2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 2 (Everything BK)

[becasunshine]

Do not remove the cat until you are ready to replace the cat. I can’t think of any reason to ever remove the cat for cleaning.

From the inside, through the flue, there is a little metal curtain blocking the back of the cat from full access but you can verify it’s clear and no puke or junk is back there. Suck on both sides of the cat to clear all cells.

Use your cell phone camera as an inspection camera to look through all cells.

Also, don’t forget to verify that the rest of the chimney is clear including the cap.

Hubs gets on the roof with a Soot Eater every year and cleans the chimney. He pulls the cap and cleans it when he cleans the chimney. So far, because we are literally "mid-Atlantic," it's not that clogged.

You are correct about checking the cap- thank you!

 

[webby3650]

Hubs gets on the roof with a Soot Eater every year and cleans the chimney. He pulls the cap and cleans it when he cleans the chimney. So far, because we are literally "mid-Atlantic," it's not that clogged.

You are correct about checking the cap- thank you!

He could be cleaning it from below with the sooteater.

 

[Ashful]

Has anybody with an Ashford tried a stove top key damper for smoke smell or cleaner glass yet?

I’ve been buying all of the parts to do it, so I’ll be doing it soon. I’m installing (in this order, bottom up):

1. Probe thermometer
2. Magnehelic with metal to high-temp plastic tubing
3. Key damper

I actually have a damper I bought back when I had single wall on this chimney, not sure if it can be made to work with double wall, will be looking at that later tonight.

 

[WhitePlatinum]

Built my block off plate today and cut the damper with a grinder to allow room for the liner that is supposed to be here tomorrow.....won't be long now!

 

[jetsam]

You should never blow air compressor air through your cat at any pressure because of the possibility of oil (or whatever rusty goo is in the air tank) contamination. @becasunshine , I would order 2 new gaskets and a new cat. Vacuum out the cat now and see how it does. When your parts arrive, you have the option of letting the old cat ride, giving your old cat a vinegar bath and getting some more life out of it, or just swapping it for the new cat.

All of the above are pretty easy to do.

The new cat isn't going to go bad if you decide not to use it this year, so it certainly won't hurt to have it on hand.

 

[Ashful]

You should never blow air compressor air through your cat at any pressure because of the possibility of oil (or whatever rusty goo is in the air tank) contamination. @becasunshine , I would order 2 new gaskets and a new cat. Vacuum out the cat now and see how it does. When your parts arrive, you have the option of letting the old cat ride, giving your old cat a vinegar bath and getting some more life out of it, or just swapping it for the new cat.

All of the above are pretty easy to do.

The new cat isn't going to go bad if you decide not to use it this year, so it certainly won't hurt to have it on hand.

I've found that's what it takes. Besides, I was using my oil-less compressor that I used for nail guns, not a traditional compressor.

I thought BKVP actually advised someone to do exactly this, on more than one occasion, but I suppose I could be remembering wrong.

 

[jetsam]

I've found that's what it takes. Besides, I was using my oil-less compressor that I used for nail guns, not a traditional compressor.
I thought BKVP actually advised someone to do exactly this, on more than one occasion, but I suppose I could be remembering wrong.

Maybe I was brainwashed by that firecat instruction manual a few threads back. =D

I do not have a clear grasp of exactly what substances can be run through a cat. I've heard from a dozen sources that you should NEVER burn wax logs; firecat's cat care manual says that wax is fine. I assume that oil is bad, but the cats are too expensive to experiment with. :\

 

[WhitePlatinum]

You should never blow air compressor air through your cat at any pressure because of the possibility of oil (or whatever rusty goo is in the air tank) contamination. @becasunshine , I would order 2 new gaskets and a new cat. Vacuum out the cat now and see how it does. When your parts arrive, you have the option of letting the old cat ride, giving your old cat a vinegar bath and getting some more life out of it, or just swapping it for the new cat.

All of the above are pretty easy to do.

The new cat isn't going to go bad if you decide not to use it this year, so it certainly won't hurt to have it on hand.

Are you saying the cat can go bad in "x" number of years? My stove is brand new in the box but 7 years old, could this be a problem?

 

[jetsam]

Are you saying the cat can go bad in "x" number of years? My stove is brand new in the box but 7 years old, could this be a problem?

It will lose effectiveness and die over the course of x hours of burning (x =~ 12000). I am not aware that they have a shelf life, and suspect that 50 years in a box would not be an issue.

If you burn a few sticks a couple times a year for "ambiance", the original cat will probably outlast the stove. If you use it for primary heat in a northern state, you might hit 12k hours in 2 years.

 

[kf6hap]

It was always my belief that compressed air, even at low pressures, would -ike a high pressure washer stripping paint from wood-strip off the flaky very soft invisible catalytic coating. Oil and water in the airstream make it worse. Just about any authoritative cat website will tell you to not use compressed air but vacuuming and a soft brush are ok. Almost always the blockage is on the very face of the cat so vacuuming does the job quite nicely. Pull the anti-flame impingement plate, vacuum, replace the plate and you're done. All in less than 5 minutes.

