blaze king maintenance

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The major cleaning is a risky move as noted by those that have gone so far as to remove the combustor and dropped them or chipped them. (They still work, but just don't look great)

So here is what happens. When you burn wood, a bunch of VOC's are released as well as potassium magnate. In many older cat stoves, the potassium magnate attacked the substrate material, mullite or cooderite and caused the substrate to fall apart. (by the way, cat stoves destroy 100% of all VOC's when the cat is over 500F also called active.)

Combustion by products lay over the top of the surface area over time and the precious metals cannot make contact with the smoke. That in turn starts the plugging that can plague cat stoves when used improperly. (Wet wood, trash burning etc.) Under a magnifying glass you would see the surface area of the combustor looks like the surface of the moon, tons of craters. This vastly increases total surface area and allows for more complete burning of the smoke.

When you do the major cleaning, which involves the distilled water and vinegar, the acids remove the deposited materials and once again expose the precious metals to the smoke. In essence, you can definitely rejuvenate a combustor by this process. Not likely to 100% new, but quite a bit and get some extended life from the combustor. Many owners tell us they have two combustors. One in use and the other cleaned, wrapped with new gasket and stored in a zip lock bag and ready to go. Every 6-8 years, they swap them out, clean the dirty one, regasket and store away for a another few years.

I have a King in my home and I must tell you I have never removed the combustor, not in 10 years. It burns like the day it was new and I have gone so far as to thermocouple the unit in my home to check temps and other specs. Dry wood, hot fires one and week and no chemicals are the most important conditions to assure a long life. (Keep the door gasket tension snug at all times as well.)

When a combustor is on it's last leg you will know it. The stove just will not "breath" and the wood will not burn to completion. So how do you get them to last, burn 18% or lower moisture content fuel. Never throw in wood with ice and snow and cause huge temperature swings to the ceramic, leave the door cracked as little as necessary, room air hitting the face of the combustor can damage it over time. Clean it with a soft brush and maybe vacuum at the end of each season.

One last note and then back to selling, if you have fans on your Blaze King's and the fans are on, the air movement across the top can give the cat. thermometer a false reading. Simply turn off the fans, do nothing else and watch the needle climb! We are working on a solution for this and should have it in the very near future.

Merry Christmas to all you wood burners (even those that haven't come over to the dark side!)

Chris
 
BKVP said:
So how do you get them to last, burn 18% or lower moisture content fuel. Never throw in wood with ice and snow and cause huge temperature swings to the ceramic, leave the door cracked as little as necessary, room air hitting the face of the combustor can damage it over time. Clean it with a soft brush and maybe vacuum at the end of each season.

Chris


All my wood is three years seasoned so the M/C is fine but occasionally the wood will have some snow or ice on it that doesn't get knocked off when I bring it in. Is this an issue even if I burn the snow/ice off the wood with the cat bypassed? I always burn the wood for about 10 minutes or so even if I'm reloading with the cat still active. If it's an issue I'll just start using a rubbermaid tub like I used to when I had to load the old stove 3-4 times a day and get the next load warmed up before burning it. I never leave the door cracked so that's not an issue, my stove seems to burn better with the door closed.
 
rdust said:
BKVP said:
So how do you get them to last, burn 18% or lower moisture content fuel. Never throw in wood with ice and snow and cause huge temperature swings to the ceramic, leave the door cracked as little as necessary, room air hitting the face of the combustor can damage it over time. Clean it with a soft brush and maybe vacuum at the end of each season.

Chris


All my wood is three years seasoned so the M/C is fine but occasionally the wood will have some snow or ice on it that doesn't get knocked off when I bring it in. Is this an issue even if I burn the snow/ice off the wood with the cat bypassed? I always burn the wood for about 10 minutes or so even if I'm reloading with the cat still active. If it's an issue I'll just start using a rubbermaid tub like I used to when I had to load the old stove 3-4 times a day and get the next load warmed up before burning it. I never leave the door cracked so that's not an issue, my stove seems to burn better with the door closed.
curious for this answer to.
 
Is the ice an issue? Any thing that causes thermal shock or rapid temperature change is hard on the combustor, whether the by pass is open or not. I usually pull the wood with snow or ice and drop in on the ground which removes that vast majority.

