The Blaze King thread, new combustor & good wood.

You Nuts

LOL

 

Loading a new load last night , 10 :00 , warm stove with a few hot coals:
Get an approximate amount of wood ready


Load the stove full, 1 piece didn't fit:


Throw in some bark in front of the wood & light. Door open about 2"
Birch bark start a roaring fire in a couple minutes.

 

Adjusting for a long burn
Burn on high, then med high until cat up to mid range temp


Turn Stat down, flames go out then adjust stat to just above 2 for night temps around 26°, no fan

Combustor glowing hot


This morning around 1030, lots yet to burn, cat in good range.

 

Nice overview of a B.K.K. burn.

Couple of questions if I can ask Dave: Is that birch? How long before you closed the by-pass and turned the draft down (after loading that wood)?

Just going by those photos, including how clean the glass is, I would guess that is what I would call a 'medium' burn; I assume you can turn the stove well down from there and still get a full cat. burn with no visible smoke?

Brian

 

Birch

Never really timed it , partly depends on how many coal & stove temp before loading.
This load was about 10 - 15 min. with the door open a few minutes & the fire roaring,
the stove pipe & chimney get heated up good (no temps for them) for a strong draft, then close the door, stat wide
open for 5 min, then turn it to 3, (in case I walk away & forget to come back right away)
then 5 - 10 min, or until the cat temp is in range or it's already glowing , then close the bypass.

I watch.feel about 3 things, temp with my hand by the glass, if super hot, cat temp probe is lagging , I can close the bypass & the cat lights off right away.
Watch the cat probe temp & the fire & how hot it look.

Actually I'm on what I call medium low .
My setup , 1.75 the flapper is shut. I think being close to the wall, stat chamber stays pretty hot.
Fans running will change it a bit & I use the same setting for around 20° with fans just above low speed.
So not much of a lower setting, (1 is about the same as 1.75 , don't see much difference but only burned there a few times over the years) .
Only that low when 40° at night, shoulder season . the glass is a bit more black, but burns off quick on reloads.
Warmer than that, I run the furnace in the AM for a few minutes if needed. House gets to warm.
Much better/drier wood now , 3 year seasoned helps with the glass (best results with the glass I've had)

When cat is engaged, even a lower setting, no smoke. Fans have to be off or the house gets to warm.
Stove puts out good heat even on a 36 hour burn. Sometimes to much for shoulder season, but just open front & back doors for a bit.
Bedroom window open thru the night. Shoulder season , sometimes it's to much stove for a well insulated house.
Most time it's better to have a small fire & maybe not even engage the cat, if I want to have a fire in the mornings.

I imagine on the reload roaring fire, with the door cracked,
theres some good black birch bark type smoke billowing out for a few minutes. Dark out, so I don't go look.

Hard to say one setting or one way or one temperature, to do this or that,
Maybe I tinker with it to much.

 

22 hours still good heat, but outside it's down to 15°.
Knowing I shouldn't wait until the house starts to cool
to reload & get a little more heat output
So I opened the bypass & stove stat wide open, prep for an early reload.
Pic thru the glass

Will try to remember to get a pic when I open the door , then rake the coals & reload.
Will give it 30 min or so while I visit on FHC

 

Been 24 since last night's load. Tonight's load up to temp stove set.
Full cycle of a full load .

After 23+ hours:
before raked...../....... after raked


Tonights load , a little higher setting (2.2) & fan medium. 14° , wind 15 to 20 , mostly cloudy

 

I dont have a BK but with my stove I do as your second solution on cold nights. I will burn a small load hot for a few hours then reload for the night at 10pm or so. I get 8-24 hours on a load depending g upon the heat I call from the stove.

I dont have that big of an ash lip. I am taking out ashes every few days. When I burn low I have to remove them more often as there not as light and fluffy kind of more course. But in a month in my stove burning g all the time I would easily produce 4, five gallon bucket fulls of ashes!!! And even if I load 2x as often as you with 2 loads in 24hours I dont see how you can keep almost 10 gallons of ashes in your stove!!!

 

I empty about every 2-3 weeks.
Maybe 5 gallons of ashes, depends if there's lots of charcoal chunks & outside temps.
If most is a fine powder ash, one coal bucket full is " the norm".
Don't need the space unless it's cold, (single digit & colder nights )

Leaving lots of ashes is good for shoulder season,
I watch the weather & if a cold spell is coming , I empty to have room for more wood.

There is no , add "X" amount of wood, burn on high for "X" minutes. Close bypass & burn for "X" minutes at "X" setting,
Set stat to "X" for "X" burn time & get "X" BTU output....

Many variables,
amount of wood, how wood is loaded, wind, stove temperatures, lots of cooking .
sub zero to 40°f outside temps......>>>>>> etc.

 

The Blaze King King is a really large stove, and it has a very deep firebox bottom compared with the door opening.

I have a Woodstock Ideal Steel, which is considered a 'large' stove and is rated at 3.2 cu. ft. firebox. I believe the King has a 4.4 cu. ft. firebox. 5 gallons is less than 3/4 cu. ft. in size so a King with 5 full gallons of ash in it is STILL bigger than my I.S. totally empty. That is how the owners can be pretty unconcerned about collecting a fair amount of ash- they can still get a lot of wood in the stove on top of a lot of ash. Besides that, having the ash stay in the stove and get jostled around and kept hot really helps it work its way down to fine powder, taking up even less space. Put another way, 5 gallons of well compacted, fine ash is a lot more than 5 gallons of new, fluffy ash.

Brian

 

Yea it holds lots of wood, amazing to me is how so little flames yet so much heat output for so long.
Catalytic is hot & glowing & little to no flames.
Last nights load:

 

That belly is pretty full of ash. My princess looks like that and you have several more inches of belly depth before you hit bottom on the king.

 

Don't know where all the post went ? ?

[Must have not been liked by somebody]

Still getting 24 hour burns with the mild weather.
Cat still lighting off fast , 1-1/2 months on new cat .

 

And it's now in the OPE forum.?

 

Didn't even notice that.
Weird ?

 

Went to update it today with today's results, less wood used & some pics...etc
FBummer
I been hacked & havent' even wanted to see "The Interview "

 

Da MAN ,
Grizzly Adams
found & fixed it

 

I have a Progress Hybrid. Looked at your post showing wood you were about to load into your stove and reacted " at least twice as much wood as I can get in my stove.....then I saw the King is over 4 cu ft...didn't realize it was so big. No wonder you can get that load in there, and those amazing long burn times. The PH will burn with nice slow cat burn, but basic quantity if wood involved is much less, so correspondingly shorter burn times. Three smallish to moderate splits have been keeping me above 72 degrees with 8 hour burn times during this milder period of borderline freezing weather.

 

Yeah, WS makes a couple of pretty good hybrid type stoves but nothing like a king. The BK king has a huge "fuel tank" and low burn rate that combine with a little alien technology to make very long burn times when low outputs are desired. I have heard that the IS has an even lower low burn rate than your PH which should extend the burntimes.

 

I've pretty much been on 24 hour burn times so far this season.
Good wood & new combustor

No below zero temps yet & no extended days with single digits.
It's been nice to load nightly, with a few times adding 6 splits around 2 pm, saving
40 + % on my wood usage,
The new combustor, being more efficient, is a significant reason.
I could get used to mild winter being near 30° days & teens to 20° nights