3 (High) will produce the desired clean burning characteristics However, since each application can vary, you may find it necessary to operate the thermostat to suit your application. A thermostat setting on High will produce a maximum heat which is more than suitable for heating the average size home and offer the cleanest door glass.

 

[05ramctd]

Been burning maple and red oak lately. Wife likes it warm so been burning on 2.5 mainly and 3 for under an hour off and on just fine tuning while I am at home, since I have been on midnight shift. Seems to be great heat, still lots of ash but I think some of the oak is not low enough moisture content but close. Over night been keeping it in the normal range but tonight I left it on 2.5 just out of normal to see how it is when I get home.

 

[Niko]

Well now that the 20 degree weather is around im gonna leave mine at 2.5 as my stove is downstairs and we sleep upstairs. Im still trying to figure out ways of bringing up the heat. What im doing is working but i think I need to insulate some areas better.

 

[Badger]

When it drops down to 20-30f below I'm running on 2.5 to 2.75 with my fans on. I get 7-8 hours burns there... Maybe a little less.

 

[Rossco]

Had her down on 1 last night. Turned her back up to 1.5 - 1.75 before work this morning. Loaded around 10pm. Still over 1/2 left at 05:30 this morning.

It was around 5F out side and 68F in.

I don't know, maybe some of you guys should have bought a king if you cannot cruise the Princess to maintain temps. With an exception for Badger, -30F that's -34C. Dam that's cold.

People always say you will cut wood consumption by 1/3 with a BK Cat stove. Not on 6-8hr burns you ain't.

 

[weatherguy]

Starting to run into problems here. We finally got some cold weather with temps dropping into the 20s at night. If I run the stove high enough to get some serious heat, I wake up in the morning to find just ashes, the cat probe at zero (and the house temp at around 62 or so). If I set it low enough to maintain a long burn, the house is even colder.

I'm using Doug fir that isn't fully seasoned. Perhaps that's the problem. When I do a fresh split, I get anywhere from 22 to 24 percent moisture content. Picked up some wood that's more like 17% but the outsides are really wet because it was all left out in the open and it rains here a lot. I'm trying to get that stuff to dry out at the surface but it takes time because it's got some rot and that part has really gotten waterlogged. Right now those splits are unburnable.

The house is 2650 square feet with an open floor plan. Perhaps it's too big for the Ashford. We'll have a better sense once my wood is fully seasoned. That means we may not know until next year.

I was trying to heat 2800 sf with a princess, I knew it wouldn't 100% but I was just trying to cut down on the oil usage and it did that. I would have bought the King if it fit, now I have the Progress Hybrid.

 

[jeff_t]

.....now I have the Progress Hybrid.

How's that going? Got it burning yet?

 

[Niko]

Had her down on 1 last night. Turned her back up to 1.5 - 1.75 before work this morning. Loaded around 10pm. Still over 1/2 left at 05:30 this morning.

It was around 5F out side and 68F in.

I don't know, maybe some of you guys should have bought a king if you cannot cruise the Princess to maintain temps. With an exception for Badger, -30F that's -34C. Dam that's cold.

People always say you will cut wood consumption by 1/3 with a BK Cat stove. Not on 6-8hr burns you ain't.

At 1 my down stairs stay around 70-75 depending how cold it is outside but its way to cold upstairs. Def will redo all the attic insulation next year and see and take notes to compare. If i can keep the upstairs around 70 its a winfor me and the stove around 2.5. Im getting at least 15+hr burn times with that

 

[Parallax]

I was trying to heat 2800 sf with a princess, I knew it wouldn't 100% but I was just trying to cut down on the oil usage and it did that. I would have bought the King if it fit, now I have the Progress Hybrid.

I'm hoping better wood will make it workable. My wife would not have gone for a King. We may have to figure out ways to supplement in the coldest weather.

