New Install of Blaze King King 40 KE Stove on Six Inch Flue and Chimney

Open bypass door and leave open for awhile (leave load door closed) to allow catalyst to cool is what I would do, but I don’t have a CAT stove. I’d say thermal shock is a real possibility.

I’d turn the stove down, open bypass, let CAT cool some , crack load door for a couple minutes then load the stove and close door, turn dial up, wait to make sure in active range and then close the bypass, set dial to cruise.

 

Cat temp literally takes forever to drop, even with bypass open etc. That's what got me thinking on this. This stove just does not cool down easily. It's made to heat and does it really good! I've been trying not to load it until load / coals are way down, bits it's pretty tough sometimes.

 

Even when temp guage is high, cat isn't necessarily glowing orange. It seems like it's only orange when there's steady smoke to burn off ( probably like the first half of burning a load of wood). Once coals only, the cat is hot, but not glowing.

 

I'm not saying that anyone here isn't giving you sound advice and describing what you should do. But to me it sounds like a good question to ask the Blaze King company

 

The cat on my Hearthstone Heritage took forever to warm up. The BKK is ridiculously fast compared to the Heritage. I too like the fact it cools down so slowly. I've just had this concern about damaging it with thermal shock.

 

I've actually thought about calling them. It's kinda an expensive part to risk damaging.

I think I'll call them tomorrow just for fun and report back here.

 

Yeah, no harm in asking them. Take a few minutes, but won't cost you any $....might save you some.

 

BKVP. Any chance you might be able to shed some light on this?

 

Exactly what I was thinking. BKVP will be along soon.

 

Negative 1° F this morning. House 75°. Stove just plugging along. I did fill it up last night about 10:30 and added more about 5:30 this morning even though there were lots of coals.

 

Here's another question, on the Blaze King cat gauge, what is actually considered too hot. My stove is not even turned up all the way, and the gauge has just about made a full circle. There are no temperature markings on it, so you have no clue what your actual cat temperature is.

 

Looks like that gage may be off? Take it out, let it cool to room temp and see where it’s at. May have to be recalibrated.

years ago when I had my BK Princess the gage had numbers on it up to 1600. I remember BKVP saying something along the lines of too many people we’re too concerned about the temps of the thermometer which isn’t the most accurate so they changed it.

 

No idea if it holds the same amount of ash as a BKK, I don’t have one to compare too. That wasn’t the statement made.

The brand in mind is Lopi. Latest gen of the liberty stove. My liberty is starting week 6 without needing to be cleaned out. For the next incoming questions. The ash grate is plugged and not useable. It is the only heat sources in the home. I do burn hardwood daily, just not my really good stuff saved off for extreme weather events.

Which BK model do you burn? How much or how many inches of ash will it hold?

Pyro: Two guys I work around have also used 6" pipe on their Kings. You should be good to go. Enjoy a hopefully long friendship with your new stove. Not many are willing to think outside the box like this, enjoy the spoils.



Owl

 

Ok…so they removed the numbers from the CAT thermometer and they say stove top temperature shouldn’t be taken with a magnet thermometer…plus they removed the marks off the dial indicator in the back.

I suppose they want you to run the stove by feel, which works, but that’s not always reliable either, because people can feel heat differently every day simply by how their body is feeling each day. None of the above allows you to get the most of your stove by using the stove and it settings (of which there are NONE now) to conserve fuel.

The only thing left to do is to keep a thermometer in the house and monitor it, which works great, however that doesn’t make it easy to reset the stove after tending…you’re always fiddling with the dial…and that sucks…instead if tending the stove as normal, then returning the settings where they were…which works best when outside temps are remaining constant.

You have no way of saying ok…it’s going to be this temper outside so my past years notes say I need to run the stove on this dial setting to maintain this indoor temperature during this outside temperature.

I’m not saying it isn’t simple enough to just then the stove up or down, because it is really that simple, but for those wanting a reference of some sorts, then there are none…and to me that’s pretty lame. I shouldn’t have to modify the stove dial just to get some references.

 

That is what my statement was referring to. Now I know why you said what you did…you didn’t know. I also didn’t used to know, that is until I looked. The King’s depth is cavernous compared to other stoves, not even counting the rest of the firebox.


I know because I’ve had my head inside the door of a BK King and Princess models many times and my friend (a forum member here) has one and tells me about how long he goes between emptying out ash.

I’ve also had my head inside of a few Lopi stoves to look around…and I have a Lopi Liberty…that’s how I know. Lopi’s biggest stove won’t hold 1/4 of what the BK King model will…not only is the fire box much bigger in square inches on the fire box floor but it’s also 9” deep, Princes 6” deep. You and I will be lucky if our Lopi’s are 3” deep…not even close. Our stoves are good stoves but still lacking in the depth and ash holding departments which means emptying them out far more often.

My Liberty is the model before they made this last change. It’s only 1/10 (.6 to .5) of difference in clean burn from the latest new models, which by the way both models are awesome. How are you liking your newer Lopi?

 

Unfortunately you are the minority of their customers that prefer it this way. At least from what I've read. Unfortunately most people are stupid now a days and numbers just confuse them.

I remember in the auto repair industry. Someone would come in with a fancy car that had a digital reout for the hvac instead of just the blue and red tappered bars. Their complaint would be that they set the temp to 70 and it wasn't 70 inside the car. Some would have their own thermometer taped to the dash to prove it.

According to the manufacturer those are just numbers that you can reference where you like the temp set. They weren't an actual representation of cabin temp.

Hopefully that made a point and wasn't too confusing.

 

…and they were never meant to be reference of cabin temperature.


I was at Hitzer stove manufacturing recently and over heard the owner speaking with a customer. All I heard was, “Mam did you see the handle on the ash pan?…ok…how did you expect to pull the ash pan out of the stove with a pan full of hot ashes if the handle was deep inside the stove. The handle should be nearest you so you can grab hold of the handle, Mam.”

EDIT, there’s more:
The lady apparently asked why the ash pan only had 3 side walls instead of 4 and she said that is what confused her. He told her one end of the ash pan was designed to be open and flat for shoveling ashes. That blew her mind. LOL!

The phone ended shortly after. The owner looked at me and said, “Now there’s an individual that has no business trying to use a stove inside their home”. He was right!