Why Buy Anything Except A Blaze King?

[burningfire]

I'm leaning heavily towards a Blaze King stove for the house I'm building this spring and am wondering why people would buy anything except a Blaze King?

Blaze Kings seem to have awesome temperature control, extended burn times and rave reviews. The only draw back that comes to mind is having a few more moving parts and a catalyst to replace.

What is the advantage of buying any other stove out there?

 

[bholler]

One main issue is the price. Also at least in our area there are no bk dealers So it would be a long drive to get one and no dealer support.

 

[burningfire]

There are so many dealers around here (Western Canada) that I never really thought of that. Also the price is more for sure.

 

[bholler]

And if you have a big house and are going to be burning hard all the time allot of the advantages of the bks are not that big of a deal. But i do know that if price was no issue i would probably have a king sitting in my basement. Or a regency 5100 after they are out a little longer and there are more reviews in. Well it would probably be the regency because we sell them as long as the reviews are good after a few years

 

[pma1123]

I thought the same thing, but our local dealer network for BK is nonexistent, and there is a definite gap in the price between a secondary air stove that'll give a similar heat output as that BK when its 'turned up'. The main advantage I see with a BK is low heat requirements/extended burn times when the weather becomes a little bit warmer.

 

[bholler]

Yeah exactly what i thought as well pma. Don't get me wrong bks are fantastic stoves but they are not for everyone.

 

[begreen]

They make good stoves, but there are different strokes for different folks. Why do people buy Fords instead of Mercedes? Variety and wife approval have some say when these stoves are in a prominent place in the house. Some folks prefer a stove for the fireview as well as the heat. Some prefer simplicity of design and lower maintenance. Dealer network, looks, cost, are all market drivers.

 

[burningfire]

All good points. Thanks

 

[Woody Stover]

There are a bunch of great stoves out there. The BK cats are 2 or 300 bucks; A Woodstock cat is 125, 150 for steel...don't see the PH and IS cats on there though. Not sure if there's a steel cat for the BK. All the Woodstock parts are cheap in comparison to other stove makers...

 

[DougA]

I wanted to see a BK King for myself but no dealer within a few hours drive had one and even the distributor at the time was out of stock. The answer kept coming back "no one wants that big a stove so we won't stock it". I wanted to see it in person before plunking down a deposit because I thought it was just plain ugly in the pictures. Different strokes ... exactly as begreen says.

 

[Tenn Dave]

I'm leaning heavily towards a Blaze King stove for the house I'm building this spring and am wondering why people would buy anything except a Blaze King?

Blaze Kings seem to have awesome temperature control, extended burn times and rave reviews. The only draw back that comes to mind is having a few more moving parts and a catalyst to replace.

What is the advantage of buying any other stove out there?

When I was looking for a stove, I needed it to meet 3 requirements: 1). It had to be good looking because it was going to be the focal point of my great room. 2). It had to be capable of having 12+ hour burn times. 3) It had to have a beautiful fire view at lower burns for the family and guests to enjoy. Unfortunately BK only met 1 of the 3 requirements. But a lot of other good stoves met all 3. Different strokes for different folks. Not all people buy a Prius because it gets the highest mpg.....

 

[Highbeam]

It's a cat stove and you can't burn trash in it without ruining the cat. Same with all cat stoves really.
High price. Compared to cheap non-cats it is expensive but compared to other premium stoves it is not out of line.

For me, I can't think of any reason that I'd want a different stove in the house. I like the sounds of a cheap replacement cat for the WS stoves.

If I were to wish for a change it might be to a nice, quiet, pellet stove so that I don't have to deal with firewood.

 

[BKVP]

UPDATE...We have added hundreds of new dealers in the past 18 months. Blaze King's Ashford & Sirocco models drew great interest and as any one knows that tried to order any of our wood stoves this past season, we had unprecedented demands. (That's a marketing spin for really, really back ordered!)

 

[Oldman47]

I did not buy a Blaze King. What I did was look at my available space without ruining the travel paths in my new home. Then I looked at clearance requirements and stove width and depths. Next up was the pad requirements on front of and beside the stove. If a hearth pad had to extend into my walking path the associated stove was rejected out of hand. What I was left with was a small number of stoves that could fit in without ruining my normal use of my new home. Then I started to narrow things down to what I would not mind seeing in my home. That really sliced through the group and got me to just 3 or 4 stoves from various manufacturers. Then it was time to start doing some cost benefit analysis while keeping in mind this was going to be an emergency heating system that had to keep my home above freezing for a prolonged period because I could be without power for days on end in very cold weather since I would live out in the country. This got me down to one Napoleon model and one Quadrafire model. No Blaze King in the mix at all. Finally I had to trade off my impressions of just 2 stoves against their apparent value and the retail price. Why not a BK? Show me a nice looking BK with a hearth pad less than 45 inches deep from the back wall and less than 48 inches wide that is rated at over 50k BTU/hr and it will be one I missed in my search.

