Looking for Blaze King Experience

[Nz3000owner]

So another day another stove store and model.

I’ve found blaze king today and a store who had an Ashford 30 on demo. They started a fire in it and I stayed and played with it when it was up to temperature. The store also had a full cutaway of the stoves so you can see how they are made and work. After spending quite a bit of time there today I think I’ve narrowed my search down to the PE T6 or the blaze king. I say blaze king generically because I saw the Ashford 30 running today but also looked at the literature on the princess and king ultra but those 2 don’t really do much for me looks wise vs the Ashford. I’ve always not been keen on a cat stove but today started to change my mind.

So one question I’ve had that no one has been able to answer definitively is this. The T6 advertises in their lit a btu output of 99,000. The BK 30 says 12,000 btu on low and 35,000 on high. What is the difference in how these 2 manufacturers are advertising these numbers? Does the T6 put that much more heat out than the BK?

What are your experiences running the Ashford 30, princes, and ultra in regards to burn times? I understand they say on low you can get 30 hours in a burn. But what if it was run on high the whole time with the cat engaged but the air control on high or 4 I think it is? How long will it burn from your experiences producing max heat?

Lastly what issues have you guys had with these stoves if any?

I appreciate your time and response.

 

[Highbeam]

So another day another stove store and model.

I’ve found blaze king today and a store who had an Ashford 30 on demo. They started a fire in it and I stayed and played with it when it was up to temperature. The store also had a full cutaway of the stoves so you can see how they are made and work. After spending quite a bit of time there today I think I’ve narrowed my search down to the PE T6 or the blaze king. I say blaze king generically because I saw the Ashford 30 running today but also looked at the literature on the princess and king ultra but those 2 don’t really do much for me looks wise vs the Ashford. I’ve always not been keen on a cat stove but today started to change my mind.

So one question I’ve had that no one has been able to answer definitively is this. The T6 advertises in their lit a btu output of 99,000. The BK 30 says 12,000 btu on low and 35,000 on high. What is the difference in how these 2 manufacturers are advertising these numbers? Does the T6 put that much more heat out than the BK?

What are your experiences running the Ashford 30, princes, and ultra in regards to burn times? I understand they say on low you can get 30 hours in a burn. But what if it was run on high the whole time with the cat engaged but the air control on high or 4 I think it is? How long will it burn from your experiences producing max heat?

Lastly what issues have you guys had with these stoves if any?

I appreciate your time and response.

Those maximum output numbers are not to be trusted from any manufacturer. Peak for one minute or maximum for 6 hours? Hopefully this gets ironed out in the future but for now they are meaningless and you are better served by comparing actual firebox size. I say actual because again, many manufacturers lie. You need to measure. I believe the larger t6, which is a great stove, will have a higher peak output but not 3x!

I don’t know anybody that has burned those two stoves on the same hearth to compare but plenty have burned one or the other. I’ve burned a princess for about 7 years. It’s been a great stove since it is sized properly for my needs. Properly sized means i almost always run it pretty low. That constant low heat is much more comfortable than trying to heat at max output. If you need the max output then I would not get any cat stove.

The real question is why do you care about what happens at 100% output? That should pretty much never happen!

In summary, both great stoves. I am more worried that you care about maximum output. That’s a red flag that might lead to more problems than the nuances of those two stoves.

 

[Alpine1]

T6 is not imported here, so I can’t give any advice on that stove. But I do own an Ashford and it works great FOR MY NEEDS. That’s the point: how many square feet you need to heat, house plan (open or not), location of the stove, insulation of walls, basement and windows, even your working time schedule play a role in choosing the right stove! Can you give us more informations? All members here are willing to help or give advice, but we need to know a little more.
Anyway, the BK works as advertised: I can keep it up and running for 30 (at times more) hours, but usually load it so I can reload every 24 or 12 hours. At maximum output, it would cook us in a couple of hours, but my house is 120 sq meters and fairly well insulated, with a very open plan.
I’ll follow this thread with interest.

 

[Tar12]

You are looking at 2 entirely different animals here...how much square footage are you trying to heat? Insulation quality? Window quality?

 

[Nz3000owner]

The house is 3100 sq feet total heating about 2000 of it with the stove, built in 2004, cape style, open floor plan vaulted ceiling with ceiling fan in the middle in the northwest corner of CT where we get cold and snow. I still have snow in my yard and it’s 17 degrees this morning.

