Blaze King instructions

[ben94122]

My wife put this PDF together--this forum has been a huge help to us and we wanted to share it here.

 

[begreen]

Nice guide, but it needs some refining. To clarify, change the term catalyst where it is being used to mean bypass or the bypass lever. Also, the picture of where the active zone is on the thermometer when reloading hot is wrong according to BK.



Likewise, one should not wait until the thermometer is at the high end of the active zone before closing the bypass to engage the catalyst. If the fire is burning well then one can close the bypass once the needle has entered the active zone.


Engaging the cat at this temp is better.

 

[jetsam]

That hot reload thing is a confusing instruction which doesn't appear in my BK manual. Why in the world do we want the cat to be inactive or nearly inactive before reloading the stove? That would really detract from the stove's usefulness as a primary heater with crazy burn times. [Edit: Figured it out, I think- they are striking a balance between ensuring a new partial load catches fire even if it's wet wood, and not having new users burn dry softwood on high with the bypass open, and then having a chimney fire.]

My stove loves red hot reloads, and the thermostat makes it safe enough that I tell my non-stove-savvy wife that it's ok for her to do it. Believe me when I say that I wouldn't tell her to throw a bunch of dry pine in any of my previous stoves mid-burn!

On the rare occasions that I do a cold start, I close the bypass with the cat probe thermometer deep in the inactive zone. The cat probe is a delayed reading, and the cat can be well over 1000° and glowing brightly before the probe thermometer reads 250°. Know your wood and your stove. With a steel cat, and using some small wood to generate extra flame near the front center, you can have the cat over 500° in just a couple minutes while the probe is still almost pegged to the bottom of the scale. Once you get to know the stove you can hear it when the cat kicks in, because the stove heats up rapidly in the middle and that makes distinctive active-cat noises.

Those instructions have you waiting 12 minutes while burning on high every time you add wood, too. I don't wait 12 seconds on a hot reload. 12 minutes on high is an hour and a half of low burning fuel going up the flue! Chuck the wood in, cat inline, set thermostat, go about your business. If the stove was full of fire and red hot coals, that'll be fine. Also consider whether you want the stove roaring flame straight up the chimney with fresh fuel and high air (and no cat for 2 of the 12 minutes). I really don't.

I would add that if you're cold, your first action shouldn't be to turn the thermostat to high. You are going to be out of wood in a few hours and it would be 100 degrees in my stove room. Turn the fan on first, and if it's really cold (like 60 degrees in the house cold), also turn the thermostat up maybe 1/8 of a turn, but come back and turn it down again later. Trying to pick up a few degrees by going to high thermostat is going to make it real hot in the house, followed by real cold in the house. Cranking up the fan already makes the stove burn faster, as cooling the stove causes the thermostat to open more.

I'd also amend the instructions to leaving the door cracked for a few seconds and then opening it slowly- people with strong draft might not need to, but those with weak draft may get smoke in the room otherwise.

The manual is written to ensure safe and effective operation for new users who probably have marginal wood; the manual's instructions strike me as nonoptimal for my setup, though.

 

[lsucet]

I am with @jetsam on this one. It is confusing cause depending how cold is outside and heat loss of the house, I can be force to load before it gets that low more if am running just one stove. At that point the heat can be good for shoulder seasons but not in the middle of the winter.

 

[Ashful]

I like the flow chart feel of it, and the emoji-type icons. I like that your wife even thought to do this, it is a good idea. But I agree on the organizational aspects being a little confusing.

Here’s a more work-able procedure, I’ve posted before. I’m not as creative as your wife, so I never made a nice flow chart of it.

Hot reload, cat still active:
1. Open bypass and thermostat.
2. Fetch wood from outside, while coals come alive and combustor cools (2 minutes).
3. Open door, load full (north-south loading in my model).
4. Close door, let run on high 5 minutes, or until load is going nicely.
5. Close bypass, let run on high another 20 minutes.
6. Set thermostat to desired burn rate, walk away.

Hot reload, cat inactive:
1. Same as above, but extend step 4 until I meet one of three criteria:
A. Load completely charred, fire looks healthy
B. Flue probe reading 500F
C. Cat probe active

My cold-start procedure:
1. Fetch wood and kindling or favorite fire starter (SuperCedar).
2. Level ash bed, then plow a small divot front and center.
3. Set SuperCedar in divot and light it.
4. Load stove full, ensuring I have some smaller and drier stuff over the fire starter.
5. Wait about 12 minutes for flue probe to hit 500, then close bypass.
6. Run 20 minutes on high, then set thermostat and walk away.

If she decides to make a nice flow chart of this, please post it! I’ll put a copy of it near each of my own stoves.

 

[jetsam]

4. Close door, let run on high 5 minutes, or until load is going nicely.
5. Close bypass, let run on high another 20 minutes.

