St. Croix Afton Bay Glass Black

sharon26 said:

New to this forum so hope someone can help me out. We have an Afton Bay St. Croix Pellet Stove. This is our 3rd season burning the stove and have little problems with it until this year. Just so you know we are burning Dry Creek Pellets. The flame was not burning right (very high and almost out of control) and we determined that our combustion fan was not running right and oiled it and the flame seems fine now - doing what it is suppose to - pellets drop in - we see sparks, etc. The problem is our glass is getting blacker as we are into the second day since we cleaned it. I think we might we having an issue with the air flow. Any help or suggestion would be great!

Thanks.

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Clean the venting and verify that the versagrate is working correctly.

There is a hard to clean spot in the St. Croix stoves that gets plugged over time. A leaf blower may be your best freind. Search for leaf blower trick using the upper left search box.

cleaning everything is your best bet, however there was a post on this site about 1 month ago all about how bad Dry Creek's have become, seems they have new owner's or something.

it 's about how much$ you want to spend, and what's in your area, I burn Cubex and like it a lot.

You definitely need to do a complete clean of you stove.

There are two ash traps that allow you to clean out from behind the firebox. ash accumulates there and blocks the air flow to the fire causing a poor burn and finally the stove will not run at all.

You access the ash traps from the front of the stove at the bottom of the firebox. Use a coat hanger or other tool to poke around behind the firebox... tapping the back of the firebox with a hammer will help loosen up the ash. just when you think you are done, go in there again and you will find even more ash. After you ARE finished use the leaf blower trick o suck out as much ash as you can... put the stove back together and you will be amazed at how good it works.

krooser said:

You definitely need to do a complete clean of you stove.

There are two ash traps that allow you to clean out from behind the firebox. ash accumulates there and blocks the air flow to the fire causing a poor burn and finally the stove will not run at all.

You access the ash traps from the front of the stove at the bottom of the firebox. Use a coat hanger or other tool to poke around behind the firebox... tapping the back of the firebox with a hammer will help loosen up the ash. just when you think you are done, go in there again and you will find even more ash. After you ARE finished use the leaf blower trick o suck out as much ash as you can... put the stove back together and you will be amazed at how good it works.

Click to expand...

I'll second the need for a good cleaning. I would recommend using the leaf blower trick and leave the leaf blower running for the duration of your cleaning regimen. This keeps the stove under a negative pressure which keeps the ash out of your home. The toughest spot to clean in these stoves is the vent plenum directly behind the fire box. Once you remove the ash trap doors, using a long flex brush, do your best at running it up and accross from both sides of the stove (remove the baffle and pull back the tube scraper rod, using your fingers feel for the brush at the top of the plenum). If you own an air compressor, you can use an air gun and give it "very short bursts" of air at the openings to the right/left of the burn pot and through the ash traps. I also use air to clean the tube nest and then run the air gun along the top of the vent plenum opening to remove as much ash as possible (remember to pull the tube scraper back to allow access to the top of the plenum). After using short bursts of air to remove the majority of the ash, then feel free to "let er rip" with the compressed air. Also remove the pressure switch tubing and blow some air through the fitting leading into the firebox. This should improve the performance of the stove if the issue is ash build up. At your earliest, I would also recommend the removal and cleaning of the exhaust fan and remaining vent passages, however, have an extra fan gasket available before you do this. Hope this helps.

In addition to Krooser's great advice about the ash traps
I'd like to add that I've never done the "leaf blower trick"
and my stove runs perfect. My exhaust is vented about
20 feet up a chimney and I don't do roofs so leaf blower
isn't an option for me. I've learned to use other methods
to keep the stove very clean.
First I've got a pretty powerful Loveless drywall vac that'll
suck the paint off the walls. Using duct tape and a foot of
garden hose, I made a hose attachment that gets up into the ash
traps. Remove the refractory panels inside the stove and
tap the back wall with a small hammer and you'll see clumps
of crap coming down into the ash traps. Vac it up and
continue to tap. After you think you got it all,
tap some more then feed your home made hose attachment
into the ash traps. Doing it this way since 05 with zero trouble.
Good luck!

Xena said:

In addition to Krooser's great advice about the ash traps
I'd like to add that I've never done the "leaf blower trick"
and my stove runs perfect. My exhaust is vented about
20 feet up a chimney and I don't do roofs so leaf blower
isn't an option for me. I've learned to use other methods
to keep the stove very clean.
First I've got a pretty powerful Loveless drywall vac that'll
suck the paint off the walls. Using duct tape and a foot of
garden hose, I made a hose attachment that gets up into the ash
traps. Remove the refractory panels inside the stove and
tap the back wall with a small hammer and you'll see clumps
of crap coming down into the ash traps. Vac it up and
continue to tap. After you think you got it all,
tap some more then feed your home made hose attachment
into the ash traps. Doing it this way since 05 with zero trouble.
Good luck!

Click to expand...

I will second the thumping of the back wall with a hammer. Krooser was dead on about the brushes. If it is really bad a cable attached to a power drill will usually get-er-done.

I have a afton bay and i think changing pellets will help you. I am burning stove chow and they burn a bit dirty, go to home depot.TSC and find a different brand such as AWF common in our area and try them. As long as your pushing out plenty of heat Keep burning man...... Good luck with the storm thats coming tonight hang on tight

I usually tap in 3/4 time.... maybe to a polka tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcoekyMCWzg

That's imacman on the drum(s)....

LOS COLORADOS! GREAT BAND

krooser said:

I usually tap in 3/4 time.... maybe to a polka tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcoekyMCWzg

That's imacman on the drum(s)....

Click to expand...

Yep, I'm the good looking one in the band. I know better than to sing, but Krooser didn't get the hint.......Katy Perry's got nothing to worry about. ;-P

I'm burning them now. They're not bad. More ash this year than last, but lots less than the Lignetics I was burning earlier this year.

Big Y supermarket was selling Infernos for $6/bag yesterday!