Rust inside stove! Help!

[Fetz]

Hi everyone,

I am prepping my Blaze King Ashford 2.0 for its second season. It is a steel stove with a cast iron jacket. To my horror, when I opened the firebox I found almost all the metal to be coated in a thin layer of rust. I removed the chimney flue and the area above the catalyst is also covered in rust. There are some rust spots on the steel around the flue, and there was also some rust on the inside of the cast iron plate that sits on top of the stove. I have high temp paint to repair the spots on the exterior surfaces, but what can be done about the inside? anything? Is this going to be a problem moving forward? I bought one of the most expensive stoves out there and I will be very upset with myself if I just ruined it in less than a year.

I shut the fresh air intake once the season was over, which in hindsight was probably a poor decision. I live in the midwest and am surrounded by corn so the humidity during the summer is very high.

On a side note, the flue looks pretty clean with not a lot of creosote buildup. Do I need to clean it before the season starts? I burned maybe 2 cords last year.

 

[begreen]

Nothing unusual there. Humidity over the summer can cause light surface rust. The flue looks good. Watch the creosote buildup at the back of the firebox. If a hot fire doesn't burn that off it may need to be scraped.

 

[stoveliker]

I agree with the above.
What you could do (but many say is not needed), is close the flue and the air intake, and place a pot of damprid in the stove. (I take my stove pipe off, cap the thimble and the flue collar on the stove, stuff the air inlet closed, and put a pot of damprid in the stove during the summer - coastal climate, so summers humid too.)

Regarding the creosote at the back: I do one 3/4 load or so at the end of the season that I burn wide open. So very hot. That crisps up the creosote in the back and allows it to easily be scraped off. That leaves the stove nice and clean over the humid summer. Humidity is what worsens the corrosive effects of creosote, so best to get that off before it gets humid.

Other than that, surface rust in the firebox is not a big deal.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

My pellet stove gets a good bit of surface rust inside over the summer as others have said above. I have learned to just leave it and it goes away after a few times using stove. It must be very superficial.

 

[Fetz]

Thank you guys for putting my mind at ease. The creosote in the firebox seems nice and flaky so I suspect it will burn off but I will keep an eye on it for sure. Looking forward to the first burn of the season!