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

Yes, it was the latest and greatest. Just not great for me. It was just too small for the square footage I was trying to heat, so, therefore, it was a constant struggle.

I could get about 3 hours of real heat out of a fully packed firebox, and then stove temperature would start to decline. I could really stretch it to about 5 hours and house temperature would start to drop. To claim 10 hours, totally impossible. In a smaller house, maybe. I would say the Heritage could handle about an 1100 square foot house on a cold winter day, but no more. Due to the fact that we needed to constantly be feeding it, our coal bed was enormous. The space we are heating is about 1800 actively (main living space), and 500sq ft passively (Upstairs game room).

 

Ahhh, ok. That makes perfect sense. Sorry for my confusion. You bring up a lot of really good points! A consistent reference point for all BK users would be huge.

 

You’re NOT sounding like an idiot.
Post above has been edited.

 

Getting your home warm and keeping it warm is a big part of the battle.

Me…I like to relate warm to a temperature reading of my furnace thermostat that tells me the room temperature or use an indoor thermometer.

I can relate the indoor temperature reading to a numbered reference on my dial setting on my stove. Why BK did away with the number reference I’ll never know. Numbers are just a way to give the user a reference point. A good reference point could be a plate behind the dial that has many hatch marks on it for accuracy of resetting the dial, rather than guessing after tending and hoping you don’t reset the stove above or below the temperature reading on the wall that feels best to you. A reference point on the dial should help you maintain a given target room temperature within +/-2* Fahrenheit if there’s not a huge outdoor temperature swing. Sometimes mine stays within 1*F indoors if outdoor temps hold close for any length of time.

On my stove the dial setting rarely changes unless there’s a big outdoor temperature spike one direction or the other on the outdoor thermometer.

Sometimes if there’s big enough drop the house will get cold. I can either change the dial setting OR be patient and give the stove and regulator time to feel the drop in house temperature. If left alone long enough the stove will get colder, the regulator will feel the stove is colder, and it will self regulate bringing the stove and the room back to the target room temperature I had it set for. It will also works if the reverse is true.

I’m not saying the BK regulator works the same as the regulator on my stove, but I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t or couldn’t, unless there’s something I’m misunderstanding about the stove. The regulators don’t care what fuel is being burned inside the stoves.

So ultimately the dial references are mainly to allow the user to return the dial to the same position after tending. For me knowing the room temperature and the stove temperature reading under the regulator box makes for easier comparisons between different users trying to compare how the stoves are running, comparing chimney height and draft, home size, etc.

Hope someone finds this helpful or finds some inspiration in it.

 

What confuses me is how a Cat stove can only produce 3-5 hrs of heat.Why put in Cat tech if you can't extend burn times beyond non Cat stove burn times which produce heat longer than 3-5 hrs.Rediculous !

 

Cat stoves lose their advantage when pushed hard...as would be the case with a "too small" stove.

 

Emissions. They scabbed on a cat to make it over an emissions hurdle. Several brands did this, some with more success than others. The BK was a cat stove by design so it actually takes advantage of the technology for low emissions and performance.

I had a the previous generation of noncat hearthstone heritage and I could get 10 hours of burn time and light new wood from coals. Softwoods even. So it’s even possible that hearthstone added a cat and increased the minimum burn rate to hit emissions numbers.

The BK thermostat regulates stove temperature, not room temperature. The bimetallic coil on the freestanders is buried behind layers of metal against the firebox in back.

 

My Hitzer bi-metallic regulator regulates stove temperature also. They all do, on any stove they’re used with.

The bi-metallic feels the stove. The stove feels the room. The room feels comfortable or it doesn’t. If it feels comfortable then take a wall thermometer reading. Mark the exact location of the dial for reference to reset the dial after tending. The more precise you are in marking the dial setting the closer the room will stay to the wall thermometer reading you took prior.

By the way, whether buried behind layers of steel or not, a reading taken near there would still provide consistent comparisons between two stove users.

