Ok class gather around

I actually don't see what the problem is....LOL!!

what? that gi-hugic pile of ash is a problem? doesn't even look like ash anymore...looks like ground up oreo cookies. did you taste it to see?

kinsman stoves said:

Delta-T said:

what? that gi-hugic pile of ash is a problem? doesn't even look like ash anymore...looks like ground up oreo cookies. did you taste it to see?

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Tasted like chicken.

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how interesting, I would never have thought chicken....I'm a HUGE fan of the "no one told me" defense....yeah, thats sarcasm.

Thanks for posting that! I'm going to be tackling a combustion blower soon and since this stove is used I've no idea what I am going to find in there. I might be a little bit afraid now :bug:

If that was my stove, I would be so embarrassed. :red:

Posting pics like this is a great teaching tool for the rest of us.
Keep em comin

picklen pete, i might need to check mine(10 year old quad insert bought used) all i can say is no good

It ran for 4 years without cleaning? Thats impressive.

That can't be the problem Eric, everyone knows that stoves automatically clean themselves, just look at those four color sales brochures.

You dump the pellets in and press the start button. I swear that is how the sales person describes them as well.

I did wonder why the service folks were always unavailable to answer questions, the sales types had them either locked up or overloaded with jobs cleaning ash out of stoves.

Should of went to his house and fixed that common problem, making the guy remove and load his stove is alot of unneccesary work...shame on U

All kidding aside, I don't recall my dealer going into great depth when explaining the cleaning procedure, but how about reading the manual?? I consider my stove an investment that I want to last. Why people don't educate themselves by reading the manual so at least they can protect their investment is beyond me. If they're so rich they don't care, hire someone to clean it! On a good note, this person is probably psyched because I bet the stove runs 100% better than it has in quite some time!

Eric I've attended enough of your classes that
after your first sentence I knew what was coming.
Hopefully u pointed your new customer to this forum in
addition to fixin em up.


My Dealer didn't explain squat but imo it's up to
the consumer to educate themselves on how to
safely use and maintain a product they purchase.
Info is in the manual. I read mine cover to cover a
few times over before even turning on the stove.
Anyone who buys a new stove and doesn't read
the literature that comes with it, well it's their own
fault if they get fupped duck later.

kinsman stoves said:

......he claimed the selling dealer never explained that he had to clean the stove in this way. Eric

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Cleaning? Cleaning??? Cleaning what????? What does "cleaning" mean??????? Is that something that involves WORK??????

No way!! That's not the problem at all!! That d__m stove is no d__m good, that what it is

newf lover said:

but how about reading the manual?? I consider my stove an investment that I want to last. Why people don't educate themselves by reading the manual so at least they can protect their investment is beyond me.

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Xena said:

it's up to the consumer to educate themselves on how to safely use and maintain a product they purchase.
Info is in the manual. I read mine cover to cover a few times over before even turning on the stove.

Click to expand...

This can't be repeated enough - Read the manual, whether you're talking about these stoves or anything else.
I've seen so many things come with "quick start" instructions, and that's as far as most probably ever get as far as reading the literature that comes with stuff.
I not only read the manual, but keep it at hand for reference later, especially if it has a troubleshooting section like the one for my stove has.

Just think...What could the exhaust pipe that goes up the chimney look like? Did the stove owner ever clean the heat exchanger tubes or the ports on the left and right side of the stove. Everything must of been plugged up! Sound to me that you sure got a good customer now that will call for your services more often.

you'll never get that sound proofing batting white again. SHAME!

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Seems that a lot fo folks think that way.

Last winter I bought my Advantage II
The folks told me that it was no good any more, cause it would not burn.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK
Took the stove as far apart as I could without a cutting torch.

Found that all the ash traps were completely full right up to the very top port where the gasses enter from the firebox.

The exhaust fan looked just about like the one pictured earlier here.

The exhaust vent out the back was nearly full of ash buildup as well.

Rolled the stove outside, vacuumed the ash traps, vent pipe/housing and removed and cleaned the exhaust fan.

The mechanical cabinet was well endowed with dust, pellet residue, bugs and other debris that had found its way in.

With all the sheetmetal off, I turned the 120 PSI air hose loose on the sucker and gave it a serious CAT 5 blow out.

After that I wiped out all the innards with a damp rag and some 409.


