2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

[lsucet]

Pine and in general softwood is not a problem with a BK. You will not get the same burn times like others with hardwood. You will have so much control over the stove with the thermostat that doesn't matter which type of wood you use. 80% of what I burn is pine and I have no problems getting over 20 hrs out of a load on a old and weird floor plan house. If mix it with hardwood in shoulder seasons I can go 26-27 hrs. I still getting when cold outside a decent 14 hrs out of a load of pine. Of course everything will depend on your heat demand to stay warm

 

[Highbeam]

Wood is wood. It has to be dry and that pine will burn fine.

 

[Poindexter]

@Beldin , the BKs really shine with soft wood pine species. When i upgraded to a BK i had mixed birch and spruce in my stacks, but now run spruce only, 8 cords per year.

The princess seems like a lot of stove for 950sf, but if you are also going to add sqaure footage in the next few years, why not.

 

[black smoke signals]

Isucet Great post! Getting 20 hours from this load of pine seems to be a mystery for me.Is your air setting at the lowest setting with very little flame or no flame and a black door glass when load is finished?

 

[Poindexter]

Isucet Great post! Getting 20 hours from this load of pine seems to be a mystery for me.Is your air setting at the lowest setting with very little flame or no flame and a black door glass when load is finished?

20 hour burns on pine are no problem ith a princess or one of the "30" series for sure. The catch is you can only fit so many oouds of pine in the firebox, btus per pound is fixed, divided by 20 hours, there is your hourly btu output.

Its most convenient for me to load in the morning before work and in the evening after work. Back to back 12 hour burns of spruce for months on end is no problem with the throttle on my "30" set to medium.

 

[lsucet]

Isucet Great post! Getting 20 hours from this load of pine seems to be a mystery for me.Is your air setting at the lowest setting with very little flame or no flame and a black door glass when load is finished?

In my climate here I get too much of a swing in temperatures between night time and day time. For the last four to five years the winters been like that. Hell going around the State but here we can call it mild weather.
Sometimes during the day I get scared of lose draft cause it gets warm outside, but till now the cat stays into the active zone. That is helping me with the long burn times 90% of the time.

 

[lsucet]

I run it low most of the time. I have a magic mark on the low side that it does the job for me.

 

[Beldin]

Ok. Thanks everybody. I understand burnibg pine. The BK salesman sold me on the ashford 30. Supposedly the ashford will give me just as long burn times as the princess. They all have thermostats on them now. 500 dollar upgrade difference. My wife actually thought the princess was better looking than the ashford 30.

 

[Blazing]

Put some foil tape on it, have a rager burning in her now! Lol No smell, no smoke.

Watching the smoke inside I did notice it eddies up above the air wash vents due to the fresh air rushing in and literally the smoke curls and runs into the front of the stove behind the airwash, over and over. This is right where the hole is.

Which makes sense why it literally streamed out when the stove was cranked up as the air flow was fast and the eddies were strong ramming into this area making a high pressure zone. Once turned down it gets a lot lazier.

If I was smarter I would use my CFD to explain this but hey! It's the weekend! Lol. Beer time

I'm sure BK will get ya straight on the stove. Just wanted to welcome you and I'll have a beer on that.

 

[Blazing]

Ok. Thanks everybody. I understand burnibg pine. The BK salesman sold me on the ashford 30. Supposedly the ashford will give me just as long burn times as the princess. They all have thermostats on them now. 500 dollar upgrade difference. My wife actually thought the princess was better looking than the ashford 30.

Welcome aboard. Take a look at the amount of ash capacity the princess has over the Ashford before you pull the trigger.

 

[lsucet]

Ok. Thanks everybody. I understand burnibg pine. The BK salesman sold me on the ashford 30. Supposedly the ashford will give me just as long burn times as the princess. They all have thermostats on them now. 500 dollar upgrade difference. My wife actually thought the princess was better looking than the ashford 30.

You can't go wrong with either one.

 

[jetsam]

I put up about a cord of pine every year and use it for shorter hotter fires- a "let's warm things up a few degrees quickly" fire or a "I'm home today so let's burn some odds and uglies and get it up to 80 in here" fire. I use oak for longer burns, but there's nothing wrong with pine. (Just hauled a little bit in today.)

 

[kennyp2339]

I'm sure BK will get ya straight on the stove. Just wanted to welcome you and I'll have a beer on that.

Did someone say beer?

 

[Beldin]

@Beldin , the BKs really shine with soft wood pine species. When i upgraded to a BK i had mixed birch and spruce in my stacks, but now run spruce only, 8 cords per year.

The princess seems like a lot of stove for 950sf, but if you are also going to add sqaure footage in the next few years, why not.

Thanks for the info. I asked the installer today what to expect if I just split it and burn it. He told me what I already assumed...just stack it inside for a couple weeks. Expect to replace the cat in 5 years, and people in my area are consistently 14 hours of constant controlled heat with lodge pole and the 30 series BK. Expect easy relight at 17 hours. (He takes notes and averages). The larger quads get 8 to 10 with reload on LP.
I just decided to get the best I could. I didn't want to drop 3204.00 right there, so....I financed it in less than 3 minutes. That is a little scary.

The Ashford IS too much for my house. We can heat it with just my fc 24 englander, but it has to be reloaded every three hours. (It needs a new cat and some work). But The BKS can be shut down LOW... I like how my friend can chug his sirroco for seemingly forever, without over heating his house when the weather is in the fifties. Everyone around here whines when their electric bill goes up in the spring because they have to use back up electric. So thanks for the input. You see my goals.

