Dealer wants me to buy a Blaze King

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Couple data points. We got our new chimney installed summer 2013 for about $5k parts and labor. OPs quote on post one quotes parts only. As far as the install goes when we mentioned to our insurance agent our chimney was professionally installed "local reputable dealer" our homeowner's premium went up one dollar per week. I have no idea how much our premium would have gone up had I chosen to DIY the chimney install. In May 2014 we paid right near $4200 for an Ashford 30.0 with fan kit, and I think $200 and two pizza's to the three men from the store who dollied the fool thing up my staircase.

A reputable installer will only charge you for the chimney parts they actually install in your home and credit back the pieces on the estimate they don't actually use.

NB: After Honolulu, Fairbanks routinely has the second highest cost of living in the USA.

The parts only quote looks good to me, but I personally would prefer the one time price of pro install to the eternal likely higher home owner's premium.

My old stove was a similar sized EPA cert non cat, circa Y2K, that would burn down a box full of splits in 3-4 hours depending on where the user controls were set. It was basically either blazing or on the verge of melting. I am confident from reading here non-cat stoves have made good gains since Y2K, but I have never operated a more recent model.

I am one of the users here who does run my Ashford wide open throttle in deep winter in the north half of Alaska. If my stove makes it to May 2023 it will be nine years old, and I have no expectation that it will fail more or less ever. However, I do run it at lower settings. In mid to late August when I first lit it, into mid October or so, I was running 24 hour burns with birch at whatever thermostat setting gave me 24 hour burns. Since mid October we have been "in the 20s", that is to say my daytime high is rarely above +20dF and my overnight lows are rarely below -20dF. In the 20s. Probably four months of the year around here. I am running 2 burns, 12 hours each, spruce, no problem. When it gets colder, I will add a third burn per day at wide open throttle. When my daytime highs rarely exceed -42dF I will be beating on this stove like a redheaded stepchild, again, and the Ashford 30 will keep coming back for more.

I don't feel I have enough information to say the A30 would or would not be a good fit for the OP. Most likely it would be a good fit, however: 1. I haven't seen the R value on the windows. 2. The insulation envelope is described as "good" which is a meaningless term in this situation and 3. I am only modestly familiar with the climate in PA, with the bay near Philadelphia likely significantly more mild than the lake effect snow area over by Erie.

If someone chooses to start a thread about coaling stage in the modern wood stove and fireplace section I will be happy to share my thoughts there, they are not relevant here.
 
In May 2014 we paid right near $4200 for an Ashford 30.0 with fan kit, and I think $200 and two pizza's to the three men from the store who dollied the fool thing up my staircase.

NB: After Honolulu, Fairbanks routinely has the second highest cost of living in the USA.
Yeah... AK is expensive! I'm relatively local to the OP, and I paid around $2800 for each of my Ashford 30’s in early 2015, fans and delivery included. Seller was in Kintnersville, 40 miles NE of the OP, and they do work in Gilbertsville. I know they gave me a price break for buying two, but even the most expensive dealer (King of Prussia) was only mid-3k’s back then.

And in case you think King of Prussia is a funny name for a place, PA also has Intercourse, Pringle Pringle, Devil's Half Acre, and Hop Bottom, among a few others even less PC than "Intercourse".

I am only modestly familiar with the climate in PA, with the bay near Philadelphia likely significantly more mild than the lake effect snow area over by Erie.
PA climate is very diverse, more by elevation than latitude, since we are cut thru by the Appalachians. There is a proper weather/climate tracking station in Pottstown, likely walking or cycling distance from the OP.
 
I ended up purchasing the BK Ashford 30.2. Thx for the discussion. Now time to get to work and hoard some firewood. Does anyone heat their stove with scrap wood from a local mill? Check out this video.
 
that Asford is dry wood fussy, which I'm sure you know. How long before you have it installed? Keep us Posted
 
I ended up purchasing the BK Ashford 30.2. Thx for the discussion. Now time to get to work and hoard some firewood. Does anyone heat their stove with scrap wood from a local mill? Check out this video.