I’ve had the NZ3000 for the last 6 years heating it and it does a good job down to about 10-15. Once it goes below that it’s a struggle. I have no schedule so it varies. I would like something that would heat through the night. The NZ last night was loaded at 10:30 and at 6:30 this morning I had coals to start a new load but the stove top was at 175 degrees. Warm but not heating the house really. That’s typical a typical night for the NZ.

 

[Nz3000owner]

Here are pictures of the family room and looking towards the front of the house. The kitchen is behind me in the pictures and has an opening 10 ft wide by 8 feet high.

 

[jetsam]

That's a big house to heat with a medium stove. Having a flush fireplace makes it even harder unless you are using ducted air, which the large chase kind of looks like you are.

It sounds like you are looking at freestanding models now, which will help.

If you have a variable schedule and a large space... there is no question that I'd suggest the King. It has a large firebox and can burn very high or very low. If you need to be away for 16 hours in the winter (or 48 hours in the spring), you can do that without starting fires and using your backup heat.

It appears that your current stove uses a 7" flue. The King is 8" and the rest 6".

Are you using the ducted hot air feature on the nz3000? The T6 and BKs don't do that.

 

[Highbeam]

The way these cat stoves get such long burn times is by cleanly reducing heat output. You can choose to burn hot and fast like any stove or you can double the burn time and get half as much heat per hour for that entire burn cycle.

That’s really great when it is important, helpful, useful to just have the fire going for long times while you are unable to load it or futz with draft controls.

The drawback to the long burn times is that your chosen heat output rate during that long burn might not be enough for such an enormous, cavernous, luxurious, home so the central heat may be needed or room temperature may fall.

 

[begreen]

There's about 150 pages a year of BK experiences posted in these ongoing threads.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...rformance-thread-part-2-everything-bk.173198/

 

[Nz3000owner]

It appears that your current stove uses a 7" flue. The King is 8" and the rest 6".

Are you using the ducted hot air feature on the nz3000? The T6 and BKs don't do that.

I have 8inch class A flue on the NZ3000 about 20 ft from the unit to the cap outside. Everyone at the stoves shops said I would be fine using 6 inch up to the ceiling and then using the current 8inch that I have for the T6 and 30 or keep it 8 inch if I went with the princess or ultra

The NZ can have 2 heat duct off of the top of it. I am using one on the right side as you look at the unit and it just has a grate on the side of the enclosure so its dumping into the family room. I did that to try and get as much heat out of the unit as possible without using the fan because the fan is about as loud as an electric garage heater mounted to the ceiling. Its way to loud to sit in the room and make anything enjoyable. So we don't use it unless we absolutely have to.

 

[Nz3000owner]

There's about 150 pages a year of BK experiences posted in these ongoing threads.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...rformance-thread-part-2-everything-bk.173198/

Yeah I got to read through about 20 of those pages the other night before I fell asleep. lol

 

[Nz3000owner]

Does anyone have a thermostat they use on the stove top of either of these stoves? I'm wondering what kind of temps you see and for how long.

I consider anything above 300 degrees as heating in my situation. I can see the NZ be 300 and above for about 6 hours on a full load. What do you see on these stoves?

 

[jetsam]

Does anyone have a thermostat they use on the stove top of either of these stoves? I'm wondering what kind of temps you see and for how long.

I consider anything above 300 degrees as heating in my situation. I can see the NZ be 300 and above for about 6 hours on a full load. What do you see on these stoves?

I can keep a much smaller (2.4cf) BK at 300 for 24 hours on one load. The King can double that.

And if you're thinking those numbers are maybe overstated, do a search on the forum and you'll see a whole lot of people discussing their BK burn times.

I do not keep a thermometer on top, but I have an IR thermometer nearby that I zap the stove (and dogs, and windows, and wife, and...) with every so often.

 

[begreen]

Not to be pedantic, but to avoid confusion I think you mean thermometer. BK stoves have a thermostat that regulates the air supply. A thermometer measures temperature. A flue thermometer can more useful on a stove for operation.

