This is a 20 hour burn in my King maybe longer.

[ohlongarm]

About 60 lbs. of pure Osage orange. And a few honey locust splits.

 

[Ashful]

20 hours ain't nothing for a King, I suspect... I'm doing nearly double that in a little Ashford.

 

[zmender]

What's the outside temp? Is there any worries for the King to overfire a load like that?

 

[ohlongarm]

What's the outside temp? Is there any worries for the King to overfire a load like that?

Teens, nothing to worry about I often load this heavy.

 

[Tar12]

Teens, nothing to worry about I often load this heavy.

Same here...I load the Princess to the gills almost every night...last night was a full load of locust..set it and forget it...

 

[stoveliker]

What's the outside temp? Is there any worries for the King to overfire a load like that?

No. That's what the thermostat is for.

 

[zmender]

How’s the fire looking now?

 

[stoveliker]

Just fyi, I have a Chinook 30.2, so almost a 3 cu ft firebox. Same technology as the King.

I had some maple coals left yesterday evening but I was tired so I reloaded for the overnight load at 10, with red oak (that has a punky layer of 3/4" on the outside where the bark was- it had been standing dead). The pieces were shorter and I only filled about 70 percent of the firebox with this load.

It's still going. 17 hrs in. I'll get to 20 hrs with it. Of course the need for heat is not large (32 F when I reloaded yesterday night, 28 for a low, but 42 now). I heat 1700 sq ft plus basement from said basement.

But the King is able to get a much longer burn. It's near 38 in NE Ohio I see, not too far from my 42. Maybe the OP has a larger or draftier home though.

 

[Diabel]

20 hours ain't nothing for a King, I suspect... I'm doing nearly double that in a little Ashford.

Welcome back @Ashful. It must be the beta cats you are using😜!
Grossly over optimistic with that statement ^^^unless that burn time timing is in July….

 

[Ashful]

Welcome back @Ashful. It must be the beta cats you are using😜!
Grossly over optimistic with that statement ^^^unless that burn time timing is in July….

Thanks Diabel. Only a slight exaggeration, covered by the word “nearly”. The Ashfords routinely keep active cat well past 30 hours on oak on the lowest settings. How far past I can’t say, I don’t sit and watch it, but from the needle position and load remaining at 30 hours, I’d guess at least a few more. . It’s actually the OEM steel at that I run on the longer cycles, the beta cat is in the stove I push harder.

Moreover, I think BKVP has reported routine 40 hours+ on his old King.

 

[zmender]

the beta cat is in the stove I push harder.

aftermarket cat?

 

[ohlongarm]

Thanks Diabel. Only a slight exaggeration, covered by the word “nearly”. The Ashfords routinely keep active cat well past 30 hours on oak on the lowest settings. How far past I can’t say, I don’t sit and watch it, but from the needle position and load remaining at 30 hours, I’d guess at least a few more. . It’s actually the OEM steel at that I run on the longer cycles, the beta cat is in the stove I push harder.

Moreover, I think BKVP has reported routine 40 hours+ on his old King.

I go by how long a stove can burn with a decent heat output to keep a dwelling warm in the coldest of weather.
With 10 foot ceilings and huge glass windows , in -15 to 20 degrees 12 hours with a home internal temp at 73 to 75 degrees is what I get easily with #1 primo wood.
Sure my King will burn 30 to 40 hours but the heat output is negligible. 75 feet from the stove the room temps will be lower by 5 to 10 degrees. This is reality.

 

[Ashful]

the beta cat is in the stove I push harder.

aftermarket cat?

Back around 2018, BK had some interest in testing out a new experimental combustor plating. Hearth.com member BKVP had a few of them made, and sent two of them to members here, who he chose as good candidates to test a range of performance criteria. I guess I was asked because I’m running two of the same stove (Ashford 30.1’s) on the same wood supply, and had already a few years experience with them on OEM cats, so I could make some reliable relative comparison.

I was just asked to run them as I normally would and report back to him, but not to mention anything about it on the forum, until he decided what they were going to do with this experiment. So I had to keep my mouth shut on it for about three years, until BKVP let the cat out of the bag sometime last year.

Since that time, I guess BK has worked with one of their combustor manufacturers to develop and sell some variant of this original “beta 3” (or B3) cat. I believe they call the final production unit “V3”, although I have not actually seen it listed for sale anywhere myself. Based on BKVP’s original reports of the impractically-high cost of making these things, I’m not sure if it’s identical to the beta3,or if they’ve made some changes to make it more reasonably priced. It is possible his initial report of high cost was based only on the reality of making such a small initial run of them.

