Blaze King Princess 32 (newbie) what am I doing wrong?

[Clmillard97]

Hello everyone, I’m new to this and looking for some help/advice. I’ve read everything I can find on Blaze King stoves and it seems like I’m the only person having trouble controlling my stove. It’s uncontrollable. If I turn the thermostat up a hair the gauge on top pegs out pointing toward 5 or 6 o’clock. So I have been running it in low(I turn it down until I hear the little flap close) then I turn the dial up a hair and the gauge goes all the way up again forcing me to turn it back down. It’s driving me absolutely insane because this is our main heat source and I’m having to keep an eye on it 24/7. I’ve burned about 1 cord maybe a bit more through it so far.

I’ve talked to Blaze king and they were not able to provide any information to help. I spoke to the company I purchased the stove from and they said “this is a first” and couldn’t provide any help.

Stove - brand new stove, brand new chimney, 15’ straight up, double wall into class A through the ceiling and on the roof. Terminates 3’ above ridge.

Wood - all hard wood stored in my basement reading 12-14% on a fresh split. I would consider the splits to be medium in size. I’ve already tried loading with the largest logs I could find and it does the exact same thing.

I’ve tested the door gasket and it’s tight all the way around.

Relighting the fire while still in active zone. I disengage the cat damper, turn the thermostat to high, open the door, fill the box full, close the door, let it rip for like 5 minutes, close damper door and lock, start turning down the thermostat or it will climb to the 6 o’clock position on the gauge. I always turn it down when it points toward the word active on the gauge. I’ve tried turning it down slowly. It doesn’t help.

I have a call into our chimney guy to come out and add a 3’ section of pipe to the top to give me 18’ total. I’m at a loss of what to do so this is the last thing I can think of.

Please HELP!

 

[Dieselhead]

Adding chimney height may make the problem worse, it sounds like draft is not an issue.

When you say uncontrollable is it just the cat temp takes off, cat glows red/orange and the cat meter pegs, or is it like a blast furnace with open flame?

If it’s just the cat temp getting a little silly that’s to be expected with a new cat, they are a bit hyperactive for a month or so.

Do you have a way of measuring stove top temp under this uncontrollable period? (IR gun)

 

[Clmillard97]

Adding chimney height may make the problem worse, it sounds like draft is not an issue.

When you say uncontrollable is it just the cat temp takes off, cat glows red/orange and the cat meter pegs, or is it like a blast furnace with open flame?

If it’s just the cat temp getting a little silly that’s to be expected with a new cat, they are a bit hyperactive for a month or so.

Do you have a way of measuring stove top temp under this uncontrollable period? (IR gun)

Just the cat temperature. No or very little visible flames during the temperature increase. I do have an ir gun. What temps should I be looking for on the stove top? Or what temp is too hot?

Wont increasing the chimney height reduce the draft? I feel like too much draft is the biggest issue here.

I read about new cats being the cause of this problem but it’s been 4 weeks of consistent burning with zero improvement.

Thanks!

 

[Murray01]

I have a brand new Princess 32. My CAT thermometer also pins to the 6 o’clock position, totally normal. You let her rip for 5 minutes, I let mine rip for 20 minutes to help clean the glass and get the stovepipe and chimney hot. After 20 minutes I’ll start turning it down in 2 increments over 10 minutes or so. My stove appears to be running uncontrollably at the 20 minute mark with the thermostat opened to full. Needle still pinned to the 6 o’clock position. As you restrict incoming air the needle will SLOWLY swing away from the 6 o’clock position.
I have about 13’ of chimney and burn Jack Pine at 15% moisture content.

What you’ve described as uncontrollably sounds normal to. The fire in my stove completely fills the entire window when running on high for 20 minutes.

Probably time to sweep your chimney, or at least checking for buildup. If you aren’t burning hot enough you will get creosote build up plus sweeping/checking for buildup will give you an indication how often you need to sweep the chimney. A couple of ways to check, separate the stove pipe from the Class A and look up or remove the chimney cap and look down into the chimney with a flashlight. I did mine after 5 weeks of shoulder season burning just to see what I was getting for buildup plus it was a dry run disassembling the stovepipe from the stove when I didn’t really need the stove running.

