Blaze king princess, sooteater process, internal pics

[Highbeam]

So I decided to do a midseason cleaning on the Princess since the sooteater makes this really easy and I thought that maybe my draft was slowing down. Once per year I will be on the roof to clean the nasty cap as well. I have an all vertical 12' flue. 8 feet is class A and 4 feet is double wall. The stove has a 1 year old durafoil steel cat in it but my burning seasons are very long so it is at somewhere near 5000 hours. Still works great, cat meter climbs right to the top. I burn 100% douglas fir (checked at 14% and three years seasoned) since the stove was last swept in the summer of 2016. I mostly burn low/medium with flue temps always above 400. Higher than many people, and I could run flue temps way down to 250 and keep an active cat but the flue will get rapidly covered in spooge.

So the sooteater is great. You don't have to take the stove apart or get on the roof to sweep. I zip tie a rag over the funny little bar that blocks the flue to prevent damage to the sooteater rods. Then shove the sooteater head in there and follow the directions.

I noticed that the sooteater head tends to lay against the back wall of the chimney probably due to the bend required to make it into the flue though the firebox. You can see the really clean seam side of the pipe. I don't like that so when I lift the double wall pipe off of the stove I push the regular brush up the flue as far as I can and get a lot more junk down. You need to remove the flue from the stove to vacuum the debris from the cat chamber anyways so this just adds a step.

So about half of the debris falls into the firebox and about half is up in the cat chamber. Notice that the junk I swept is black. Not brown. Quite a lot really.

While the flue is off the stove, take this opportunity to lube the bypass mechanism with hi temp antizeize. It's hard to be clean, just get some in there. Note the big steel plate that hangs down like a curtain between the cat and the flue collar. I suppose that forces the heat to stay in the stove longer and transfer to the stove. Back of cat is nice and grey. Front of cat is nice and brown.

We all like pics so if nothing else, here's what the inside of a princess looks like!

 

[Highbeam]

more pics

 

[Highbeam]

more pics

 

[Highbeam]

I haven't cleaned the glass for months. It's been staying pretty dang clean at about 30% obscured. Always can see the red glow and flames if there are any. Sure, 100% clean is great but dry wood burned at low/medium temps is not bad.

 

[Niko]

So picture 108 is what you put the lub on?

 

[Squisher]

That's a right cool little dog!

Great pics, but onhhh the soot going everywhere in the one. I was cringing!

 

[Highbeam]

So picture 108 is what you put the lub on?

Yes 108 is the bypass plate. The little bolt is where you adjust it once it stops clunking into place. The rod slides in this little guide plate thing and is much smoother with a little lube. At least for a little while.

The other place that I use that lube is the thermostat rod tension washers.

 

[Highbeam]

That's a right cool little dog!

Great pics, but onhhh the soot going everywhere in the one. I was cringing!

That's Carlos the pug. He's a great little dog.

The debris on the stove top was only from me shoving a brush up into the flue to get the bottom couple of feet. It was chunky and heavy so the room didn't get dusty. The flue was sucking! I pulled off the convection deck and cleaned the whole stove top. Swept and vacuumed around the hearth when done too.

You can do a better job from the roof with a brush. No doubt. If I didn't have to bend through the firebox I think the sooteater would do a better polish job on the flue but the cap remains messy.

 

[dh1989]

If you have a shop vac or ash vac you can get a flexible narrow crevice attachment. On my Sirocco I can push the bypass damper plate up just enough to slide the attachment beneath it and toward the back of the cat. This will vacuum most debris that falls behind the plate, although you may have to stick your fingers up there and push the debris toward the attachment since it can be difficult to move around once it's in place. The back and sides of the bypass chamber can also be reached easily with the attachment or you can just stick your hand up there and sweep the debris down into the firebox.

I hate having to move my telescoping connector pipe as it scratches the paint every time.

 

[prezes13]

Carlos is cool. Not to say hot.

 

[Woody Stover]

We all like pics so if nothing else, here's what the inside of a princess looks like!

Great pics, Hb, thanks! I love seeing innards of all these stoves that I've never seen in person, but those kinds of pics are few and far between here.
Pic 0108; Dooode, you spoooged!

 

[Woody Stover]

I can see why the BK sails up to 800 around the flue exit; Looks like the cat can radiate directly, though at an angle, onto the top of the box, where radiation can get past the shield. I only ever see maybe 600 on top of my stove (could probably go higher with the air open further, but not where I run it.) My cat is angled up a bit more toward the top, but there's a metal shield bolted to the top of the stove preventing direct radiation.
Is that Doug Fir? What ever it is has a bit of sapwood....about like the Red Pine I see here, I guess.

