Blaze King question

[wiley_the_coyote]

Hello all,

Just moved in to a house with a Blaze King insert. I am not new to wood stoves, but this is my first Blaze King. I am having trouble determining the model as well as how to make it operate efficiently. Had a fire in it all night with the fan on and barley topped 60F in my 1250 sq foot house. What am I doing wrong? When I close the door the fire practically goes out, even with a good bed of coals. I can barely open the door when there is smoke in the stove because it all comes out the door. Any insight would be great!

 

[karri0n]

This is a classic poor draft situation. Make sure your chimney is clear of debris, and if you can, take the insert out and make sure your flue is lined with a stainless steel liner all the way up.


Post a bit more info about your setup. Do you have an external or interior chimney? Is it lined? Do you have the clothes dryer, exhaust fan, range hood turned on?

 

[BrotherBart]

The Blaze Kings are catalytic wood stoves. Most likely the cat damper is closed. It shouldn't be until the fire is established. Wait for one of the BK owners to come thru this evening to give you some help.

And as the previous poster said, never burn in a stove without knowing what condition the chimney is in first.

 

[roac]

Here is a link to the Blaze King manuals, it sounds like you have a princess insert.

(broken link removed to http://www.blazeking.com/manuals.html)

 

[fossil]

Send North of 60 a round-trip ticket. I imagine he'd be happy to tutor you, and probably enjoy a couple days in California right about now. Rick

 

[wiley_the_coyote]

The chimney is lined with ceramic style brick and is external. I checked the chimney when I moved in to the house, it is free of any debris/soot build up. Would lining the chimney help my situation? No exhaust fans of any kind were running, however I do understand that concept I will try cracking a window. The stove is not a catalytic style. I did look at the Blaze King website before, couldn't find my model, I think it is pretty old. Thank you for your responses.

 

[karri0n]

Yes, lining the chimney is a necessity. That will account for a poor draft, especially in an exterior masonry chimney. When you say Lined with ceramic style brick, do you mean the exterior of the chimney is brick, or it already has a ceramic liner in it? If it has a ceramic liner, what is the diameter?

 

[wiley_the_coyote]

The interior liner is ceramic, the outside is regular cyder block. I was wondering if plumbing a pipe in would help with my issue. The aprox diameter is 16", I can't get on the roof right now to check but it is fairly large as I remember.

 

[roac]

If it wasn't on the bottom of that page under "out of production owner manuals" then I would try taking a picture of it and emailing their tech support for a manual. FYI any model name with an i in it on that list is an insert.

 

[karri0n]

Your best bet would be to get a flex stainless steel chimney liner and line right from where the stovepipe goes into the chimney all the way to the top, and make sure the top is capped with an appropriate chimney cap. If this is what you mean by plumbing a pipe,then yes. If you are referring to an outdoor air kit when you say plumbing a pipe, this will probably not solve your draft issue, but might help to bring air into the stove.

As far as the insert being non-catalytic, are you sure of this?

 

[wiley_the_coyote]

No it is not a catalytic. By plumbing a pipe I meant lining the chimney. I do not have a cap, but that will be going on as well. I plan on making a transition plate for the fireplace and plumbing the chimney all the way up. Thank you for your help.

 

[bfunk13]

Can you post a picture of the stove?

Brad

 

[wiley_the_coyote]

I'll work on it.

 

[Highbeam]

There are many many folks on this site even that are perfectly happy with a standard masonry chimney. They don't all NEED to be lined and you don't want to throw away good money on lining a perfectly good chimney. If the chimney is severely oversized or unsafe in some way then of course lining a chimney is one solution. Another solution is to just knock it down and install a proper class A chimney.

I've been around old BKs that were cats and the first thing I though of is that you weren't operating the cat bypass properly. Even non-cat stoves frequently have a flue bypass damper. Are there any other levers on the stove?

Use smaller wood, dryer wood, to get that masonry warmed up and chugging.

Oh and at the bottom of the masonry chimney there should be a cleanout door. That door needs to be shut and sealed tightly.

 

[wiley_the_coyote]

Thanx Highbeam, there are 2 means of controlling my stove. A damper on the exhaust and the air inlet, that is all. I have researched the catalytic BK and I can tell you that mine is not one. I even went as far as to call BK. They told me that it is not one. I am thinking of replacing the clean-out door, it does not seal very well, good call.