On our T6 normal stove top temps are more like 500-700º depending on how it's loaded. When the STT gets down to 250-300º it's time for reloading. This is typically an 8-12 hr. cycle depending on how much heat is needed. When outdoor temps are mild and a 300º stove top will suffice we are heating with the more efficient heat pump.

 

[Nz3000owner]

Yes a Thermometer for reading STT or an IR gun will work as well is what I am talking about.

Im impressed that you two can hold that temp or higher for that length of time. The NZ will peak up to 600. I've only had it above that a few times and it wasn't on purpose. But like I said for about 6 hours time it will rise above 300 to 500-600 then fall back down and drop below 300, which at that point isn't doing much for my house unless its shoulder season during the day with the sun out.

 

[Ashful]

You are looking at 2 entirely different animals here...how much square footage are you trying to heat? Insulation quality? Window quality?

You say that because one is cat, and the other non-cat. But that aside, they have a lot of similarity. Namely, they’re both cast iron clad steel fire boxes, which heat with a much higher convection to radiation ratio than most stoves on the market.

You said you’re heating 2000 sq.ft. of newer construction with this stove, which is a total non-issue. I’m not sure why some consider that a stretch.

Stoves aren’t magic, even BK’s. You put a fixed BTU load into the firebox, and then control its release rate. Given similar efficiency numbers between these two stoves (I suspect the BK is slightly better LHV, but the difference is small), they’re going to release similar heat into the house. The BK can burn lower, perhaps useful on days when it’s not super cold outside, and the T6 may be faster at bringing a cold house up to temperature, if it’s left to go cold. The BK can run all day at wide-open throttle without damage, the thermostat protects it, I suspect the T6 requires some close babysitting to run at the highest possible burn rates.

 

[Ashful]

Yes a Thermometer for reading STT or an IR gun will work as well is what I am talking about.

I’m not sure how much STT’s really matter on cast-clad stoves. My top stays fairly cool, esp. with the blowers running, the hot firebox top is buried beneath a convective deck air gap.

 

[begreen]

I’m not sure how much STT’s really matter on cast-clad stoves. My top stays fairly cool, esp. with the blowers running, the hot firebox top is buried beneath a convective deck air gap.

On the T6 one can easily read from the actually stove top. This can be also done on the Ashford by removing the convective stovetop lid.

 

[Ashful]

On the T6 one can easily read from the actually stove top. This can be also done on the Ashford by removing the convective stovetop lid.

True. But that’s a catch-22 situation, as I suspect it’s not legal to run the Ashford without the lid, unless you’re at unlisted clearances, and handling a hot lid is no fun.

 

[begreen]

What? One of the first things that Chris showed me on the Ashford was how to remove the lid for cooking on the stove. Why would there be any legal implications for doing this as long as the closest combustible is the ceiling?

 

[Ashful]

What? One of the first things that Chris showed me on the Ashford was how to remove the lid for cooking on the stove. Why would there be any legal implications for doing this as long as the closest combustible is the ceiling?

Interesting. I don’t know, I just recall him advising that the stove did not pass clearances without the cladding installed, and that it was not legal for him to recommend anyone run it that way. I think it was one of the guys hunting for a bad weld, that started that conversation.

In my case, there is a wood lintel above the stove, so I definitely have a vertical clearance concern.

 

[begreen]

I don't think the lid is cladding. It was designed to be removable without tools for cooking, albeit with the caveats that it is heavy and you need a place to set it down. This could be a problem if its hot. It's an awkward solution and the stove is not attractive with the lid off. We use the stove top almost daily for heating water for coffee and tea so this wouldn't work for us.

 

[Nz3000owner]

On the T6 one can easily read from the actually stove top.

What kind of stt are you seeing on the T6 and for how long?

 

[begreen]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/looking-for-blaze-king-experience.175101/#post-2354919
Varies. It depends on how large a fire is built, species of wood burned and how much air is supplied.

 

[Highbeam]

You said you’re heating 2000 sq.ft. of newer construction with this stove, which is a total non-issue. I’m not sure why some consider that a stretch.

It’s a stretch because the home is 3100 sf and in the pics a significant portion is double tall ceilings. Hard to say how the op reduced the heated area to 2000 but this is way way over what bk says the 30 box can do. Plus, experience has taught us that properly sizing a cat stove means staying on the lower end of what it can do.

Now if using this stove just to supplement central heat like some of our members then it doesn’t really matter.