2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread (Everything BK)

[Ashful]

What stove model, Jeff? I also suffered some broken bricks in the rear wall of my Ashfords in the first year. I don't toss wood in, either, always thought I placed it in there fairly gingerly.

 

[bigaar]

I have an Ashford 30. This is my first stove; how do you guys suggest cleaning this thing?

 

[Highbeam]

I have an Ashford 30. This is my first stove; how do you guys suggest cleaning this thing?

For the all vertical flue above my BK I use a sooteater. The junk from the flue all falls down into the stove. Clean out that junk with a vacuum. Then remove all other debris from the stove with the shovel and then clean up with a vacuum. Don't forget to suck on the cat so that all debris that has settled inside the 2" thick cat element comes out. That's pretty much it for cleaning. You can check the door and bypass tension too.

Are you looking for info on cleaning the glass? The outside of the stove? The flue?

 

[Highbeam]

The general concensus here last year was a combustor lasts about 10,000 hours in the active zone. Works out to two winters for me, i should be good this year and buy a spare next summer.

I'm at about 6000 burning hours per year. We're not as cold as you in AK but we're cool for a LONG time. I expect two full years of cat life with no attention but after a vinegar bath I think I might get a third year from this one.

Some manufacturers say 12000 so a range of 10000-12000 hours seems to be far more realistic than 10 years! which would only work if you are using your stove occasionally for ambiance.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

Did you inspect when new? I am wondering if that has always been that way or if this is new after this season.

I will answer each person in turn as I don't know how to " multi quote" if that even is such a thing. I apologize for not answering everyone until now. My wife has been quite ill for sometime now and I get to helping out around the house and one thing leads to another and it is bed time for me.

No I did not I would not have even known where to look ha ha. I really doubt it came from any factory like that someone would have seen this I would have thought.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

You're going to want to vacuum that cat out too. It should be clean, more exposed catalyst is better. I've never seen damage on the back of the cat. Broken bricks, yeah I've got one too on the side. It took me like 5 years though!

I want to vacuum that myself but I am scared I will damage it. It seems very fragile? would I be better off with some bursts of compressed air? Cannot even imagine the mess that would make though. If I do vacuum what do I use ...like if I touch it wont it crumble? I agree it ought to be cleaned out some. What is your method?

 

[Jeff in Maine]

I think you're good to go. High exit temps on the combustor don't usually manifest in this form, cracks can be normal. This looks like thermal shock. Is there a chance at all the bypass plate was left open for any period of time more than reaching "active"?

That is possible I suppose I get busy and I may? have forgotten but I set a timer for 15 min when I am getting it hot so I don't forget to go check on it. I especially asked my wife for a digital timer for Christmas last year for just this reason.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

The general concensus here last year was a combustor lasts about 10,000 hours in the active zone. Works out to two winters for me, i should be good this year and buy a spare next summer.

Yea I gather you burn a lot. I don't know really how many hours I burn here. We have a fire maybe end of October a few mid November and pretty steady by late November through till 1st or 2nd week in April.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

I'm at about 6000 burning hours per year. We're not as cold as you in AK but we're cool for a LONG time. I expect two full years of cat life with no attention but after a vinegar bath I think I might get a third year from this one.

Some manufacturers say 12000 so a range of 10000-12000 hours seems to be far more realistic than 10 years! which would only work if you are using your stove occasionally for ambiance.

Like I said or maybe did not say? I have never had a cat stove before my last stove was a 1986 Old Mill that was the newest stove I had ever owned. So they could have said 25 years and I would not have batted an eye. I just knew that the stove had one and they do fail so I asked and they said 10 years. Please do take a moment though and tell me how to " safely" clean the cat without breaking it.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

What stove model, Jeff? I also suffered some broken bricks in the rear wall of my Ashfords in the first year. I don't toss wood in, either, always thought I placed it in there fairly gingerly.

whoops I forgot to answer you. It is a 2015 Princess free standing w/ blowers.