I really like this combustor, particularly on my stove with a too-tall chimney. I can control my draft with the key damper, but the reality is that sometimes I screw up or forget. When this happens, the larger passages of the ceramic cat are less likely to get clogged with the fly ash that gets stirred up when running wide open with too much draft, than the OEM steelcat. So, if buying new combustors today, I might purchase an assumedly less-expensive steelcat for the shorter chimney, but spend the extra for the V3 on the taller pipe.

The B3 does seem to hold active longer, and it is still going strong at 4 years and perhaps 25 cords. I’m not sure how the TCO will compare, as I haven’t seen pricing, but if they do indeed last much longer, the potentially higher cost may wash out.

 

[Ashful]

I go by how long a stove can burn with a decent heat output to keep a dwelling warm in the coldest of weather…. This is reality.

These statements are true, but the numbers derived from them are at least as useless as mine. No one knows how many BTUs are needed to keep your house warm in your setting, or even what you call “warm”. There might be a difference of more than 2x in the BTU’s required to keep my house at the same temperature, versus yours. At least comparing max burn times gives you some relative reference of the range of burn rates.

Aside from that, what begreen told me more than 10 years tells you everything else you need to know; “firebox size”. A stove’s ability to heat your house for the hours you’re asleep or away are more dependent on firebox size than any other factor.

 

[Draughts15]

Just fyi, I have a Chinook 30.2, so almost a 3 cu ft firebox. Same technology as the King.

I had some maple coals left yesterday evening but I was tired so I reloaded for the overnight load at 10, with red oak (that has a punky layer of 3/4" on the outside where the bark was- it had been standing dead). The pieces were shorter and I only filled about 70 percent of the firebox with this load.

It's still going. 17 hrs in. I'll get to 20 hrs with it. Of course the need for heat is not large (32 F when I reloaded yesterday night, 28 for a low, but 42 now). I heat 1700 sq ft plus basement from said basement.

But the King is able to get a much longer burn. It's near 38 in NE Ohio I see, not too far from my 42. Maybe the OP has a larger or draftier home though.

What are your room Temps in the basement and upper floor?

 

[stoveliker]

I intend to keep the main floor at 68. Sometimes it is 67, rarely 66, fairly often 70; it depends on my estimate of the heat loss my home suffers during the night. This is because the thermostat on the BK is not a thermostat in the classical sense where one sets a temperature. Instead, it is a (bimetal coil) device that sets an unknown temperature on the stove, leading to a constant heat output of the stove. The trick is to balance that set heat output with the estimated heat loss of the home.

So, if it's cold outside (say 15 F), I need more heat to go up the stairs to keep my main floor comfortable. As a result my basement will be warmer when it's 15 outside than when it's 35 outside.

I don't have a general table of numbers. But for a 30 F day, my basement will be around 76 F *at the ceiling* (where I measure) when the upstairs is 68 F (at standard 5 ft Tstat height away from the stairs).

When it's 20 F, those numbers will separate more. And when I underestimated the heat loss upstairs (i.e. when I wake up and it's 66 upstairs, I cringe and) I dial up the thermostat on the BK to heat the upstairs a bit faster, I have seen a (basement ceiling) temperature of 85 F. My basement is (I think) about 850 sq ft, no partitioning.

So, a basement stove is nice because it evens out any upstairs temperature changes (which are already less due to the constant heat output mode of a BK) due to the "reservoir" of heat in the basement. But it also slows things down because if I need more heat upstairs, it can take a while to get there.

Also note that I do have a register in my main floor, a metal boot, a fire damper, a flexible duct all the way to the ground of the basement, where I have a 188 CFM (no back pressure) inline fan. This fan sucks the coldest air from the main floor and deposits it on the basement floor. This pushes the warmest air from the basement ceiling up the central stairs to the main floor. I'm noting this because without this fan, the temperature differences between basement and main floor would be larger.

Long story, but parameters matter in assessing these numbers.

My view is that a BK shines best when on the main floor. It can put out very little heat and do so very constantly. So a sunny day when it's 40-45 outside is no problem to get the temperature from e.g. 63 to 68. And it does so at those settings for 24 hours or more before you ahve to touch it.

