Couple of questions on Blaze King stoves

[hotjava66]

Looking for some info and input regarding Blaze King stoves in general and the 30 series specifically. Building a new house and want to continue to heat at least partially with wood. Have 4 seasons on a hybrid insert in our current house and have a large stock of processed wood. Thinking new house the best bet would be a freestanding stove and really like the looks and features on the Blaze King Chinnok 30.

My main concern regarding these stoves having never seen one in person is if there is much of a fire visible during the burn. That is one aspect of wood burning we get a lot of enjoyment from and don't want to lose it. Like the thought of long burn times and even heat. House will be smaller and well insulated so should easily heat it. Any other pros and cons on these stoves? Last question is if there are any dealers on this board that sell BK, no dealers in my area when checking their website. Thanks for any info.

 

[Grisu]

It has been reported a few times that BlazeKing's dealer search is not that reliable. I would give their customer service a call or start a conversation with user "BKVP"; I guess the name is self-explanatory.

Not having burned in a BK myself, users say that turning up the air from low will give you a flame show similar to a standard tube stove.

 

[kennyp2339]

I own a princess, If I have my thermostat air control set on a higher setting I will have a nice flame show, If I lower the setting I will get nothing except a glowing cat. When I was looking for stoves last year I thought the lack of flame would be a big factor in what stove I would buy, I'm glad I stuck to my guns and bought this stove. When I want flames I just turn it up, when it gets too warm I just turn it down.

 

[jeff_t]

Where in Michigan are you?

 

[BKVP]

Call our offices at 509-522-2730 and we'll be pleased to help you find a dealer.

Chris

 

[tarzan]

I can only parrot Kenny's post. If your wood is fully seasoned then you are fully set to kick back and enjoy the heat for hours and hours and hours.

Don't expect much of a flame show. In fact, the stove is perfectly capable of nice flames but if you run the stove with flames the majority of the time chances are it is undersized.

Even though I fully understand how nice it is to set in front of a roaring fire that's not what the BK's are about. They are very efficient, clean burning heaters.

 

[webby3650]

We have just about every Blaze King in stock except the Chinook. I'm not sure where you are in Michigan, but we'd be glad to fix you up with one!

 

[jeff_t]

If you're anywhere within a few hours of Davison, I highly recommend these folks.
http://www.heatmichigan.com

I know I've plugged them a bunch of times in the past, but they bent over backwards to help me get the BK parts I needed when nobody else even bothered to return a call. We'll be stove shopping before winter, and if we decide on a BK, I know where we will go.

 

[Poindexter]

I have an Ashford 30 and pretty much have to agree with the above, with one addition.

Yes, if I turn it up high and hot I can get a pretty flame show. Carrying less wood from the forest to the hearth more than makes up for not having much of a flame show when I have the fool thing turned down to a lower setting and keeping the oil burning furnace dormant while not heating the people out of the house.

If you have never owned a catalytic stove before you are in for a treat.

 

[begreen]

Not many folks here complain about heating people out of the house. Not sure why this is a mantra of cat owners. A properly sized and run non-cat can keep a house very evenly comfortable.

 

[Woody Stover]

Not many folks here complain about heating people out of the house. Not sure why this is a mantra of cat owners. A properly sized and run non-cat can keep a house very evenly comfortable.

IMO, a properly sized cat will keep your house at the right temp (around 70 for me) on a low, no-flame burn most of the time. If you want a fire show all the time, it may get too warm in there if you have a small house like I do, and hang out in the stove room. If you size it so you can have flames most of the time, it may not use wood as efficiently, sending more heat up the flue and negating one of the main reasons for having a cat in the first place. And it may struggle to keep up when it gets real cold out, or you might have the "too many coals" issue if you try to shove a lot of wood through it because you need flame.

 

[BKVP]

Not many folks here complain about heating people out of the house. Not sure why this is a mantra of cat owners. A properly sized and run non-cat can keep a house very evenly comfortable.

Begreen,

The word "run" is essentially the point. Of course not all cat stoves are equal, however our stoves are load and go stoves, you don't need to run them or tend to them. Cordwood is not a metered fuel and in fact it burns quite erratically in terms of heat production. If you are retired and you have a passion for "running" a stove, which can be fun for some, a non thermostatically controlled stove can have the air control manipulated throughout the day to address the uneven burning and thereby heat production of a cordwood appliance. However, if you and your spouse work all day, nothing beats the ability to throw 40-90lbs of wood into a stove and dash off to work.

Woodystover is also correct about the comfort zone....a dealer of ours in Missoula Montana represents many, many fine non thermostatically controlled stoves. It was only AFTER he installed one of our models on his property that he called to say the stove provided more even heat than the HVAC furnace he had been using.