As for the duration of time you leave the by pass open after refueling.....Let us assume you are placing 80 pounds of oak in your King and it has a moisture content of 20%. That equates to 16lbs of the fuel is actually stored as water. If we place your stove on a scale, zero the scale and then load the wood above, the first hour of combustion you will see a significant drop in the weight of the fuel load. This is because the water (moisture) in the wood is being boiled out of the wood. After that initial hour, the fuel weight consumption rate tapers off and basically flat lines in our stoves due to the thermostat.

OK, off to do some more work. Merry Christmas!

Chris
 
rdust said:
BKVP said:
So how do you get them to last, burn 18% or lower moisture content fuel. Never throw in wood with ice and snow and cause huge temperature swings to the ceramic, leave the door cracked as little as necessary, room air hitting the face of the combustor can damage it over time. Clean it with a soft brush and maybe vacuum at the end of each season.

Chris


All my wood is three years seasoned so the M/C is fine....

+1 :)

When I checked my chimney after a last year burning 24/7, it was hard to tell that it had even had any smoke go up the chimney.

Rick, I bring in my wood and let it warm to room temp for at least 24hrs. I store it on my back porch so no water/ice/snow.

This is how much I usually have inside(about 10 days worth)

Maybe I'm crazy but it sure seems to light faster and burn better after getting up to room temp???
 

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Hiram Maxim said:
Maybe I'm crazy but it sure seems to light faster and burn better after getting up to room temp???

We are both crazy then. :lol:
 
Sure it will.
I can store about 9 face cords in the basement and 4 or 5 on the back wall of the garage.
I usually just get it from there and burn..sometimes I fill up my tub near the stove.
 
HotCoals said:
Sure it will.
I can store about 9 face cords in the basement and 4 or 5 on the back wall of the garage.
I usually just get it from there and burn..sometimes I fill up my tub near the stove.

Wow, that's very nice!

Any pictures?
 
Hiram Maxim said:
HotCoals said:
Sure it will.
I can store about 9 face cords in the basement and 4 or 5 on the back wall of the garage.
I usually just get it from there and burn..sometimes I fill up my tub near the stove.

Wow, that's very nice!

Any pictures?

Three rows deep in the basement..two in the garage.
In case you're wondering..no noticeable probs with bugs..been doing it for years.
The post you see is helping to hold up the BK above it..lol.

wood001.jpg


wood003.jpg
 
As for acquiring replacement combustor, you'll like this part. Applied Ceramics in Georgia is one OEM manufacturer of combustor. You can now buy replacement combustor for older Blaze King stoves and all other catalytic models at www.firecatcombustor.com The pricing is more than attractive!
Chris, I'm confused, because they seem t be ceramic combustors, but my original combustor (in my Princess bought in late 2009) is a steel one. Can I replace with either type ? What are the pros and cons of the two types ?
 
Chris, I'm confused, because they seem t be ceramic combustors, but my original combustor (in my Princess bought in late 2009) is a steel one. Can I replace with either type ? What are the pros and cons of the two types ?
They are both great performing substrates. Your Princess combustor was NOT diesel foil. So yes you can use which ever you prefer. If your wood is as well cared for as Hotcoals, stainless will light off faster but won't stay as hot on the tail end of the burn due to lighter mass.
 
They are both great performing substrates. Your Princess combustor was NOT diesel foil. So yes you can use which ever you prefer. If your wood is as well cared for as Hotcoals, stainless will light off faster but won't stay as hot on the tail end of the burn due to lighter mass.
What is "diesel foil" ?

Well, my original one is still going strong. I do care for my wood a lot better, since I got my BK. Realizing what amazing performance was achievable with really dry wood, I built a second "gazebo", giving my wood an extra year to cure !
 
Please read my post in the thread "steel vs ceramic cat". Some good community observations as well.
 
The term diesel foil is used in that other thread as well with no explanation. It sounds like an inferior product but I still don't know what that steel cat has do do with diesel fuel? Maybe part of the production process?
 
Your Princess combustor was NOT diesel foil.
Oh, I see now - you're saying mine is "DuraFoil" instead of "diesel foil". I'm not having much trouble with mine staying active at the end of a burn, but hey, my firewood is pretty primo.
 
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