For a basement install, a less constant output stove will also heat the main floor fairly constantly due to the moderating effect of the basement location. However, I would not want to change my stove because I like the set it and forget it mode. I like the thermostat that gives some (overfire) protection. I like that I can run it loooong when it's 40 outside (just before I start using my minisplit for heat). I like the predictability. Not saying others can't be predictable. Just my view of this particular technology. And I don't have "cat (cost) fears". It's a good piece of technology. It suits my preferences and needs.

 

[Ashful]

This is because the thermostat on the BK is not a thermostat in the classical sense where one sets a temperature. Instead, it is a (bimetal coil) device that sets an unknown temperature on the stove, leading to a constant heat output of the stove. The trick is to balance that set heat output with the estimated heat loss of the home.

I used to chase a temperature, just as it seems you're doing now. But it was killing me, and making my family unhappy, so I changed my process.

What I've done is to find and mark on the dial of each of my BK's, the settings that give me consistent 12 and 24 hour burn times. There's a small variable for the species and packing efficiency of my loading, but those are pretty minor variations, in the grand scheme of things. My reason for doing this is that I can load the stoves just once or twice per day, on intervals that suit my schedule, and to let our central heating make up the small difference to keep the house at a very comfortable temperature for my family.

I'm putting about 250M BTU's of wood heat into our house every year, saving about $7k in oil this year alone, but not suffering the swings and variability in temperature that would normally come with heating from wood. Moreover, I'm loading the stoves on a schedule that suits me, rather than me chasing their schedule to hold a given temperature. Yes, I'm still spending about $3800 in oil, and I guess I could do something to reduce that further, but there's more to life than chasing the thermostat on a woodstove!

 

[stoveliker]

I made a deal with myself. This year (and only this year) no oil heat. I work at home, unfortunately since two years, and I need my walks to the basement stove....

And yes, that means that to avoid criticism of the SO and young-uns, I am chasing a temperature.

I have succeeded (this Saturday or Sunday may be my last fire unless the longer term forecast is off - I have free electrons to burn in my minisplit, and my intention is to only use the stove if it's below 40 F for 24 hrs or more) so far.

I needed the challenge after building my shed and getting ahead by three years last spring.

I have shown I can do it. Next year I'll be more relaxed. (I hope.) I certainly agree that being a purist (wood and only wood) doesn't make sense.

The only thing I need now is a new challenge...

 

[ohlongarm]

Back around 2018, BK had some interest in testing out a new experimental combustor plating. Hearth.com member BKVP had a few of them made, and sent two of them to members here, who he chose as good candidates to test a range of performance criteria. I guess I was asked because I’m running two of the same stove (Ashford 30.1’s) on the same wood supply, and had already a few years experience with them on OEM cats, so I could make some reliable relative comparison.

I was just asked to run them as I normally would and report back to him, but not to mention anything about it on the forum, until he decided what they were going to do with this experiment. So I had to keep my mouth shut on it for about three years, until BKVP let the cat out of the bag sometime last year.

Since that time, I guess BK has worked with one of their combustor manufacturers to develop and sell some variant of this original “beta 3” (or B3) cat. I believe they call the final production unit “V3”, although I have not actually seen it listed for sale anywhere myself. Based on BKVP’s original reports of the impractically-high cost of making these things, I’m not sure if it’s identical to the beta3,or if they’ve made some changes to make it more reasonably priced. It is possible his initial report of high cost was based only on the reality of making such a small initial run of them.

I really like this combustor, particularly on my stove with a too-tall chimney. I can control my draft with the key damper, but the reality is that sometimes I screw up or forget. When this happens, the larger passages of the ceramic cat are less likely to get clogged with the fly ash that gets stirred up when running wide open with too much draft, than the OEM steelcat. So, if buying new combustors today, I might purchase an assumedly less-expensive steelcat for the shorter chimney, but spend the extra for the V3 on the taller pipe.

The B3 does seem to hold active longer, and it is still going strong at 4 years and perhaps 25 cords. I’m not sure how the TCO will compare, as I haven’t seen pricing, but if they do indeed last much longer, the potentially higher cost may wash out.

Will these fit in all BK, cat stoves?

 

[Ashful]

The only thing I need now is a new challenge...

Learn to race sailboats? Lawn darts? Pulling the perfect espresso shot? There's more to life than burning wood.

 

[stoveliker]

Learn to race sailboats? Lawn darts? Pulling the perfect espresso shot? There's more to life than burning wood.

Yes, no, yes.