Blaze king princess 32 newbie. Looking for help

[Gibbs433]

Hello everyone!

I’m new to the woodstove world and looking to find out if I’m doing this correctly! Thanks in advance for the help!

Just bought a house with a Blaze King princess 32 and I’m wondering about operating procedures.

1) It’s cold here (-5 c) and probably getting much colder soon, is it a problem to run 24/7 with these stoves or should I be letting the fire completely burn itself out every once and a while?

2) Hot reloading- is it ok to do this? Obviously opening the bypass and the thermostat before opening the door, raking coals to the front and loading in dry wood. The cat temp gauge is in the active range, but after looking at several forums, it hasn’t been clear to me if this is a good idea or not.

3) I’ve had a couple people tell me, once loaded and door closed with cat engaged ,just let it burn wide open on the thermostat for 30 minutes and then turn down to desired temp range. Anything wrong with this?

I’ve read through the instructions manual on the Blaze King website, but have interpreted instructions wrong in the past. Just looking to see what’s what and hopefully have this stove heating my home for a long time.

 

[BKVP]

Hello everyone!

I’m new to the woodstove world and looking to find out if I’m doing this correctly! Thanks in advance for the help!

Just bought a house with a Blaze King princess 32 and I’m wondering about operating procedures.

1) It’s cold here (-5 c) and probably getting much colder soon, is it a problem to run 24/7 with these stoves or should I be letting the fire completely burn itself out every once and a while?

2) Hot reloading- is it ok to do this? Obviously opening the bypass and the thermostat before opening the door, raking coals to the front and loading in dry wood. The cat temp gauge is in the active range, but after looking at several forums, it hasn’t been clear to me if this is a good idea or not.

3) I’ve had a couple people tell me, once loaded and door closed with cat engaged ,just let it burn wide open on the thermostat for 30 minutes and then turn down to desired temp range. Anything wrong with this?

I’ve read through the instructions manual on the Blaze King website, but have interpreted instructions wrong in the past. Just looking to see what’s what and hopefully have this stove heating my home for a long time.

You've nailed it! Lucky you getting a new house and has current model!!

Make certain wood is below 24% m.c. and operate as you described and you can just keep in rolling. The longest duration I've run my King 4 months before letting it go cold.

BKVP

 

[Tron]

3) I’ve had a couple people tell me, once loaded and door closed with cat engaged ,just let it burn wide open on the thermostat for 30 minutes and then turn down to desired temp range. Anything wrong with this?

Nothing wrong, but not entirely necessary, either. In our neck of the woods, that would bake me out of the house.
So on a reload I wait about 5 minutes or so with open bypass until the load has really caught, and then close the bypass and dial down.

 

[BKVP]

Nothing wrong, but not entirely necessary, either. In our neck of the woods, that would bake me out of the house.
So on a reload I wait about 5 minutes or so with open bypass until the load has really caught, and then close the bypass and dial down.

This recommendation has to do with m.c. of a fuel load. First stage of combustion, elimination of moisture from a load a of fuel, is better accomplished at higher burn rates.

If you fuel is very dry, it will take less time than a load of less dry fuel.

BKVP

 

[Gibbs433]

You've nailed it! Lucky you getting a new house and has current model!!

Make certain wood is below 24% m.c. and operate as you described and you can just keep in rolling. The longest duration I've run my King 4 months before letting it go cold.

BKVP

Thanks for the reply!

Got lucky with the purchase and the few friends who have been over so far have been pretty jealous of the stove.

I should really get a moisture meter to check the mc but the wood I’m burning (fir, pine mix) has been well seasoned and catches fire quickly when I reload. Hence my question of leaving everything wide open for 30 minutes. Seemed like a long time when the fire picks up within the first 5 minutes.

 

[Gibbs433]

Nothing wrong, but not entirely necessary, either. In our neck of the woods, that would bake me out of the house.
So on a reload I wait about 5 minutes or so with open bypass until the load has really caught, and then close the bypass and dial down.

Thanks for your reply!

My wood seems to catch pretty quick so I was thinking 30 minutes might be a bit long, considering it’s already burning well. I’ll cut the 30 minutes down a bit and see how it fares!

 

[stoveliker]

On 13-14% pitch pine here I only run fully open for 5 mins, after which I aggressively start dialing down.