 

[Highbeam]

Like I said or maybe did not say? I have never had a cat stove before my last stove was a 1986 Old Mill that was the newest stove I had ever owned. So they could have said 25 years and I would not have batted an eye. I just knew that the stove had one and they do fail so I asked and they said 10 years. Please do take a moment though and tell me how to " safely" clean the cat without breaking it.

Sure, I've cleaned my cat a few ways. Yours is ceramic which means the holes are quite large and easy to clear but it also means less surface area so it is even more important that the cat is clean. The catalyst is actually pretty durable. Do not try to shove anything into the cells to clear them.

1) Low pressure compressed air blowing into the cat so the junk blows into the closed cat chamber. You can use air-in-a-can or very low pressure air (20-50psi) to blow out the cells. Close the bypass and have the chimney on and there is no mess that will go into the room. I like to add a small piece of rubber automotive vacuum line to the air nozzle to really shoot out each cell. Regulate that thing down to very low pressure though. It doesn't take much. Imagine that you're trying to shoot a spitwad just barely out of a straw, not trying to shoot it across the room. Puff puff. Low velocity.
2) Sweep the face of the cat with a paint brush. You can sweep the face of the cat with a new, soft bristle, paint brush just to clean the face but the junk in the cells needs to be blown or sucked out. This brushing is only really helpful with surface clogging.
3) Vacuum the face with a shop vac. I actually remove the hard plastic wand and hold the soft rubber hose up against the cat face to suck the cells clean.

Some folks combine #2 and #3 by using a soft brush attachment on their shop vac wand but I really want to put a suck on those cells. If, by sucking on the cells, the whole cat collapses into the shop vac hose then it was trash anyway.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

Sure, I've cleaned my cat a few ways. Yours is ceramic which means the holes are quite large and easy to clear but it also means less surface area so it is even more important that the cat is clean. The catalyst is actually pretty durable. Do not try to shove anything into the cells to clear them.

1) Low pressure compressed air blowing into the cat so the junk blows into the closed cat chamber. You can use air-in-a-can or very low pressure air (20-50psi) to blow out the cells. Close the bypass and have the chimney on and there is no mess that will go into the room. I like to add a small piece of rubber automotive vacuum line to the air nozzle to really shoot out each cell. Regulate that thing down to very low pressure though. It doesn't take much. Imagine that you're trying to shoot a spitwad just barely out of a straw, not trying to shoot it across the room. Puff puff. Low velocity.
2) Sweep the face of the cat with a paint brush. You can sweep the face of the cat with a new, soft bristle, paint brush just to clean the face but the junk in the cells needs to be blown or sucked out. This brushing is only really helpful with surface clogging.
3) Vacuum the face with a shop vac. I actually remove the hard plastic wand and hold the soft rubber hose up against the cat face to suck the cells clean.

Some folks combine #2 and #3 by using a soft brush attachment on their shop vac wand but I really want to put a suck on those cells. If, by sucking on the cells, the whole cat collapses into the shop vac hose then it was trash anyway.

Thanks I have an air nozzle that can be dialed open or shut so I can just barley let air flow if I want to and I will add a rubber hose too. I will also dust off the face with a soft paint brush. I have some small diameter round brush's and I was wondering if I could kind of " pipe cleaner clean" each cell. But on your advice I will not. When I get the stove slid back into position I will reconnect the pipe and do this. Thanks a lot I honestly cannot afford to harm the cat if I can avoid it. Jeff

Ps. How do I answer without quoting every persons original message ? I don't have a "reply" option only " reply with quote " option ???

 

[Highbeam]

Ps. How do I answer without quoting every persons original message ? I don't have a "reply" option only " reply with quote " option ???

Keep scrolling down to the bottom and there's a reply box with "post reply" in it.

Low pressure and light puffs. Of course I should mention that you must first remove the flame shield. I've even been known to blow at the cat with lung power to clean off the face.

 

[begreen]

It should be in the lower right corner of the posting that you want to respond to. If you don't see it, start a conversation with webfish to see what's up.

 

[Ashful]

Ps. How do I answer without quoting every persons original message ? I don't have a "reply" option only " reply with quote " option ???

