2020-21 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

[Nealm66]

I’m curious highbeam, are you able to keep a fire going in this weather? I threw in some punky small fir from a snag I cut this am, not even filling the stove, I’ve got the swoosh at noon and it’s still 73 degrees and the princess is holding on to them pieces of fir like they were madrona

 

[Diabel]

I’m curious highbeam, are you able to keep a fire going in this weather? I threw in some punky small fir from a snag I cut this am, not even filling the stove, I’ve got the swoosh at noon and it’s still 73 degrees and the princess is holding on to them pieces of fir like they were madrona

Not a bad problem to have on the first day of February!

 

[Dieselhead]

I get a nice lazy flame floating up towards the cat once and a while , reminds me of a lava lamp sometimes...

 

[Highbeam]

I’m curious highbeam, are you able to keep a fire going in this weather? I threw in some punky small fir from a snag I cut this am, not even filling the stove, I’ve got the swoosh at noon and it’s still 73 degrees and the princess is holding on to them pieces of fir like they were madrona

I can’t keep a fire going without overheating the home when it only drops to mid 40s overnight. The stove doesn’t get cold but the fire dwindles and dies for about 5 hours per day. Since the stove is still warm I suppose you could say I’m still basking in the “heat life” of the fire.

I load and light with kindling a partial load every night. It’s good to smoke up the neighborhood after it’s dark out.

We enjoy house temperatures in the mid to upper 70s and our home is relatively old so we burn more often than a guy in a new house that likes it cooler.

I’m hoping for some cold and snow. Plan to run up to crystal mountain for skiing on Friday.

 

[MtSiBK]

Why not just open the front door? It’s a balmy 77 in here now but come 445 am it will feel real good getting up and going. I do understand the overheating dilemma and it definitely happens here so the front door is open quite often. Oh the problems of a BK owner.

 

[Highbeam]

Why not just open the front door? It’s a balmy 77 in here now but come 445 am it will feel real good getting up and going. I do understand the overheating dilemma and it definitely happens here so the front door is open quite often. Oh the problems of a BK owner.

Ha! We would sooner strip to our underoos. 77 is pretty normal and nice with an icy cup of caffeine free diet cola. The women will be all bundled up under a blanket up to about 80.

Open door would let the puppy out.

 

[Nealm66]

No doubt a guy shouldn’t be complaining this time of year about mild temps. I was just wondering if it was something I could change as far as operating the stove but oddly I feel better knowing I’m not alone. Good time to get rid of chunks and the rest of the punky snag. One more day off tomorrow so I might look for the fine line of the catalytic if there is one.

 

[Highbeam]

No doubt a guy shouldn’t be complaining this time of year about mild temps. I was just wondering if it was something I could change as far as operating the stove but oddly I feel better knowing I’m not alone. Good time to get rid of chunks and the rest of the punky snag. One more day off tomorrow so I might look for the fine line of the catalytic if there is one.

I have a big honking noncat in the shop that gets the ugly wood. This allows me to higrade the fuel for the Bk.

When low temps are mid 40s it makes a lot of sense to run an electric heat pump if you have one. We don’t.

 

[stoveliker]

We got about 17", but it's raining or sleeting and 35 this morning (actually since last night).

I ran the stove on an assortment of stuff the last few days. Snow started Sunday evening. Last night I did my first night on only sassafrasas it's not very cold out. Small splits (1-2.5") that I have had drying in the stove room, because they were not ready yet...

I have some maple and cherry, and a little bit (1-2 loads) of oak left for this year. And a face cord of sassafras that needs further splitting to dry quickly near the stove.

 

[Caw]

When low temps are mid 40s it makes a lot of sense to run an electric heat pump if you have one. We don’t.

This is exactly what we do. We added a stove when we moved in but the previous owners primary heat was an electric heat pump and resistance backup for sub 37 temps. When its 45 degrees we just run the heat pump...it's very efficient and allows me to save wood for when we need it aka when we'd be running the resistance strips.

