Blaze King First Fire

[learnin to burn]

Just got it installed and ready to fire it up. Just wondering how you Blaze king guys broke in and cured the paint?

Pics will follow soon.

 

[North of 60]

I fired mine up on a half load, got the cat thermo in the active zone and engaged. Started to throttle the t-stat back 1/4" at a time every 10 minutes until got to #1 setting. I left the fan off so the top of the stove could get hot enough to start curing the paint. I repeated the same steps on the second fire but with a full load. Keep those windows open. What a stink I had. :sick: Congratulations by the way and welcome to the club. Keep your wood dry and your house will be warm. NOTE: don't worry when your stoves flames go out. The cat will do the rest. Your windows may dirty up on the lower left and right corners until you run it a bit harder. Your chimney will stay clean.
N of 60

 

[RustyShackleford]

Anybody fire it up OUTSIDE, with maybe a piece of black stovepipe on the top ?

I guess that means you need your buddies there twice, once to get it off the truck,
again to move it into the house.

But all the paint outgas is outside ...

 

[weatherguy]

Anybody fire it up OUTSIDE, with maybe a piece of black stovepipe on the top ?

I guess that means you need your buddies there twice, once to get it off the truck,
again to move it into the house.

But all the paint outgas is outside ...

Mines still sitting in the garage and Im contemplating do just that. I guess Id have to pick up a small piece of pipe.

 

[learnin to burn]

Thanks North,

For some reason i can only get the left half of the box burning to center right. I have 3 small splits on the right that just wont catch. I closed the bypass about 30 minuts ago and turned down to 3 about 10 min ago. a lot of creosoot has formed on the glass already too. I'm wondering on weather to open the bypass up again to burn somew of it off.

 

[learnin to burn]

I thought about doing it but decided not to. It might of been a mistake. oh well windows are open.

 

[North of 60]

Thanks North,

For some reason i can only get the left half of the box burning to center right. I have 3 small splits on the right that just wont catch. I closed the bypass about 30 minuts ago and turned down to 3 about 10 min ago. a lot of creosoot has formed on the glass already too. I'm wondering on weather to open the bypass up again to burn somew of it off.

Run it hard enough that all is charred before you back it down. Cat engaged as long as it hit near or at the active zone..

I am pretty sure your wood is dry, but thought Id ask without asking. If ya know what I mean. By the way with it turned down the way it is, is your cat temp climbing and is it a glow? Thats what it should be doing if this helps.

 

[learnin to burn]

Yeah The cat temp is close to pegged and glowing like the pic you posted a while ago. I did think the kindling I used might have been a little damp. I cut a poplar down last year and it has sat in my basement in half's and rounds since about march. I split it down to kindling to light this fire. Some of it took off and some didn't.

 

[North of 60]

Congrats... YOU have lift Off. Don't worry about the glass. Later on in coolder weather and after your gentle break-in you can let-er rip and it will disappear. Enjoy. Its amazing what heat you can feel above the cat with no flame. The long burn times will start to make sense to ya. Keep us posted.
N of 60

 

[Lanningjw]

Just got it installed and ready to fire it up. Just wondering how you Blaze king guys broke in and cured the paint?

Pics will follow soon.

Installing my BK Princess Insert this week. Hope to have it going by this end of the week. Did it stink really bad when the paint was curing on the stove?
How long did it take to get the cat into the active zone?

How long did your burn on high until you started to back it down?

Do you guys open the bypass and get the hot air moving up the pipe for a couple of minutes and then open the door to reload? I thought that I read that someplace.

Iam getting fired up!

 

[Wet1]

I'd suggest burning the first couple of fires outside. Small first, then progressively larger. No cat for the first fire or two. If your glass is getting black after this short fire, I'd also guess your wood is damp.

 

[North of 60]

I'd suggest burning the first couple of fires outside. Small first, then progressively larger. No cat for the first fire or two. If your glass is getting black after this short fire, I'd also guess your wood is damp.

And the manual say,s.....? Doing an outside fire sounds/smells better. Nothing in the manual about by-passing the cat on the first fires, unless they have changed it.

 

[Wet1]

I didn't want to crank up the cat for the first couple of burns. The idea is to build up the heat slowly (250°, 350°, etc) and firing the cat creates an instant hot spot at the top of the stove which is much warmer than the rest of the stove at the break in point. I'm sure it won't do any damage, but it seems like a better idea to not fire it initially (IMO) since the goal is to bring things up gently and progressively. Just my 2 cents.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Yeah The cat temp is close to pegged and glowing like the pic you posted a while ago.

The glow of goodness...once you see that in the bottom of a full firebox, you are off to 12-18 hours of bliss in the normal range on the t-stat. Just have to keep your wife from looking in after 12 hours, seeing there is room for some wood and throwing something from your just split pile in.

 

[learnin to burn]

Here is a pic of the ceremonial lighting of the stove.

Stove burned all night with just a few splits in it. Loaded stove about half way at 6:30 am, went to work and still had good coals and 2 splits left when I checked stove at 7:00 Pm. Thermostat was set at 2. Oak was the wood of choice. I still have some of that curing paint stink. Wishing I had broke it in outside....