 

[Highbeam]

I'm burning very dry softwoods too and no way I'll let it go 30 minutes. By that time the flue temperature is bouncing off of redline and/or the stoves thermostat has begun to shut itself down so you're not getting a full throttle burn anyway. Then when you go to adjust the thermostat down to your desired burn rate the throttle plate is slammed closed for a long time as the stove cools.

These days, after 12-13 years of use on this princess, I'll let that new load burn in on high settings until the flue meter hits about 800 and then start turning the thermostat down. Sometimes all the way to cruise, sometimes one intermediate step if I want a little extra heat into the house.

 

[stoveliker]

Yes, that throttle closed all the way for so long when the wood is still providing a lot of fuel for the cat is not ideal imo. It goes against my philosophy of gradually dialing down.
(Edit, gradually but aggressively - because otherwise there's hell - in the firebox).

With fast taking off very dry pine or fir that means closing it far sooner.

But that's just the way that works for my stove with my flue and my wood.

 

[Highbeam]

Yes, that throttle closed all the way for so long when the wood is still providing a lot of fuel for the cat is not ideal imo. It goes against my philosophy of gradually dialing down.
(Edit, gradually but aggressively - because otherwise there's hell - in the firebox).

With fast taking off very dry pine or fir that means closing it far sooner.

But that's just the way that works for my stove with my flue and my wood.

Right, the thermostat will close the throttle down automatically if the stove gets too hot during that warm up period and then you're "riding the hole" for quite some time. It makes sense to begin turning down the thermostat well before that happens so that the load can slow down its offgassing and land on the desired throttle setting without the throttle plate ever closing all the way.

Maybe those folks with big chunks of super dense hickory or oak are just starting to get to full chooch after 30 minutes and the thermostat (actually the throttle plate) is still pretty far open.

 

[stoveliker]

I can tell that 15% red oak doesn't need 30 minutes either. 15-20 and I'm throttled down with all charred load
Oak that's dry can go quickly too . Not for quick but quicker than what most expect. The crucial thing is dryness.

 

[BC_Josh]

I do almost all hot loads, with Douglas Fir at about 14% moisture content. I usually let the stove burn on the highest thermostat setting for at least 20 minutes. Sometimes, longer if there are really big pieces or if the load has pieces tight together, or if any pieces have surfaces that don't look like they've gotten a good char on.

One thing I have noticed is that almost all of my wood is at 15% moisture, on the outer surface of the wood since it's been a very damp, warmer winter this year, so the low moisture has increased a bit, due to absorption in my woodshed. Still 14% in the center of the wood, and since I put some wood in a woodbox for a day or so next to my stove, it's almost all at 14% from center to outside of the splits before it goes into my stove.

But something else even more curious to me is that I can find the odd piece in my woodpile that has 18% moisture on the surface, I even found a couple at 20%. It doesn't seem to correspond to being in any particular spot in my woodpile, although I find these pieces in clusters. This is likely due to the supplier of mine who stacks them outside, covered in tarps on pallets. I think the outside pieces on the stacks will absorb a bit of rainfall. They're all still dry enough to burn, but it's nice to find those pieces and not burn too many at the same time, to mix them in with the lowest moisture content pieces of wood to make sure I'm burning nice dry loads.

 

[Tron]

I usually let the stove burn on the highest thermostat setting for at least 20 minutes. Sometimes, longer

If I do that on a hot reload, my flue temperatures (open bypass) are going through the roof. Aren't yours?

 

[BKVP]

If I do that on a hot reload, my flue temperatures (open bypass) are going through the roof. Aren't yours?

Single wall, double wall, pipe probe or mid gas stream 3", probe?

BKVP

 

[stoveliker]

If I do that on a hot reload, my flue temperatures (open bypass) are going through the roof. Aren't yours?

I don't think BC said "open bypass".
(And I think one shouldn't be more than a minute or two with open bypass if the reload happened with the cat still active.)

But even with closed bypass, 20 minutes on 14% pine equates to hell more than I aim for... (Double wall, probe - but I don't remember what temps I would see then as I don't burn that long WOT.)

 

[BC_Josh]

I don't think BC said "open bypass".
(And I think one shouldn't be more than a minute or two with open bypass if the reload happened with the cat still active.)

But even with closed bypass, 20 minutes on 14% pine equates to hell more than I aim for... (Double wall, probe - but I don't remember what temps I would see then as I don't burn that long WOT.)

