The Blaze King Performance Thread

[rdust]

Well we're coming out of our first bit of real winter temps for this area(teens, single digits, one morning was in the negative). The Princess handled those temps in stride with 2 loads a day. I've left the whole house open so far this heating season, with the last stove I'd have the living room and two bedrooms closed off once the temps dipped below 30*.

It's gonna be tough for anyone to knock this little lady off her throne.

 

[greythorn3]

chimney cap was plugged up and had 20oz of creo in one month of operation! this princess has way to cold flue temps. not good at all. the non epa king never made this much creo in such a short time! and i was burning real cottonwood not pallets like now.

 

[weatherguy]

chimney cap was plugged up and had 20oz of creo in one month of operation! this princess has way to cold flue temps. not good at all. the non epa king never made this much creo in such a short time! and i was burning real cottonwood not pallets like now.

Same problem I have with mine, last year it plugged up near the end of winter, this year I went up there once already and cleaned it off so I wont have that problem again.

 

[HotCoals]

my pipes stay cleaner then using the the old Bk non-cat..but I too get it on the cap(screen).
It will make it the season though..least it did last time.
But I'm keeping a eye on it..looks ok for now.

 

[greythorn3]

heres the ammount of nails in the first cleanout since the month i been burning only pallets. one container is overflowing and the small white trashcan is half full.






and heres the pic of the creo, powdery forsure.



i think a big problem is when i engage the cat the chimney temps drop down from 500-600 to 250F or around there.. not liking these cat stoves so far.. seems dangerous.


what i do is let the chimney pipe get to 500-600 then i engage the cat, then its in the 1/2 way zone of the cat active

anyone else do things differently?

 

[HotCoals]

That's a lot of drop.
You talking surface temp of single wall?
How far up?
inside chimney?

I hardly run my single wall surface temp to 350 even..but when I shut the air down after about 500f on stove top..it will drop to 250-300f...but that's after my cat probe does it's climb to all the way over..sometimes farther.
Even after 10 hours into a big load the probe is still 2/3...but will start dropping after another few hours to half or so.
When I run it harder I get somewhat higher flue temps...never touch 500 though..18' up.

 

[HotCoals]

You might be killing that cat with those nails..I dunno.

 

[greythorn3]

ya my cat temps climb, so it must be workin! i dont think the nails hurtin nothing. they hard to shovel up tho. i feel sorry for the landfill thats gettin um!

anyhow the temp is from single wall pipe about 4 feet above the stovetop, right before it goes into class A

 

[HotCoals]

ya my cat temps climb, so it must be workin! i dont think the nails hurtin nothing. they hard to shovel up tho. i feel sorry for the landfill thats gettin um!

anyhow the temp is from single wall pipe about 4 feet above the stovetop, right before it goes into class A

Well the probe temp will climb anyhow some just because the stove top is hot...but if it's lighting off good and staying lit for a good period I guess no prob..much smoke out of the chimney into the burn after a hour or so?

Why is your flue gauge so high up?


I just ran down and took these pics.
I'm over 4 hours into the burn
I'm even still getting a little light show now and then yet..no fire on wood.

 

[greythorn3]

its high because i got double wall then it does into a piece of slip single wall before class a. so i have 6 inches or so i put the temp gauge there.

ya your temp readings are very similar to mine! 250F chimeny is in the creo zone like the gauge says. must be true since i had a blocked cap too.

 

[rdust]

ya my cat temps climb, so it must be workin! i dont think the nails hurtin nothing. they hard to shovel up tho. i feel sorry for the landfill thats gettin um!

anyhow the temp is from single wall pipe about 4 feet above the stovetop, right before it goes into class A

Nails will kill the cat, it's been posted many times.......

 

[Todd]

That powdery creosote is normal and isn't the bad stuff that lights off like the crusty flakey black stuff or black shiney tar. How often do you clean your cat? Should be checked about every cord or so of wood burned. I'd also stay away from the pallet wood full of nails, it will shorten the life of the cat.

 

[Osburning]

I guess this is why very seasoned wood has a higher level of importance with cat stoves? Is everyone pretty much having similar cap cleaning every so often due to low burns? I don't get why smoke is passing through the cat to form creosote, can it only handle so much when active or does it become inactive more often due to wet wood burning at a lower temp or both?

 

[weatherguy]

I guess this is why very seasoned wood has a higher level of importance with cat stoves? Is everyone pretty much having similar cap cleaning every so often due to low burns? I don't get why smoke is passing through the cat to form creosote, can it only handle so much when active or does it become inactive more often due to wet wood burning at a lower temp or both?