 

[Simonkenton]

Yes, I am in the North Carolina mountains. The local dealer has his last Blaze King on the floor and can't get any more, it would be at least a 5 hour drive to find a Blaze King.

My dealer now sells only Jotul, which I will buy, and, God Forbid, Vermont Castings.

 

[Osagebndr]

Price mainly, and fire view . Same with soap stone , but knowing what I know now I would have a BK King ultra

 

[aansorge]

The fire view is great if it is turned up a bit. You can actually get flames for hours and hours on a blaze king....much longer than with my Enerzone tube stove. Yes part of the glass gets dirty but the middle is always clean. Love, love, love it!

 

[Highbeam]

I was going to say the fireview sucks on the BK but really, on higher settings, the fireview is great. It's just that this stove is a real doll to run low and slow to keep your house warm so most of the time it is running low and no flames. If I wanted a flameshow I would have to turn it up and produce heat.

You have to wonder where the heat is going on those stoves that make all that fire but don't roast you out.

 

[jeff_t]

Yeah, when it's cold I'll put 3-4 splits e-w, with gaps between, and set the thermostat about 2.5. After I scrape the gunk off the glass, it's almost like a fireplace for 4-5 hours. Above 20° or so, it's too much heat.

 

[Ashful]

What is the advantage of buying any other stove out there?

Primarily, for cosmetic appeal. At the time I wanted to buy another large catalytic stove, Blaze King only made ugly stoves. Later, they came out with the Ashford 30, which is much less offensive looking, but honestly still falls somewhat short of a Jotul or VC on the cosmetic appeal.

Blaze King's build quality has also received some criticism here. Things like door latches, door seals, etc., just don't seem to be as robust as Jotul's construction, although the number of reported issues have been relatively few. The reported issues I've seen here wouldn't prevent me from buying one, but would surely annoy the crap out of me if I ended up with one of those problems myself.

If the Ashford 30 had been available on schedule, I'd probably have one sitting on my "new" hearth, and maybe even a second on the way for my "old" hearth (if the first worked as well as I believe it might). However, BK was about a year behind schedule in their forecast rollout of the Ashford, and old Jotul Firelight 12 catalytic stoves work well enough, look much nicer, and are built about as solid as a brick outhouse. So, I bought a second F12 to match my first... and then stumbled on a very cheap third, which I keep in case I ever need parts someday.

 

[Tenn Dave]

I was going to say the fireview sucks on the BK but really, on higher settings, the fireview is great. It's just that this stove is a real doll to run low and slow to keep your house warm so most of the time it is running low and no flames. If I wanted a flameshow I would have to turn it up and produce heat.

You have to wonder where the heat is going on those stoves that make all that fire but don't roast you out.

BKs depend on a hot fire to keep the glass clean. My stove uses a superior glass 'air wash' system. I burn her low and slow with 4 splits of good wood for 12 hours before reloading. Could even go longer, but 12 hours fits into my schedule. I also burn good and dry oak and hickory.

 

[kennyp2339]

This is my first season with the BK, i'm really impressed with this stove, The stove is designed for long slow (cooler) burns, it works great for the shoulder seasons which I was aiming for, now that we are in winter and have experienced very cold windy days 0 deg F, the Blaze King is like any other stove, with the thermostat turned up it burns loads between 6-8 hrs, it heats great (like any other stove) Its all relative to what you are looking for, I was looking for a stove that would carry me on days that it was 40 deg out and would not bake me out of the house, the stove is certainly living up to that, The stove also keeps the house very warm (even heat through out) on very cold days. It all depends on what your looking for in a stove.

 

[Tenn Dave]

If I were considering an install in a unfinished basement, BK would be my top choice. (great long burn times and controllability). But in the rest of the house, good looks and fire view at low burn rates takes precedence.

 

[simple.serf]

Two reasons. The first is that my local dealer, who is incredible, doesn't carry them. The second is that that they look like a damn washing machine. (The sirocco wasn't around when I was buying). If these issues were better solved, BK would have been in the running. Looking back, I wouldn't have gone with a tube stove. If I was putting a new stove in today, it would be a Buck 91. I prefer cat stoves, and every local dealer, incuding my local hardware store, carries Buck and the parts for them in stock.

 

[JA600L]

I just look at efficiency #s. As long as the efficiency #s are in line with the size of the firebox, the only real difference is cat or no cat.

You can tell me all day how long your BK burns but the reality is my Ideal Steel keeps the same amount of heat in the house per load of wood. The only difference is if your house is insulated enough to keep it in.