 

[Wet1]

Congrats, looks great! And some folks here don't believe these stoves can burn 24 hrs. plus... :cheese:

BTW, at least you now know 25 years from now, when you go to replace this stove, that you should break the next one in outside!

 

[SolarAndWood]

And some folks here don't believe these stoves can burn 24 hrs. plus... :cheese:

I was skeptical but after seeing the cat still well into the the active zone after 24 hours, I'm a believer. That was a full load of locust in the middle of the Tstat normal range. And there was still fuel in the firebox.

Has anyone found a good detailed description of how the tstat works? Right now it is a black box to me with the very short treatment the manual gives it.

 

[Wet1]

And some folks here don't believe these stoves can burn 24 hrs. plus... :cheese:

I was skeptical but after seeing the cat still well into the the active zone after 24 hours, I'm a believer. That was a full load of locust in the middle of the Tstat normal range. And there was still fuel in the firebox.

Dont tell BB!

Has anyone found a good detailed description of how the tstat works? Right now it is a black box to me with the very short treatment the manual gives it.

I haven't taken mine apart to see the inner workings for myself (if it ain't broken...), but based of what I've read it's just a simple bimetallic coil that reacts with temp.

 

[learnin to burn]

Yep What wet1 said. A simple coil that reacts to heat. When the coil gets to a predetermined temp it closes a butterfly valve shutting down the air flow. When the coil cools down the valve then opens allowing air back in.

Hey Wet1 how's the install coming along? Are you up and running yet? If so how's it working?

 

[Wet1]

No, I still haven't brought it in the house yet, so she's still a garage queen. Since I don't have any real need to heat the garage in the forseeable future, she'll probably be cold until I bring it in the house. I've been burning pellets this week though. The hearth rebuild is mostly done, I just have to cut the slate for the front and do the grouting. I'm now thinking about insulating the floor, so I have to decide what I'm doing before I cut the front slate. I'm considering 1/2" poly-iso with laminate over it. I wanted to do an insulated liner this year as well. I'm waiting on the Perlite to show up and I have to order a cap today (thanks for reminding me). When I was up on my (nasty pitched) roof this past weekend taking measurements, I noticed the chimney is in worse shape than I remember it being in. I desperately need to get up there and re-point it, plus rebuild the crown for the new cap. Unfortunately it's looking like we might have rain this coming weekend, so it looks like my chimney work (which is now my priority) might have to wait. At this rate I'm either going to be burning pellets for a while, or hanging out in the garage with the BK.

I'm glad to see you're up and running though!

 

[SolarAndWood]

Yep What wet1 said. A simple coil that reacts to heat. When the coil gets to a predetermined temp it closes a butterfly valve shutting down the air flow. When the coil cools down the valve then opens allowing air back in.

There must be something more to it than that or it would have the air wide open at the end of the cycle? Maybe the position of the tstat puts an upper limit on air no matter how cold the stove gets?

 

[learnin to burn]

You got it, The coil is calibrated to the TStat so as the coil cools down the air opens to allow the stove to get back to it's set temp. Once there is no fuel left and the coals aren't producing enough heat to keep the coil hot the air will shut down unless the TStat is set to at least 3.

Before I hooked up my stove I played with the TStat and could hear the opening and closing of the air damper. From the 1 to 2.75 there was nothing and at 3 the damper would open. Lowering the Tstat from 3.5 I could hear it closing again as it passed 3.

 

[Hiram Maxim]

And some folks here don't believe these stoves can burn 24 hrs. plus... :cheese:

I was skeptical but after seeing the cat still well into the the active zone after 24 hours, I'm a believer. That was a full load of locust in the middle of the Tstat normal range. And there was still fuel in the firebox.

Has anyone found a good detailed description of how the tstat works? Right now it is a black box to me with the very short treatment the manual gives it.

What was your inside average temp over the last 24hrs? Square footage that your heating? I'm getting BK Fever %-P

Thanks Hiram

 

[learnin to burn]

Wet1 - Bummer your not up yet. I can't wait to here how it works out for you.

For me it seems so far everything is working well with 2 exceptions. Some smoke when the door is open to reload. I went the cheep rout and did a 90 based on Selkirks tech support. I should of known :sick: So I'm going to put the 2-45's in and hopefully that will cure it. The fan shroud that sits on top of the stove had a stripped screw hole when it arrived. Hopefully I'll get that back and be able to install both the fans and the pipe at the same time.

Curiosity has got me just like the cat. Since you aren't hooked up yet can you measure the opening for the by pass damper? I forgot to measure it but it didn't look to me like it was 50 sq. In.

Thanks

 

[SolarAndWood]

What was your inside average temp over the last 24hrs? Square footage that your heating?

The house is 2000 sq ft on the main floor and 1000 sq ft on the lower walkout level. We keep the room that the stove is in between 70 and 75, while the bedrooms stay in the mid 60s. My experiment with the 24 hr burn was during an overcast/wet/windy period with lows in the upper 20s and I don't think it got to 40.