"Dirty" Blaze King windows

[Ashful]

Ahhhhh.......shoulder season. Interesting to see how others deal with it.

I’ll take this:

Autumn: Burn every chance you get. “Headed down from 75F to 59F tonight? Light ‘er up!”

Spring: The romantic notion of heating with wood has lost some of its luster. “What, it’s going up to 42F for an hour tomorrow afternoon? I won’t bother reloading.”

 

[jetsam]

Spring: The romantic notion of heating with wood has lost some of its luster. “What, it’s going up to 42F for an hour tomorrow afternoon? I won’t bother reloading.”

The romantic luster of it being above 50 in the.living room never quite fades for me. No matter how sick I am of schlepping wood.

 

[kennyp2339]

I don't know of anybody that gets 100% blockage where they can't see fire at all. If there is someone that does, I would be doubting their fuel supply and operational procedures.

me,burning my 1st season with the bk

 

[MtnBURN]

Spring: The romantic notion of heating with wood has lost some of its luster. ”

That may be the case at your house Ashful....but here we burn wood and wood alone for our heating needs from Oct- May. If we didn't burn the BK we'd have to dig out the back up heating system....aka the oil-filled electric space heater or the electric oven with the door open. Talk about a serious lack of luster! (for everyone but the Power Co.)

Yup...we get out the razor blade here as well when the glass gets too nast. We found that burning the Princess on high does little to clean the baked-on gunk off the glass but it does run us out of the house.

and it's that time again......

 

[webby3650]

I haven’t kept up with this whole thread. As was mentioned I believe, the Ashford and sirocco platforms have much cleaner glass. I’ve certainly found this to be the case after having one of each..

 

[Hardtopseadan]

My Princess had black glass from last winter but like others have said if I open the t stat you can see some fire. For me I don't care how dirty the glass gets as long as the chimney stays clean [emoji41] I love my cat.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[Ashful]

That may be the case at your house Ashful....but here we burn wood and wood alone for our heating needs from Oct- May. If we didn't burn the BK we'd have to dig out the back up heating system....aka the oil-filled electric space heater or the electric oven with the door open.

Usage patterns and methods are as varied as the members of this forum. In my case, the boiler is on six zones of programmable thermostats, all set to maintain the temperatures we desire, and I just try my best to keep ahead of them with the stoves. When it gets cold, and the stoves can’t keep up,the boiler picks up the difference.

 

[benthosMT]

I can't keep the glass of my new Ashford 30.2 clean. The manual says, "Should you burn the stove on a very low setting for extended periods of time, you will begin to see creosote deposits forming on the glass door. To remove these deposits, simply run the stove on HIGH for approximately 30 minutes. The HIGH setting will burn off most of the deposits"

That's just flat false. We cleaned the glass last relight, ran it on high, and the glass was getting covered within 30 minutes ON HIGH. This is a BS situation for a $5000 stove. Do better BK. I'm pissed. My 20 year-old Ovation had a MUCH better window air wash.

 

[Ashful]

I’ve put more than 75 cords thru a pair of Ashford 30.1’s, and can say with more authority than most that the glass stays pretty clean for a cat stove. If you’re finding otherwise, we need to understand if it’s an issue if wood moisture content, or unrealistic expectations.

Describe your fuel supply situation, in terms of years stacked as split, under roof or out in the weather, etc.

 

[DonTee]

My Princess window self cleans itself on high also. Only the bottom corners are dirty similar to Ashful’s pics.

As long as I keep the flue temp above about 350 it will stay clean also. Between 250 and 350 I get the longest burns, but the window does get a little dirty. Once I burn it on high for the next cycle it’s clean again.

I’d say a dirty window is caused by either not burning the stove hot enough each cycle to clean it, or wet wood…..

 

[Ashful]

I'm looking at one of my Ashfords now, as it's located just 15 feet from my desk chair. There's dark glaze covering the bottom corners, a triangle maybe 2" wide x 5" high in each corner. Then there's a whitish haze that's really just fly ash extending out from that, again covering each lower corner of the glass to maybe double that size. But the center and upper half are totally clean, and that's after a 12+ hour burn that just completed. I just reloaded a few minutes ago, getting her going again for the evening.

I have another Ashford 30 that I run on 24 hour cycles, and that one has a similar pattern of dirt only in the lower corners, but maybe 50% larger on the pattern due to the lower burn rate.

If one is comparing this to a non-cat, they might call it dirty. But compared to any older cat stove (eg. BK Princess), it's pretty damn clean.

 

[NHWS]

The glass on mine develops dragon eyes when I run it below around 50% air. Above 50% it stays mostly clean. 30 minutes on high isn't enough to clean it, though. Takes more like 3 or 4 hours.

I'm not very concerned about the cleanliness of the glass per se. I think of the stove as a heater, not as something to watch much. But the state of the glass may reflect the state of the firebox, and there has been discussion about creosote corroding the inside of the stove. I run the stove above 50% once or twice a week (depending on outside temps) for stove maintenance.

 

[benthosMT]

I’ve put more than 75 cords thru a pair of Ashford 30.1’s, and can say with more authority than most that the glass stays pretty clean for a cat stove. If you’re finding otherwise, we need to understand if it’s an issue if wood moisture content, or unrealistic expectations.

Describe your fuel supply situation, in terms of years stacked as split, under roof or out in the weather, etc.

I love how you give me two options, one that I'm incompetent, and the other that I'm stupid. LOL.

 

[benthosMT]

I'm looking at one of my Ashfords now, as it's located just 15 feet from my desk chair. There's dark glaze covering the bottom corners, a triangle maybe 2" wide x 5" high in each corner. Then there's a whitish haze that's really just fly ash extending out from that, again covering each lower corner of the glass to maybe double that size. But the center and upper half are totally clean, and that's after a 12+ hour burn that just completed. I just reloaded a few minutes ago, getting her going again for the evening.