The only time my cat is inactive is when its in the off position, once I engage the cat its active pretty quick, maybe at the end of the burn in the morning its inactive depending on how I loaded the stove the night before and what time I get up. I dont know if the smoke that rises before I engage the cat is causing this or any smoke/gasses that pass through when the stove temp is low.

 

[greythorn3]

well the cat gets the cat probe almost all the way to max , im sure the cat is working, but the pallet wood might be offgasing to much for the cat to keep up? because of the surface area?

anyhow we will see if nails shorten the cats life or not. and if so we will see how much. i did get this stove 2nd hand, so i will just go by the time i have it to tell.

so far so good.

i tell you what i will be cleaning my chimney every month wih this new fancy cat stove. i wont go 3 or so months like i did with my smoke dragon king that didnt creo up the chimney.

 

[ohlongarm]

What's the ideal cat temp? Or does it matter sometimes mine just lingers at 12 o'clock and other times it's at 3 or more.

 

[weatherguy]

What's the ideal cat temp? Or does it matter sometimes mine just lingers at 12 o'clock and other times it's at 3 or more.

I run mine at 3 then it slowly cools down to about 12, when its down to 10-11 it almost time to refill. I remember a member put a picture of his temp gauge on his King last year and he was running it at 5 oclock, Any higher and your over heating.

 

[greythorn3]

straight from my blazeking manual. how to test the cat. mine passed by the way. how is burning nails different then the stove metal getting hot? wouldnt the hot stove metal destroy the cat if you say hot nails will..... myths or facts? anyone witness a cat getting destroyed by burning nails first hand?

 

[daleeper]

straight from my blazeking manual. how to test the cat. mine passed by the way. how is burning nails different then the stove metal getting hot? wouldnt the hot stove metal destroy the cat if you say hot nails will..... myths or facts? anyone witness a cat getting destroyed by burning nails first hand?
[/URL]

It wasn't the steel in the nails they were concerned about, it is the galvanized coating that some nails have that might cause damage.

Right from Blaze King's FAQ's - "If you are planning on burning boards with nail, paint or chemical treatments, or using your stove to burn household trash, you should not use a catalytic wood stove."

 

[northroadak]

We had a new Princess insert installed last August. Burning beetle killed spruce, we're averaging 7 to 8 hours on a full charge. I keep hearing about setting thermostats on "1.50" or "1.75". What does that mean? Mine has 9 marks from low to high, no numbers anywhere. Is 1.50 halfway between the first and second mark?

 

[greythorn3]

We had a new Princess insert installed last August. Burning beetle killed spruce, we're averaging 7 to 8 hours on a full charge. I keep hearing about setting thermostats on "1.50" or "1.75". What does that mean? Mine has 9 marks from low to high, no numbers anywhere. Is 1.50 halfway between the first and second mark?

that is what mine has too, low a line, med a line, and high

 

[northroadak]

Mine has low and high with 8 dots between them, no lines. You have to use the flashlight to see them.

 

[BKInsert]

Mine has low and high with 8 dots between them, no lines. You have to use the flashlight to see them.

Forget about the dots and numbers, the thermostat dial moves 180° or half a circle, from low at the bottom end, to Hi at the top facing up. If you run the stove at close to the low mark, lets say 1st dot, you will get the longest burn times, I get anywhere between 14 hours to 18 hours. If you run the stove at half output, thermostat dial half way facing the stove wall, your burn time will reduce to 8 to 12 of useful burn times. If you run it at 3/4 or full burn times may drop to 6-8hours of useful heat. Don't forget to set the blower fan at approximately the same setting as the thermostat dial, this will affect your heat output and burn times as well.

There are some other factors that will affect your burn time but I think overall this should work for most BK Insert users.

 

[jeff_t]

Ya, I don't trouble myself enough to look at the actual numbers. Dial postion is good enough.

 

[Lanningjw]

Mine has low and high with 8 dots between them, no lines. You have to use the flashlight to see them.

Forget about the dots and numbers, the thermostat dial moves 180° or half a circle, from low at the bottom end, to Hi at the top facing up. If you run the stove at close to the low mark, lets say 1st dot, you will get the longest burn times, I get anywhere between 14 hours to 18 hours. If you run the stove at half output, thermostat dial half way facing the stove wall, your burn time will reduce to 8 to 12 of useful burn times. If you run it at 3/4 or full burn times may drop to 6-8hours of useful heat. Don't forget to set the blower fan at approximately the same setting as the thermostat dial, this will affect your heat output and burn times as well.

There are some other factors that will affect your burn time but I think overall this should work for most BK Insert users.

Plus 1 on your comments about the BK insert, although my burn times are just a little shorter right now because all I have is ash. what kind of wood are you burning to get those times?