Many people do but the problem it it doesn't dry well at all. When stacked it doesn't get much air flow at all so it just doesn't dry
 
I dont know what dry wood fussy means. care to explain please.
It means the stove isn't going to work well at all unless you have wood that is 20% moisture content or less to feed it.
 
I think all the new stoves require dry wood to perform at their best. Congrats on your choice. I’ve got by with cutting Doug fir snags down and having them split and stacked in the stove room for a couple weeks on one of those rack things you can buy. I bought one of those moisture meters to check. It can burn less than 20 but you need to bake the moisture out a little longer before you engage the cat. 20 or less is optimal for epa I’d imagine. If I was going to try to burn scraps I’d build a rack that looked ok and allowed them to dry quickly
 
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you can start out with compressed saw dust blocks, available at tractor supply or any other store of similar nature. Make sure they are wood stove compatible, meaning not compressed with glue. I run the whole shoulder season on them. A pallet will last me from late October almost to Christmas.
 
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I dont know what dry wood fussy means. care to explain please.
Since I put about 3x more wood thru Ashford 30’s than nearly anyone else in this forum, please take my word on this.

BK’s can push the envelope on long, low burns. Pushing the envelope for min burn rates requires having everything optimized just so, and that includes dry wood. However, there is no one saying you must operate the stove on that hairy edge. When operated at a higher burn rate, what most other brands call “low”, there is no reason to ever believe BK’s have some unique requirement for dry wood, beyond other stoves.

This is just silly, no stove can change the basic physics of burning wood, not even a BK.
 
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there is no reason to ever believe BK’s have some unique requirement for dry wood, beyond other stoves.
Indeed. Some of the EPA lap testing on BK stoves was with wood up to 23%.
 
I've never had a reason to run a princess that hard since it heats so well on low. The EPA does the testing with far better instrumentation and no bias. You've also got to realize that it's not just the temperature of the flue gasses but also the flow rate that determines how much energy is being shot up the stack which is a big part of how efficiency is measured.

As you've pointed out in the past, the efficiency of all of these stoves is pretty close. Not enough to make a difference so splitting hairs on the issue is a waste of time.
Agree 100%, unless that "hair" puts you on the eligibility list for 25C or until 12/31/2022, the 25D Tax credit! The big question for the OP, does the dealer have an Ashford 30? If not in stock or currently on order, it could be months.

BKVP
 
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To heat and get long burn times with not much maintenance. I just found the Hearthstone Heritage. Is that comparable to the BK?
Not even close. Burn times on the Heritage are pathetic. I"m reloading ever few hours. Luckily that particular stove stays very warm for a long time after the fire is out.
 
Not even close. Burn times on the Heritage are pathetic. I"m reloading ever few hours. Luckily that particular stove stays very warm for a long time after the fire is out.
Is your experience with the new heritage?
 
No, 2004 model. I understand the newer hybrid has longer burn time, but also requires ideal draft and wood to accomplish that.
Any stove requires ideal draft and wood to work at its highest potential. Including the 2004 model
 
Indeed, flames are nice to look at. But after a while, your BK is burning charcoal, and then burning the smoke.
It's kind of perfect.
 
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One really nice thing about having dry consistent wood with the blaze kings is that you can set a timer to come back and flip the bypass so as not to forget. Probably works that way with all of them but it is nice
 
One really nice thing about having dry consistent wood with the blaze kings is that you can set a timer to come back and flip the bypass so as not to forget. Probably works that way with all of them but it is nice
Yep. I run mine on a timer, except when it’s real warm out and lack of draft slows down the start-up process.

Cold start:

1. Light super cedar, load stove
2. Close door, set timer for 15 minutes
3. Close bypass, set another timer for 15 minutes
4. Turn down, set another timer for 24 hours

The one on the tall chimney gets a step 2.5: “turn down key damper”, and is set to run 12 hours rather than 24, but otherwise the same.

Reload:

1. Open bypass, go fetch new wood from patio
2. Open door, plow ash back, rake coals forward.
3. Load stove, close door, set timer for 5 minutes.
4. Close bypass, set timer for 15 minutes
5. Turn down, set timer for 24 hours

And I’m joking about the “24 hour timer”. I just note time of day, and check back at that interval.
 
