Need help with Blaze King King

[farmkid2]

I have an early '80's king that I picked up on CL to heat a shop. I filled it full of dry wood (not sure what kind it was, but it's been drying for a year or two) and it burned for a long time. After about 9 hours I put a piece of dry burr oak in it and went to bed, everything seemed fine. Got up the next morning and there was a crazy amount of creosote in the smoke pipe! It was running down the outside and dripping on the stove! I'm not sure what condition the damper is in (it looks fine) but maybe it is out of calibration? I think it was set near the middle of it's range, but it was completely closed the next morning.

So, the smoke pipe is about 12 ft of uninsulated 8" (vertical) hooked up to a couple sections of stainless triple wall through the ceiling. It was not very cold outside, I just started the fire to learn about the stove. The amount of draft is fine.

I'm leaning towards retrofitting it with a smoke shelf and secondary air. Thought I would get some advise before I start cutting!

Mike

 

[nate379]

Non cat stove?

 

[greythorn3]

IT SHOULD open when the fire burns down, but when the fire gets hot it should close, can you feel the spring tension on it when you turn the knob? time to take the small retangle plate off the top of it and inspect the flapper itself. and look at the spring thru the mesh cover by the knob

i got the same stove and it performs flawless. you may need a new spring.

 

[North of 60]

One piece of wood at loading is not good to do, 3 minimum. One dry piece still would never cause enough creosote to run like that. Putting the creosote situation/cause aside, if you have got stuff running down the outside of your pipe then your female to male connections are upside down.

 

[greythorn3]

One piece of wood at loading is not good to do, 3 minimum. One dry piece still would never cause enough creosote to run like that. Putting the creosote situation/cause aside, if you have got stuff running down the outside of your pipe then your female to male connections are upside down.

hes got a point there, you might wanna show some pics before you die in a fire so people can help you out here.

 

[bogydave]

I had an 82 BK with the internal channel hooked to a blower.
The stove I had, you can pull the top plate off the air chamber in the back & watch the damper move as you turn the knob.

+1
Like N60 says check you connections. May be upside down.
One big split by itself won't burn well, 3 or more stacked & close to each other.

Check all the pipe, something sounds strange. You should be able to trace back to where it's leaking creosote.
Dripping onto the stove , it may be coming from the insulated pipe up at the ceiling,
joints up side down? when cleaned last? how is the cap? Roof flashing tight?
A good inspection will help you find the problem. Most are easy fixes.
,
Use dry wood, 90% or more of the time it's wet wood causing the creosote.
All setting are not the same on the stat, you need to adjust yours for your system. It takes some time to find the "sweet spot" for yours to where it will burn well on low (higher setting above that aren't as critical).
Get the fire burning real good for 15 to 30 minutes & the stove hot, before turning it to your low "sweet spot" setting.
Pictures of you set up help. stove, stove pipe, chimney etc.

Lots of good help on this site, from a bunch of good folks who want to help, with years of experience.
Let us know what you find

 

[farmkid2]

Yes, the upper part of the stove pipe is upside down. The wood burner that I removed was made such that the pipe wouldn't go on correctly, so I just put a splice joint in the middle for the time being. I cleaned the flapper with a vacuum cleaner and compressed air before I started it. The flapper works fine and moves freely, but the spring might be worn out out?

The stove I'm used to running produced zero creosote, regardless of how you ran it.....but the wood usage was crazy! I want to get to something that is more efficient and burns overnight.

This stove has no cat and no blower. I brushed the whole stack before I started the stove. It never occurred to me that putting in too little wood would be an issue. I can fully load it each time if that works better?

 

[farmkid2]

Here are a couple pics. When cold, the flapper is closed with the knob pointing to the 2nd lowest setting. Does that sound right?

 

[bogydave]

Here are a couple pics. When cold, the flapper is closed with the knob pointing to the 2nd lowest setting. Does that sound right?

Looks just like my old stove. Had colored ceramic inset pieces on the front.
Good you found the problem.
Easy fix?
Next deal with the creosote forming itself. Wet wood most likely.
Get the pipe good & clean & inspect it often.
I had to brush my flue monthly when I first burned but wasn't using dry wood. My wood then was 3 or 4 months seasoned.
Had one chimney fire, which wakes you up to the dangers, so I bought brushes & rods & cleaned monthly. always got quite a bit too.
The older BK when burning on low don't heat the flue hot when burning on low & inherently cause the gasses to condensate inside the pipe & form creosote.
Drier wood helps. really dry wood is even more help, less moisture in the exhaust gasses & less condensation.
You can help some by using double wall pipe out of the stove to the pipe at the ceiling. It will keep the flue hotter & the gasses should condensate as quickly.
I learned to burn hotter & rarely burned on the lowest settings, that helped keep the chimney cleaner too.
But most of my problem was not using well seasoned dry wood. Learned allot since those days. Most of it here.