I have another Ashford 30 that I run on 24 hour cycles, and that one has a similar pattern of dirt only in the lower corners, but maybe 50% larger on the pattern due to the lower burn rate.

If one is comparing this to a non-cat, they might call it dirty. But compared to any older cat stove (eg. BK Princess), it's pretty damn clean.

That's about it. Yep. Your glass has significant accumulation too. I assume your wood is good. So, I must have "unrealistic expectations." Again, my $1200 Ovation from 2004 had clean glass all the time. Yep, it was a non-cat.

Realistic expectations might be founded on accurate literature from BK. I'd like some truth in marketing if this is the best I can expect, something like, "The Ashford has a large glass viewing window, but you'll only be able to see half of your fire most of the time because this, THE MOST EXPENSIVE STOVE IN ITS CLASS, isn't engineered well enough to keep the glass clean (unlike your cheap old 90s non-cat stove."

 

[DonTee]

I’ll take the performance of a BK stove over perfectly clean glass any day. I have my stove to heat the house, not look at the pretty fire. Although my wife’s opinion is slightly different. Lol.

 

[reaperman1]

My wood is ten years seasoned oak and I can’t keep my glass clean either. It sucks because I need to shine a flashlight thru the glass to see how much wood is inside the stove, and most of the time that doesn’t work either. When I try to run it on high the flu temps immediately raise and get too hot for me. I don’t see how the flu can’t overheat when running any wood stove wide open, or even even half open.

When the cat glows bright orange for hours the glass will partially clean.

 

[Ashful]

That's about it. Yep. Your glass has significant accumulation too. I assume your wood is good. So, I must have "unrealistic expectations." Again, my $1200 Ovation from 2004 had clean glass all the time. Yep, it was a non-cat.

Yes, it's unrealistic to expect that the cleanliness of your glass is completely independent of burn rate. You went from a stove that can't turn down much below a rate of 3 hours per cubic foot of wood, to a much better stove that can easily do 10-12 hours per cubic foot of wood. Burning wood slower leaves more accumulation in the firebox.

It wasn't an insult, but you're not taking all factors into consideration. If you only ever run the BK at the same burn rate as the Ovation, the glass will remain every bit as clean. But you're not doing that. Again, for a cat stove, the Ashford's glass stays pretty clean.

 

[mellow]

I did find that using Rutland glass cleaner helped to keep the glass cleaner for longer, it left behind a film that helped to block the ash from sticking. However I did find that running it on high for an hour would clean the glass, but I would also have to open a window.

Stove, Grill & Hearth Conditioning Glass Cleaner

RUTLAND Stove, Grill & Hearth Conditioning Glass Cleaner cleans, conditions, and protects glass, stainless steel, chrome, and ceramic range tops.

rutland.com

 

[Tron]

I may have mentioned that before, but as I also mostly run low, I usually use a razor blade scraper to remove most of the glass deposits when emptying the ash. 2-minute job. As long as the door seal does not get sliced open, I don't see the downside.

 

[stoveliker]

I cleaned the glass last relight, ran it on high, and the glass was getting covered within 30 minutes ON HIGH. This is a BS situation for a $5000 stove. Do better BK. I'm pissed. My 20 year-old Ovation had a MUCH better window air wash.

If one burns (all caps) on high and the clean windows get dirty, something is wrong.
Whether that is stove (leaking door or window gaskets will create deposits on the window) or the wood (wet) I can't tell.

I do note that no answer was given regarding the wood quality, suggesting that a cooperative effort to find out what aspect is causing this unwished for stove behavior is not desired...?

But I think *all* to-spec installs that start with a clean glass and burn high will have a very clean glass everywhere but the one inch lower corners...

I do agree that burning for half an hour on high doesn't completely clean my window either. It's 2 hrs or more for me.

 

[Nelson]

So, I hear a ton of criticism here, often from folks who have never owned a Blaze King stove, about them having dirty black windows. I don't get it, as my two BK windows never get nearly as dirty as the critics imply they will.

Here's my cold stove after a 15 hour burn on a load that's 80% oak and 20% cedar. I use cedar for cold starts, to get the oak going.

View attachment 188074

Here's my other stove on a fresh reload after a 24 hour slow burn. Previous load was 80/20 oak cedar, this load is all oak and ash.

View attachment 188075

In both cases, you will note that only the lower corners of the glass are dirty, the rest is clean and clear.

Is this really dirtier than others? My Jotuls were usually dirtier than this, and they could not burn anywhere near as low and slow as these stoves.

I contend that anyone complaining about dirty glass on a BK is either always burning much, much, much lower than any other stove can, or their wood isn't quite as dry as they believe.

This is exactly what my glass looks like 98% of the time on my Princess. Seems like earlier in the season I can get dirtier glass but only anecdotal observation.

 

[Dieselhead]

What’s this visible fire talk? Mine smolders like a cigar unless it’s in the teens or lower. My glass filth is in a v shape currently, 20 hours into this load.

 

[DonTee]

Visible fire? We don’t need no stinkin visible fire

 

[Diabel]

Low burn = dirty glass
High burn = clean glass


What am I missing here?😝

 

[Ashful]

Low burn = dirty glass
High burn = clean glass


What am I missing here?😝

All true. But my point back when I started this thread 7.5 years ago is that the BK30's actually don't even get all that dirty when running on low burn. Not like the photos I've seen of classic Princess and King models, anyway. It appears the air wash is more aggressive on these newer models, whether intentionally or by accident of design.