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Many people do but the problem it it doesn't dry well at all. When stacked it doesn't get much air flow at all so it just doesn't dry
That's the issue I had with it...saw mill cutoff blocks too
 
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No, 2004 model. I understand the newer hybrid has longer burn time, but also requires ideal draft and wood to accomplish that.
I recall Highbeam's reports of high flue temps with that stove. It was sending a lot of heat up the flue.
 
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Stove and chimney prices have gone through the roof this season.
I just looked at the Woodstocks. The Ideal is only up a few hundred bucks from the last time I looked a couple years ago, but the Absolute is now more than the Ideal...?? 🤔
I'm late into this thread, since the OP already got the BK, but I'll add a few things regarding what's been said.
To heat and get long burn times with not much maintenance.
As a rule, cat stoves can burn longer (lower) but have more moving parts and need more maintenance. I recently decided to get the simplest stove I could find for my SIL. It's a Pacific Energy T5, based on the Super firebox. No cat, no bypass...just not many parts at all.
yea i can get free wood.
To get set up for next year, get Red Maple if you can; It'll be fairly dry by fall if you split it in the spring, <4" on a side, and top-cover only so that the wind can blow through. Doesn't burn as long as denser woods, but does OK and will be dry in time.
What is the efficiency rating of a princess running an 8 hour cycle? I can tell you the exhaust temp of the princess is higher than the regency running at 8 hour reloads.
As I've said, my theory is that the extra shields inside the BK firebox slow the release of heat. Great for keeping the cat burning at super-low burn rates, but that design flushes the heat up the flue at higher throttle. You can't fudge physics. 😏
Like you said though, that stove should work for the space he's described.

Regarding the mill-end wood blocks...
Many people do but the problem it it doesn't dry well at all. When stacked it doesn't get much air flow at all so it just doesn't dry
I took a load of that stuff off a buddy's hands, and gave it to a SIL. Seemed like it dried pretty quick, even stacked flat. Oak was dry in less than two years, where split Oak here takes three years to get to that dryness.
I was thinking that maybe being sawed on all sides, and with no bark or sapwood, moisture might exit faster..not sure, though.
If I ever got more mill-ends, I'd probably build a cylinder out of fencing, then throw the blocks in there loose, so they'd have more air blowing through.
I dont know what dry wood fussy means. care to explain please.
Non-cat stoves seem to be more tolerant of wood that's not quite dry. Cat stoves want it dry, or it will take longer for the cat to get burning well.
 
Non-cat stoves seem to be more tolerant of wood that's not quite dry. Cat stoves want it dry, or it will take longer for the cat to get burning well.
I don't find that to be true at all. All stoves burn like chit with wet wood really no way around it water doesn't burn and you waste lots of BTUs driving it out
 
I don't find that to be true at all. All stoves burn like chit with wet wood really no way around it water doesn't burn and you waste lots of BTUs driving it out
I should've worded that "Non-cat stoves are said to be more tolerant of wood that's not quite dry." I haven't tried burning any 25% wood in my SIL's not-cat.
Based on what others here have said about damp wood in a non-cat, I figured maybe you could fire it a little harder and still get some decent secondary burn, since you could possibly get the tube area in the top of the box hotter. That approach doesn't work with the cat stoves I've run; With more air, I end up blowing smoke through the cat too fast for it to handle and the cat never gets burning very hot due to that, and to the moisture cooling it.
Agreed, any time you run a harder, you blow more heat up the flue. If you still can't get the secondary firing good, it's gonna be even more wasteful.
Another SIL's friend is getting a non-cat, and I'm giving him some 25% wood to get him started, so I'll see how it does. I wonder if some non-cats handle damp wood better than others..? 🤔
 
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Based on what others here have said about damp wood in a non-cat, I figured maybe you could fire it a little harder and still get some decent secondary burn, since you could possibly get the tube area in the top of the box hotter.
Yes, possible, though it becomes a bit like driving a car with sticking brakes.
 
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