By the look of things anything that can keep the flue gases hotter will help. That will help draft and reduce creosote accumulation. But you could be right, if the root cause is the wood being burned then that needs to be addressed first.
Blaze king King issues need help
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BKVP
Minister of Fire
Double wall pipe WILL, because of it's ability to hold better temps, deal better with combustion moisture.
Looks like it's up at a 60-70 degree incline. I can't say for sure, but my gut tells me going up at that incline is preferable over going straight up several feet then turning into a horizontal run to get outside.
I feel like at the end of the day, you need to go through the stove and get any suspect gaskets / bypass mating surfaces up to snuff. Then move on from there if issues continue.
Stump shot
Member
In this picture the piece of flat iron that goes across the bypass opening should be straight. It has also pulled the metal away that holds the bypass gasket. I believe this is caused from running the stove to long/hot with the bypass open. Also try some different wood in it for a convenient store in your area.
Woody Stover
Minister of Fire
I always burn in a new load a bit before closing the bypass, but when I load I am usually down to coals and the cat isn't active. Even if the cat is still hot, you might want to burn in the load a bit to remove some of the initial moisture from the wood. If your cat is still hot and your wood releases moisture, it may thermal-shock the cat and cause it to crack (ceramic.) The cat will still work if it's cracked, though.
Definitely check the cap and clean if needed. Even though dust was being pulled up, draft could still be seriously reduced. Not sure how you are gonna get to it. Maybe you can tap on it with a pole to knock the creo off?
A couple more questions: Where does the prevailing wind come from, the other side of the roof ridge? If so, it's possible you could be getting a downdraft when the wind blows hard from the other side of the roof.
Also, what is supporting the chimney? It looks like it is leaning, and that the portion coming out of the house is slanting downward. Could just be the camera angle though. Usually, there is a bracket fastened to the house which supports the weight of the chimney from below...
And lastly, is that a radio antenna?
Everyone is pulling for you to get it all working right, good luck!
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I always hit that piece of metal with splits when loading. I've been known to force a piece by it on occasion.
The wind comes from either the other side of the roof or mainly from the back side of the house parallel with the house of that makes sense. The chimney is slightly slanted but the picture makes it look worse. The bottom is slightly off kilter but it doesn't wiggle or move I assume the guy who did it before just attached at a bad angle it isn't as bad as it appears in the picture tho. And Lastly it is a cell phone booster antenna!I always burn in a new load a bit before closing the bypass, but when I load I am usually down to coals and the cat isn't active. Even if the cat is still hot, you might want to burn in the load a bit to remove some of the initial moisture from the wood. If your cat is still hot and your wood releases moisture, it may thermal-shock the cat and cause it to crack (ceramic.) The cat will still work if it's cracked, though.
Definitely check the cap and clean if needed. Even though dust was being pulled up, draft could still be seriously reduced. Not sure how you are gonna get to it. Maybe you can tap on it with a pole to knock the creo off?
A couple more questions: Where does the prevailing wind come from, the other side of the roof ridge? If so, it's possible you could be getting a downdraft when the wind blows hard from the other side of the roof.
Also, what is supporting the chimney? It looks like it is leaning, and that the portion coming out of the house is slanting downward. Could just be the camera angle though. Usually, there is a bracket fastened to the house which supports the weight of the chimney from below...
And lastly, is that a radio antenna?
Everyone is pulling for you to get it all working right, good luck!
So we got the fire going good and hot last night and we let it run for over 30 minutes at 3 after being closed up in the active phase, then turned it down to and 2 woke up this morning with my fire out because of moisture and the glass is all back with run marks all over it! 
Also when we were getting the stove going it took off really quickly but even when it was putting off an extreme amount of heat it was not getting into the active phase, my cat was red tho, the moment we shut it in and kept pushing out good heat. I'm wondering if that thermometer thing is bad? When it going into inactive is it normal for it to go clear past inactive into the black?So we got the fire going good and hot last night and we let it run for over 30 minutes at 3 after being closed up in the active phase, then turned it down to a 2 woke up this morning with my fire out because of moisture and the glass is all black with run marks all over it!
mellow
Resident Stove Connoisseur
Even a cat stove with good draft will have this if you are burning wet wood.