As for the original question posted by the OP, since a catalyst equipped wood stove can provide ultra clean emissions (often below .75 gr/hr) and do so with the combustor at 550 degrees and an equally sized non catalyst equipped wood stove will require twice the operating temps, 1176 degrees F, the two stove technologies have a different definition of low. If you place two stoves, one catalyst equipped and the other non catalyst equipped, side by side and load them full of the same size, moisture content and volume of fuel and then set the burn rate equally at 1.75 kg/hr, which is by all admission a medium high burn rate, you will get flame in both stoves.

Both types of modern stoves provide the ability to heat your home, provide a nice fire show, if so desired and do so cleanly and efficiently.....but ours do not require the "run" factor.

 

[Highbeam]

Begreen,

The word "run" is essentially the point. Of course not all cat stoves are equal, however our stoves are load and go stoves, you don't need to run them or tend to them. Cordwood is not a metered fuel and in fact it burns quite erratically in terms of heat production. If you are retired and you have a passion for "running" a stove, which can be fun for some, a non thermostatically controlled stove can have the air control manipulated throughout the day to address the uneven burning and thereby heat production of a cordwood appliance. However, if you and your spouse work all day, nothing beats the ability to throw 40-90lbs of wood into a stove and dash off to work.

Woodystover is also correct about the comfort zone....a dealer of ours in Missoula Montana represents many, many fine non thermostatically controlled stoves. It was only AFTER he installed one of our models on his property that he called to say the stove provided more even heat than the HVAC furnace he had been using.

As for the original question posted by the OP, since a catalyst equipped wood stove can provide ultra clean emissions (often below .75 gr/hr) and do so with the combustor at 550 degrees and an equally sized non catalyst equipped wood stove will require twice the operating temps, 1176 degrees F, the two stove technologies have a different definition of low. If you place two stoves, one catalyst equipped and the other non catalyst equipped, side by side and load them full of the same size, moisture content and volume of fuel and then set the burn rate equally at 1.75 kg/hr, which is by all admission a medium high burn rate, you will get flame in both stoves.

Both types of modern stoves provide the ability to heat your home, provide a nice fire show, if so desired and do so cleanly and efficiently.....but ours do not require the "run" factor.

Good post. The first paragraph summarizes why a long burn time is so important to many of us. Folks with nothing better to do but play with the stove all day never understand this. Burn time is extremely important. Especially unattended burntime.

I have run both and currently run both cat and noncat. The fireshow of a rip-roaring noncat is superior to anything that I've ever seen in my cat stove. The cat stove flame show is more like a campfire but the non-cat tube stove has a really cool air injection system that makes a special display. That said, I run my cat stove on low settings most of the time with no flame and the steady output over 24 hours more than makes up for the less pretty fireshow.

 

[Scoutin Wyo]

My $.02
I owned a King from 2000 until we sold the house in 2013. My wife liked the flame show while we watched TV in the stove room (family room), so I would load about 4-5 small splits in the stove and set it on high while we watched TV. Then when it was about 30 minutes before bed time I would stoke it full, close the bypass, and start the process of dialing down the T-stat to a nice low 18-20 hour burn that would keep our house around 67* all night and the next day. I burned only lodgepole pine that was cut from standing beetle killed timber in July and split and stacked in the wonderful dry Wyoming wind. The stove still had the original cat the day I sold the house. Damn I miss that stove and should have never left her with the house!! The new house is getting an Ashford 30 this summer!

 

[begreen]

I have no doubt about the advantages of long heating cycles if one needs them. That is not the point. Implying that all non-cat stoves lead to uneven heat is not correct. We did have a greater temp swing with the Jotul, it is a radiant stove. However, the T6 heats our house very evenly with very little fuss, just like an hvac system. The temp on the thermostat around the corner stays right at 72F all day long. This is not just the stove, but the house and an open floorplan that keeps the heat quite even. It was one of the first things we noticed when we switched stoves. I suspect the same is true for soapstone stove owners, cat or non-cat with a similar layout.

FWIW, I do like a thermostatically controlled radiant stove. The Resolute 1 we had many years back was a pretty decent heater considering the small size of the house we were heating back then. Without the thermostat I think the temp swings would have been undesirable.

 

[tarzan]

Good post. The first paragraph summarizes why a long burn time is so important to many of us. Folks with nothing better to do but play with the stove all day never understand this. Burn time is extremely important. Especially unattended burntime.

I have run both and currently run both cat and noncat. The fireshow of a rip-roaring noncat is superior to anything that I've ever seen in my cat stove. The cat stove flame show is more like a campfire but the non-cat tube stove has a really cool air injection system that makes a special display. That said, I run my cat stove on low settings most of the time with no flame and the steady output over 24 hours more than makes up for the less pretty fireshow.

Even on days I have nothing better to do I don't want to fiddle with the stove all day no more than I would elect to run the electric furnace in manual mode just because I'm there to do it.

 

[begreen]

Nor do most. We feed the stove once every 8-12 hrs. Turn down the air about 10-15 minutes after reloading. Hardly fiddling. If I want an appliance I turn up the heat pump.