Your stat won't be the same as mine, they can change over time. I would check it when the stove is hot & see where it closes. (& try that as the low setting) The flapper moves really slow so testing will take a few hours.
Cold stove & closing at the 2nd lowest setting, well that's not letting air into the stove (& the stove is cold) so that may be the "OFF" or no air setting. Going that low will more than like smolder the fire & put it out.
It may be a good setting once you only have hot coals in the stove but not a good burning setting.
It's hard for me to remember but I think I mostly burned at the 1/2 way setting. We'd get all night burns (8 to 10 hours) with full loads. (but again, I have much better, drier wood now)
Burn it on high for 30 minutes or so then turn it down mid range & see how the damper reacts.
Just pull the cover off & look then put it back, with the cover off more air goes into the stove. I'd use it to get a good raging fire (stat wide open) going then put it back on, book said not to, but I learned that you can get a good hot fire going faster with more air in the back.
I also tried to burn a good hot fire every morning, sometimes I'd hear creosote falling back into the stove after a good hot fire. I originally had a straight up thru the ceiling similar to yours.
Hope this helps. Each stove & system is a bit different, learning & tweaking for best operations of your set up is fun.
I though it was a good stove & it heated my house for several years burning 10 cords every winter. Learning the "sweet spot" for low is good to know & again well seasoned dry & drier wood yet, is important. Really important. I learned the hard way.

 

[bogydave]

Yes, the upper part of the stove pipe is upside down. The wood burner that I removed was made such that the pipe wouldn't go on correctly, so I just put a splice joint in the middle for the time being. I cleaned the flapper with a vacuum cleaner and compressed air before I started it. The flapper works fine and moves freely, but the spring might be worn out out?

The stove I'm used to running produced zero creosote, regardless of how you ran it.....but the wood usage was crazy! I want to get to something that is more efficient and burns overnight.

This stove has no cat and no blower. I brushed the whole stack before I started the stove. It never occurred to me that putting in too little wood would be an issue. I can fully load it each time if that works better?

I bet there is a plate with 4 small bolts in the bottom right rear corner (standing behind the stove looking forward)
That's where the blower mounts & blow air thru the chamber inside the stove & out the 2 front hole beside the door.
If you want to move some heat around better, you could adapt some kind of fan to move air thru the chambers.
it was a small squirrel cage fan with 3 speeds,

 

[farmkid2]

So, I think I will get the stove hot and shoot the pipe with a temp gun. When the top of the stack is about 200-250F, I should completely quit forming creosote. Then, find the flapper setting that keeps the top of the stack in that range? Heck, it will probably be wide open all the time!

I'm in good shape with my wood. I'm a year or two ahead. Should be about as dry as it's going to get.

 

[farmkid2]

Thought I would give you guys an update. I replaced the single wall tube with new stuff (installed right-side-up this time). Then I burned 3 or 4 fires as experiments. I used the temp gun and mounted my magnet thermometer right at the top of the single wall (about 8 ft from the stove top).

I can keep the top of the pipe around 200F by setting the dial at the first dot below the high mark. The has the flapper open until the area round the control spring gets to about 500F outside surface temp. The base of the pipe can get up to around 550 F, which seems pretty hot, but it works.

When the stove is running low on wood, the flapper gets about half way open when the surface temps at the spring are around 350 F, give or take. So, I'm running the dial at the first dot below the high setting and getting pretty good results....no creosote at all.

It smokes more than I would like on a cold startup, but does fine when there are a few coals. I've found that by mounding the coals in the center and the stacking the wood to leave a hollow spot in the middle of the stove near the air inlet, the fire takes off fast! No more smoldering. I think the spring on the flapper is probably worn out. Any idea how much one would cost or where to order?

Thanks for all your help,
Mike

 

[bogydave]

Thought I would give you guys an update. I replaced the single wall tube with new stuff (installed right-side-up this time). Then I burned 3 or 4 fires as experiments. I used the temp gun and mounted my magnet thermometer right at the top of the single wall (about 8 ft from the stove top).

I can keep the top of the pipe around 200F by setting the dial at the first dot below the high mark. The has the flapper open until the area round the control spring gets to about 500F outside surface temp. The base of the pipe can get up to around 550 F, which seems pretty hot, but it works.

When the stove is running low on wood, the flapper gets about half way open when the surface temps at the spring are around 350 F, give or take. So, I'm running the dial at the first dot below the high setting and getting pretty good results....no creosote at all.

It smokes more than I would like on a cold startup, but does fine when there are a few coals. I've found that by mounding the coals in the center and the stacking the wood to leave a hollow spot in the middle of the stove near the air inlet, the fire takes off fast! No more smoldering. I think the spring on the flapper is probably worn out. Any idea how much one would cost or where to order?

Thanks for all your help,
Mike

Go to the BK site & see if they still support the stove.
Have a local BK dealer near you?
The dealer here quit ordering parts for the older stoves 3 years ago, but I got many years out of it & it was time to upgrade.
Glad you got it working.
Good luck