Blaze king how does it work

[mhrischuk]

In August my wife and I bought our first home. In September we had our Blaze King Princess Ultra installed. We live in Fairbanks, AK and Blaze Kings are very popular in town. Up here we our wood of choice is white birch due to a lack or hardwoods to burn. Our house is a hair over a thousand square feet and with an open floor plan. We have never gotten near 40 hours of burn time, but we have many factors that lower our burn time (you don't burn on low at -30).
I do love that stove though. Fuel oil (Toyo stove) is our other option for heating and it is outrageously expensive. When it gets brutally cold, I load the stove 3x a day and the wood goes into a good bed of hot coals, I don't let it burn down too far or it gets cold in the time it takes to start the next burn. Also, the motivation for the "cat" stove is Fairbanks is working with the EPA and state govt to improve our local air quality, which currently sucks. So, the cat stove helps burn a little cleaner/more efficiently.
IMO, I think it is a great stove, I have never gotten a 40 burn for reasons stated, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one to anyone interested in burning wood for heat.

Thank you stvnshnn for your honest report.
The fellow I quoted was from Alaska also and had similar experiences. He was called a bs'r and even a liar.
There are far too many Blaze King promoters on all of these sites that seem to only talk about this long low burn. It's 19 deg F here today and the low burn just won't cut it. I can see how great it can be on the 30 + days for sure as there is no way I can even get a 14 hour burn out of either my Hearthstone Equinox or Hearthstone Clydesdale. My Equinox can do 12 hour to enough coal for a relight. The stone mass keeps heating for hours more. I prefer burning off the creosote than laying it on.

But then again, as others have said... depends in the house.. the wood and other factors.
But when it gets down to very cold temps, slow burn goes out the door.

I considered a Blaze King myself as I do believe they are very good stoves. The styling really turned me off.

 

[blacklocst]

So my question is why did Jotul stop making cat stoves?

 

[mhrischuk]

Can't answer that but i did see somewhere where Jotul was a pioneer in cat technology. If you read todays Jotul advertisements, they often mention simplicity of use. They even have a top load non-cat model (Rangeley)

 

[Iron Head]

I have a business idea for someone who might consider designing.
After market specialty in CAT after burner tubes for all stoves with after burners.

 

[mooseracing]

But when it gets down to very cold temps, slow burn goes out the door.

Assuming you have an EPA stove how do you keep it full of fresh wood? If I do anything besides a low burn I just end up with a firebox full to the brim of coals, or low burn and the house is cold. Even though I have a pretty new stove I keep looking at models with a larger firebox to get over this issue.

 

[mhrischuk]

Assuming you have an EPA stove how do you keep it full of fresh wood? If I do anything besides a low burn I just end up with a firebox full to the brim of coals, or low burn and the house is cold. Even though I have a pretty new stove I keep looking at models with a larger firebox to get over this issue.

When I get down to a bed of coals I rustle them around with a rake and open the air up full blast. Let the coals burn down for about an hour then rustle them up again and reload. You are correct.. you have to keep the coals down. Bigger boxes let you load more wood but you have to manage it so you aren't simply burning more wood in the same amount of time. I guess that's what's nice about the Blaze King. It helps manage the rate of burn for you. I keep an eye on the rate of burn and adjust the air accordingly to try and get the most heat without wasting it all up the chimney. For a hot stove... mine in particular, I need to have the air open a quarter to a half for a while. Once she is 300-400 I back the air down and it's pretty much on it's own.

Right now my EQ just passed 400 and I shut the air all the way down. Gets the room real toasty with the fan blowing cool air from the other part of the house in.

 

[Highbeam]

I am a recent convert to the BK family. Previously I burned a hearthstone heritage for 5 years and more than 25 cords of wood. We burn for 9 months out of the year and use nothing else for heat. I am near Mt. Rainier and last week's low temps were in the upper teens but our usual outside temps are just above freezing.

I installed a princess ultra freestander. Only the huge King, with the 8" flue requirement, is rated for 40 hours, the regular stoves like the princess are only 2.85 CF and are rated for 30 hours which I have no problem getting with red alder and other low quality softwoods.

You can burn it low for 30 hours and reload once per day. I did this for the first few months. Or you can turn up the output and get lower burn times, usually 12 hours is about the minimum and doing this will still use less wood than any non-cat stove since the BK efficiency is tops. Seriously, the EPA ratings have the king as #1 and the princess as #2 tied with woodstock PH out of all stoves in the world.

I chose to put the blowers on this stove and it when I run it at 50% throttle plus fans it will flat out make some major heat. Talking raising the house temps 15 degrees in three hours when it is below freezing outside.

So yes, the BKs are what they say. Another nice benefit is that the firebox is large yet it won't overheat the space like a large non-cat in a medium sized home. Large fireboxes are easier to load, hold more, and hold more ash below the door. 6" deep firebox on the princess.

 

[stihly dan]

Wow, that sounds like some stove.