New Ashford25 insert. Peeling paint question.

[motorcoconut]

Hi all,

I'm a new owner of a Blaze King Ashford 25 insert, glad to be here. Aside from the first burn smokiness/stinky burnoff it's been operating nicely.

Today's my second burn from a cold stove as the last few days have been unseasonably warm and I was looking at the cat and noticed the pipe near the top was flaking something (paint?). Is this normal? Attached are some pics, hopefully they show the issue. There's also a plasticky odor, different from the first burnoff.

Is this to be expected, and maybe still part of the curing process? I am burning seasoned splits that have been in my shed for the past 3 years and moisture is @9-15% so the wood should be dry enough. When the pic was taken the thermometer was barely past the 12 o'clock position, within the active zone.

Any advice would be great thanks.

 

[stoveliker]

That's not paint but creosote from the previous burn.
All is good, this is normal.

Do burn on high for an hour or two (with the bypass closed) once a week or so so that this build up in the firebox cleans out a bit.

The pipe is where the air comes to the front towards the air wash. It's therefore a colder part (the air heats up there before being released into the box via the air wash at the top of the door), and colder parts collect creosote.

 

[stoveliker]

No paint on the inside of the firebox; it would burn off anyway.

The smell will come back each time you hit a higher temperature. Maybe slightly different but coming back nonetheless. That's also normal.

 

[motorcoconut]

Thanks for the quick reply. That makes perfect sense that it would be creosote. I'm still learning things and didn't want to burn it too hot initially. The glass is all sooted up already, I'll probably need to burn it hot soon but temps are supposed to be in the 70s this week, crazy.

 

[stoveliker]

How dry is your wood?

 

[reaperman1]

Do burn on high for an hour or two (with the bypass closed) once a week or so so that this build up in the firebox cleans out a bit.

How in the world do you burn your stove on high for that long without the flu temps getting too hot?

 

[motorcoconut]

How dry is your wood?

The ones i have sitting in my shed are between 9-15% moisture. I have a smaller stack in my garage that I just checked and those are between 5-9% on the exterior without splitting into the center. I’ve had this stack sitting for 3 years now so i think it should be dry enough.

 

[stoveliker]

I agree, that should be fine.

I think (but it's hard to see) that that layer is a bit much after only one burn. (But I don't remember my one time with a clean air tube )
Maybe because it ran dialed down a lot (it's not been very cold yet).
But it's nothing to worry about.

 

[Warm Floor]

How in the world do you burn your stove on high for that long without the flu temps getting too hot?

If your BK acts like mine when starting from cold the flue temp when door is closed and damper is fully open does not usually get much higher that 700 degrees, usually 600 and under. For most of the certified flue systems I've read about, that's well below any danger point.

Of course, if you don't have a device that monitor's it you won't know.

I normally find that my stoves internal temperature has burn off most moisture and has normalized for the long burn within that 1-2 hour time frame that stoverliker has mentioned. I tend to lean toward the 45min to 1 hour side of things before I begin tapering down my thermostat. After that, depending on how dampened I go the internal flue is below 650 on high end and above 350 on the low end.

 

[stoveliker]

My flue does get warm; around 800 F when I do the full throttle burn once a week.

In my reading the post by @Warm Floor suggests to burn 1-2 hrs " to burn of moisture and normalize for the long burn" - that I do not do for this long. I dial down the thermostat after a hot reload in 20 minutes or significantly less depending on wood species and dryness. At a cold start I am also far below an hour there.
However, this depends a lot on how the wood takes off. I judge this by how the fire looks, how the wood looks (is it all black or still significantly "wood color") etc.

My advice to burn at full throttle (and closed bypass) once a week (or so) for an hour or two is to clean out the gunk in the firebox. Different purpose.

 

[Highbeam]

Burning good dry softwoods I can overfire my flue during warmup. My chimney is only 12' tall so I think it's all about the fuel. I don't let flue temps get above 1000 so I know it can get that high. I usually run it up to 800 with a new fire in an effort to char the load and dry out any condensation that might have occured in the flue. This can often happen well before the recommended 20 minute warm up time in the manual which is just a rough guidance.

For the firebox cleanout burns I split the wood smaller and stack it in alternating directions not all the way to the top. You want the intense heat down low to clean up the bricks, glass, and walls of the firebox. I still don't leave the throttle wide open and definitely monitor flue temperatures. Good dry wood can make a hot stack.

 

[Tron]

The glass is all sooted up already, I'll probably need to burn it hot soon

That's something that really can't be avoided, especially if you're burning on low.
Instead of baking myself out of the house on a 1-hour burn on high I take a razor scrape to the glass every time I clean out the ashes. That works really well to remove the deposits.