 

[rdust]

Note the big steel plate that hangs down like a curtain between the cat and the flue collar.

My Princess is a 2006 build and doesn't have that. Hmmm

 

[black smoke signals]

[QUOTE The little bolt is where you adjust it once it stops clunking into place. The rod slides in this little guide plate thing and is much smoother with a little lube.[/QUOTE]
Highbeam Is it advised to check the bypass with the dollar bill test? How often would you have to check the adjustment cam over(will the nut back off) that puts tension on the bypass door monthly yearly ?

 

[Highbeam]

I can see why the BK sails up to 800 around the flue exit; Looks like the cat can radiate directly, though at an angle, onto the top of the box, where radiation can get past the shield. I only ever see maybe 600 on top of my stove (could probably go higher with the air open further, but not where I run it.) My cat is angled up a bit more toward the top, but there's a metal shield bolted to the top of the stove preventing direct radiation.
Is that Doug Fir? What ever it is has a bit of sapwood....about like the Red Pine I see here, I guess.

The cat sits nearly vertical. The cat meter probe sits between the cat and the curtain. Weird that @rdust 's has no curtain. My nc30 has a similar curtain in the same place.

That's fir. Smaller stuff under 12" has a red center and lighter outer ring. It's really old and dry.

 

[Highbeam]

[QUOTE The little bolt is where you adjust it once it stops clunking into place. The rod slides in this little guide plate thing and is much smoother with a little lube.

Highbeam Is it advised to check the bypass with the dollar bill test? How often would you have to check the adjustment cam over(will the nut back off) that puts tension on the bypass door monthly yearly ?[/QUOTE]

I have dollar bill tested my bypass. The "clunk" and some effort being required to get the clunk seems to be more telling of the need to adjust. The insert uses a cable though and I'm not sure how it works. I've only had to adjust the bypass once or twice in the last 5 years. The bolt and locknut do not loosen on their own.

 

[black smoke signals]

If the dollar bill test failed what performance issues would we see?

 

[Highbeam]

If the dollar bill test failed what performance issues would we see?

With a leaky bypass you will have some amount of unburned fuel bypassing the cat. Lower efficiency, higher emissions, and less heat will be the result. I'd rather have a leaky bypass than a leaky door gasket.

 

[patrickoneal]

Thanks for posting the pics. I'm hoping to get my liner and princess insert in this weekend.

It's hard to see what you're applying the anti-seize to, but you can get C5-A in what looks like a glue stick:

https://www.zoro.com/loctite-anti-seize-20g-copper-color-lb-8065-37229/i/G3422824/

I keep that around to keep from making a mess, though it probably doesn't matter in a stove.

I've got most of a can a nickel anti-seize left over from an F150 spark plug job too, it might be better for the application as it's good for 2400F instead of 1800F like the copper, but my can doesn't even have a brush in it.

 

[Wickets]

so off topic, but carlos and the pic of your stove stacked with wood says it all. thanks for sharing

 

[black smoke signals]

Your not off topic Patrick just lookout for rattlesnakes Highbeam is one of the better posters here excellent post high beam! I still have questions too

 

[ohiojoe13]

I noticed in the picture with the door open the indent on the door gasket looks to be perfectly centered. I have a BK ashford and the indent on the gasket is near the edge on the bottom of the gasket. I wonder if that has anything to do with the smoke smell I get.

 

[Highbeam]

I noticed in the picture with the door open the indent on the door gasket looks to be perfectly centered. I have a BK ashford and the indent on the gasket is near the edge on the bottom of the gasket. I wonder if that has anything to do with the smoke smell I get.

If you look close you'll notice I have some washers in the hinges under the door. Those are to lift the door up a little and center the gasket. My OEM gasket was a bit stretched so it was thin and the non-centered door was more noticeable so I shimmed it up with those washers and now I really like the alignment for this new gasket. The new gasket is about a year old now and the knife edge makes a good indentation. I made a post with lots of pictures when I replaced that door gasket since I think it is very important on BKs to have an excellent door seal.

Whether or not your smoke smell is caused by this is a good question but I would expect that a leaky gasket should suck air in and not let smoke out. Usually weak draft is the cause of actual smoke leaks.

I think our BKs will smell like smoke if you put your nose right up to the stove door when burning. It seems that the black gunk that coats portions of the glass oozes into the gasket and that strong smell wicks through it. Creosote is a pretty aromatic chemical. My Princess has a smoke smell above the door hinge despite that deep groove in the gasket but only if you're right up on it during a hot burn.

 

[Niko]

Yea mine does that too once in a while, but i let her rip on high for like 1 hr and thrn its gone. I get more of the smell right above the cat probe.


O and ordered my stove pipe probe thermometer. Have no idea why i waited soo long.