Sooteater and BK Ashford

[shoot-straight]

I was spoiled with my hearthstone- I only had to have a chimney cleaning once every 2 years. Hardly any creosote, just some ash. She burned hot, and I burned decent wood. After running the Ashford for a few months I noticed she was getting sluggish. I called my sweep and he came it and did a cleaning. WOW, lots of creosote. I even found some crackly stuff on the ground, on the down wind side, where my cap may have actually lit off at some point... This makes me uncomfortable, almost to the point I want to get rid of the stove. Im serious.

Thinking of buying a sooteater but have lots of questions. I have an insulated ss flex liner thats super long. May be 28' feet or so. Any potential to damage it? Some of the deposits will fall inside the stove, but lots will hit the bypass plate, then accumulate next to the CAT's backside. Its a difficult place to get to with a vac. How much dust and debris winds up in the house after a cleaning? That is a real concern of mine.

Thanks.

 

[iluvjazznjava]

How do you plan on using it - from the bottom up, or top down? If you can disconnect your pipe from your stove and clean from the bottom up you can put a garbage bag over the end of the stovepipe to catch the falling deposits. That's what I do and I get no mess and I don't have to climb onto the roof. Soot eater works good, but it won't remove glaze very well. If your pipe is really fouled you may need to hire a sweep.

 

[iluvjazznjava]

My liner is similar to yours - 26' of flex. No issues with sooteater.

 

[shoot-straight]

bottom up, through the stove. top down is a nightmare.

 

[rdust]

Best to pull the stove pipe going from the bottom. You can get some debris cleaned out by reaching up but far from perfect. Only other thought would be to keep extra cat gaskets on hand so you can remove it to clean behind it.

I clean 27' of flex liner with the soot eater. No problems so far.(7 seasons). I pull the pipe to clean, mess is minimal after figuring out what worked best for me.

 

[fire_man]

Did you confirm if the cat is lighting off properly? What kind of smoke exits from the flue - is it wispy white or grayish?

When you say "decent wood" what does that mean - has it been split and top covered for a couple years and what type wood is it?

You should not have to clean a flue after just a few months when burning good wood in a modern EPA stove.

 

[shoot-straight]

r dust, i do not want to have to pull the pipe or move the stove. its a real pain. i have to do one to do the other.

fireman, eastern hardwoods, oak, ash, etc. CSS 2 years (1 outside covered, one inside shed), covered woodshed. MC <20% with MM. my stack when i had my hearthstone, has literally zero smoke and no smoky smell. my BK does have a noticable plume and smoky smell at times. cat glows (not all the time) - and stays in active range ok. overall it seems most BK owners sweep more than once a year. i thought at least 2x a year was the norm. perhaps some others will chime in on that.

i have a therm on my exhaust. on higher burns its around 300, low burns 200. cat in active range for both. my non cat was almost ALWAYS well over 300 or so. again, i have a really long liner.

 

[rdust]

My bk makes a dirty flue compared to my non cat. All my wood is 3-4 years css and under 20%. My non cAt before the bk I had a near spotless flue after a season of burning. I clean my bk 2-3 times a season just to be safe. Trade off in performance makes the extra cleanings well worth it. Non cat was used for two season with wood not nearly as good as I have now.

 

[Heatsource]

why would you have to remove pipe?
just go up w/soot eater thru the bypass damper housing.

 

[shoot-straight]

why would you have to remove pipe?
just go up w/soot eater thru the bypass damper housing.

thats what i want to do, but how much of the crap gets caught up behind damper?

 

[Highbeam]

why would you have to remove pipe?
just go up w/soot eater thru the bypass damper housing.

thats what i want to do, but how much of the crap gets caught up behind damper?

I too had a hearthstone and then moved to a BK and now use a sooteater with it.

Yes, that hearthstone puked a ton of heat up the flue and the minor flue accumulations were always very clean and brown colored all the way up. The BK leaves blacker deposits and more of them but not excessive and still easily swept. Not tarry or glasslike.

I sweep the BK flue once per year like always. It is super easy with the sooteater.

Trouble with the sooteater on a stove with a bypass door like the BK is that the swept debris falls down from above into the cat chamber and some of that debris falls on top of the bypass door where it is channeled into the back of the cat. To remove that debris the ultimate method is to remove the flue from the stove and vacuum out the whole cat chamber from above.

I can get almost all of it from below with the vacuum by lifting up on the bypass plate and sucking it out. Even with my fat fingers I can reach in and touch the bottom back of the cat so vacuuming out the crumbs is possible. It's not an ideal method, but removing flue pipes for cleaning is a big PITA and those screws are easily stripped. Paint scratched, dented pipe, etc.

The same thing happens if you brush the liner. Somebody has to clean that junk out from behind the cat.

 

[Heatsource]

once the cat is removed a small vac hose gets it no problem

 

[Highbeam]

once the cat is removed a small vac hose gets it no problem

You don't remove the cat unless as a last resort. It requires a new expanding gasket. Plus, handling it, it can fall apart.

 

[Heatsource]

i handle dozens a year w/o them falling apart, and keep gaskets on the truck

 

[shoot-straight]

Not really looking to replace gasket 2x a year but guess I could buy a bunch of it.

 

[Highbeam]

Not really looking to replace gasket 2x a year but guess I could buy a bunch of it.

Might be worth the effort if your liner hookup is very difficult to remove for topside access. It's either 13$ or 30$ for that weird expando gasket.

 

[aansorge]

I clean mine once or twice per year and remove the stove pipe to do it. It is kind of a pain to put the stove pipe together mainly due to trying to line up the screw holes. Also, I like to add a little cement to the joints.

Agreed that the non-cats do a better job keeping the flue clean but it is worth it for everything else the blaze king has to offer.

 

[shoot-straight]

Interesting- while looking for gasket material, I see that the new Condar cats specifically say that you don't need gasket material.

 

[alforit]

Interesting- while looking for gasket material, I see that the new Condar cats specifically say that you don't need gasket material.

Yeah, you need a gasket..............I buy mine from Condar. They used to be 3 bucks a piece earlier in the year but I noticed they are now 6 bucks a piece.. I usually have 3 or 4 on hand.

Good advice from Heatsource. The gaskets are easy to replace . I use double sided scotch tape to hold gasket in place when replacing......It only takes me about 5 minutes to pull cat , replace gasket, and reinstall....easypeasy.

 

[BKVP]

For the record, any company promoting no gaskets in use of combustors in our stoves is not informed as to the role they play in our stoves and absolutely should not be taken into consideration.