info on this blaze king

[tabner]

I have asked the seller for a pic of the serial number, which i'll add here if i get it. But since ya'll are basically experts i feel like one pic might be more than enough info. After over a year of reading and researching on here i'm very curious to try a blaze king someday. This unit just came up on facebook marketplace right near me, for what i believe is a really good price. Can anybody enlighten me on the approximate year/specs of this unit? fair price? questions i should ask which would help ascertain it's condition?

 

[showrguy]

Looks just like my Princess other than the base/legs..
Figure on a new CAT and some gaskets.. $200.00-$275.00

 

[rwhite]

Just being inquisitive, I put in Hartford on marketplace and seen the price. I think it is a good price. I bought my 2006 princess about 6 years ago. It had been rarely used and came with some pipe. It was $1200 and I thought it was a good enough deal to drive 6 hours round trip to get it. It says it has a new cat so if true that's a $300 savings right away.

 

[tabner]

Just being inquisitive, I put in Hartford on marketplace and seen the price. I think it is a good price. I bought my 2006 princess about 6 years ago. It had been rarely used and came with some pipe. It was $1200 and I thought it was a good enough deal to drive 6 hours round trip to get it. It says it has a new cat so if true that's a $300 savings right away.

yeah, this is part of the reason i was seeking some hearth.com input. The price seems too good to be true. Thank you.

 

[kennyp2339]

Make sure the by-pass works, that would be the first warping area due to an overfire (say the user left the door open to long with the by-pass open)
If good to go then buy a new high density gasket for the door, check the door glass gasket by trying to wiggle the glass and consider buying a blower and convection deck.

 

[jetsam]

That stove looks pretty good from the photo. Bring a straightedge and a flashlight...

I'd check a few things, from most to least serious:

- No cracks in the steel or serious rust issues (Stove may be scrap.)
- The steel "knife" that pushes into the door gasket is flat and level with itself all the way around (Stove may be scrap.)
- Bypass door operates and sits flat when it closes. If not, is the bypass door warped or are the bypass retainers damaged? (May needs parts and a welder.)
- Door not warped (May need a new door)
- Thermostat operates freely, flapper opens and closes (May need thermostat parts)
- Cat not crumbling (New cat)

(Everything below here just requires a new gasket and/or adjustments, assuming the above is good)

- Door passes dollar bill test
- Glass is firmly seated in door
- Bypass gasket intact, if this model has one

 

[tabner]

Sweet, thank you. All good info.
My current chimney is 27 feet of 6” liner inside a 7” square tile lined masonry chimney, up through the center of the house. Liner is not insulated. Do we think I can run a BK without insulated liner? My GM60 seems to draft fine with the exception of a little smoke out the door on reloads, and supposedly it’s a stove requiring high draft.

 

[stoveliker]

I run a Chinook 30 with a 6" liner in an insulated masonry external (south facing) chimney of 27 ft.

So far it works great.

Be cognizant though that the moment your cat starts dying you may have quick build-up of creosote at the top if you burn low (as flue gases that long in an uninsulated stack might cool down below the condensation point).

 

[rwhite]

The only issue I have ever had was the thermostat air plate. I had the old style that had a screw on the plate that had a tendency to get hung up and stuck. Which can send the stove into overdrive. Scary. A quick email to the company and I had the newer version. No problem since.

 

[jetsam]

Sweet, thank you. All good info.
My current chimney is 27 feet of 6” liner inside a 7” square tile lined masonry chimney, up through the center of the house. Liner is not insulated. Do we think I can run a BK without insulated liner? My GM60 seems to draft fine with the exception of a little smoke out the door on reloads, and supposedly it’s a stove requiring high draft.

Short answer is no.

The long answer is that it's on you to operate the stove safely. The BK turns waaaaay down. You can turn the air down so low that the flames will go out on a load of newspaper and kerosene. Related, creosote condenses at 250°, and you have a long run that gets colder every foot of the way. Even with high draft, will you be able to turn the BK down until the chimney gets too cool? Probably so. You get a temperature bonus for it being an interior chimney, but there is still 180° between the inside of the house and the minimum temp you want at the coldest part of the flue.

SO.... either insulate the liner, or plan to inspect and sweep it yourself regularly until you get a handle on where a good minimum setting is on the thermostat.

Creosote issues happen in warm weather when you want to see how low you can run the stove, not in January, so be less worried now and more worried when it warms up.

Honestly, you should do regular sweeping and inspections no matter what. Look up sooteaters and boroscopes if you can't get on the roof. It doesn't take long after the first time or two. I sweep mine a few times a year, aka every time I let the fire get down to low coals!

 

[BKVP]

PEJ1006LBK

 

[tabner]

PEJ1006LBK

Sweet, thanks. I’ve got five cord split and stacked at 18” long. I know the recommended on this model is 16”. But is it possible to load E/W or something just to use up my 18” stuff?

 

[stoveliker]

I think the width is larger than 19", so you can do that. I hate loading E/W, but sometimes do it too; have some old wood cut for another stove.

 

[kennyp2339]

Sweet, thanks. I’ve got five cord split and stacked at 18” long. I know the recommended on this model is 16”. But is it possible to load E/W or something just to use up my 18” stuff?

