How to clean the princess???

[claybe]

So I cleaned the chimneys today and the stoves. It was my first time to clean the blaze king princess. I had a ton of shiny build up and figure it must be from my not so dry wood as I had to buy and didn't season it myself. It being my first time cleaning it, I found that there are steel plates on each side wall. They are about an inch off the side of the stove and have holes for soot and creosote to fall into. Anyway, I could only get the shop vac so close and it didn't get everything. Any advice on how to clean back there???

 

[Todd]

I don't worry about it, it's in the fire box and a good hot fire will take care of it.

 

[Woody Stover]

If you burn a stove low you are going to get creo in the box, even with dry wood.

 

[Highbeam]

No guys, he is not talking about firebox creosote exactly. He is talking about the junk that falls behind the welded in heat shield above the bricks on either side of the stove. Large chunks of creo fall in there, pack tightly, and there is no way to clean it out. Maybe it is a built in "feature"?

I tried my best to suck this accumulation out but was unsuccessful. I know what you are talking about.

Another place that junk likes to hide is up above the bypass plate in the chamber on the roof of the stove. That's a bit easier to suck out but you don't want that junk accumulating on and ruining your bypass gasket.

Oh and I hope you had the bypass open during sweeping. Most of the junk will fall into the firebox that way.

 

[Todd]

Yeah, that's what I thought he was talking about. My stove has a little bit of creo in that gap but nothing to worry about in my opinion.

 

[claybe]

Highbeam, yes that is the void I was talking about. I got a bendable tool and tried to push it out the back. That only kind of worked but not really.

Thanks for the heads up about the bypass. I didn't have it open and just used my hand to get all the soot off of the ledge. Don't know how much is on the actual bypass that I didn't get and really no way to get at it now. Any suggestions on how to get at this???

 

[Todd]

Best way to inspect that bypass is to take off your pipe and to go in through the top. You can also inspect the back side of the cat and vaccume out that whole chamber. After one season on mine there wasn't much up in there, just a little light fly ash.

 

[Highbeam]

I didn't have it open and just used my hand to get all the soot off of the ledge. Don't know how much is on the actual bypass that I didn't get and really no way to get at it now. Any suggestions on how to get at this???

So the bypass gasket is entirely touchable and cleanable from the firebox. That's the first priority. Make sure it is clean. You probably have a big pile of swept creo between the cat and the bypass plate's hinge side that was deposited there the first time you opened the bypass after sweeping. About the only thing you can do without removing the pipe or the cat is to snake the shop vac hose up there and blindly suck that area out. The only negative to leaving a pile of junk up there is the possibility of that pile restricting flow through part of the cat.

If I can reach my huge hands up in there with a hose then you can. I made an effort to clean out every accessible part of the cat chamber and my forearms were a mess afterwards.

 

[claybe]

What about closing the bypass and blowing air through the cat to displace the soot to the rear of the bypass where the door opens??? Will that harm the cat at all?

 

[Highbeam]

There are warnings about using compressed air on the cat. Something about it blowing off the coating. This is why I would not recommend it.

 

[rideau]

Don't know the stove, but is the cat easily removable? If so, could you remove the cat and blow compressed air through the area?

 

[Highbeam]

With this stove, there is a single use gasket that holds the cat in place. You could remove the cat but you would have to buy a new gasket plus risk damaging the ceramic cat by removing it.

Once removed, there would be easy access to the area for vacuuming. Removing the flue would also give direct access but that's also a pain.

Woodstock's fireview has very admirable cat access. Both for cleaning and removal. Unfortunately, the big BK cat is not built into a removable subframe.

 

[Highbeam]

So yeah, open your bypass before sweeping.

 

[claybe]

So yeah, open your bypass before sweeping.

Agreed! I will try to remember next year.

I don't want to take the cat out and the flue is definitely not coming out. The other option is the leaf blower. Close the bypass and use the leaf blower to try to suck it out. I wonder if it works???

I wasn't going to use compressed air but my bellows to blow through the cat. One of these hopefully will work.

 

[Highbeam]

I wouldn't be afraid of blowing through the cat with that type of velocity. I use the shop vac to suck off anything from the face of the cat and they must produce similar speeds. It's not like you totally filled the cat chamber up. Probably just a small pile of junk on the floor behind the bypass plate. You'll know when you engage the cat this fall and either 100% glows or just the top.

Can you fashion a thinner hose to feed up between the cat and the bypass plate to suck this area out? The sweepings should be light and small so they will vacuum well.