Getting a stove top temperature as per post #2 will allow other forum members to compare.

Reread your owners manual, particularly the troubleshooting sections.

 

[Murray01]

Running on high for 20 minutes with 6 splits of Jack Pine. The firebox is full of flames.

 

[Dieselhead]

Just the cat temperature. No or very little visible flames during the temperature increase. I do have an ir gun. What temps should I be looking for on the stove top? Or what temp is too hot?

Wont increasing the chimney height reduce the draft? I feel like too much draft is the biggest issue here.

I read about new cats being the cause of this problem but it’s been 4 weeks of consistent burning with zero improvement.

Thanks!

Tall flue increases draft. Above the cat expect to see 600/700 degrees until things settle in. Rest of the stovetop 3-400. Expect a hyper cat a little longer. If thermostat wasn’t doing its job you would have active flame. Sounds like you have perfectly seasoned firewood!
Also expect cat temps to INCREASE when stat is turned down. Seems backwards but the chemical reaction with the smoke in the cat causes it.

 

[Clmillard97]

I have a brand new Princess 32. My CAT thermometer also pins to the 6 o’clock position, totally normal. You let her rip for 5 minutes, I let mine rip for 20 minutes to help clean the glass and get the stovepipe and chimney hot. After 20 minutes I’ll start turning it down in 2 increments over 10 minutes or so. My stove appears to be running uncontrollably at the 20 minute mark with the thermostat opened to full. Needle still pinned to the 6 o’clock position. As you restrict incoming air the needle will SLOWLY swing away from the 6 o’clock position.
I have about 13’ of chimney and burn Jack Pine at 15% moisture content.

What you’ve described as uncontrollably sounds normal to. The fire in my stove completely fills the entire window when running on high for 20 minutes.

Probably time to sweep your chimney, or at least checking for buildup. If you aren’t burning hot enough you will get creosote build up plus sweeping/checking for buildup will give you an indication how often you need to sweep the chimney. A couple of ways to check, separate the stove pipe from the Class A and look up or remove the chimney cap and look down into the chimney with a flashlight. I did mine after 5 weeks of shoulder season burning just to see what I was getting for buildup plus it was a dry run disassembling the stovepipe from the stove when I didn’t really need the stove running.

Getting a stove top temperature as per post #2 will allow other forum members to compare.

Reread your owners manual, particularly the troubleshooting sections.

I really appreciate all the information you provided. I kept thinking I needed to keep the needle on the gauge from going past the end of the “arrow” in the active zone. If this is the case I’m probably burning really low and should have the temp turned up quite a bit. See the picture below. I would start to panic a bit when the temperature would reach this area. I bought the other temp gauge just to see what the temperature actually was. I’ll check the chimney as well. Thanks!

 

[Clmillard97]

Tall flue increases draft. Above the cat expect to see 600/700 degrees until things settle in. Rest of the stovetop 3-400. Expect a hyper cat a little longer. If thermostat wasn’t doing its job you would have active flame. Sounds like you have perfectly seasoned firewood!
Also expect cat temps to INCREASE when stat is turned down. Seems backwards but the chemical reaction with the smoke in the cat causes

Thank you! So directly behind the cat thermometer and in front of the of the flue is reading about 450 degrees on my ir.

 

[Dieselhead]

No problem there at all.

 

[begreen]

What does the cat thermometer read when cold? It may need calibration.

 

[Clmillard97]

What does the cat thermometer read when cold? It may need calibration.

The stove has only been cold one time like a month ago but I believe it was all the way to the end of the inactive zone. I’ll be sure to make a note about checking next time it’s cold. Thanks!

 

[begreen]

You can pull the cat thermometer out and check it that way. Take a picture when cold.

 

[Murray01]

That Rutland thermometer you have pictured is for measuring the temperature on single wall stove pipe, you have double walled stove pipe so that thermometer is of no use in your application other than getting an idea of stove top temperature.

Some members have drilled a hole thru the double walled stove pipe and insert a probe to measure flue gas temperature.

 

[begreen]

That Rutland thermometer you have pictured is for measuring the temperature on single wall stove pipe,

That's a stove top thermometer. 300-600º surface single wall temps would be around 600-1200º.