Blaze King Chinook 30

[drstorm]

Hello everyone.
Are there any BK Chinook 30 owners that can give advice on burning 16 inch vs 18 inch cordwood?
Any non BK owners that can give advice on the pros and cons?
I have pulled the plug on my basement coal stove (anthracite,for several reasons)and will be having the BK stove installed in my living area in about one month.
BK guidelines state it will handle 18 inches but 16 inches is the recommended.
Thank you in advance and I am looking forward to learning for many years to come from this great forum.

 

[kennyp2339]

I have a princess and use between 16" - 18" wood splits, the smaller splits are nicer because not all wood is the same, some have bends, curves and knots so if you pack the stove the 16"s can give you a little more wiggle room to get more in.

 

[BKVP]

The 16" length is suggested so that every single piece will fit inside and clear the brick overhang in the front. 16" is also recommended so that all pieces can be loaded north/south (end of log facing you as you load) as it does not require your hand to go further into the firebox, especially during reloads. East/west loading can also, at times result in a log rolling forward and resting against the glass in the door.

Diameter will play a role in burn times. 50lbs comprised of 3 pieces will burn longer than 50lbs comprised of 10 pieces. The increase is pieces adds to surface area available for combustion. Of course it take longer to dry larger diameter pieces.

 

[sutphenj]

Out of curiosity is the chinook 30 a radiant or convection stove or a combo of both? I can't quite figure it out. Thanks.

 

[begreen]

Convective.

 

[BKVP]

Both.

 

[Highbeam]

Out of curiosity is the chinook 30 a radiant or convection stove or a combo of both? I can't quite figure it out. Thanks.

Correct. EVERY stove is a combination of radiant and convective. Some stoves make more of one type but none are so dominant in one way that it matters in a common style house.

 

[Ashful]

To clear up what several have already said, all stoves are radiant. If nothing else, they radiate a hell of a lot of heat thru that front window. "Convective" refers to stoves that have some mechanism for increasing their convective component, most often a double wall or jacket design, where air is forced between the firebox and an outer jacket. This outer jacket reduces the radiant component while amplifying the convective component, which is great for those of us with masonry or glass walls, where most radiant energy is wasted.

So, all stoves are both, but "convective" stoves just have a higher ratio of convective to radiant heat transfer.

 

[begreen]

Correct. EVERY stove is a combination of radiant and convective. Some stoves make more of one type but none are so dominant in one way that it matters in a common style house.

Having had both in an old farmhouse I would say there is a definite difference.

Both.

One could say that most stoves are both and be correct, but the actual difference is notable and important. The Chinook may be radiant in front but it appears to be jacketed around the sides, top and back. This helps reduce clearances and definitely changes the way it heats an area. We have had both purely radiant and convective stoves in our house and there are notable differences. A radiant stove heat larger areas well where there is nothing between you and the stove, but it needs larger clearances from combustibles. Even exceeding clearances by almost double wall temps were notably high with the radiant stove in our corner installation (150-160F) We also noted larger room temp swings with the radiant stove during burn cycles. The convective stove that we now have only radiates direct heat from the front, it is a convective stove. This has the benefit of closer clearances and cooler walls in spite of the closer clearances. The room temp varies very little (about 2º) during the burn cycle. The effect is a much more even heating of the house.

 

[Highbeam]

We have had both purely radiant and convective stoves in our house

There is no such thing. ALL stoves make both types of heat.

 

[sutphenj]

There is no such thing. ALL stoves make both types of heat.

How so when some stoves are not "jacketed"? Think englander 30 as an example. Perhaps I'm not understanding the physics however. Thanks for all the responses btw.

 

[Highbeam]

How so when some stoves are not "jacketed"? Think englander 30 as an example. Perhaps I'm not understanding the physics however. Thanks for all the responses btw.

So heat is transferred by convection, conduction, and radiation. That's it. We can ignore conduction in this application since unless you are touching the stove, heat won't be conducted to you.

Radiation in the stove world is the line of site transfer of heat. This occurs via electromagnetic waves and can even occur in a vacuum. All you need is a temperature differential. So as soon as any part of the stove is over room temperature, it is losing heat to the room via radiation.

Convection is heating the air. All air up against a hot (hotter than ambient)surface gets heated by convection and then that air carries away the heat as it rises. This happens regardless of whether there is a double wall jacket around the stove.

The double wall jacket around some stoves works to reduce the radiation by blocking the waves from the hot single wall of the stove. It can't block them all as even the jacket gets warm and radiates. Some parts of all stoves are single wall. Like the glass.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/thermalP/Lesson-1/Methods-of-Heat-Transfer

 

[begreen]

There is no such thing. ALL stoves make both types of heat.

That's just semantics and not all that helpful to the OP. Some stove designs are significantly more radiant and some stove designs only work well with convective assist. The side jacket on our stove doesn't get much over 130F in spite of a raging fire inside the stove.

 

[Highbeam]

That's just semantics and not all that helpful to the OP. Some stove designs are significantly more radiant and some stove designs only work well with convective assist. The side jacket on our stove doesn't get much over 130F in spite of a raging fire inside the stove.

It is helpful to the OP to prevent him from falling for a sales pitch where somebody tries to tell him that it makes a significant difference in a regular house. I too have owned a stone stove, a single wall steel stove, and a double wall steel stove. The full range of heat method outputs (highly radiant to highly convective) and I have NOT found a significant difference. They all work well to heat a home. Claiming that there is a significant difference is splitting hairs and just as much a disservice to the OP.

