Lake Girl any information from an operational unit is worth its weight in gold for others without the information. I usually operate on general principles as I've found it to be a very good way to isolate things, however it only works when the parts of the stove are working as they are supposed to.
Not at cross purposes here - cleaning the internal pathways is key. I have set up an "adapter" for my stove vac for when I pull my inspection ports - a length of old 1/2" garden hose about 30" long tuck taped to the vacuum adapter (of course diameters do not agree which is where tuck tape comes in - not pretty but it works). You can run the hose up the body from each inspection port and side to side between the two inspection ports. If you just vacuum at the inspection ports, you miss lots of crud
Still have to find a good brush... Unfortunately, this doesn't work in the heat exchanger area hence the putty knife. Too much tear down on these stoves can leave you with a lot of stripped screws. Have to find a supply of better metric dimension screws/bolts for the long haul.
However, maintenance cleaning aside, if original set-up does not take into account users particular exhaust set-up, may not be functioning at optimal efficiency, creating more ash and requiring more frequent cleaning.
The original manual I got from Northland Dist. didn't show schedule for cleaning, location of inspection ports, etc. There was another manual tucked inside that was slightly more informative but also has the following comment:
"The stove requires little maintenance if a quality pellet is used. Therefore it is difficult to establish how often the stove needs to be cleaned. The quality of the pellet and the combustion adjustment are crucial."
That's where the electronic fine tuning comes in... The "recipe" takes into account the exhaust set up. Pellet and draught also factor in (P6 and P7 held down simultaneously - pellet quality adjustment keys 1{decreases pellet load; 0 to -5} & 2 {increases pellet load; 0 to +5}; speed of exhaust blower adjustment 4 {decreases draught if flame is too low in firebox; 0 to -5} and 5 {harder pellet requiring more draught; 0 to +5}) Each adjustment accounts for 5% change of value.
Edit: the above keys are for inserts
Still P6 & P7 to enter but Pellet quality adjustments keys 4 & 5 (instead of 1 & 2); Draught adjustment keys 6 & 7 (instead of 4 & 5).
I cautioned Myers to note the current "recipe" configuration before he changes so that he can at least get back to a known value. Dealers are supposed to do this but in our situation the dealer was in another country. The nearest dealer in Canada was in Perth, ON give or take 18 hours away... Urban Hearth who apparently no longer carries Ecoteck.