 

[Beldin]

Pine and in general softwood is not a problem with a BK. You will not get the same burn times like others with hardwood. You will have so much control over the stove with the thermostat that doesn't matter which type of wood you use. 80% of what I burn is pine and I have no problems getting over 20 hrs out of a load on a old and weird floor plan house. If mix it with hardwood in shoulder seasons I can go 26-27 hrs. I still getting when cold outside a decent 14 hrs out of a load of pine. Of course everything will depend on your heat demand to stay warm

Thanks! I understand the spring operated thermostat now. It was nice to see the cut out of the guts at the dealership.

 

[Beldin]

Pine and in general softwood is not a problem with a BK. You will not get the same burn times like others with hardwood. You will have so much control over the stove with the thermostat that doesn't matter which type of wood you use. 80% of what I burn is pine and I have no problems getting over 20 hrs out of a load on a old and weird floor plan house. If mix it with hardwood in shoulder seasons I can go 26-27 hrs. I still getting when cold outside a decent 14 hrs out of a load of pine. Of course everything will depend on your heat demand to stay warm

Thanks! I understand the spring operated thermostat now. It was nice to see the cut out of the guts at the dealership.

 

[Beldin]

Welcome aboard. Take a look at the amount of ash capacity the princess has over the Ashford before you pull the trigger.

That is a fact. I did measure everything while I was there, and noticed about another months work of clean burning ash space. I don't see myself using the plug, and ash pan but once a year on the ashford. I work hard at something every day. Occasionally shoveling out the box is absolutely trivial to myself. The only reason I chose the Ashford was because of the cleaner glass on a low burn. The cat is positioned better for airwash over the glass than the princess. That is was the only selling point towards the ashford. I may be getting my grubs on a BK king for just removing it. 2012 model. That baby is going in my shop to run nonstop all winter. Free is free.

 

[webby3650]

That is a fact. I did measure everything while I was there, and noticed about another months work of clean burning ash space. I don't see myself using the plug, and ash pan but once a year on the ashford. I work hard at something every day. Occasionally shoveling out the box is absolutely trivial to myself. The only reason I chose the Ashford was because of the cleaner glass on a low burn. The cat is positioned better for airwash over the glass than the princess. That is was the only selling point towards the ashford. I may be getting my grubs on a BK king for just removing it. 2012 model. That baby is going in my shop to run nonstop all winter. Free is free.

The ash plug clean out system works very well, better than any system I've used to date. It's pretty mess free compared to the plume of ash produced from shoveling into a bucket.

 

[Beldin]

The ash plug clean out system works very well, better than any system I've used to date. It's pretty mess free compared to the plume of ash produced from shoveling into a bucket.

I can see it working well, but was wondering if the plug would seat down easily without vacuuming the grove out? The pan does look very clean. I'm just used to shoveling. But if a guy spends that kind of extra dough, he might as well use it.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

The ash plug clean out system works very well, better than any system I've used to date. It's pretty mess free compared to the plume of ash produced from shoveling into a bucket.

I recommend NOT shoveling into a bucket! Get a rectangular metal baking pan of the correct height to wedge lengthwise under the ash lip. You will know it's the right height because it will be cantilevered securely in place under it's own weight and will be tilted about 10-15 degrees towards the firebox. This way you are PLACING the ashes into the pan rather than DUMPING them into a bucket. Because the top of the pan is level with the firebox opening, any small amount of dust that escapes is drawn up the chimney by natural draft, none goes into the room.

As an added bonus, if you accidently slide a nice coal in there, it's easy to flick it back into the firebox.

I purposefully didn't get an ash pan on my Chinook because I knew I wouldn't be using it!

 

[lsucet]

I can see it working well, but was wondering if the plug would seat down easily without vacuuming the grove out? The pan does look very clean. I'm just used to shoveling. But if a guy spends that kind of extra dough, he might as well use it.

At least on my Princess, don't know if other models are the same. Just cleaning the base where the plug sits with the finger, everything is good to go.

 

[webby3650]

I recommend NOT shoveling into a bucket! Get a rectangular metal baking pan of the correct height to wedge lengthwise under the ash lip. You will know it's the right height because it will be cantilevered securely in place under it's own weight and will be tilted about 10-15 degrees towards the firebox. This way you are PLACING the ashes into the pan rather than DUMPING them into a bucket. Because the top of the pan is level with the firebox opening, any small amount of dust that escapes is drawn up the chimney by natural draft, none goes into the room.

As an added bonus, if you accidently slide a nice coal in there, it's easy to flick it back into the firebox.

I purposefully didn't get an ash pan on my Chinook because I knew I wouldn't be using it!

I'm familiar with the process. I've cleaned out more ash from stoves than most people have ever seen...
The ash removal system works very well. Too bad you didn't get it with yours.

 

[webby3650]

I can see it working well, but was wondering if the plug would seat down easily without vacuuming the grove out? The pan does look very clean. I'm just used to shoveling. But if a guy spends that kind of extra dough, he might as well use it.

I just use the plug tool, run it around the opening then put the plug back. Easy breezy!

 

[jetsam]

Thanks for the info. I asked the installer today what to expect if I just split it and burn it. He told me what I already assumed...just stack it inside for a couple weeks. Expect to replace the cat in 5 years, and people in my area are consistently 14 hours of constant controlled heat with lodge pole and the 30 series BK. Expect easy relight at 17 hours.

That sounds a little low, but I guess they are pine numbers. Still, 2.75cf firebox on that stove.

The Ashford IS too much for my house.

I burn my princess insert when it's 60 degrees outside. These stoves crank WAY down, and the more you turn 'em down the less wood you use. You do need reasonably good draft to burn very low, though.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

I'm familiar with the process. I've cleaned out more ash from stoves than most people have ever seen...
The ash removal system works very well. Too bad you didn't get it with yours.

I decided not to order an ash drawer after hearing from more than one person who had ash drawers on their BK 30's and found it was easier and quicker to use the pan method. Very slick.

Different strokes for different folks.