Uneven Burning BK Princess

[DaleP]

I have a BlazeKing Princess of unknown age. The stove came with the house which I have owned 10 years. I love this stove but it burns unevenly: well on the left side, but wood on the right side of the stove will remain mostly unburned. It seems like the "wind" is blowing from the left side of the stove when starting up the stove but nothing is going on on the right side. I called BK and one gent said my right side air tube may be plugged up but another guy said it was my flue setup and my wood was too wet — I disagree.
I cannot locate a "tube" in my stove. What does it look like and where is it located? Could someone post a picture for me please?

 

[DaleP]

I called my BK dealer in town. They had a new BK Princess on the floor. Flashlight in hand, I looked into that brand, spankin' new stove. The design is different from mine — of course! Half way or more up the sidewall there is a channel iron that is maybe 1.5x1". My stove has a plate that stands away from the sidewall that is 4-5" tall and open on the top. I used a piece of steel banding strap and shoved it behind that plate and worked it up and down and front to back. A large piece of creosote came out the back end and a bunch of fly ash. Since I believe, "If it's worth doing, it's worth over doing", I used an air hose and blew a bunch of ash out from behind that plate. I did the left-hand side too. MESSY!!
I changed the door gasket, adjusted the door latch and scooped out all the ash in the firebox. I cleaned the Steel CAT last week (it just had some fly ash in it).
I just lit a fire and it is like a completely different stove! The flame used to blow from left to right with no flame on the right side. Now the flame seems to part in the middle and blow left AND right with much more flame on the right side than ever before. I waited until the temp showed 500° (the Steel CAT will light off at 400°) and engaged the CAT. The temp rose rapidly like usual. When it reached 600° I turned the dial down to 2 (middle of the NORMAL range). The temp crept up to 725° and I turned on the fan on to high. The temp stayed and actually crept up to 750°. Now the different part…there was very little flame and it acted like a CAT stove, burning wood gas.
This is the first fire after making several changes, so I'll watch it throughout the week and update this post.

 

[moresnow]

Do you have the BK Cat probe installed? If so you should be able to engage the Cat according to it. Where/with what, are you measuring temp's now? Good to hear you regained the performance you were missing. How about posting a pic or two?

 

[DaleP]

Do you have the BK Cat probe installed? If so you should be able to engage the Cat according to it. Where/with what, are you measuring temp's now? Good to hear you regained the performance you were missing. How about posting a pic or two?

I have a probe thermometer that I bought several years ago with the Steel CAT. The original one's dial had lost its numbers.

 

[moresnow]

Gotcha. Current BK probe only shows a active/inactive line to let you know when to engage. No numbers.

 

[DaleP]

Wood added onto fist sized hot coals. Notice the flames are spreading center to left and center to right. Before cleaning out the right-hand air tube flames only traveled left to right.
Ooops! While I had the stove cold I should have wiped off the glass. Next time!



This is on the CAT. Knob set at 2 (middle of Normal) and reading 800° on probe thermometer. Very little flame. Yes, I put a short piece in the front horizontally so it looks different from the previous image. Door glass is still dirty!

 

[moresnow]

Besides the flyash your glass has much less corner buildup than many. Guessing your burning softwood? Outside of the first half hour, or less, I don't run with any flame generally. Curious. Are you on the original Cat?

 

[DaleP]

Besides the flyash your glass has much less corner buildup than many. Guessing your burning softwood? Outside of the first half hour, or less, I don't run with any flame generally. Curious. Are you on the original Cat?

I'm running a Steel CAT. My original CAT gave up the ghost about 3 years ago. It was swollen and broken and just didn't come up to temp any longer. I bit the bullet and bought the Steel CAT and have been very happy with it. It comes up 100° lower than the stock ceramic CAT and the temp rockets up. I'll add link at end.

All our woods are relatively soft. But tough to split. I burn a combination of Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock. I keep some Yellow Cedar for starting wood. I prefer Hemlock as it burns longer but it smells BAD! Spruce burns hot and fast. Yellow Cedar burns very hot and moderately fast but smells wonderful. Yellow is getting harder to come by here as we had a couple low snow winters and a lot died off and we seem to have some "cancer" getting them as well. My door is usually perfectly clear besides some fly ash.

http://www.condar.com/Combustors.html

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I'm running a Steel CAT. My original CAT gave up the ghost about 3 years ago. It was swollen and broken and just didn't come up to temp any longer. I bit the bullet and bought the Steel CAT and have been very happy with it. It comes up 100° lower than the stock ceramic CAT and the temp rockets up. I'll add link at end.

All our woods are relatively soft. But tough to split. I burn a combination of Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock. I keep some Yellow Cedar for starting wood. I prefer Hemlock as it burns longer but it smells BAD! Spruce burns hot and fast. Yellow Cedar burns very hot and moderately fast but smells wonderful. Yellow is getting harder to come by here as we had a couple low snow winters and a lot died off and we seem to have some "cancer" getting them as well. My door is usually perfectly clear besides some fly ash.

http://www.condar.com/Combustors.html

If I remember correctly, those Condar ones were not very good quality according to Chris? at Blaze King.

I'm probably due a new one on my Princess. It seems like the stove isn't putting out heat like it used to.
Used to leave the damper at around 12-1 oclock position and it'd easily have the front of the house in the low 70s.
Now I've had run it more around 2 o clock and it's a balance between upper 60s or only 6-7hr burn time for warmer temp.

Have maybe 20-30 cords through it. Seems like it'd last longer?

 

[moresnow]

My Cat is steel also. OEM in my Sirocco. I had 4 or 5 years on the original. My original was getting lazy. Having a new one is nice,
@ChoppyChoppy I have had good luck with a Condar stove top gauge. Guess I figured the Cat gauge would be ok as well? They appeared almost like OEM last I looked?
@DaleP I have to say it seems my stove really performs well on the softwoods I have. My E.W.Pine leaves almost zero ash which is handy.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

My Cat is steel also. OEM in my Sirocco. I had 4 or 5 years on the original. My original was getting lazy. Having a new one is nice,
@ChoppyChoppy I have had good luck with a Condar stove top gauge. Guess I figured the Cat gauge would be ok as well? They appeared almost like OEM last I looked?
@DaleP I have to say it seems my stove really performs well on the softwoods I have. My E.W.Pine leaves almost zero ash which is handy.

I remember Chris saying there was a brand of cat that wasn't very good.
I seem to think it was Condor.

 

[DaleP]

I remember Chris saying there was a brand of cat that wasn't very good.
I seem to think it was Condor.

I think Chris is mistaken. The Condar Steel CATS are very high quality. I may be mistaken, but I believe Condar is the OEM of most if not all the Steel CATs used by stove manufacturers in the industry. Perhaps BK needs to get off the old style ceramic CATS and use Condar's.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I think Chris is mistaken. The Condar Steel CATS are very high quality. I may be mistaken, but I believe Condar is the OEM of most if not all the Steel CATs used by stove manufacturers in the industry. Perhaps BK needs to get off the old style ceramic CATS and use Condar's.

I'll have to find the posts. Whatever brand it was, they didn't last too long.
I have 25-30 cords on my factory one. Cleaned it a while back, just to say a tan tinge in the vinegar bath.