 

[BKVP]

Escargots, that is...
Snails are nasty, of course

When I was all of 8 years old I was in Paris with my folks. My pops took us to dinner at a restaurant that Ben Franklin once dined. I sat at the same table. My dad said I could order anything I wanted. Escargot sounded good, but with butter & garlic...man alive!!

 

[BKVP]

Funny you'd say that. My parents in law over in Germany are looking for a new stove, and there are none available that have a cat. Only non-cats.

And BK does not seem to deliver there ;-)
(Besides: wood stoves in Germany need an emissions certificate according to the Feuerstättenverordnung, which BK's surely don't have. At least none accepted by German authorities.)

There are catalytic models, I saw them in Munich about 5 years ago. Sud Chemie was the prime supplier of combustors to our industry at that time...I toured their facility, drank Heffeweisen and was allowed to tour multiple retailers after they closed to the public. I also saw the same units in Cherbourg France....just not many.

 

[BKVP]

There are catalytic models, I saw them in Munich about 5 years ago. Sud Chemie was the prime supplier of combustors to our industry at that time...I toured their facility, drank Heffeweisen and was allowed to tour multiple retailers after they closed to the public. I also saw the same units in Cherbourg France....just not many.

And they used the reticulated foam substrate combustors.

 

[stoveliker]

When I was all of 8 years old I was in Paris with my folks. My pops took us to dinner at a restaurant that Ben Franklin once dined. I sat at the same table. My dad said I could order anything I wanted. Escargot sounded good, but with butter & garlic...man alive!!

Some good old country culture you experienced there

I've been fed dog in Asia... I had told them they could feed me anything as long as they did not tell me in advance...
Oops.

 

[Highbeam]

Some good old country culture you experienced there

I've been fed dog in Asia... I had told them they could feed me anything as long as they did not tell me in advance...
Oops.

My daughter and I each ate 6 snails (garlic and butter of course) on our last trip. It was a cross between a dare, a challenge, and an opportunity. We called each other’s bluff.

 

[stoveliker]

My daughter and I each ate 6 snails (garlic and butter of course) on our last trip. It was a cross between a dare, a challenge, and an opportunity. We called each other’s bluff.

Good family stories to reminisce about around the stove at some Christmas or Thanksgiving in the future.

 

[Poindexter]

I don't remember if my bypass door came out through the collar or the combustor hole. I do remember the combsutor was out and the whole ordeal was a pain in the tukus.

 

[mewop]

I have a few questions on loading. I fired my King model for the 1st time last night. Followed the instructions in the manual for lighting procedure. Got a good fire with kindling then at the larger logs on top. Once that started in 5 or so minutes, I closed the door and left the bypass open. Flames whipping around quite a bit- had a very good draft. I allowed the fire to catch for another 10 or 15 minutes, waited for the cat thermometer to be at about 11:30 (active starts at about 10 oclock on mine) and then closed the bypass door. The fire box filled with smoke within a minute, but the flames continued and did not seem to be any less. The thermostat was kept fully open - about 6 oclock

Is it normal for the firebox to be mostly smoke filled during this initial period ? Do I just need to allow more char to form on the wood? I had a small load in and I thought I had a decent char on it

The cat thermometer was basically maxed out after a brief time. I assume because of all of the smoke feeding fuel to it. It was glowing orange. I understand that is normal, but is it normal to see the thermometer maxed out for an extended time? I assume that may cause premature wear of the catalyst?

Wood was at 16% moisture content. Measured after it was freshly split. It was split about two years ago and has been in my dry, concrete basement for about three months so I know the fuel was good.

On a side note, the 5 split pieces I put in still had a few coals this morning. On my old smoke dragon, I would have gotten (maybe) an hour out of that load? Granted the heat output during that hour was quite intense. I do prefer the thermostat and burning all night of the BK

 

[Tron]

There are catalytic models, I saw them in Munich about 5 years ago.