It was cold last night, probably around 30 or high 20s. For around here, that's below what's normal for November. We had friends over. Cranked the stove and the place was comfortable (probably around 68 degrees). Ran it at 2.5 to 3.0 with the fan on for most of the night. Had to reload right when we served dinner as the heat output was going down.

Loaded it up again before I went to bed last night, maybe around 10 pm. Turned it down to 2.0 and turned off the fan. Now, at noon, I came downstairs and there are just a couple of red coals. It's completely out of the active range and the house is cold. Loaded the box up with fir and am waiting to see if it lights without a firestarter.

It seems we are asking a lot of the stove. I don't care about keeping the upstairs warm. Cooler is better for sleeping and we can supplement with electric room heaters. But the hot air is getting sucked upstairs and that's making it challenging to keep the downstairs reasonbly warm. It's 40 degrees outside at this moment and 62 inside.

 

[webby3650]

I'm hoping better wood will make it workable. My wife would not have gone for a King. We may have to figure out ways to supplement in the coldest weather.

It was cold last night, probably around 30 or high 20s. For around here, that's below what's normal for November. We had friends over. Cranked the stove and the place was comfortable (probably around 68 degrees). Ran it at 2.5 to 3.0 with the fan on for most of the night. Had to reload right when we served dinner as the heat output was going down.

Loaded it up again before I went to bed last night, maybe around 10 pm. Turned it down to 2.0 and turned off the fan. Now, at noon, I came downstairs and there are just a couple of red coals. It's completely out of the active range and the house is cold. Loaded the box up with fir and am waiting to see if it lights without a firestarter.

It seems we are asking a lot of the stove. I don't care about keeping the upstairs warm. Cooler is better for sleeping and we can supplement with electric room heaters. But the hot air is getting sucked upstairs and that's making it challenging to keep the downstairs reasonbly warm. It's 40 degrees outside at this moment and 62 inside.

You are asking a lot from the stove, especially with soft wood. 2,650 feet in a cold climate would be a task for any stove as a sole source of heat. You must supplement.

 

[Shane Collins]

I'm hoping better wood will make it workable. My wife would not have gone for a King. We may have to figure out ways to supplement in the coldest weather.

It was cold last night, probably around 30 or high 20s. For around here, that's below what's normal for November. We had friends over. Cranked the stove and the place was comfortable (probably around 68 degrees). Ran it at 2.5 to 3.0 with the fan on for most of the night. Had to reload right when we served dinner as the heat output was going down.

Loaded it up again before I went to bed last night, maybe around 10 pm. Turned it down to 2.0 and turned off the fan. Now, at noon, I came downstairs and there are just a couple of red coals. It's completely out of the active range and the house is cold. Loaded the box up with fir and am waiting to see if it lights without a firestarter.

It seems we are asking a lot of the stove. I don't care about keeping the upstairs warm. Cooler is better for sleeping and we can supplement with electric room heaters. But the hot air is getting sucked upstairs and that's making it challenging to keep the downstairs reasonbly warm. It's 40 degrees outside at this moment and 62 inside.

Our house is 2500 sq ft and the Ashford seems to be doing fine. For the upstairs I close all the doors so only the hallway is getting the heat, that seemed to help us, a hour or so before bed you can open the bedroom door for a little warmth. I suspect soft wood that isn't seasoned too well. Are you planning on getting some compressed wood bricks and try an overnight burn with that? That could be the best way to identify your problem. Good luck!

 

[Poindexter]

Here I thought I was a genius and we got another thread going about "wood coal sifters", oodles of images on google of folks that already solved this problem. I guess if I would have logged in before I got inspired I would have come up with the same solution.

What happened was i got into both some colder weather and some damper wood at the same time. Looking critically at it i think I got some larger birch splits from the shady rather than sunny side of my pile that measure about 20% MC per electronic gizmo. The stove runs them OK, but not great, and they make a bunch of ash. Unfortunately I was working a lot of hours last week and pretty much had to burn them or burn oil. I found a place for the rest of them so I can pull them and season another year, but I got home from church today with a cool house and about 6" of mixed ash and coals in the bottom of my Ashford.

