Cleaning a burn pot - is there a suitable solvent?

whit · Dec 16, 2013

I have an older Santa Fe. It has the sideways pivoting trap door on the bottom of the burn pot. Some pellets leave a hard buildup (creosote? tar?) on the plate. Then, despite actively scraping it with a chisel first, sometimes it gets stuck open, requiring pulling the ash drawer and reaching in with a pot holder to pull it shut.

It occurs to me I could scrape it better, put a small wire brush on a Dremel maybe. Or I could just religiously avoid burning the brands of pellets that are prone to doing that to me. But I'm wondering if there's something that's (A) a solvent, and (B) not a fire hazard that would ease that hard gunk off the trap door plate.

tjnamtiw · Dec 17, 2013

I've had mine stick open on occasion. First, you probably need to loosen up the nut/bolt that holds the door at the pivot point. Just slightly. It can hang down the thickness of a dime at the most but you will only need a little bit to keep it from sticking. Secondly, use a wood chislel (cheap one!) and push down and twist it to break that crap loose. No need for solvent or anything like that.
Someone on here had a great suggestion which I haven't followed through with yet. Cut a piece of sheet steel the shape of the exposed door inside and then sit it in there during the burn. When you pull the door open, it drops down with the ashes. Clean it and put it back in. Your door will never have ANY buildup. Make two of them and rotate them so you can clean the one at your leisure. Great idea. I am amazed no one sells them on EBay! Hmmmmm. I know I would buy two and so would every other Quad owner on here.

Threerun · Dec 17, 2013

Well what I do with my Enviro burnpot when it gets really cruddy with that glaze of carbon is to take it out, go the garage and put a benzo torch to it. Keep the heat on it until the carbon starts glowing then grab it with some dykes and dip in a bucket of cold water. Carbon sheds like old skin, clean as a baby's buttocks. Granted the Enviro burnpot is pretty stout, so I've not had any warpage issues. I've been doing this for 3 years and it works A LOT better than scraping and chiseling.

Basically 10 minutes and I have a new burnpot. No carbon.

jimfrompa · Dec 17, 2013

I have a Quad Mt. Vernon AE and it has autoclean function. It catches when first opening (moving to the right to dump ashes). My dealer suggested spraying a product called Anti-Creo-soot on the firepot and also on the pellets in the hopper. This stuff activates at 360 degrees and is supposed to make getting the creosote off easier. As far as scraping the bottom - I use a scraper that is meant to scrape old gaskets from an engine block. It's just the right size and can be bought at your local auto parts store. This is the one and only complaint I have with my new Mt Vernon. Getting the bottom of that firepot clean of creosote is miserable. Also, you run the risk of breaking the thermocouple or the firepot itself. As I'm typing this, I just heard my Mt Vernon crack like you hit the top with a hammer - it does it at the very beginning of the autoclean cycle when the creosote holds up the free movement of the firepot - Man! that bugs me. If any Quadrafire factory rep or dealer is monitoring this forum, let's have your advice as to how to resolve this terrible personality trait of these stoves. Again, I suggest getting some Anti-Creo-soot spray - it might just help your problem. If your local stove shop doesn't carry it, you can get it from Amazon.

john193 · Dec 17, 2013

I use a wire brush on my cordless drill to brush the fire pot. Loosens up most of the stuff.

john193 · Dec 17, 2013

jimfrompa said:
I have a Quad Mt. Vernon AE and it has autoclean function. It catches when first opening (moving to the right to dump ashes). My dealer suggested spraying a product called Anti-Creo-soot on the firepot and also on the pellets in the hopper. This stuff activates at 360 degrees and is supposed to make getting the creosote off easier. As far as scraping the bottom - I use a scraper that is meant to scrape old gaskets from an engine block. It's just the right size and can be bought at your local auto parts store. This is the one and only complaint I have with my new Mt Vernon. Getting the bottom of that firepot clean of creosote is miserable. Also, you run the risk of breaking the thermocouple or the firepot itself. As I'm typing this, I just heard my Mt Vernon crack like you hit the top with a hammer - it does it at the very beginning of the autoclean cycle when the creosote holds up the free movement of the firepot - Man! that bugs me. If any Quadrafire factory rep or dealer is monitoring this forum, let's have your advice as to how to resolve this terrible personality trait of these stoves. Again, I suggest getting some Anti-Creo-soot spray - it might just help your problem. If your local stove shop doesn't carry it, you can get it from Amazon.

I've never heard of this spray but my first inclination is that this sound like a nicely marketed product. Remember the ab belt of the 90s?

Anyway, what I do about once a month to prevent this "hammer" like sound is I disconnect the auto clean arm. Its a single bolt and nut, to the left side of the stove (when looking at stove). You can access it through the ash pan area. As a side note, before doing this, clean the firepot as best as you can first.

Once disconnected, you can move the fire pot floor by hand. Grab a hold of it and swing the floor left and right, vigorously. As you do, you will hear and see carbon buildup coming crashing down. I do this until the movement is discernibly smoother. Then I take a small piece of cloth dabbed with graphite powder and rub the railings. Connect the arm back and you are done.

