Blaze King Catalytic Thermometer Crudded Up

[erice]

I've got a BK Princess 15 months old. The cat thermometer operates well, but suddenly, a few months ago, it began getting a hard-to-remove black deposit on it and now is almost unusable. I notice the hole that the thermometer goes into is not a snug fit. Is there supposed to be a part that prevents gasses from coming up from the cat? I'm not noticing any odor or smoke coming up from it.

Anybody else had this problem?

Eric

 

[erice]

It's not clear from my email above that the crud is on the top face of the thermometer, not the part that goes into the stove top.

 

[moresnow]

Mine gets some build up also. Nothing that would make it hard to remove? There is no other part/component required in the hole.
Are you saying yours is no longer functioning due to build up? If so. What are you burning? Sounds like very wet fuel perhaps causing significant fouling? Any chance you have tested the moisture content of your wood? Fill us in.

 

[moresnow]

Ahhhh. Your getting build up on the face of your meter? That is beyond my experience! Other than some discoloration over the years. Hey @BKVP.

 

[Highbeam]

A picture would really help here. The face of that meter is outside of the stove so getting anything on it would mean that junk was once outside of the stove.

Did some yahoo try to warm up a peanut butter cup by setting it on the meter?

 

[moresnow]

Have you had dark/black liquid drip from your connector pipe joints onto your stove top? Or over boil your Top Ramen survival snack

 

[showrguy]

A picture would really help here. The face of that meter is outside of the stove so getting anything on it would mean that junk was once outside of the stove.

Did some yahoo try to warm up a peanut butter cup by setting it on the meter?

Highbeam nailed it
Peanutbuttercupwarmerupper..... Brilliant..

 

[BKVP]

Ahhhh. Your getting build up on the face of your meter? That is beyond my experience! Other than some discoloration over the years. Hey @BKVP.

I've learned to never say never...but this might change...never mind.

 

[jetsam]

The hole is not tight or gasketed, but it is over the only airflow out of the stove, so while all the cat exhaust does go by there, the negative pressure of the flue is sucking a little air through that hole. You would need to have neutral drft or draft reversal for exhaust gasses to come out of that hole. (This is not common and it doesn't sound like you have it.)

On a related topic, do you get terrible smoke in the room when you open the door sometimes?

It sounds to me like this is not the case and you have some foreign material on the thermometer. Give us some good closeup photos!

 

[erice]

Ok, Ok..... I give up.

It IS true my girlfriend OR I do heat stuff up on the stove top, and I agree the only plausible explanation is the 'peanut butter warming' one. It must have been Nancy that did it.

I cleaned it up as much as possible; enough so I could read where the 'cat starts here' place is, and ground a groove I can use.

Thank you, all of you.

Eric