Last update till next winter. It's June and I finally got around to cleaning up the stove. I partially cleaned the chimney halfway through the heating season so I didn't expect a whole lot but I did want to clean the whole thing thoroughly so I'm not staring at a dirty stove all summer long. I picked up a second Sooteater kit so I can go all the way to my rain cap. I got it on discount, and it appears the company has gone out of business, so hopefully someone else will step in to fill the gap, but my two kits will probably last me at least a decade either way. The kit works great and gives me the confidence to not call a sweep. I got about 2 cups of creosote out which is about as much as I got in the last cleaning. This seems right in line with my expectations and I may skip cleaning mid-season next winter. I got up inside the stove with a wire brush and got every last bit of gunk out that I could and it cleaned up nicely. The cats were partially clogged, and I will probably start making a habit to clean them monthly going forward. Pulled the ash lip cover and vacuumed inside the fan housing as well. While in there I noted that a weird springgy noise heard while adjusting the air control was not in fact normal and was a result of the air control scraping on the intake mesh. I was able to bend it a bit out of the way and the sound is gone. Bad QC, which seems to be a recurring trend with this stove. Speaking of bad QC, I did one last burn in last spring after the stove sat for a couple weeks and I found that the bypass handle was almost impossible to move. Once it heated up it freed up and the issue has not returned. I will note that there is a known issue with these stoves that causes this issue, but my understanding is that it's usually the reverse issue--they get stuck while hot. Hearthstone advises that I get my dealer to look at it, but because it requires the stove to be un-installed I'm putting it off for now because it sounds like a huge hassle. Overall I continue to be ecstatic with having A stove, but perhaps not THIS stove. If I could do it all over again I would not look at the Clydesdale and instead look at a Woodstock or Blaze King (probably BK). That said I don't think there are any showstopping issues with my stove and I do believe it will continue to serve me well.
Had a warm front roll through so decided to clean up the stove. I planned on just brushing the cats with a paintbrush, but they were mega clogged with fly ash so I went ahead and removed them and sprayed them out with compressed air and did a deep clean because hey why not. I'm starting to arrive at a maintenance regime that looks like: WEEKLY: remove ash and clean glass with wet towel coated in ash BIWEEKLY: clean cats MONTHLY: deep clean everything, scraping glass clean and using paste cleaner YEARLY: sweep chimmney and deep clean This is working for me. I'm surprised the cats seem to collect so much fly ash as I'm burning really decent cord wood and never ever use paper. I've tried super cedars, fatwood, and rutland firestarters. I think for the value the rutland are the best, fatwood are the most functional, and guys I'm sorry but super cedars just aren't that good. They're expensive and crumbly and make a huge mess. In regard to the glass, I'm finding that it is way, WAY easier to clean now. It's like it needed to break in or something. I've been using the Rutland paste which has silica in it which appears to bond to the glass surface, so it may be that, but a quick pass with the razor is getting even the most stubborn blackened corner bits off. Additionally, I'm learning to run the stove better which is resulting in much clearer glass. At this point I'm just getting a bit of a halo around the edges which actually doesn't even look bad. Currently getting about 80% of our home heating from the stove which I'm very pleased about.
Sounds like a proper routine. Guessing you got a batch of the crumbly SC's. Believe those are cycled out now.
old post but for future readers, since this was about BK stoves, no, there is no cleaning required at any interval unless your particular fuel or draft strength sucks up enough fly ash to clog them. I don’t remove my catalyst until it’s time to replace it after 12000 hours or so.
It depends…. When burning fir for full time heat for 8-9 months last year I only had to dump ash once in the middle and then at the end of the year clean out. Zero need to vacuum or blow the cat out. I tend to sweep the cat face with a paint brush and blow with my mouth/lungs at the end of the season. Cat stays installed in the stove. There are some folks burning fluffy ash woods like cottonwood on tall chimneys in big houses with those fine mesh steel cats that can likely plug up a cat quick and need to empty ashes daily. So a range.
Thank you HB. Glad to hear. Thrilled about the maintenance compared the pellet furnace. Our ash falls when restoking to a fraction of what it was, I bet we can go many months.
THAT IS INSANE!! I only hear good things about BK. THAT IS ALSO INSANE!! I have to clean out minimum once a week and if I don't I start losing firebox capacity and my overnight burns suffer. My owners manual says once a week also. Burning mostly oak and ash.
Swept the chimney today. Been having trouble getting cold starts going and just wanted to do a deep clean and check everything out. The wood I'm burning must be a little wet or something because everything checked out perfectly. I got about 2oz of creostote out of the whole thing, this is the smallest amount I've gotten in 3 cleanings, so I must be burning right. Cats had the usual fly ash coating but no big deal. Must be burning cleaner than I thought. Door handle lock nut was loose, tightened it up. Otherwise the stove looks great. Ready for the polar vortex.
Fired the stove up last night getting in from out of town and it roared to life. Not sure if anything I did cleaning it mattered but it definitely is running perfectly at the moment. It's 15 degrees here and the draft on this tall chimney at these temps is amazing. Currently running 100% on wood heat.
Probably two weeks away from firing up the Clydesdale for heat. Pondering whether or not to pull the baffle and cats to inspect. I cleaned everything thoroughly in the spring but who knows if there is a nest of something in there.
...and we're off! I went ahead and pulled the baffle and stuck a boroscope camera up just to check things out. Only thing up in the flue was stink bugs who are now shuffled off this mortal coil. Everything looked great, and the stove runs great, as expected. Did the break-in burn and then heated the house overnight with the stove. Did great with a low of 31. So cozy it's unreal. I'll snap a whole hearth pic as I've done some work; cleaned the stone, installed a Samsung Frame, and replaced the Mantle.
Just realized I have never posted a full shot of the fireplace and mantle so there will be no before / after. Sad. Anyway The frame install was very interesting. First the display came with 2 right brackets and then Samsung refused to send me a left bracket so I literally boxed it up and returned it and ordered a second one. Not my problem. Then I had to figure out how to drill extremely irregular masonry stone and mortar. I ended up just kinda winging it. One of the screw holes ended up loose so I filled it with JB weld which worked great. For the wiring--ok something you need to know about a Frame is that they are intended to replicate a painting so in pursuit of that there is ONE cable to it which is a power cord surrounding a fiber optic data link. Actually pretty clever engineering. So the brain box your TV has normally is remote from the display itself. This is an excellent design and works great. Anyway, what I did was use a glue gun to tack the fiber cable along natural paths in the stone all the way around the chimney to the other side where the brain box sits underneath a credenza out of sight. Then, I used thinset mortar to go over top the fiber optic cable path. End result; pretty much perfection. The mantle was a hand-me-down. The only interesting part of that install is that I managed to cut it on my miter saw. I had to flip it to finish the cut and managed to get it close enough that sanding wasn't even needed! Very pleased with it.