Put it all back together and WOW, whatcha know, it works like new again.

Yess, soo many folks never read the manual or even think about the little black box that make the house warm, until it quits.

Around here stove maintenance only stops once they have been cleaned up and readied to sit for the summer.

Its a daily thing, a bi weekly thing, a weekly thing and a monthly thing for us.

Fly ash is a constant anoyance with any pellet fuel and with us and using nut shells its an even bigger issue.

Do the routine maintenance and life is good.


Thanks for sharing that little ditty, its a great primer for newbies to the world of pellet stoves.

It also brings the idea back to all the rest of us that are old hands at running these sort of appliances.

Snowy

and I feel bad when I dont vac the whole stove out once a week. I had an auger jam this morning. Had a chunk of corn stalk spirled around the auger. Amazing how tough that stuff is. Anyway so I vac'd the whole stove out again even though I just did it a few days earlier.

Hopefully you charged him double for that ignorance

although i'm not anal about cleaning my stove, I do clean the burn pot everyday and scrap it. I do clean and sweep the ash down into the ash bin about every 4 days. And about once a month I'm going to take the plates out etc and vac everything good and clean the tubes good. I will be doing the leaf blower thing too, but not till later on in the season. I clean the glass every 3 days as well. As well as make sure the outside of the stove is looking good and not dusty.

NorthernQuad said:

although i'm not anal about cleaning my stove, I do clean the burn pot everyday and scrap it. I do clean and sweep the ash down into the ash bin about every 4 days. And about once a month I'm going to take the plates out etc and vac everything good and clean the tubes good. I will be doing the leaf blower thing too, but not till later on in the season. I clean the glass every 3 days as well. As well as make sure the outside of the stove is looking good and not dusty.

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About what I do also. Seems to pay off quite nicely!

although i'm not anal about cleaning my stove,

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Uh-oh, I guess I must be because I vac out my stove completely every day, including dropping the baffle plate and vacuuming all up in there, opening the fly traps and vacuuming in those, and clean the glass.
I know, proably more than necessary, but I figure it can't hurt.

No, that is very good if you want to do that... :lol:

NorthernQuad said:

No, that is very good if you want to do that... :lol:

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Mostly what I want is for the stove to last as long as possible with as few problems as possible, so I figure it's worth it.

But I guess I'm not too far gone, I don't do the leaf blower on the vent pipe every day, only done that once so far.

In the case we have here, burning nut shells has its good and bad points.

I clean our stoves in the time frame I do so that they will stay efficient.

The nut shells come with a lot of stuff that will not burn. I am sure that there is a certain amount of dirt in the mix too.

I screen the stuff to keep out materials that will Jam the auger but, the fine stuff that passes the sreen can and does contain NON Burnables.

The cleaning process gets rid of the "Clinker" in the pot plus all the extra fly ash that gathers in the unit.

If I were to run these stoves on grade A pellets the cleaning schedule would be far longer between times.

This was a learning experience from the GitGo. The very first stove I bought and ran shells was the biggy along that learning curve.

Each subsequent stove had to be tried and the little bugs worked out as we went along.

Feed motor and draft fan trimmers had to be adjusted and the cleaning regimen learned all over again.

Every stove is different, depending on the design of the airflow, the heat exchanger type and construction.

Some stoves tend to blow more of the fly ash out through the exhaust fan and right on out into the vent pipe.

Other stoves will retain much of the ash in the "traps"

Some burn pots/trays tend to be more "self clearing" than others.


Some stoves will soot up the glass windows in a day of low burn or even medium burn while others will stay relatively clean for days.

The Prodigy will dust the glass in day and within 3 days they are really dirty.

We rarely run this stove about the low setting so thats likely the big issue.

For the folks running nothing but premium pellets, your cleaning interval should be able to stretch out to at least a week of steady running.
At weeks end a quicky cleanout of the pot and firebox should be enough.


But its a stove by stove thing ya know.

When its blistering %$^&@ cold outside I will rotate the cleaning so I dont have all the stoves off at any one time.

The stuff like vent pipe vacuuming is left for the times when the weather cooperates and I can get out and do it.

A self clean cycle would be great eh ??? Just press a button and the ash all comes out in a little foil bag that you can drop in the trash.

Now that would be way cool.


Snowy