I hit upon an idea. I have this thing I made for my grill over the summer. I love grilled shrimp, marinated in butter, garlic and citrus juice, but I hate the taste of shrimp cooked over burning butter. So I made basically a box of expanded metal, about 4x4 inches on the end, 10 inches long and open on the top. Get a chimney full of charcoal going, tong the burning charcoal into what is essentially a homemade grate, and then grill the shrimp beside the grate so the melted butter misses the burning charcoal as it drips off the shrimp. pic 1.

Pic 2 is the grate and a pair of channel locks in front of my stove.

pic 3 is done, all the coals too big to fit through the expanded metal stayed in the stove, all the wee tiny coals that did fit through the expanded metal ended up in the ash bucket.

I tried putting the metal thingy in the bucket, shoveling mix in there and then shaking, but I got quite an ash plume into the room. Better was to fill the grate in the firebox, shake the grate in the firebox and then shovel the sifted ashes into the bucket as a separate step. Three thousand words to follow....

 

[weatherguy]

How's that going? Got it burning yet?

Connecting it Tuesday, hoping the higher horse power saves more oil.

 

[drz1050]

Connecting it Tuesday, hoping the higher horse power saves more oil.

The Progress Hybrid has the same size firebox as the Princess, and they're both rated at 81% efficiency.. what higher HP do you mean?

The Ideal Steel is larger.

 

[Parallax]

Our house is 2500 sq ft and the Ashford seems to be doing fine. For the upstairs I close all the doors so only the hallway is getting the heat, that seemed to help us, a hour or so before bed you can open the bedroom door for a little warmth. I suspect soft wood that isn't seasoned too well. Are you planning on getting some compressed wood bricks and try an overnight burn with that? That could be the best way to identify your problem. Good luck!

Thanks. Good idea about opening the upstairs doors an hour before bed. We've been doing alright today. Just keeping the stove running hot. For overnight, I'll have to set it low so it keeps up through the night, but then in the morning I can fire it right up.

Where's the best place to get some compressed wood bricks? I'll have to try some. Meanwhile, I've gotten myself another pickup truck load of old wood that been sitting out for a while. This last week has been dry so, unlike last weekend, the stuff I picked up isn't waterlogged. I've begun stacking it behind my woodshed (which is completely full with more than ten cords). The shed has an overhang. I put some 2 X 4s on the ground to keep the wood off the dirt. I'll leave it all back there a few weeks and then see if it's ready to use. Just the outer layer has to dry. Once that happens, it should burn well. The inner part of that stuff is 17% or lower. The cold winds seem to do a pretty good job whisking away moisture.

 

[NinjaTech]

Did a little experiment over the weekend, I was at menards and they have those 'eco' brand compressed bricks. Grabbed a bunch of those just to play around with, wanted to go for the long burn. Cleaned out a bunch of ash, raked all coals to the front and loaded up about 4 1/2 packages nice and tight. I was able to get three layers of them in there with enough room left for the bricks to expand. It was just under 100lbs worth. This was friday night around 7pm. Threw a smaller split right on the coals in front to help get the front of the bricks going. The goal was to have the pile to burn from the front to the back nice and slow. Cat started around 1,200F when first getting going, then settled down in to the 800-1000f range for a solid 30 hours then started to drop towards 500 and figured it was time to reload. When I opened it up i noticed the entire bottom layer of bricks had not even burned yet! The ash from the top two layers appeared to be blocking the air to the bottom layer. I stired things up to knock all the ash off and get some air to the bottom layer and they took right off. Cat back up to the 800-1000f range and just kept on going till 8pm last night when the rest of the bricks were ash. Temps outside were 19-32 the entire time, stove room never went under 73. So I ended up with a 49 hour burn on a single load of fuel, with only one maintenance 'stir'. Those things just go, and go and go. That defiantly won't become my normal running procedure, I have a few packages left and when those are gone I'll switch back to regular wood, but it was a fun little experiment.