2020-21 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

[MissMac]

Riding the hole today
25c inside, 1c outside
5 splits in cold stove this morning and will ride the hole for a 12 hr burn. Might reload tonight or maybe let stove go cold for a morning restart. My house only drops 2 or 3 degrees Celsius in 12 hrs overnight, and sometimes gains 2 or 3 degrees Celsius during the day when sun in out with a cold stove and no other heat on.
Insulation and a tight house paid off as I now heat 1280sq ft on 1 cord of wood only, no other heat source on.

do you have an OAK?

 

[ratsrepus]

whats the out side temp there? 15 here in SE Michigan, coldest morning so far this year

 

[Highbeam]

Nice 30 degree morning and the new pup has discovered the stove and learned how to get up on the hearth. This guy is 9 weeks old.

 

[Hoytman]

Nice 30 degree morning and the new pup has discovered the stove and learned how to get up on the hearth. This guy is 9 weeks old.

View attachment 271611

Oh man!! He’s a keeper for sure! Pug?

 

[Highbeam]

Oh man!! He’s a keeper for sure! Pug?

Yes, our second one. The last one was black and didn’t wake up on Xmas morning so we took a 1500 mile drive on New Year’s Day for this guy.

 

[Alpine1]

whats the out side temp there? 15 here in SE Michigan, coldest morning so far this year

10 F (-12 C) here, and going down in the next days.

 

[Hoytman]

Yes, our second one. The last one was black and didn’t wake up on Xmas morning so we took a 1500 mile drive on New Year’s Day for this guy.

Awe! On Christmas morning! Terrible. Sorry for your loss. They are family, for sure. Glad you got another in a hurry. One of my best friends said the easiest way to get over one is to get another right away. I believe that.
We have Labs and lost one a few years ago. Getting ready to eat supper and she walked in by my dining room chair and just fell over stone dead. We waited too long, 1 1/2 years before getting another for our son...for all of us. Ended up with a yellow girl.

Love the Pugs! Good dogs, for sure.

 

[Diabel]

10 F (-12 C) here, and going down in the next days.

You guys are getting the “Siberian vortex” effect. Madrid got 20cm of snow.
It was 20f here this morning. One of the colder mornings so far this winter.

 

[gastone21]

Replaced the catalytic combustor in my Princess Insert this morning. The stove was installed in Nov. of 2017 so this is its 4th season of operation. We pretty much burn full time from Nov. through April. Figure not quite 3.5 seasons of use. I'll take that. Replacement went quite easy. The stove was burning through more wood and taking more air to keep the thermometer in the active range. It's only been a few hours, but I've got the tstat turned all the way down and the thermometer is deep into the active zone, even with the blower running.

On a side note, my wife ordered me a log splitter for xmas. Looking forward to not swinging a maul as much.

 

[Alpine1]

You guys are getting the “Siberian vortex” effect. Madrid got 20cm of snow.
It was 20f here this morning. One of the colder mornings so far this winter.

Yep, we are at 3 meters of snow accumulation since dec. 8th
Glad I have a snow blower

 

[BKVP]

Had a 52lb heart out of a black locust. Thought about getting out my saw...but was tempted to try E/W loading. This firebox was emptied of ashes today. IT FIT

 

[BoilerBob]

do you have an OAK?

No OAK,
I couldn’t bring myself to put a 3” hole on the windy NW side on a tight house. HRV is supposed to bring in extra air for stove. Although not set properly at the moment. Should have installed a Panasonic as they are easily adjusted for positive pressure. I open a window when we use the dryer.

 

[BoilerBob]

Your square footage is similar to mine. You’re quite a ways north of me with a well insulated home. I’m way south of you with a not so well insulated home (circa 1954), so it sounds about even. LOL!

I’m curious what your low burn stove temps are and which BK you have.

Sirocco 30.1 pedestal, we love it.
I don’t monitor stove top temperature, only glance at pipe temperature on cold start or reloads.
I adjust the “swish” thermostat as per room temperature and not worry about stove top temperature.

 

[Hoytman]

Sirocco 30.1 pedestal, we love it.
I don’t monitor stove top temperature, only glance at pipe temperature on cold start or reloads.
I adjust the “swish” thermostat as per room temperature and not worry about stove top temperature.

Do you have a way to check stove top temps and sides of stoves? (magnet, IR gun) If so, would you mind sharing those temps with me? Understand if you don't have a way to check temps.

 

[kbcarolina]

Greetings!

We have a 2 year old Ashford 30.2. We're in need of a few fire bricks. From the manual, we need the KK 3 pack and the CK 6 pack to replace the ones that need some attention. I have a call out to my dealer but they don't sell replacement parts and I imagine he'll want to make a service call, but we're more inclined to replace these ourselves. Are there good recommendations for retailers for these items? Some quick interwebs searching doesn't yield good results. I can find plenty of "generic" firebricks but the Ashford manual has no dimensions for the bricks -- just the letter designations -- so I am not sure what I should order.

 

[Highbeam]

Try the next closest dealer if you want oem parts and your dealer refuses to sell them. I think that’s lame and part of the dealer markup on a stove is for service to include selling parts. They don’t even stock the parts, the parts will be shipped directly from blaze king.

 

[TheIglu]

No need for a PM.

Absolutely miserable ownership experience. Constantly trying to get it into reburn. Backpuffing. Having to tend to it 2-3 times a night. Then cracks in the corners of the top load opening.

 

[kennyp2339]

No need for a PM.

Absolutely miserable ownership experience. Constantly trying to get it into reburn. Backpuffing. Having to tend to it 2-3 times a night. Then cracks in the corners of the top load opening.

Those harmons look great but from what I understand, there a down draft stove which has secondary reburn behind the main fire, the refractory thats used can crack, but more importantly the fireback can get clogged with debris reducing the exhaust exit which is a major contributing factor to the back puffing, essentially the whole stove would need to be torn down, removing all the fragile internals to clean that specific area, not a very good user friendly or maintenance friendly design.

 

[AndrewU]

When the stove is burning out, if you’re not going to reload, is there any reason to open the bypass?

 

[lsucet]

When the stove is burning out, if you’re not going to reload, is there any reason to open the bypass?

No need to do it. Leave it shut. The cat can stay warmer longer. If you open the bypass, you are taking the cat out of the picture.

 

[AndrewU]

Let me clarify. When it’s burning out to the point the cat is in the inactive zone, and you’re not going to reload, is there any reason to open the bypass?

 

[rdust]

Let me clarify. When it’s burning out to the point the cat is in the inactive zone, and you’re not going to reload, is there any reason to open the bypass?

Nope

 

[Highbeam]

Let me clarify. When it’s burning out to the point the cat is in the inactive zone, and you’re not going to reload, is there any reason to open the bypass?

None. No reason.

Over the summer I leave bypass open so that if a bird falls into the chimney it won't peck the back of the cat trying to escape and to lessen the gasket compression on that bypass gasket.

 

[BKVP]

Nope....unless you are going to clean out the ashes. I like to open the bypass when I empty the ashes.

 

[kennyp2339]

Nope....unless you are going to clean out the ashes. I like to open the bypass when I empty the ashes.

You got our bk coal rakes made yet?