I can fit 21" E-W and up to 18" N - S, when using slightly longer pieces I like to lay in a 3-5 E-W on hot coals to make a tight crib pattern due to the deep belly the switch to N-S and pack / stack it very tightly in the stove, believe me the fire will find a way to burn it, no need for air channels in the wood.

 

[tabner]

Alright, thank you all. I'm going to take a look on Wednesday. What's the best way to find out what year it is? Take a pic of the serial number?
If I get it, my plan would be to drop it in my barn/workshop and spend the summer replacing gaskets and going all through it, and then switch out the stoves this summer and be ready to roll with the BK next fall. my barn has a good roof on it, but the walls are not air tight, it won't rust just from the air/climate will it?

 

[BKVP]

Alright, thank you all. I'm going to take a look on Wednesday. What's the best way to find out what year it is? Take a pic of the serial number?
If I get it, my plan would be to drop it in my barn/workshop and spend the summer replacing gaskets and going all through it, and then switch out the stoves this summer and be ready to roll with the BK next spring. my barn has a good roof on it, but the walls are not air tight, it won't rust just from the air/climate will it?

At the very bottom of the label will be a month and year marked out .

 

[tabner]

In preparation of pulling the trigger on this thing I have been digging thru other threads on here as well as reviewing the manual which @BKVP was nice enough to reference for me. And I found one detail of concern, BK calls out the 3 foot min vertical off the top of the stove, I will not have that. I will have about 22” vertical, double wall selkirk, then 45 to the left, 6” piece, another 45 to the left, 20” of horizontal insulated thimble into stainless 6” liner that goes up 27 feet from the thimble to the cap. Not insulated, but it is snug inside a 7” square tile inside masonry chimney thru center of house. Do you think the 27 feet will be enough to overcome my not hitting the minimum required off the top of the stove?
Current stove calls for .06 to .1 WC draft and it runs fine on my setup, although if I open the door anytime other than late in the coaling phase I will get smoke spillage (but that could be stove design)

 

[BKVP]

In preparation of pulling the trigger on this thing I have been digging thru other threads on here as well as reviewing the manual which @BKVP was nice enough to reference for me. And I found one detail of concern, BK calls out the 3 foot min vertical off the top of the stove, I will not have that. I will have about 22” vertical, double wall selkirk, then 45 to the left, 6” piece, another 45 to the left, 20” of horizontal insulated thimble into stainless 6” liner that goes up 27 feet from the thimble to the cap. Not insulated, but it is snug inside a 7” square tile inside masonry chimney thru center of house. Do you think the 27 feet will be enough to overcome my not hitting the minimum required off the top of the stove?
Current stove calls for .06 to .1 WC draft and it runs fine on my setup, although if I open the door anytime other than late in the coaling phase I will get smoke spillage (but that could be stove design)

I can almost assure you the offsets and 26" of horizontal run will be problematic. But, you never know.

 

[tabner]

I can almost assure you the offsets and 26" of horizontal run will be problematic. But, you never know.

Thank you, I appreciate the honest feedback.
I guess I’ll have to decide if I want to gamble or not.

 

[jetsam]

I almost feel like a 27' vertical could offset that ugliness at the beginning.

On the other hand, BKVP is the one who gets all the "your stove doesn't work" phone calls from people who didn't read the manual, so he has more experience than anyone with this particular situation!

I personally wouldn't expect any issues heating the house in the dead of winter, but one of BK's biggest draws is the black box mode for shoulder season, and that's the part more likely to suffer in warm weather as draft decreases and you start running the stove lower and lower.

I'd try it anyway if the price was right! Maybe you get a stove that's less capable than a properly installed BK, but just as good as a tube stove. And you can always choose to upgrade the venting down the line.

And at the worst, you end up unhappy with the stove. It sounds like you could resell for more than you paid anyway, as you mentioned the price is "too good to be true". 👍

 

[mellow]

Hrmm... I would question WHY is that stove still listed and discounted on price?? I smell scam on that one.

 

[kennyp2339]

Thank you, I appreciate the honest feedback.
I guess I’ll have to decide if I want to gamble or not.

I'd gamble because the resale on the stove will only be going up.

 

[tabner]

Hrmm... I would question WHY is that stove still listed and discounted on price?? I smell scam on that one.

The guy says he moved and it won’t fit in his new home/fireplace. So my sense is he just wants it out of his way. That combined with it’s probably not the best time to be selling a stove, I would imagine September to December would be prime time. But yes, I plan to go through it thoroughly.

 

[tabner]

I'd gamble because the resale on the stove will only be going up.

Yeah, my intention is to take a shot at it. If it doesn’t draft well, I will not trash talk BK, I have been warned! I will keep the GM60 in my barn until I run the BK for a month or two. Worst case I swap them back out and sell the BK next fall at potentially a profit.

 

[stoveliker]

Yeah, my intention is to take a shot at it. If it doesn’t draft well, I will not trash talk BK, I have been warned! I will keep the GM60 in my barn until I run the BK for a month or two. Worst case I swap them back out and sell the BK next fall at potentially a profit.

I'd keep the other one a full season, so you've seen what the BK does in all weather types (as fall is not always the same as spring).