XXV Cleaning

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jhalle

New Member
Nov 25, 2009
2
Southern Maine
I am a relative newb when it comes to owning a pellet stove. I have been running since November and have gone through about 2.5 tons. I clean it very regularly as it seems much happier when its clean. I just wanted to go through what I am doing to make sure I am not missing anything.

1. Using shop vac with hepa filter I vacuum any fly ash on door and on each side of the ash pan (seems there is as much next to the pan as in it)

2. Remove ash pan and begin brushing every square inch of the heat exchanger with a paint brush.

3. Scrape the burn pot of any scaling. Remove the ignitor cover and vacuum space.

4. Clean glass. Usually use a cleaner made by Rutland but windex does a fine job in most cases.

5. Remove back panels and clean combustion blower. I use a tooth brush to get behind the fins of the blower. Vacuum the fines on the opposite side where the pellets drop into the auger tube.

6. I use a long feather duster to pull some soot out of the exhaust port inside the stove.

I have not cleaned the piping that comes out of the stove to date. I have approximately 3' of pipe and then it increases to an 8" Class A Liner. I don't believe I should have to clean this until the season is over but please correct me if I am wrong.

Let me know if I missed anything as I hate to neglect something crucial to the longevity of my XXV.
 
think you got most everything, but do clean off the ESP probe. I likes to use a wet paper towel. Just loosen the 1/4 screw that hold the ESP in place, pull straight out and wipe it down. Reinstall in reverse. When you do the "year end" cleaning, be sure to vac the distribution fan for dust bunnies.
 
You might wanna take a small piece of 12 Ga copper wire, a nail
or something similar & poke the combustion air holes in the burnpot
to make sure they're clean & not restricting air flow.
You'll get the same carbon build up in them that you get in the pot itself.
Other than that sounds like you're well on your way to becoming a
certified pellet stove service technician!
 
Let the stove run for at least a month or two , then clean it like you have ben doing. Harman stoves do not need that much cleaning done after a couple of bags, Let it run !!!!!!!
 
Since I normally do my cleaning when the stove runs out of pellets, I normally vacuum/brush out the hopper as well. Some bags have a lot of "dust" to them that collects on the sides of the hopper. Some folks here have recommended a coating for the hopper as well, but I don't recall exactly what it was.
 
Wet (water) newspaper on the door glass works best. Windex is for them fancy big city folks.

My XXV has been cleaned once this year, just over a ton used. Dont let it kick your butt.
 
Thanks to all for your input. Good tips. I know the manual says to clean it once a ton but I'm a maintenance freak so its beyond my powers. I usually run it dry Sunday Mornings and give it a quick clean. An ounce of prevention is worth (you know the rest of it)
 
keep-in warm said:
Blackdog, another XXV owner here...curious what pellets you are burning that allow only one cleaning this year.

I'm still trying to burn off Michigans that are hot, but fill the ash pan weekly.


Thanks!
 
keep-in warm said:
keep-in warm said:
Blackdog, another XXV owner here...curious what pellets you are burning that allow only one cleaning this year.

I'm still trying to burn off Michigans that are hot, but fill the ash pan weekly.


Thanks!

Try a good softwood such as Okanagan, Dragon Mountain, Spruce Point etc. I get much less ash than the Green Teame hardwoods with the Okies. A friend had the same issue with a ton of NEWP (blend, but mostly hardwood)this year, changed to softwood and the ash lessened considerably.
 
Congrats!

I am very please with my Harman Advance.

I bought it used 6-years old & works great!

Noticed the blower was not too forcefull & one of the ports did not have much air coming out.

I have a compressor & turned it up to 140lbs of air & blew the baffles out from front to back.
Then the blower fins & blew up iar duct towards baffles/front.
Did this back & forth few times.

You would not believe the herd of dust/hair balls that came out!
Stove heats great!

Seems like you will be an owner of your Harman for awhile.
So thought this might help.
 
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