I'm surprised that our procedures diverge here- usually we have similar thought processes about stove stuff.

What's the 20 minutes for? (I understand why a stove manufacturer might choose to put that instruction in their manual, but I don't understand why you personally do it, as you know your stove and have dry wood.)

Here's my argument against: On a hot reload, with dry wood, it's gonna catch immediately. My stove burns for over 24 hours on low with a full tank- let's call it 24. My stove burns for around 4 hours on high with a full tank. That's conservatively a 6:1 ratio. So on a partial reload, 20 minutes on high may be taking 2 hours off your low burn. What benefit did you gain in return? Yes, a stove burning ultra-low benefits from a bump to cat temperature at hot reload time, but 2 minutes will get it glowing and pinging.

Discuss! ​

 

[jetsam]

I am with @jetsam on this one. It is confusing cause depending how cold is outside and heat loss of the house, I can be force to load before it gets that low more if am running just one stove. At that point the heat can be good for shoulder seasons but not in the middle of the winter.

My reload timing revolves around my work and sleep schedule. I love that it's so easy and safe to do red hot reloads on my BK. (Disclaimer for future readers: Know your stove. Check your gaskets. If turning the knob down to minimum doesn't make the fire go out, don't attempt hot reloads, and fix your air leak.)

It used to be that my sleep schedule revolved around my reload schedule; I don't miss that!

 

[Highbeam]

What's the 20 minutes for? (I understand why a stove manufacturer might choose to put that instruction in their manual, but I don't understand why you personally do it, as you know your stove and have dry wood.)

The 20 minutes is to drive moisture from the wood. Even super dry 15% fuel has 15% water! It's also cold relative to the firebox so it needs to heat up and dry out to be sure that you're feeding your cat hot, dry, smoke.

There are lots of ways to run these cat stoves that are all "good enough".

 

[jetsam]

The 20 minutes is to drive moisture from the wood. Even super dry 15% fuel has 15% water! It's also cold relative to the firebox so it needs to heat up and dry out to be sure that you're feeding your cat hot, dry, smoke.

There are lots of ways to run these cat stoves that are all "good enough".

When there's flames licking the flame guard and the cat is glowing bright orange, I feel fairly safe that the cat is getting hot-enough smoke, even if the core of the wood is still cold. As you know, this happens on a hot reload after seconds on high. 20 minutes just seems like a long time.

I don't feel like thermal shock is a worry at that stage based on the condition of my first ceramic cat at its retirement.

Agreed that there's room to do a significant amount of whatever without tipping the boat over.

 

[Ashful]

Here's my argument against: On a hot reload, with dry wood, it's gonna catch immediately. My stove burns for over 24 hours on low with a full tank- let's call it 24. My stove burns for around 4 hours on high with a full tank. That's conservatively a 6:1 ratio. So on a partial reload, 20 minutes on high may be taking 2 hours off your low burn. What benefit did you gain in return? Yes, a stove burning ultra-low benefits from a bump to cat temperature at hot reload time, but 2 minutes will get it glowing and pinging.

Discuss! ​

If my wood were truly dry, I’d probably be apt to skip the 20 minutes on high, sometimes. But the truth is that I’m burning darn near 100% Red Oak, stored 3+ years outdoors on pallets with no shed, in a region that has seen damn near Biblical levels of rain for 2 solid years now. I cover it in August of the year I’ll be burning it, but that only does so much.

But even if it were dry, my big old house can always use the extra kick of heat in morning or when I return home from work, after a 12 hour burn on a lower setting. It really doesn’t make a difference in room temperature, but it somehow feels good.

On the rain subject (I know... OT), my wood stockpile is at an all-time low. I’m down to maybe 10 cords CSS’d, I’m usually at 30+. It has been so wet for so long, I haven’t been able to harvest or split, without making a muddy mess of everything.

 

[jetsam]

If my wood were truly dry, I’d probably be apt to skip the 20 minutes on high, sometimes. But the truth is that I’m burning darn near 100% Red Oak, stored 3+ years outdoors on pallets with no shed, in a region that has seen damn near Biblical levels of rain for 2 solid years now. I cover it in August of the year I’ll be burning it, but that only does so much.

But even if it were dry, my big old house can always use the extra kick of heat in morning or when I return home from work, after a 12 hour burn on a lower setting. It really doesn’t make a difference in room temperature, but it somehow feels good.

On the rain subject (I know... OT), my wood stockpile is at an all-time low. I’m down to maybe 10 cords CSS’d, I’m usually at 30+. It has been so wet for so long, I haven’t been able to harvest or split, without making a muddy mess of everything.

I really feel you on the rain. I am down to < 1year in the stacks too, and the couple cords I do have stacked out have been drying in record rainfall months. I think we've broken local records for rainfall days per 30 days here.

Like Highbeam said, the space between Right and Wrong is plenty wide here