Cleaned the King today

BlazeKing, King Ultra
Took some blood & skin, but got it cleaned out.
Beetle-Kill had a thread a while back, used some of his techniques.

1st time cleaning the stove (other than the cat combustor) since new.

Got about 3/4 of a coal bucket full of ash & hard brittle creosote. (mostly creosote)
& some bird bones.

Took the cat out, cleaned with vacuum then soaked in distilled vinegar.

Removed the stove pipe. Vacuumed out the catalytic/bypass chamber.

Some pics :
Catalytic/bypass chamber. Found some bird bones & about 1/2" of fine ash
look fairly recent, not covered with ash:


top corners:


After about an hour of scraping, pushing with a metal strap, wire , hands & putty knife.
Most was between the shields & the stove walls.
I had a good amount of creosote. (quite a bit in the vacuum too.)


Lots cleaner:


clean cat, new sealing tape. Cat shows it age, I ordered a new one.
Door & pipe back on, new fire. Combustor lit off much better.

Was amazed how plugged the combustor was .

Hoping now thatI have a much better handle on seasoning my wood , that
I don't get the build up again.

Good learning experience,
PS \ listen to Beetle-kill, wear gloves, save on bandaids

 

How old is your stove? Men is on year 5, still same cat.

 

Just burn it out with a hot fire
Your wood needs to be drier.
Why do you need to clean it out? Worried about a creosote fire in your stove? Mice?
You're not burning hot enough.
Your pipe must be about plugged.

Just some of the things I've heard from non-BK people

Odd to get more creosote in the stove than in the chimney?

 

Serious question from a non-BK person, will it not burn out with a hot fire and lots of secondaries?

 

To some extent. It loosens up in the corners, and falls off easily, like it dries up some. The majority of it is behind shields on the sides and back, spaced in about an inch from the outer walls of the stove. There is also a bunch up top, especially around the tubes that take combustion air up to the 'airwash'

Nothing really burns until you scrape it off and dig it out from behind those shields. It will burn when it's in with the wood, but I've never been able to burn it clean. And I burned the stove HOT for weeks at a time last winter.

The ignition temp of creosote is supposed to be around 1000°. Apparently that is only achieved at the top center of the stove, around the cat and bypass, and the inside of those shields that are directly exposed to flame.

 

Looking good. Did you take any before and after pics of the cat?

 

Creosote in the stove...especially in the colder corners...isn't anything to worry about.

When I moved in the ENTIRE firebox of my King was coated in a significant layer of shiny sticky creosote. The chimney was worse. Guy was clueless...and lucky.

 

No
But I meant to. Brain freeze after I got into it .
I vacuumed it out & could just barley see thru it, then I dropped it & a
big pile of stuff fell out. That go me to tapping it & more & more stuff fell out.
Had read about soaking in distilled vinegar, so when my wife came down, I handed it to her.
I was so dirty to my elbows by that time , I didn't think about pictures.

 

I'm pretty sure the major creosote build up came from the low ,
slow burns I did with marginal wood over the years.
Much better wood now, but I'll be watching to see if
I still get a build up on the smoldering, low temp, long burns.

Pipe & chimney look good.
But it gets cleaned annually,
but hasn't ever had creo build up except on the cap.

5 years old.

 

I get some inside mine at the beginning of the year when I do a lot of cold starts.

 

Primo stuff still gets me build-up like that.

 

Cleaning mine this weekend and I guarantee I'll get more crap out of mine than Dave did. I've been burning marginally seasoned beetle-killed slab for the last 3 months or so, but even with 3yr. seasoned Lodgepole I still get quite a bit of build up.
I've never removed the Cat though, just given it a quick squirt of 40psi. compressed air when cold and it's seems to have stayed pretty clean. I'm probably due for a replacement, but it's still lighting off like it always has. It's 5 yrs. old now.

 

That was a nice little piece bogydave on cleaning a BK. The pic with the creosote around the tubing in the corner was eye catching for sure. Glad you got it done and have a grip on how well your burning now.

 

How does the cat get plugged if it's burning the stuff coming through it? I've never seen a plugged cat on the Dutchwest, Buck or the Woodstocks...a little ash, yeah, but no creo.

 

Not creo, just a layer of darkish grey ash build-up.
The air volume through the Cat on a low burn is pretty slow, it just accumulates over time.

 

OK. I figured it was creo since any ash on mine has all come out with just brushing the surface, then blowing through it.

 

Is this creosote inside the stove just something you get with a cat stove? because I have never seen any creosote in my stove just some black fluffy stuff

 

Kinda curious myself if this is just a King thing. Don't recall anyone reporting this with a Princess. Or a Woodstock or really any other Cat stove. May be that the large amount of wood it can fit, combined with the low burn might just isolate this condition to this model. Don't know. I know "solar&wood" burns pretty clean, I don't seem to.

 

+1
The low, slow 24 + hour burns.
Had a ceramic it never plugged, it had bigger holes. Center piece just fell out & cracked
New stainless suppose of have bigger holes, gonna give it a try.

 

Kinda wonder too
I think during shoulder season & the low slow burns it build up then just turn hard as glass when
burning the hotter cold weather fires.
I'll try to watch & see if the better, drier wood reduces it.