I have double walled stove pipe, I don't burn with pine, but with Douglas Fir, which while a softwood is not nearly as quick or hot firing as pine or spruce. Also, the cat is mostly still active while I'm loading, so I'm turning back on the cat as soon as I've loaded (btw, the cat temp doesn't drop while loading unless it's almost down to, or down to the "inactive" range already).

 

[BC_Josh]

If I do that on a hot reload, my flue temperatures (open bypass) are going through the roof. Aren't yours?

I don't have a flue thermometer..... so far no damage has been done, I don't think. When I clean my chimney pipe, it's all flaky and sandy, not shiny.

 

[stoveliker]

I have double walled stove pipe, I don't burn with pine, but with Douglas Fir, which while a softwood is not nearly as quick or hot firing as pine or spruce. Also, the cat is mostly still active while I'm loading, so I'm turning back on the cat as soon as I've loaded (btw, the cat temp doesn't drop while loading unless it's almost down to, or down to the "inactive" range already).

Seems good.
The cat temp not dropping is more of a result of the slowness of the cat gauge than a reflection of what is happening imo.
These gauges have a 10 minute characteristic time to be taken into account. I.e. the cat will cool when the door opens - even if the gauge doesn't show it yet. But it's all good; most of the cold air will go thru the bypass as it should, and a good dry fuel load will bring it back to where it should be (and beyond for new cats ) very quickly.

 

[Tron]

I don't have a flue thermometer..... so far no damage has been done, I don't think. When I clean my chimney pipe, it's all flaky and sandy, not shiny.

Well, not knowing doesn't mean all is well. I think a normal flue is rated to 1000F (continuously, admittedly), but you'll easily exceed that by running wide open (if you do that with the bypass open) for an extended time.

 

[Tron]

Single wall, double wall, pipe probe or mid gas stream 3", probe?

Double-walled 6" flue all the way (so 8" outer diameter), 4" probe, so pretty much in the middle of the gas stream.
Probe about 2' above the collar of the stove.

 

[BC_Josh]

Well, not knowing doesn't mean all is well. I think a normal flue is rated to 1000F (continuously, admittedly), but you'll easily exceed that by running wide open (if you do that with the bypass open) for an extended time.

I'm doing loading procedures as per my BK manual. I doubt that having the bypass open for a few minutes to load up a new fire, and closing it right away would be a serious issue, but I could be wrong.

 

[Tron]

I doubt that having the bypass open for a few minutes to load up a new fire, and closing it right away would be a serious issue, but I could be wrong.

A few minutes? No.
Half an hour? Probably.

But that's why I installed a flue thermometer: to know what's going on in there.
And, TBH, they're cheap and easy to install.

 

[Murray01]

I wonder why BK doesn’t have temperature target ranges in their operating manuals? Understandably every stove setup and wood is different but some rough guidelines would make life easier for new owners.

 

[BKVP]

I wonder why BK doesn’t have temperature target ranges in their operating manuals? Understandably every stove setup and wood is different but some rough guidelines would make life easier for new owners.

I'm laughing so hard right now. We did have numbers on thermostats, thermometers and stove top temps many years ago. We removed them because every single day multiple folks would come to this site and read how this guy got "x" cat temp with thermostat set on "x" number. When we went to the numbers free format, those calls (dozens a day) ended!

There are far too many variables that effect all the data points, draft, fuel species, type & configuration of chimney, I could list a dozen more. The calls began with "there is something wrong...because this guy online is getting 6 more hours or twice as much heat and his setting are the same as mine."

Sorry, but no numbers creates far less confusion. Burn well seasoned wood, operate & maintain the stove in a safe manner and watch to make certain your stove pipe isn't polluting the air. Then relax and enjoy other fun activities.

Thank you for your understanding.

BKVP

 

[stoveliker]

I think the only numbers we need are 1. the flue temps (because it's a safety thing; too cold or too hot is both not safe), and 2. the thermometer in my room to see that my wife's "I'm cold" is bogus. Basically burn safe and set the output so that you're comfortable. That's all that's needed.

Now a forum as this exists in part to ask questions; I mean "I can't have my 2.9 cu ft firebox full of oak last any longer than 6 hrs" is indicative of something wrong, and such questions are being asked and help/suggestions (worth what you pay for it here...) are being given.

So some numbers matter, but apart from flue temp safety ranges, the rest is all ballpark (and sometimes the realm of bragging )