Amazing performance (another BKK post!)

[aansorge]

Maybe it gets old hearing this but its difficult not to share. I loaded up a full load of medium quality wood on Sat. morning 6 am. Ash and elm were in there but the primary wood was box elder (fairly soft wood for a hard wood). It is now 23 hours later and the stove is still half full of wood! yes that wood is fairly crispy but she has hours in her yet.

It is 77 in the stove room, and in the lower 70's elsewhere. Outside temp 33. I'm heading to an autocross race (see avatar) for a full day of racing. And will reload tonight before bed.

All this on a used stove I paid a grand for!

 

[jeff_t]

I don't know what's left in mine, can't see thru the glass.

 

[R'Lee]

Started my 2nd SMALL fire of the season Friday evening. Mostly low moisture rock maple "uglies" (*I try to burn those first). Last night it was 36 outside and 80+ inside. Had doors and windows open with the fans on while the bride and I ran around half dressed. This morning it's a windy & wet 40 outside, 74 inside and I tossed another split on the coals just to keep the fire alive. Shoulder months are a pita for us. Very easy to overheat the home. Luv the BK-K. B'cuz I also can't see through the glass' I watch the cat indicator... If it drops at or below the low active setting, I open her up (&/ open the door for a peek) and get it going again (*keeps the creosote inside the fire chamber down) & that tends to burn off most of the glass obstruction. I let her go for awhile and then back her off again. The uglies are a tad bigger than the normal splits so I need to accommodate them a little. Even tho my stove has the optional blowers, we use a "echfan" (sp) as a distant visual indicator of the firebox's status.

 

[Xaphoeous]

I've looked a little at the BK models, but I believe the glass becoming too dirty to see through would bring the Wife Acceptance Factor to a solid 0.0

 

[jeff_t]

I've looked a little at the BK models, but I believe the glass becoming too dirty to see through would bring the Wife Acceptance Factor to a solid 0.0

Wife takes care of stove when I'm not home. So, when we get into a new house, she wants another BK. I was thinking I wanted something different, but she wants the ease of operation and total control. As much as I like the PE in hour vacation home, she's not as comfortable burning it.

Long story short, wife doesn't care what the glass looks like. She just shakes her head when I spend a few minutes cleaning some of the gunk off, and tells me it's just gonna look like that again in an hour.

 

[begreen]

I don't know what's left in mine, can't see thru the glass.

So far it looks like the Ashford has a better air wash design and perhaps the vertical glass also helps.

 

[Simonkenton]

Y'all Blaze King guys are killing me. That is a very impressive wood stove.

 

[Parallax]

I don't think I'm getting the performance some of you report. But the Ashford is beautiful and I've had a 24+ hour burn.

Last night, I lit the stove after it was fully loaded. Was around 50 degrees outside. But the house was cool because the stove hadn't been run in days. Maybe 55 inside. This morning, I've had to turn it up to keep the cat active and because the house was still cold. It's still got wood though I don't expect we'll go 24 hours today. It's maybe 60 degrees outside and dropping, and maybe 70 degrees inside.

My guess is the performance is down today because the cold house is acting as a heat sink, absorbing heat into the walls and floors and joists. After it gets back to where it belongs, stove performance will probably pick up. But 24 hours with that sort of inside/outside heat differential and you've still got half a load of wood? I'm jealous!

 

[jeff_t]

The firebox of the king is cavernous. I'm pretty sure I can still fit one of my kids in there.

 

[Xaphoeous]

The firebox of the king is cavernous. I'm pretty sure I can still fit one of my kids in there.

Sounds...ominous

 

[Poindexter]

My outside temps started dropping about three days ago. FWIW my Ashford will hold 14-16 of my splits.

When outdoors was running +40-50 daily high and +20-30 nightly low I was keeping my Ashford 30 firebox "full" but I was adding 3-6 splits every 12 hours to do it, running mostly on low. If I was home to do it I would go to bypass and stir my logs around a little bit before the cat dropped out of active. Stirring the logs around and running bypass for a little bit let me keep the cat active time quite a bit higher for the same amount of wood.

I got four inches of snow Friday night, highest temp I know of since Thursday night at sunset is +35dF. My stove woke up. It was loafing before. Now I can fill it, stay in bypass until the cat is in the active zone, engage, run it on high until the cat is good and hot (maybe 20-30 minutes) and then set it on low and forget it. I am getting enough draft the cat stays active for hours and hours and hours.

I have been running pure spruce. I am going to bring some birch in from the shed in the next couple days and start running mixed loads in the fire box. Another month or so I expect I'll be burning birch only until the "other" shoulder season starts.

 

[HotCoals]

My outside temps started dropping about three days ago. FWIW my Ashford will hold 14-16 of my splits.

When outdoors was running +40-50 daily high and +20-30 nightly low I was keeping my Ashford 30 firebox "full" but I was adding 3-6 splits every 12 hours to do it, running mostly on low. If I was home to do it I would go to bypass and stir my logs around a little bit before the cat dropped out of active. Stirring the logs around and running bypass for a little bit let me keep the cat active time quite a bit higher for the same amount of wood.

I got four inches of snow Friday night, highest temp I know of since Thursday night at sunset is +35dF. My stove woke up. It was loafing before. Now I can fill it, stay in bypass until the cat is in the active zone, engage, run it on high until the cat is good and hot (maybe 20-30 minutes) and then set it on low and forget it. I am getting enough draft the cat stays active for hours and hours and hours.

I have been running pure spruce. I am going to bring some birch in from the shed in the next couple days and start running mixed loads in the fire box. Another month or so I expect I'll be burning birch only until the "other" shoulder season starts.

You're getting it now.

Cold weather will make a big diff in how the cat acts at diff settings and how much heat comes off the stove is relative to it of course.

 

[Parallax]

Man, you fellas have me looking forward to cold weather.

 

[aansorge]

Well, the autocross was cold Blowing wind and in the 40's all day makes for a long day standing outside. I got back to the house and the king was in the inactive zone but still putting out some heat. 36 to 37 hours on mostly box elder! House was at 74.

Fire up and going again.

 

[Parallax]

Nice!