 

[Parallax]

I'm a newbie who ran an Ashford for the first time this past winter. When turned up, it made a nice flame show. Not as intense as some I'd seen in the store with non-cat stoves but I felt the long burn times more than made up for it. I'm posting because I had had a concern similar to the OP's and considered going with one of the stoves that made a really intense fire. I'm glad I didn't. The long burn times were really important for us.

I suppose if you're buying a stove more for the show than the heat output, you might be happier with a different stove. But I really appreciated not having to load it often and not having to schlep as much wood. On top of this, Blaze King is outstanding when it comes to customer service. We had some issues and they have worked with us every step of the way and gone above and beyond. That BKVP comes into these forums and interacts with us tells you everything you need to know about BK and the importance they place on listening to and assisting customers.

The stove I'd considered for the great flame show was the Lopi Cape Cod. When I called to inquire about some problems I'd heard about, they had a customer relations person on the phone who knew nothing about the engineering of the stove and just gave me a line of bull. They refused to let me speak with anyone knowledgeable and lied about the problems, not even acknowledging them. I was really turned off and told them I'd look for another stove. I then found Blaze King (was tipped off on these forums) and have had the complete opposite experience. Their people are very knowledgeable about the product and they care about making customers happy. Moreover, their designs are really well engineered. When they make changes, they do so incrementally, building on tried and true designs. When we got our Ashford, it was shortly after the stove had been released. We had a problem with fan blades that melted. They sent us new ones that had a different design. They didn't BS about it. They admitted there had been a problem and fixed it. This is all anyone can ask from a company. At this point, I can't imagine buying a non-Blaze King stove. They've earned my business the old fashioned way, by designing a great product and treating me with a high level of integrity. Much of the credit for this goes to BKVP himself, but he's not the only good person over there. It's a great team.

 

[firefighterjake]

I have no doubt about the advantages of long heating cycles if one needs them. That is not the point. Implying that all non-cat stoves lead to uneven heat is not correct. We did have a greater temp swing with the Jotul, it is a radiant stove. However, the T6 heats our house very evenly with very little fuss, just like an hvac system. The temp on the thermostat around the corner stays right at 72F all day long. This is not just the stove, but the house and an open floorplan that keeps the heat quite even. It was one of the first things we noticed when we switched stoves. I suspect the same is true for soapstone stove owners, cat or non-cat with a similar layout.

FWIW, I do like a thermostatically controlled radiant stove. The Resolute 1 we had many years back was a pretty decent heater considering the small size of the house we were heating back then. Without the thermostat I think the temp swings would have been undesirable.

Concur . . . once I am up and running full time I do not tend to get huge swings in temp . . . I think it is due to a) how well my house is insulated (could be better, but it's not bad), b) how often I reload and c) the fact that I have my oil boiler thermostats set to kick on when the temps reach 60 degrees F. . . . could also be I am used to a bit of lee-way in temps personally and do not necessarily need to be at exactly 72 degrees F day in and day out.

I have found with my Jotul stove I do have to be a lot more mindful about how often I reload and what I reload it with . . . otherwise I can get overheated. I suspect it's not quite as easy as running at cat stove and just dialing down the air to get the burn you want . . .

 

[hotjava66]

Thanks for all the input. Based on all above I think it will do exactly what we want. We both work and have a busy family so tending the stove all the time is a chore, that was the main draw on BK for me. If it can be dialed up a bit for the hour or so before bedtime to enjoy the fire that is all we looking for. One more question I wanted to ask is if the 30 series stoves will accept a full size split loaded N/S? That one must have feature for our next stove.

 

[begreen]

What is a full-sized split? The Sirocco and Ashford 30 take an 18" split N/S I believe. Their firebox is fairly square IIRC. Load it either way you like.

 

[hotjava66]

18" is a great size if possible to run NS. Been trying to cut all my recent wood around 18", wood I have split and stacked was cut for my insert at 18-24" so I may have to trim some of it down. My insert is real shallow and wide so it's not really feasible to run NS and it is the one thing about it I dislike.

 

[Highbeam]

18" would be the max. I would, and do, cut to 16" to allow for a little wiggle room.

 

[begreen]

18" is a great size if possible to run NS. Been trying to cut all my recent wood around 18", wood I have split and stacked was cut for my insert at 18-24" so I may have to trim some of it down. My insert is real shallow and wide so it's not really feasible to run NS and it is the one thing about it I dislike.

I went through this when I switched from the Castine to the Alderlea. Best to use a chop saw and cut them down to 16". It will be a pain in the butt, but just for one season.

 

[hotjava66]

Work took me close to a semi local dealer today so I stopped in. After looking a couple different models I think I am now leaning towards the Princess. Showed the wife some pics and she likes it also. Any thoughs on the options available for it? Is the fan kit a necessity or can do without? Was hoping to avoid the noise this time around, can it be added later if needed. How about the convection top or the ash pan?