The place Hitzer told me to take readings was under the stat box. The temperature taken there is always lower, usually way lower than a temperature reading taken on the right front corner of the stove, but that’s where they told me to take the readings. BK may wish to use a different location. IDK. Doesn’t matter to me. I was just sharing my example and realizing the need for a consistent place for two users on a forum to compare based on comments in this thread and others. No more, no less.

 

Thank you clarifying. What I did last night was take a small plastic protractor and marked every 10 degrees (on the protractor, not the wood stove temperature). This will allow me to set the thermostat in exactly the same spot every time. I think it will come in handy.

 

Tiny rare earth magnets work nicely on the BK for pointer positioning also. Fleabay for pennies.

 

The EPA's concern is not whether you are warm, it's strictly to ensure your wood stove doesn't smoke. Kind of an oxymoron. Just wait until everyone is forced to heat with electric heaters! And better yet, powered by windmills and solar fields.

 

Highbeam that's a great explanation.It souinds like according to Pyromaniac that Hearthstone decreased the minimum burn rate to hit emission numbers from your high of 10 hrs to his low of 3-5 hrs. Sadly too many corporations these days dumb down their products and give you the bait and switch.

 

Someone, either on this forum or another, actually custom made a plate that had markings on it and made it to fit behind the stat dial knob. Whomever it was posted pictures as well. They did an extremely nice job. I believe I seen it on a thread where people was discussing BK removing those number reference points. Perhaps Highbeam or someone else remembers seeing what I’m referring to and maybe can provide a link or even the picture.

At any rate, your marks should work fine and help you return your dial to a repeatable location every time.

I like the magnet idea as well.

 

If I could get 10 hours on low, and pyromaniac could only get 3-5 hours on low then that would mean they increased the minimum burn rate along with adding a cat. Both of those things would reduce emissions.

Now lets leave some wiggle room for interpretation of "burn time" since my definition was from loading the stove full to being able to restart on coals. Pyro's might be the time period of significant heat output. Though he was certainly burning a superior fuel there's that.

 

I'm convinced Hearthstone's claim of something like a 20 hour burn time is from striking the match to light the fire to the last stone returning to room temperature. However they derived it, it's utter garbage.

 

The marks are working phenomenal. My room temperature has not dipped below 77° since last night. Walked in the door this afternoon after my 7:30 am loading to about 3/4 full and house was exactly 77°. Had stat set to just about 1/2. No flames in stove and cat had a nice orange glow going on. Love this stove!

At this point of the game, I think I can safely say, this stove will perform flawlessly on a 6" flue/chimney. When I set stat to full, this thing will literally be roaring. Dial it back, and you can cut output down to nothing. Even if it was -10°, I can't imagine having to run this thing wide open. Thermostat is set to 1/2 right now and has been for a bit, and cat is very happy. See pic below

 

Highbeam, you're correct I considered burn time from loading the firebox until the coals were burned down to the point I could easily reload. Also, at this point, house temperature was already dropping.

 

I used to stay up until 12:30am with the Hearthstone Heritage so I could pack it full and hope to make it until 5:30am without a significant temperature drop in the house.

What I find interesting, I loaded about the same amount of wood in the BK today, roughly the same outdoor temps, as I would have put in the Hearthstone Heritage if I were to pack it full. I got over 11 hours of serious heat. My house temperature never dropped one single degree! I'm getting twice the burn time, and, WAY more heat from the same exact amount of wood. I just put in about 1/2 a tote of wood (25-30 pounds) to run through the night, and I don't plan on adding anything until at least 8-9 am.

I'm doing this on the same exact 6" flue/chimney as I used on the Heritage. Only thing different is the stove.

 

I don't see much good in timing a stove's heat from the start up of the stove only when it starts providing sufficient heat. Of course I don't get your math since 3-5 hrs is less than 10 hrs. Then again what was your time period of significant heat ?Pyro would have to define what his heat time was.After my Mansfield and One heat up I get 8hrs of heat from the Mansfield and 14hrs from the One.