I recently cleaned my flue without cleaning the cap because it looked ok. Now I think that it needs cleaning. Can I clean the cap without dismantling the flue and open the bypass to prevent junk from falling into the cat.
Cleaning cap with bypass open
- Thread starter bikedennis
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Dieselhead
Minister of Fire
You didn’t state what model you have, but on my king most debris that falls down the chimney with the bypass open will end up directly behind the cat. Even more will end up behind the cat if the bypass is closed, chimney cleaned, then bypass opened. The cat chamber must be cleaned after any sweeping in my case.
It depends. You can remove the cap to clean it, and maybe throw away that stupid bird screen. If you chimney is all vertical and you knock stuff down the flue then it will all pile up in the bypass area and bugger up the seal. If your chimney is not all vertical, maybe has a 90 somewhere and some horizontal pipe, then you can consider a small amount of debris falling down the stack as no big deal.
Open bypass or closed bypass doesn't matter. Stuff from above will pile up in all the wrong places. The bypass only opens a little bit.
Open bypass or closed bypass doesn't matter. Stuff from above will pile up in all the wrong places. The bypass only opens a little bit.
Bottom line is that you'll need to take the pipe off the stove the vacuum behind the cat. Don't want either cat or bypass seal or mechanism to be covered in crud.
Are you making it through a full season without cleaning the bypass seal area of fallen debris? One of the minor shortcomings of the BK combustion package is that the bypass sealing surface is so easily fouled by debris falling from above. I get more falling debris as the season goes on probably because of greater temperature swings causing the stuff to spall off. With every fire I reach up and sweep debris off of the seal.
I do one midseason cleaning. Not really needed but it feels better.
My cleaning is always with the stove pipe off, so at that point I do clean the bypass gasket, but it's not really needed because nothing falls there (during cleaning because no pipe and during burning I don't know why).
I tried cleaning through the bypass last time, and it worked really well.
Of course, I detach the pipe afterwards to clean behind the cat and around the bypass, but there was less debris than expected, most of that really fell into the stove itself.
Yes, but I go up 2 ft, then horizontal 4-ish ft (yup), then up 25-26 ft.
And that second 90 is already a bit of a struggle, and it's easier to go in through the thimble, so with the pipe off. The first 90 would be okay given that its radius is longer, but then I'd run into that second 90.
I take the pipe off, bring it outside and run the sooteater through there, going in from both sides. Then I use the leaf blower to blow everything out of that pipe. Then the bag on the stub sticking out of the thimble, sooteater through the hole, and go from there.
And that second 90 is already a bit of a struggle, and it's easier to go in through the thimble, so with the pipe off. The first 90 would be okay given that its radius is longer, but then I'd run into that second 90.
I take the pipe off, bring it outside and run the sooteater through there, going in from both sides. Then I use the leaf blower to blow everything out of that pipe. Then the bag on the stub sticking out of the thimble, sooteater through the hole, and go from there.
That must be why your bypass seal area stays so clean between chimnney cleanings. You only have 2' of vertical to naturally drop stuff into the stove. I get junk from the chimney cap falling down every dang day. I just sweep the gasket with my hand before loading. It's pretty warm sometimes!
That, of course, is different. I only have two 45's somewhere up in the attic...
If you're doing hot reloads, that's quite the understatement.
Call me a wimp, but I use welder's gloves for the reloads...
Reaching up there to sweep the bypass seal clear is skipped on those relatively rare hot reload days. Normally, I burn in full cycles and the reload is done on a stove with a cat that has fallen below the active range but it has definitely been hotter than it looks a few times. It's not so much the fingerprint side of your fingers that burn but your knuckles against the open bypass plate. I may be overdoing it by worrying about junk on that bypass seal, I just don't think that this seal needs to be 100% but I take reasonable steps to not make it a horrible seal.
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