Do you think that is why moisture is coming back in our stove? It runs down the chimney all the way Back in
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
Looks like a pretty new or at least non original gasket in the bypass. When it is properly adjusted it cams over or pops into the closed position, it takes the same amount of effort to pop it out. So yes, some effort both ways. The little retainers that hold the gasket have been known to melt and fall out of position which would lead to the gasket seal being tight on one side and loose on others. That's bad news, I would call it the weakness of the BK since regular folks can't fix this. One guy used a bottle jack in the stove to force that gasket retainer frame back into square. I don't think I'd mess with it this year if you can get a decent seal.
I see what looks like a screen on the top of your chimney. Those screens are like filters and will quickly clog up with junk. Yes, your chimney is dirty, that's several years worth of accumulation for most folks.
I see what looks like a screen on the top of your chimney. Those screens are like filters and will quickly clog up with junk. Yes, your chimney is dirty, that's several years worth of accumulation for most folks.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
No. When that meter is cold, totally room temperature, the pointer is supposed to point at the tick mark at the very bottom of the inactive range. I've had to adjust mine.
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Highbeam
Minister of Fire
I believe your most likely issue is that your wood is wet, the stove will burn it but the thermostat will automatically stay quite far open in an effort to make heat out of the wet wood. This means low burn times and dirty chimney. Probably lots of white smoke too. You will stay warm though.
I wouldn't bother spending much more money on flue parts. Your setup looks decent enough now.
I wouldn't bother spending much more money on flue parts. Your setup looks decent enough now.
Can you just twist that thing when it is cold to inactive and that will adjust it
Our thermostat doesn't stay open it alot of times just closes up and smothers the fire out it seems? Is that wet wood as well?
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
No, there are threads holding the whole mess together. So you grab the stem with vice grips and then take a tiny box end wrench and loosen the top brass bolt head looking thing on the face of the dial. Loosen that brass cap nut, spin the dial to adjust, and then retighten the brass cap nut. Remove vice grips and put it back. Only loosen the cap nut enough for the adjustment, don't take the whole thing apart, people have gotten into a mess when all the parts fall onto the table.
Also, you can buy a new one but it's like 30$.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
The thermostat works that way. It is supposed to close up and smother the fire. No flames for most of the burn if you have good wood and you are trying to run at lower settings for longer burn times and lower output. It's okay to loose all visible flames so long as that cat meter stays in the active range. If the cat meter drops to inactive then your stat setting is too low and you can forget about ever using that stat setting again until you improve fuel supply. Just turn it up and see if the cat stays active at this next highest setting. So long as the cat stays active, not necessarily glowing, then you are doing the best you can with the wood supply and you might get white smoke out of the chimney but you'll stay warm. That lowest possible, non cat snuffing setting will be pretty constant so make a pencil mark on the stat dial to remember the new lowest possible setting.
One more thing about wet wood. When you first start burning a new load the water in the wood will boil and turn to steam and you'll be pretty miserable but with a huge firebox like the king there will be a time during that load where the wood has cooked long enough and, not unlike an overcooked turkey in the oven, will become dry enough to burn well. That sudden improvement in fuel quality can sneak up on you so when you're burning in a new load with the bypass open, pay attention and don't let the thing go nuclear on you. After you engage the cat, the thermostat will take care of the dry turkey problem.
Take a photo of your wood pile. We might offer some suggestions on making the best of the situation. Might include splitting it smaller, top covering, moving onto pallets, removing snow, etc.
On your chimney, that cap, if it has a screen can clog really fast. I removed my screen because of this and it makes everything better but there is a slightly higher risk of fire if a perfect storm of sparks and burnable debris occurred on your roof or somewhere so only you can decide to live with high maintenance or to take on the additional risk of pitching that stupid screen.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Wet wood. Repeat with known-dry wood, and I think you'll have very different results.So we got the fire going good and hot last night and we let it run for over 30 minutes at 3 after being closed up in the active phase, then turned it down to and 2 woke up this morning with my fire out because of moisture and the glass is all back with run marks all over it!
Are you sure? Like you, I'm running an Ashford 30, and I couldn't tell what this photo was showing. I was hoping one of the King owners could ID what's going on there.
If the bypass is not closing, then all bets on burn time are off... but you'd still not see wet creosote running down the glass with dry wood.
Squisher
Minister of Fire
Seems odd to me if there's liquid creosote coming from wet wood that there's no leakages out of any of the reversed pipe joints?
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Someone pointed out that the pipe joints looked like they might be reversed in one photo, but I don't think it was ever confirmed.
I know in the house we will have to have one that is backwards no matter what, because of the piece that comes into the house but we are going to reverse everything later today when it is cool
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