This isnt in your manual as a maintenance item, but I have started doing it after one night my auto clean mechanism got stuck.

peirhead · Dec 17, 2013

I believe this is mostly a result of the cooling processes between cycles...I used to have lots of problems with this, but now I try and catch the stove before it cools off, and scrape the burn pot while the coals are still glowing hot, then dump it.

That way the coals don't have a chance to go cold on the burnpot and build up the carbon....this has worked well for me the last couple of years.

jimfrompa · Dec 17, 2013

john193 said:
I've never heard of this spray but my first inclination is that this sound like a nicely marketed product. Remember the ab belt of the 90s?

Anyway, what I do about once a month to prevent this "hammer" like sound is I disconnect the auto clean arm. Its a single bolt and nut, to the left side of the stove (when looking at stove). You can access it through the ash pan area. As a side note, before doing this, clean the firepot as best as you can first.

Once disconnected, you can move the fire pot floor by hand. Grab a hold of it and swing the floor left and right, vigorously. As you do, you will hear and see carbon buildup coming crashing down. I do this until the movement is discernibly smoother. Then I take a small piece of cloth dabbed with graphite powder and rub the railings. Connect the arm back and you are done.

This isnt in your manual as a maintenance item, but I have started doing it after one night my auto clean mechanism got stuck.

I'm a bit reluctant to disconnect anything for fear of voiding my 2 year warranty. However, I'm about ready to try something. The workspace through the ash pan area is very limited. I have tried to lube the rails with spray silicon and synthetic brake caliper grease - seems to help a bit, but the real culprit is the carbon or creosote (whatever it is). Thanks for the idea - I'll let you know if that helps.

john193 · Dec 17, 2013

jimfrompa said:
I'm a bit reluctant to disconnect anything for fear of voiding my 2 year warranty. However, I'm about ready to try something. The workspace through the ash pan area is very limited. I have tried to lube the rails with spray silicon and synthetic brake caliper grease - seems to help a bit, but the real culprit is the carbon or creosote (whatever it is). Thanks for the idea - I'll let you know if that helps.

Using a dry lubricant will give you the best result. Liquid lubricants and brake caliper grease will be magnets for ash and will gum up faster.

As a side not my stove is also under warranty and my dealer told me to do it, to clean the system. Perhaps a call to your dealer to get it on record could be a good idea. You are more likely to have your warranty voided for a dirty stove than to take it down for cleanings. I assume you have removed the combustion and convection blowers for cleaning. The combustion blower should be cleaned at each ton.

jimfrompa · Dec 17, 2013

john193 said:
Using a dry lubricant will give you the best result. Liquid lubricants and brake caliper grease will be magnets for ash and will gum up faster.

As a side not my stove is also under warranty and my dealer told me to do it, to clean the system. Perhaps a call to your dealer to get it on record could be a good idea. You are more likely to have your warranty voided for a dirty stove than to take it down for cleanings. I assume you have removed the combustion and convection blowers for cleaning. The combustion blower should be cleaned at each ton.

I have not cleaned the blowers yet. I'm just about at the one ton mark, so it's on my to do list. I'll watch a video on youtube before I try it.

tjnamtiw · Dec 17, 2013

Looks like the OP got hijacked by a couple of Mt. Vernon types. I wonder how he's doing and if he's tried loosening up the pivot bolt a little.

jimfrompa · Dec 17, 2013

tjnamtiw said:
Looks like the OP got hijacked by a couple of Mt. Vernon types. I wonder how he's doing and if he's tried loosening up the pivot bolt a little.

Being a newbie to this forum, I don't have a clue what this means. Maybe some hip insider speak.

john193 · Dec 17, 2013

jimfrompa said:
Being a newbie to this forum, I don't have a clue what this means. Maybe some hip insider speak.

It means the thread is going off topic from the original posters (OP) question.

jimfrompa · Dec 17, 2013

john193 said:
It means the thread is going off topic from the original posters (OP) question.

Ah ... now I get it.

peirhead · Dec 17, 2013

Hey Jim...welcome to the forum....Im just as guilty as anyone for drifting off topic....sometimes the moderators will intervene and move posts into the proper places....we try to stay on topic to save them extra work...after all they don't get paid much!!

tjnamtiw · Dec 17, 2013

peirhead said:
Hey Jim...welcome to the forum....Im just as guilty as anyone for drifting off topic....sometimes the moderators will intervene and move posts into the proper places....we try to stay on topic to save them extra work...after all they don't get paid much!!

We don't try REAL HARD, THOUGH!

But we respect them, just the same when they scold us. Witness the submariners' thread.

smalltown · Dec 21, 2013

The first season or two my Castile (the sister to your Santa FE) burn pot door would stick, and I would need to scrape it with a chisel. If you door sticks open after that you still haven't got all the carbon build up removed. It doesn't take much to make the door hard to open or close. I did find that changing pellet brands really reduced the times I need to scrape.

tjnamtiw · Dec 21, 2013

It also is a good idea to SLIGHTLY back off on the nut holding the trap door in place if you have a sticking problem. The stoves can tolerate some gap as long as it is less than the thickness of a dime. It saves a lot of cussing and swearing, at least in my household. I hate to hear my wife cuss !!!

!!

whit · Dec 30, 2013

Several good things to try here. Thanks! Also, I don't mind the drift of topic at all.

Cleaning a burn pot - is there a suitable solvent?

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