 

[sutphenj]

It is helpful to the OP to prevent him from falling for a sales pitch where somebody tries to tell him that it makes a significant difference in a regular house. I too have owned a stone stove, a single wall steel stove, and a double wall steel stove. The full range of heat method outputs (highly radiant to highly convective) and I have NOT found a significant difference. They all work well to heat a home. Claiming that there is a significant difference is splitting hairs and just as much a disservice to the OP.

Thanks the physics lesson....makes a lot of sense. Appreciate that.
Also tend to agree that a highly convective and a highly radiant both do a great job heating but perhaps the difference lies in the feel of the heat output itself? Assuming a more convective style has less bone sucking heat perhaps?

 

[Highbeam]

You can buy some stoves with or without the double wall shields including the NC30 or the BK princess models that I have. This optional equipment does not change the efficiency. The heat will still be delivered to the home. The feel could be different, but a small difference since the front of most all stoves these days is a big window pouring out the radiation.

 

[begreen]

A pellet stove is both radiant from the front door and convective. So are most inserts, particularly flush inserts. Run them without the convective fan and performance is going to be abysmal.

 

[Highbeam]

A pellet stove is both radiant from the front door and convective. So are most inserts, particularly flush inserts. Run them without the convective fan and performance is going to be abysmal.

I think that's the first straw man I've ever seen you put up bg!

 

[Ashful]

You two seem to be bickering back and forth, without a real disagreement. lol

Highbeam did qualify his statement twice, stating "in a common style house." He is mostly correct in my opinion, that in a well-insulated stick-frame house, the difference is reduced. Likewise, begreen is using the example of an old farmhouse, one of the situations where the difference really stands out. Both correct, different qualifiers.

In my case, having each stove surrounded by 20" thick stone walls, my old radiant stoves put the majority of their heat into my back yard. A radiant stove works by heating the high-mass objects around them, which in turn heat the air around them, but there's no hope of heating millions of pounds of exterior exposure stone work. My newer convective stoves do a much better job of heating the air in my house, which is the only hope of heating any old masonry house without framed-in and insulated walls.

 

[begreen]

The intent was to help the op who may be trying to decide whether or not a blower is needed. There have been 5 different heaters in this house including a pellet stove. That has given a perspective on convective and radiant heating. If that's not helpful then maybe it's time to just leave this joint.

 

[BKVP]

I'm sitting on the sofa enjoying a Pacifico and I'll be damned if Bridgette Fonda ain't half as entertaining as this thread!

 

[Highbeam]

The intent was to help the op who may be trying to decide whether or not a blower is needed. There have been 5 different heaters in this house including a pellet stove. That has given a perspective on convective and radiant heating. If that's not helpful then maybe it's time to just leave this joint.

Okay, lets recap. I hope we can all agree with the fact that every single (freestanding wood) stove delivers both radiant and convective heat to the living space. Basic stuff. There is no stove on the market, not even possible, to only deliver one or the other. Physics and all that. If you can't get to this level then it's going to be really hard to understand anything else.

Some stove manufacturer probably has done the test to know whether the most radiant stove on the market still only provides 60% of it's heat through radiation or is it a 90/10 split. I believe that there is not that much difference between the most radiant and the most convective stoves on the market like 60/40 to 40/60 spread after having owned both.

That last part is an opinion, one where we all get a vote, where many subjective factors that may be unique to our vote come in to play. Whether or not it even makes much difference if the stove delivers heat in a more radiant or more convective fashion. Because in a regular house, energy added to the room increases the temperature of the room regardless of how that energy is delivered.

 

[moresnow]

Not to add to the current quagmire here. But. Pacifico! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Good luck with your wood burning endeavor BTW. Hopefully you have not been scared off by the competitive coversation. You will certainly enjoy the heat.

 

[BKVP]

Not to add to the current quagmire here. But. Pacifico! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Good luck with your wood burning endeavor BTW. Hopefully you have not been scared off by the competitive coversation. You will certainly enjoy the heat.

My bottle of Don Julio 1942 was calling but I restrained myself, enjoyed a bit of my Don Julio Real and then finished a couple of Pacifico's. I was watching that movie with the gator in a lake (Placid I think) and dropped into this thread. I went ahead and enjoyed some 1942 but the fireworks had died down....back to the movie.

 

[webby3650]

To clear up what several have already said, all stoves are radiant. If nothing else, they radiate a hell of a lot of heat thru that front window. "Convective" refers to stoves that have some mechanism for increasing their convective component, most often a double wall or jacket design, where air is forced between the firebox and an outer jacket. This outer jacket reduces the radiant component while amplifying the convective component, which is great for those of us with masonry or glass walls, where most radiant energy is wasted.
So, all stoves are both, but "convective" stoves just have a higher ratio of convective to radiant heat transfer.

This is the best answer here in my opinion, well said Ashful.

I have a "normal" house and have had stoves that were predominately radiant as well as convective by design. They both have good qualities that can be beneficial. I find that radiant stoves are more satisfying on cold days, after you've been out shoveling snow.. But on the other hand, the convective style stove would heat the space more evenly. You can compare it to the difference between a gas furnace and a heat pump, they both heat the space even though one doesn't blow "hot" air. (Not saying the convective style won't be hot, that was just for comparison.)
I Prefer stoves that are a mix of both styles, exposed stovetop but shielded enough for close clearances and a blower. Get the blower! I don't always use mine but it sure makes a big difference on really cold days, or when the inside temp is low and you want to bring it up quickly.

I can't believe this turned into a heated debate! Maybe we need to get into burning season? Withdrawal symptoms maybe?