Flow blockage behind the cat can be attended to by lifting the telescoping stove to ceiling pipe and cleaning with a vacuum. Place a short piece of 1/2" or 3/4" pipe in the vacuum hose and hold it with your hand to get deeper in. Look up the flue and check for buildup.

It is common and normal for a cat to not become red across the whole front surface. It need not be glowing to be functioning. Glow is neither good nor bad, inactivity is shown by the thermometer. Failure is indicated by abnormal thermometer readings,.

Burn ONLY pure wood. Contaminants will "poison" the cat. Some wax has metal in it, so use only major brand fire starters.

This is my take, anyway.

 

[kf6hap]

I actually have a damper I bought back when I had single wall on this chimney, not sure if it can be made to work with double wall, will be looking at that later tonight.

If the damper does not fit into the stove one end of it can be shrunk using needle nosed pliers to form a crimped end. No need to purchase a sheet metal crimper. You might find, depending on diameters, the damper will need to be crimped on both ends. Perhaps not kosher having both ends crimped but inside the house where rain is not a problem it doesn't matter.

 

[becasunshine]

He could be cleaning it from below with the sooteater.

I've suggested that. He has his own way of doing things. The wisest thing a good woman can do is let him do it HIIIIIIS WAAAAAY.

 

[becasunshine]

Well, we took the stove pipe off and put a flashlight and eyes on the back of the CAT. We vacuumed it off/out, both front and back, with just the ash vacuum. It was covered with brown/gray fly ash and really, nothing else.

I'm no expert in this area but it looks OK to us: color looks good, still metallic, no distortions, cracks or chunks missing. The stove pipe looks really clean too.

Thank y'all for your help. It proved more useful than you know. This morning when we woke up, in preparation for checking out the CAT, we cranked up our condensing gas/propane furnace instead of loading the wood stove.

Guess what? Furnace is offline. (We have PLENTY of propane.) The furnace will ignite, successfully, and then immediately shut down. Three times through that cycle and it's done- no joy.

The condenser drain line isn't frozen- we've had that problem before, so we had the HVAC company install a bypass on the line.

Not sure what's going on now. The HVAC company can't get here until after 4pm today.

We're going to wrestle the stove pipe back into place (FILM AT 11) and fire the wood stove back up.

 

[webby3650]

I've suggested that. He has his own way of doing things. The wisest thing a good woman can do is let him do it HIIIIIIS WAAAAAY.

Na! We need your opinion on things. Just make it look like it was his idea next time!

 

[Ashful]

If the damper does not fit into the stove one end of it can be shrunk using needle nosed pliers to form a crimped end. No need to purchase a sheet metal crimper. You might find, depending on diameters, the damper will need to be crimped on both ends. Perhaps not kosher having both ends crimped but inside the house where rain is not a problem it doesn't matter.

No issue there, I actually have the crimpers. But the damper I have doesn’t have a pipe section with it, it’s designed to install into an existing pipe section. One of these:

I’ve never seen one of them in double wall.

 

[begreen]

No issue there, I actually have the crimpers. But the damper I have doesn’t have a pipe section with it, it’s designed to install into an existing pipe section. One of these:

View attachment 220818

I’ve never seen one of them in double wall.

They make them for double wall. If available that's the way I would go. What brand stove pipe?

 

[Dieselhead]

Well, we took the stove pipe off and put a flashlight and eyes on the back of the CAT. We vacuumed it off/out, both front and back, with just the ash vacuum. It was covered with brown/gray fly ash and really, nothing else.

I'm no expert in this area but it looks OK to us: color looks good, still metallic, no distortions, cracks or chunks missing. The stove pipe looks really clean too. View attachment 220811 View attachment 220812 View attachment 220813

Thank y'all for your help. It proved more useful than you know. This morning when we woke up, in preparation for checking out the CAT, we cranked up our condensing gas/propane furnace instead of loading the wood stove.

Guess what? Furnace is offline. (We have PLENTY of propane.) The furnace will ignite, successfully, and then immediately shut down. Three times through that cycle and it's done- no joy.

The condenser drain line isn't frozen- we've had that problem before, so we had the HVAC company install a bypass on the line.

Not sure what's going on now. The HVAC company can't get here until after 4pm today.

We're going to wrestle the stove pipe back into place (FILM AT 11) and fire the wood stove back up.

Flame sensor or the tubes that the propane comes out of are dirty or rusty my bet.

 

[Dieselhead]

No issue there, I actually have the crimpers. But the damper I have doesn’t have a pipe section with it, it’s designed to install into an existing pipe section. One of these:

View attachment 220818

I’ve never seen one of them in double wall.

I have one from Selkirk in double wall

 

[begreen]

I have one from Selkirk in double wall

I had one on DuraVent DVL pipe

 

[becasunshine]

Flame sensor or the tubes that the propane comes out of are dirty or rusty my bet.