Interesting. I was not able to find anything online. If you have the name of manufacturers that make good stoves, that'd be great!

 

[Tron]

I allowed the fire to catch for another 10 or 15 minutes, waited for the cat thermometer to be at about 11:30 (active starts at about 10 oclock on mine) and then closed the bypass door. The fire box filled with smoke within a minute, but the flames continued and did not seem to be any less. The thermostat was kept fully open - about 6 oclock

Sounds like you're good. I actually have to turn down the thermostat even before the cat reaches active range because otherwise the flue temperature goes through the roof. In reality the cat probe lags quite a bit, so I normally engage the cat at that point, and it always is in the active range a few minutes later.

But yes, the path for the gases through the cat is definitively more restricted than through the bypass, so the firebox filling with smoke is not unusual.

 

[BKVP]

I have a few questions on loading. I fired my King model for the 1st time last night. Followed the instructions in the manual for lighting procedure. Got a good fire with kindling then at the larger logs on top. Once that started in 5 or so minutes, I closed the door and left the bypass open. Flames whipping around quite a bit- had a very good draft. I allowed the fire to catch for another 10 or 15 minutes, waited for the cat thermometer to be at about 11:30 (active starts at about 10 oclock on mine) and then closed the bypass door. The fire box filled with smoke within a minute, but the flames continued and did not seem to be any less. The thermostat was kept fully open - about 6 oclock

Is it normal for the firebox to be mostly smoke filled during this initial period ? Do I just need to allow more char to form on the wood? I had a small load in and I thought I had a decent char on it

The cat thermometer was basically maxed out after a brief time. I assume because of all of the smoke feeding fuel to it. It was glowing orange. I understand that is normal, but is it normal to see the thermometer maxed out for an extended time? I assume that may cause premature wear of the catalyst?

Wood was at 16% moisture content. Measured after it was freshly split. It was split about two years ago and has been in my dry, concrete basement for about three months so I know the fuel was good.

On a side note, the 5 split pieces I put in still had a few coals this morning. On my old smoke dragon, I would have gotten (maybe) an hour out of that load? Granted the heat output during that hour was quite intense. I do prefer the thermostat and burning all night of the BK

Welcome....you will see that the combustor is hyperactive as it is new. You need not worry about the temps. Also, the smoke filled fire box is a process of letting the combustor catch up...after having closed the bypass. Try to close the bypass a bit sooner, once it goes into the active range. If you wait too long, the thermostat is closing, reducing oxygen into the firebox as it gets hotter...it's designed to do this. So if you close it a bit sooner, you will find there is still sufficient combustion air.

Congrats on the new KE40. I like mine and it drafts much better for me on the same identical stack I had with my 1107.

 

[BKVP]

Interesting. I was not able to find anything online. If you have the name of manufacturers that make good stoves, that'd be great!

One of the German catalytic models was tested at Brookhaven National Labs in NY. I was there during the testing. The funny part is the I invited the two guys from Germany to have drinks with me and a senior EPA staff person. They declined...at first because they had to get up every two hours to record data. So, I introduced them to tequila. The next morning they were so mad at me! They slept right through all the duration testing.....The four of us drained that full bottle of Don Julio in about 2 hours. HaHaHa....

 

[BKVP]

Interesting. I was not able to find anything online. If you have the name of manufacturers that make good stoves, that'd be great!

As I recall they referenced it as "Filter oder das Sieb" in our conversations.

 

[charger4406]

The next morning they were so mad at me!

my grandmother was German and when she got angry every living thing in the house
scattered out the door as if their butts were on fire

 

[moresnow]

my grandmother was German and when she got angry every living thing in the house
scattered out the door as if their butts were on fire

I had one of those as well. She could be..... How shall I say this appropriately? Difficult My poor grandfather. Bless his heart.