Hit the "+QUOTE" link under each post you wan to multi-quote. Then under the place where you type at the bottom of the page a "Insert Quotes..." button will appear. Click that, insert all of the posts you had selected, and type away!

 

[jetsam]

And this is the button that sends purty (dog and/or stove) pictures! Let's not leave that out of the instructions.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

This is what I have to choose from, (<SHARE LIKE "+ QUOTE REPLY ) I will be leaving for work soon but I will try to check in sometime today or tonight.
I do have the "POST REPLY" button at the bottom of my post box. But if I want to reply to a specific person I guess I would have to start a post with the persons name so they know I am responding to them. In a post that you may send to me, this button is not there it only appears in my post box.

So what I am saying is if you ask me a question there is no" REPLY" or better still " REPLY TO THIS POST" button at the bottom of your post so I have to reply with "REPLY with QUOTE" or make a post that starts with your name so you would know the answer I give is for you specifically. I bet you will be confused now I know I am ha ha.

 

[bigaar]

For the all vertical flue above my BK I use a sooteater. The junk from the flue all falls down into the stove. Clean out that junk with a vacuum. Then remove all other debris from the stove with the shovel and then clean up with a vacuum. Don't forget to suck on the cat so that all debris that has settled inside the 2" thick cat element comes out. That's pretty much it for cleaning. You can check the door and bypass tension too.

Are you looking for info on cleaning the glass? The outside of the stove? The flue?

Thanks for the info. So, just to be clear, with an all vertical system and the bypass open, all debris from the flue will fall into the firebox where I simply shovel it out of the firebox? I was worried there would be some sort of lip or something that it could get hung up on. I also am curious about what you prefer to use for the glass and the outside of the stove.

One more question/concern. Occasionally, when I start the stove up from cold, then engage the bypass when up to temp, the stove will start to emit the paint curing smell. It appears that it occurs at the very bottom of the flue just above the stove because that paint has turned slightly lighter than the rest of the black chimney pipe. This has never happened when closing the bypass after hot reloads, only when starting up from cold. I was thinking that maybe when my stove is dying out that I'm getting some sort of accumulation. Then, that accumulation burns or melts off once I close in the cat on the next burn? Has anybody experienced this or know a likely culprit?

 

[Highbeam]

Thanks for the info. So, just to be clear, with an all vertical system and the bypass open, all debris from the flue will fall into the firebox where I simply shovel it out of the firebox? I was worried there would be some sort of lip or something that it could get hung up on. I also am curious about what you prefer to use for the glass and the outside of the stove.

One more question/concern. Occasionally, when I start the stove up from cold, then engage the bypass when up to temp, the stove will start to emit the paint curing smell. It appears that it occurs at the very bottom of the flue just above the stove because that paint has turned slightly lighter than the rest of the black chimney pipe. This has never happened when closing the bypass after hot reloads, only when starting up from cold. I was thinking that maybe when my stove is dying out that I'm getting some sort of accumulation. Then, that accumulation burns or melts off once I close in the cat on the next burn? Has anybody experienced this or know a likely culprit?

When you sweep the chimney while it is still connected to the BK, open the bypass first. Most of the debris will fall into the firebox and land on the bricks. Some gets stuck up above in the cat chamber. Getting the junk out of there is not easy and you have two options. One is pretty foolproof, you remove the flue from the stove and shove the vacuum hose in through the flue collar from above to suck everything out. The second involves a flexible vacuum hose that you shove into the bypass opening and suck everything out from below. With that second method it can be tricky to remove the junk that may accumulate right on the back of the cat element so you have to have good flexibility to clean it all and to inspect the back of the cat from below to be sure you got it all. I've done both and both work well. A little inspection mirror or a cell phone camera allows you to be sure that you have removed all of the debris from the little channel right behind the cat. The extra effort for method #2 is rewarded by not having to remove the flue at all. Bad things can happen with that such as stripped screw holes, scratched paint, etc. but the cleaning is much easier.

