Blaze King 40 Smoke Smell Near Stove (No Visible Smoke) on Low Burn

When I brushed the entire chimney in October, I dismantled each section to the ceiling so I could get a good look at everything. The chimney was shocking "clean", just a thin dusty brown layer. Cleaned inside the top of the stove and thoroughly lubed the bypass moving mechanisms. What shocks me most since purchasing this BK with the cat is how clean the chimney stays, even after several months of use. My old stove years ago, I brushed the chimney every two weeks and it needed it every time! So, short answer to your question, it doesn't seem like I saw anything that would indicate some creosote leaking into the seams, especially how the deposit was just a light dusty coating. I'll definitely give it a second look though.

 

Yes, you can overtemp your catalyst, and if that happens too often, you can damage it. It would appear to me that your catalyst probe is indicating a too-hot condition even though it doesn't explicitly say it. Though I defer to the BK experts.

Would that lead to smoke smell in your house? It's hard to imagine how, but maybe? Perhaps though that's the one change in the last three years.... your catalyst has gone bad.

 

Just additional information to add.

When I got up this morning, after the stove had burned for 9 hours, the fire box was 1/4 full of very charred, partially unburned wood, glowing coals, with a thin steady flame flickering out of them. My catalyst temp gauge was pointing straight to the right (I guess I would call that about 3/4). So, the catalyst was still very engaged after 9 hours of burn. As I type this now, it's been 11 hours and the coals are down to just a really big, hot pile. The cat stat is pointing straight up, indicating it is very much into the "Active" range and doing its job. My understanding was, a catalyst that is bad or failing will not perform like this, but, spike high, then tank. Is this true, or not so much? I woke up to the house temp being 74° with an outside temp of 16°.

Side note, no smoke smell. That's what's killing me, it's so random, but too frequent!

 

For me, the best way to tell the catalyst is still functioning is I open the bypass on a new fire and watch the catalyst temp decline while at the same time the fire in the firebox grows.

Your manual will tell you to observe emissions, but that doesn't work so well for me. With they bypass open, you'll see smoke, then with the bypass closed that smoke should mostly disappear.

Another way to supposedly tell is to look at flu temp. You should see a drop in flu temp of at least 50* when you close the bypass, but I'd argue that could be due to a dampening affect. But certainly larger drops of 100* or more would indicate the cat is functional.

All this said, I'm a relatively new burner and look forward to hearing what some of the old timers think!

 

That's interesting too! Crazy though, I don't see that on my cat stat. I just opened my bypass for about 5 minutes, reloaded a full firebox of wood, closed the door, and my cat stat only dropped about 1/8" on the gauge. I'm letting the wood fire for a few minutes right now before I close the bypass.

 

A little more info. Reloaded firebox about an hour ago. Cat is HOT (see pic), fire is lazy(see pic), stat on low(see pic). I'm seeing noticable smoke coming from chimney(see pic).

 

That looks like normal steam from a new load drying to me...if it was smoke it would linger/trail off for longer... IME if it's gone in the first 10' after coming out of the chimney, it's not smoke

 

But you may only need one cat stall on a (King-sized) long burn to get dripping deposits in your flue.

Regarding cats getting too hot, that is the difference between a BK and other cat stoves. The thermostat will avoid overfiring the cat.

 

Really? Wow. I love everything I see and hear about BKs, and this is another example!

 

Just to add a random thought. I can induce the stink/beef jerky smell easily by turning the stove down to far, to early. Really a rare occurrence these days.

I've had good success on reloads by initially making a rather large reduction in air that shows a slowing of the robust flame. Give that setting a bit (depends on how lazy I am!). I then reduce the setting position a couple more times in the next 10-15 minutes. I like to leave it alone at a setting that has barely snuffed the active flame. Normally.

If its bucky cold out I will leave my final low setting where I have a very, very small amount of active flame. Eventually this flame will peter out and the stove will continue to run clean and very hot. No smell issues using these methods.

Sounds like your cat is in fine working order. Almost guessing if you adjust your operation regimen a tad you may eliminate your issue. It's possible your low setting position may be a bit too low on occasion.
My guess only. Best of luck fine tuning.

 

Sounds like your cat is fine, but stuff like this is a good reminder to have a spare around...always nice to be able to order the exact one you want, and at a good price, instead of when you are in a bind, having to be stuck with paying the price of whatever you can actually get at the time.

 

Thats a good logic for all sorts of stuffs.

 

Ahhh, ok. Thanks for the info!

 

Never realized that!

 

I love the stove! Heats the house with no issue at all. The 9-10 hour burn time when temps hit zero and lower is amazing

 

I'm really starting to believe this is totally a stat settings issue. I'm going to keep tweaking it and see where this takes me. Still makes me wonder though, where's the smell escaping from the stove into the room.

Edit to this post 20 minutes later: I turned the stove stat up about a 1/16 of an inch an the "smoke/steam" exiting the chimney went away immediately. Cat is still glowing bright orange and no smell.

 

Some events are what we used to call PFM at work. It's an abbreviation. I'll let everyone fill in that definition themselves with exception of P=pure and M=magic

It's really an interesting learning curve for any BK owner. When the actual stat "effective knob adjustment swing" of each install is ironed out the true fine tuning begins!
Much of the available stat adjustment range means almost zero. The small portion of available adjustment range that actually completely controls stove performance is a tough thing to learn/understand/accept.
All fun!

As an example. My effective stat adjustment range is from wide open position back to the middle position. Really nothing less.
Most of my fine tuning is in the last 1/4 of this usable range.

FWIW

 

PFM...Love it! I agree with you 100%. What I have discovered on my stat, is 1/16" movement on the stat is the difference between one single small flickering flame on low burn, or a full-blown fire in the box. The sweet spot is very small, but effective.

 

My very first stove had an adjustment knob like that (bimetallic spring) and I hated it, because it seemed like it was either wide open, or closed...or occasionally bouncing "clack clack clack" I though it was a pretty stupid design. But, turns out that the "stupid" (more like ignorant) was me...I now realize that I had high draft and it was struggling to deal with it...had I known to install a simple key damper, I think I'd have had a completely different experience with that stove! (Well, that and (truly) dry wood)

 

I don't do the whole turn down in multiple steps process. That's excessive futzing. Turn it down all at once before it gets too hot, maybe an intermediate step, and the thermostat will be allowed to do it's own modulation. I don't really want the full fuel load engaged all at once just to try and choke it down.

Sure sounds like your cat is still working well. Running at higher settings is easier on the cat and should prolong the life compared to those of us running on lower settings most of the time. The smoke is a bit worrisome. If you don't see a disconnected plume, where there is a clear gap between the cap and the formation of white, then I believe that at least some of that is smoke. At high burn rates it is tough for the cat to consume all of the smoke so some slips by. On your third year I would definitely have the new cat on the shelf ready. Your climate is too hostile to not have a functional stove. Worst case, if your wife is at her wits end, pop in the new cat and just test it before removing this otherwise excellent match of a stove.

The problem of this thread though is smoke in the room. Smoke can leak out of flue seams (least likely) but also the door gasket, the bypass rod hole, even the cat meter hole. To get smoke to spew out of these places will require an excess of smoke and a sudden change in flow through the stove. A small bit of smoke can really stink and linger. The other way for smoke smell to get in the room is outdoor smoke sinking and finding its way back into the home through inevitable leaks at windows and doors. The pictured smoke from the chimney isn't exactly a vertical plume and the winds can cause a vacuum on the leeward side.

Your guy had the cat out and after that you suddenly had this problem. Quite a coincidence. Did he clean the catalyst? Use some sort of weird chemicals?