Warped The Floor Of Princess Insert

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K

kgrant

Member
Jan 17, 2008
186
Fairbanks, Alaska
The last few days I've been catching the edges of the bricks on the floor when pushing coals around. I got to looking and the bricks were raised up in the center of the stove. This stove has 2 rows of bricks laid N/S. Tonight I pulled the bricks out and right in the center of the stove, the metel is discolored blue showing it has been very hot. The center of the floor is 1/4" higher than the edges, so the bricks weren't sitting level. I have never over fired the stove that I know of, and there are no other signs of over firing. But obviously something happened...

I put about 1" of sand in the bottom, leveled it out, placed the bricks back in and packed sand into all the cracks. She's back up and running now.

Thoughts?
 
how old is the insert?

pen
 
That had to have been upsetting to see your stove in that condition--but that was an innovative solution, and I thank you for sharing it. I take it that's a solid, flat area, not one that has an air intake through it w/ash pan below? (Not too familiar w/BK innards.)
 
The description sounds a bit like an air leak in that vicinity. Do you normally keep a healthy bed of ash on top of the firebrick? That will help. Does this stove have the ash drawer option? If so, check the ash plug to make sure that it is sealing tightly and doesn't have a chunk of wood or charcoal holding it slightly open.
 
Stove is 2 months old. No ash pan/plug. Air intake is over the glass in the door, no other that I know of. The floor is a solid sheet, no welded seams. No cracks that I could find around the edges. I don't leave the door open. Door has always been adjusted properly. The only time there was no ash/coal base was when the stove was new. The blued spot was right in the center, not close to any edges.

Guess I had a really hot fire on the floor at one point...

Maybe I should put another layer of bricks in the bottom? Will the sand do the same thing as bricks?
 
I wonder if some high-btu substance might have melted, pooled and caught flame there; e.g. an unusually large amount of resin or possibly someone in the household throwing a highly flammable piece of plastic in or perhaps making too big a pile of fire-starters??

If the whole stove was not overfired one has to start thinking of a local process. Since your answer to BeGreen's local air jet inquiry was negative, one must consider the excess fuel alternative, so to say.

Henk
 
Other than the blue spot, the rest of the floor is virgin steel. No burn marks, no soot nothing. Even the blue spot isn't dirty at all.

I do burn cut up pallets, and stack them in the stove very tight. Maybe setting the kiln dry wood on top of hot coals and being so tightly stacked caused the localized hot spot in the center of the floor. The bottom of the stack was burning, and since it is stacked so tight the top layers of wood act like insulation. I think that's what happened.
 
kgrant said:
Other than the blue spot, the rest of the floor is virgin steel. No burn marks, no soot nothing. Even the blue spot isn't dirty at all.

I do burn cut up pallets, and stack them in the stove very tight. Maybe setting the kiln dry wood on top of hot coals and being so tightly stacked caused the localized hot spot in the center of the floor. The bottom of the stack was burning, and since it is stacked so tight the top layers of wood act like insulation. I think that's what happened.
Click to expand...


Agree. So, basically too big a pile of "fire starters" (since that is what most people use the superdry pallet wood for)>

In another thread the suggestion was made to let such wood sit awhile outside to "unseason" or else mix it with normal splits or even with less well seasoned wood.

Henk
 
I'm sorry. I don't care what you burned in that stove. The floor of the firebox under those bricks should not warp. If you burned stuff hot enough to do that the rest of the stove should be trashed first.
 
BrotherBart said:
I'm sorry. I don't care what you burned in that stove. The floor of the firebox under those bricks should not warp. If you burned stuff hot enough to do that the rest of the stove should be trashed first.
Click to expand...

x2!

I'd imagine the firebox should have some type of warranty. If the rest of the stove doesn't show signs of an overfired stove they should take care of it.
 
I wouldn't think so either. But I don't have any other ideas as to what could have happened. I should have taken pictures.
 
Any conclusion on this?
 
Don't burn a full load of pallet scraps, mix them in with cordwood.
 
Wow. I've never even heard of that happening. The stove has two layers of firebrick on the bottom so something isn't right. You have a very good warranty on the stove so please check with your dealer.
 
I finished off the season with no other issues. There is only 1 layer of firebrick in the bottom of this stove. According to the brick layout chart on Blaze Kings website 1 layer is all they should have.

Maybe it was operator error. Maybe a got a bad floor. I'm not blaming Blaze King. I spoke with my dealer about the problem when it happened, they didn't seem overly concerned. I guess I wasn't too concerned either and never thought much more about it after I fixed it.
 
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