Blaze king princess smoke smell?

[Jeff in Maine]

1) I smell smoke when the stove is turned down to about the 3-4 o-clock position during the overnight or when we come back after being away a few hours. Door seal and By-pass seals are in good firm contact thus the "Dollar Bill Test" done this pre season.

Likely due to cat being inactive and draft issues.

2) The Cat does not stay active when the thermostat is turned down to 4 and below

That could be be either fuel/chimney or the cat.

3) Right now, the stove is WOT and there are barely flames visible inside compared to the wild roaring flames usually present at WOT. I never run it at WOT as a daylong setting, only for startup and charring the new loads. If turn it down to 3-4 it will not stay active.

We can eliminate the cat therm being the issue if the wood won't burn hot/flames. Likely cat/fuel or chimney.

4) Yes the chimney is clean just cleaned it this morning have not shoveled out the crap yet but the flue is open.

OK, no the chimney.

5) Yes the wood is extremely dry over 3.5 years of split stacked under cover. Lots of drying cracks (checking) on the butt ends.

OK, no the fuel.

6) I have burned maybe a pickup truck load equivalent of seasoned white Fir between last year and this winter, would that provide enough fly ash to plug the cat?

Fly ash can be more of an issue in strong drafting installations. Fly ash also seems skewed towards those burning soft woods.


7) I did not blow out the Cat before this burn season, so it has about 8,500 or 9,000 hours of burn time on it without blowing it off. Is this the issue??

Perhaps, blow it out. Masking (deposits laying on top of the precious metal)can definitely influence cat activity.

BKVP

Chris,
Can I blow it from the front? That would likely save me from having to wait till late tomorrow for the stove to cool off enough for me to have to remove the stovepipe so as to blow it from the "inside out"

 

[stoveliker]

Shouldn't matter from which side.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

Ok I will give her some tomorrow thanks!

 

[Highbeam]

Ok I will give her some tomorrow thanks!

You should be able to use your cell phone camera to take a photo "through" a clear catalyst while it is installed. Not too much air pressure, you can actually blow off the catalyst.

In my experience, you are way past the expected life of a steel cat but blowing this one out only costs you time and maybe it will work.

 

[BKVP]

Chris,
Can I blow it from the front? That would likely save me from having to wait till late tomorrow for the stove to cool off enough for me to have to remove the stovepipe so as to blow it from the "inside out"

Yes...

BKVP

 

[Jeff in Maine]

Ok thank you both.