For the glass..... the BK makes a really nasty accumulation on the door glass in the bottom corners. I start with an application of rutland stove glass cleaner which is a blue paste that dissolves the really tarry stuff and provides lubrication for the next step. Next step is a razor blade to scrape the junk off. It really works. Then with the paper towel still covered in paste, clean up the remnants and finally wipe off the dried paste with a clean paper towel. I do this once of twice a year. About half of the glass stays clean and that's good enough when running a BK on low 90% of the time.

Stoves smell during warm up. Be sure that you aren't waiting too long before engaging the cat. Once that meter hits "active" engage the cat. As soon as the fire stays lively with the door closed, latch the door closed. Also, are you monitoring flue temps? It is possible to overheat the flue during warm up. Keep the flue under 1000 degrees internal, 500 degrees surface. If it really is paint curing then it will eventually stop curing and the smell will stop.

 

[jetsam]

Thanks for the info. So, just to be clear, with an all vertical system and the bypass open, all debris from the flue will fall into the firebox where I simply shovel it out of the firebox? I was worried there would be some sort of lip or something that it could get hung up on. I also am curious about what you prefer to use for the glass and the outside of the stove.

One more question/concern. Occasionally, when I start the stove up from cold, then engage the bypass when up to temp, the stove will start to emit the paint curing smell. It appears that it occurs at the very bottom of the flue just above the stove because that paint has turned slightly lighter than the rest of the black chimney pipe. This has never happened when closing the bypass after hot reloads, only when starting up from cold. I was thinking that maybe when my stove is dying out that I'm getting some sort of accumulation. Then, that accumulation burns or melts off once I close in the cat on the next burn? Has anybody experienced this or know a likely culprit?

On my stove, the sweeping crud mostly falls into the firebox, but some of it lands on the ledge behind the cat. I reach up there with the shopvac and clean it out from behind, then feel with my hand to make sure I got it all, then vac the cat out from the front. Takes about a minute.

Not sure about the curing-paint thing. I would think that if you run it with the thermostat wide open for a couple hours this winter, that should fix whatever it is.

 

[BKVP]

If you have a vertical install and take the time to get a slip joint (telescoping) section of pipe, the cleaning of the chimney is simple.

Remove screws that secure pipe. Lift up on slip joint. (installed properly, it will just hang from ceiling support box) Put bucket under pipe and slide pipe down until it bottom out inside the bucket. Brush from the roof. Lift pipe, remove bucket, vac inside dome area any loose debris and while you're at it, use a soft bristle paint brush and brush of rear of combustor.

Secure the chimney pipe to stove flue collar. Clean thoroughly your work area, so wife has little as possible to comment on your cleaning skills.

If your roof is very steep, or if it is icy and you need to sweep, follow the above process, except use a bucket with a 3/4" hole in the bottom center. Push cleaning rod thru hole from bottom of bucket to inside of bucket. Attach brush to rod inside bucket. Call over buddy with promise of a beer and have him hold bucket up against pipe. With rag around cleaning rod under hole in bucket, push cleaning rod up and into the chimney. Repeat process as you add enough cleaning rods to reach full chimney length.

PS You can substitute your wife in place of the buddy, however she will tell you all the ways you are doing it wrong. Fact!

 

[lsucet]

This is a good tip for me also, because i am planning on doing it from bottom/up. i will not like to go thru the bypass. I know many here do it that way but i prefer disconnect the stove pipe.

 

[BKVP]

Going through the bypass is actually the "best" way for a insert application.

If you are uncomfortable with or do not have the tools or experience to clean your chimney or venting system, the absolute best path is to retain the services of a Certified Chimney Sweep!

 

[lsucet]

This is what i am planning to do. I get at lowes a wye pvc fitting 6 in in diameter. i will connect it to the support box, one side of the wye will be connect it to a shop vacuum and the other port with a lid and a hole for the soot eater.

 

[begreen]

This is what i am planning to do. I get at lowes a wye pvc fitting 6 in in diameter. i will connect it to the support box, one side of the wye will be connect it to a shop vacuum and the other port with a lid and a hole for the soot eater.

It is so much easier to just go up through the inside of the stove and straight up the flue collar. Tape a sheet of plastic over the stove door and cut a slit for the sooteater.