2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 2 (Everything BK)

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Yes, no cat anyway... verner http://www.verner.cz/ makes a similar product as well as materia http://www.materiasystem.com/
In Italy ... they can only dream of half the burn times we get with our BKs.
Ecco stoves do have a secondary burn but rely on their huge mass for heat release in the long term. As I said before, true cat stoves only come from North America
 
Do you mean that with the wood saved with a cat stove the price of a new cat is paid twice a year? I know, now try to convince a few millions obtuse Europeans lol

Yep. Wood savings is only the tip of the iceberg. Steadiness of heat output, extreme burn time, .8/GPH particulates and meaningful thermostatic control are burning attributes that are greatly enhanced by a cat. A secondary burn stove can never hope to outperform a cat stove at low fire.
 
Yes, no cat anyway... verner http://www.verner.cz/ makes a similar product as well as materia http://www.materiasystem.com/
In Italy ... they can only dream of half the burn times we get with our BKs.
Ecco stoves do have a secondary burn but rely on their huge mass for heat release in the long term. As I said before, true cat stoves only come from North America
Sorry to report that I have personally had my hands on the unit and met with the engi needs. It has a cat. See the three holes on
Left and right bottom chamber, there sits a reticulated combustor on each side.
 
Do you mean that with the wood saved with a cat stove the price of a new cat is paid twice a year? I know, now try to convince a few millions obtuse Europeans lol

That depends...
What does a cord of firewood in your area?
(128cuft) I’m sure the cat saves money even if you replace it occasionally. You save more wood than the efficiency difference (over a non cat) would suggest, by not wasting fuel overheating your house.
 
That depends...
What does a cord of firewood in your area?
(128cuft) I’m sure the cat saves money even if you replace it occasionally. You save more wood than the efficiency difference (over a non cat) would suggest, by not wasting fuel overheating your house.
You are right about that, the way I figure it, I use to burn 6 cords, bought the Bk and dropped down to 4 cords on an average winter, every 3rd year I’m burning for labor free, if I have to buy a cat every 4th year @ $250 a pop then so be it, I’m still ahead of the game and will have plenty of time to play golf or something
 
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I'm looking for a link or some direction on where to buy a new cat for my Ashford 30.1. At the end of last year performance went down. So at the beginning of this year I removed the cat to do the vinegar bath. It definitely improved but I'm still seeing smoke from the chimney 7 to 8 hours into the burn with the stove on low. I'm pretty sure it's smoke and not steam. The cat says it's active, and will just dip down to the inactive line after 24 hours on low.
 
This site has been cited many a times here:
http://www.firecatcombustors.com
IIRC it’s been recommended by BKVP too but I have no idea if their prices are competitive or not. Let us know your experience with them if you actually buy a new cat
 
This site has been cited many a times here:
http://www.firecatcombustors.com
IIRC it’s been recommended by BKVP too but I have no idea if their prices are competitive or not. Let us know your experience with them if you actually buy a new cat

Good luck getting someone on the phone. Ordering online works great though and the cat looks like the original.
 
With the exception of one cat stove manufacturer in the USA, to my understanding, all other manufacturers in both USA and Canada purchase ceramic combustors from Applied Ceramics (ACI) in Georgia. The one stove manufacturer buys them from Taiwan. ACI owns www.firecatcombustors.com

100% of all other online retailers located in the USA, purchase and resell ACI combustors. One cat manufacturer that sells only to stove manufacturers buys ceramic substrates from ACI and puts their proprietary coatings on the ACI substrate. And before you ask....stainless combustors are manufacturered but one of two US companies. These substrates are coated with proprietary coatings by two companies here in the USA and sold by everyone.
 
Somewhere a few pages back, there were debates about running the stove wide open, and also probe thermometer needle positions. Here’s one of my Ashfords after more than an hour on max air.

I was running a mix of oak and hickory, and ripped thru about quarter of the load in that time, so we’re looking at substantial BTU throughput, on this one.

Loaded at 10:45pm, closed bypass at 11pm, snapped this pic a few minutes before midnight. Cat is 2.5 years old.

7f78f1ded5cb26d86358bb68c30105da.jpg
 
Look to the picture real good. It is a SS cat. The ceramic has like a yellowish color to it
 
Somewhere a few pages back, there were debates about running the stove wide open, and also probe thermometer needle positions. Here’s one of my Ashfords after more than an hour on max air.

I was running a mix of oak and hickory, and ripped thru about quarter of the load in that time, so we’re looking at substantial BTU throughput, on this one.

Loaded at 10:45pm, closed bypass at 11pm, snapped this pic a few minutes before midnight. Cat is 2.5 years old.

View attachment 215892

Fans on or off?
 
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Somewhere a few pages back, there were debates about running the stove wide open, and also probe thermometer needle positions. Here’s one of my Ashfords after more than an hour on max air.

I was running a mix of oak and hickory, and ripped thru about quarter of the load in that time, so we’re looking at substantial BTU throughput, on this one.

Loaded at 10:45pm, closed bypass at 11pm, snapped this pic a few minutes before midnight. Cat is 2.5 years old.

View attachment 215892

That looks like what I would expect to see running my stove in a similar fashion. That plus a little smoke escaping the flue here and there. Once I turn the thermostat down, until I here it click shut, then my cat glows an even brighter orange, cat thermometer goes past active and no visible smoke escapes the flue. I reckon that above a certain temperature residency time and available smoke has a big influence on cat activity.
 
I found that but it does not say if its steel or ceramic.

Call and ask, I had no trouble getting a call back from the main guy. Scott or Shaun, I forget. He sent me to the Midwest hearth amazon store since the firecat site sucks at taking orders. The midwest hearth place had the same price.

The M in the part number is for metal. The C in the part number for the ceramic one is for ceramic.

The 30 boxes never shipped with ceramics as far as I know so putting in a ceramic might be illegal? @BKVP
 
That looks like what I would expect to see running my stove in a similar fashion. That plus a little smoke escaping the flue here and there. Once I turn the thermostat down, until I here it click shut, then my cat glows an even brighter orange, cat thermometer goes past active and no visible smoke escapes the flue. I reckon that above a certain temperature residency time and available smoke has a big influence on cat activity.

Yes! The cat temp should actually go up as you reduce the air entering the stove if a vigorous primary fire had been taking place.
 
Fans on or off?
Fans on, but just barely. I turn them on in October, and shut them off in the spring, and keep them on a low setting, such that I sort of forget they’re even there.
 
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Burning some coals down and going to empty the ashes out for the 1st this season, I love the fact with the deep belly of the princess that i can go weeks without emptying. I’ve got 5 burns in October and pretty much 24/7 in November so that averages out to 2 full weeks of burning full loads
 
Call and ask, I had no trouble getting a call back from the main guy. Scott or Shaun, I forget. He sent me to the Midwest hearth amazon store since the firecat site sucks at taking orders. The midwest hearth place had the same price.

The M in the part number is for metal. The C in the part number for the ceramic one is for ceramic.

The 30 boxes never shipped with ceramics as far as I know so putting in a ceramic might be illegal? @BKVP
Thank you.
 
After some research. The firecat and Midwest show pictures of the cat but the don't have the small tabs on the front of the cat. I found on Amazon condar sells a steel cat that the picture does have the taps but it's 16 dollars more and $15 shipping. So my questions is how important are those tabs. Thanks.
 
Firecatcombutors has the ones that blaze king uses. It should be plug and play
 
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