I wouldn't know flame sensors or propane tubes from an ice cream cone but given our environment- on salt water- rust is always a viable answer to any question about a problem.

We are fortunate enough to have a service call today. It will be after 4pm, but that's OK. Stove is back up and running, value added with temps and burn characteristics that are what we were accustomed to seeing before we noticed that the performance fell off. Stove is running normally now. <:3~

 

[Poindexter]

@becasunshine I agree with the consensus here. Your combustor is probably not worn out, but is behaving like it needs a thorough gentle vacuum cleaning.

 

[becasunshine]

@becasunshine I agree with the consensus here. Your combustor is probably not worn out, but is behaving like it needs a thorough gentle vacuum cleaning.

Did you see the pictures? (An aside, it's surprisingly difficult to take pictures of the back of a CAT that is still installed!)

Per above, we aren't experts at this but the CAT looked fine to us. It still has its metal finish, it's not distorted or cracked or missing chunks.

We just used the ash vacuum, the back and front were covered with light gray/light brown fly ash and nothing else. The pictures above were after our first pass at the back of the CAT with the little brush attachment on the ash vacuum. It took the fly ash right off. We did vacuum all around the CAT too. Please ignore the fly ash on the bypass flap (whatever that thingy is called) we did vacuum that surface as well, along with the ash that was piled up on the ledge behind the CAT.

Got the stove pipe reinstalled (HOW MANY ADULTS AND LABRADOR RETRIEVERS DOES IT TAKE TO REINSTALL A STOVE PIPE? ANSWER- IS THAT WITH OR WITHOUT CURSE WORDS? or better said, WELL, HOW MANY DO YOU HAVE?) and the stove is running well now. The burn characteristics and temps are what we were used to seeing before The Epic Burn of Early 2018.

As suggested above, we will order gasket material at least, and perhaps another CAT to have on the shelf here, although we'd like to try the CAT cleaning method at least once, just to say that we know how to do it. Why not?

I need to go look- how much should we expect to pay for a new CAT? I was kinda thinking about NOT buying a spare CAT because the CAT is warrantied for 10 years- seemed like we'd be paying for a part that would be covered under warranty if it failed. On the other hand, peace of mind in a remote location is pretty priceless...

So how much money are we talking about here?

Thank y'all as always for your help, again. <:3~

 

[Highbeam]

Did you see the pictures? (An aside, it's surprisingly difficult to take pictures of the back of a CAT that is still installed!)

Per above, we aren't experts at this but the CAT looked fine to us. It still has its metal finish, it's not distorted or cracked or missing chunks.

We just used the ash vacuum, the back and front were covered with light gray/light brown fly ash and nothing else. The pictures above were after our first pass at the back of the CAT with the little brush attachment on the ash vacuum. It took the fly ash right off. We did vacuum all around the CAT too. Please ignore the fly ash on the bypass flap (whatever that thingy is called) we did vacuum that surface as well, along with the ash that was piled up on the ledge behind the CAT.

Got the stove pipe reinstalled (HOW MANY ADULTS AND LABRADOR RETRIEVERS DOES IT TAKE TO REINSTALL A STOVE PIPE? ANSWER- IS THAT WITH OR WITHOUT CURSE WORDS? or better said, WELL, HOW MANY DO YOU HAVE?) and the stove is running well now. The burn characteristics and temps are what we were used to seeing before The Epic Burn of Early 2018.

As suggested above, we will order gasket material at least, and perhaps another CAT to have on the shelf here, although we'd like to try the CAT cleaning method at least once, just to say that we know how to do it. Why not?

I need to go look- how much should we expect to pay for a new CAT? I was kinda thinking about NOT buying a spare CAT because the CAT is warrantied for 10 years- seemed like we'd be paying for a part that would be covered under warranty if it failed. On the other hand, peace of mind in a remote location is pretty priceless...

So how much money are we talking about here?

Thank y'all as always for your help, again. <:3~

186$ free shipping for an oem replacement.

 

[Patapsco Mike]

So how's those Blaze King stove's doing...

Blaze King King Wood Stove

Did you see the pictures? (An aside, it's surprisingly difficult to take pictures of the back of a CAT that is still installed!)

Per above, we aren't experts at this but the CAT looked fine to us. It still has its metal finish, it's not distorted or cracked or missing chunks.

As suggested above, we will order gasket material at least, and perhaps another CAT to have on the shelf here, although we'd like to try the CAT cleaning method at least once, just to say that we know how to do it. Why not?

I think you are right- one way to find out. Fire it up and see if the cat lights up and heats up... I did the vinegar bath with a cat that was weak and it bought me another two seasons. If yours is just from 2014 you should have a few years in it yet.

 

[shoot-straight]

another thing to take into account worth the suck vs blow argument on the cat is this- the vac could pull the garbage from behind the cat up into it. I'm speaking of the garbage that collects there because of the bypass. Sucking that crap through the cat isn't good for it either I'm sure.

Understand the caution about the blow, but I do think it has merit.