Observations on when poeple clean their Stoves

My stove runs 24/7 and I clean the burn pot and sweep the ash around it into the ash can daily. I clean the ash traps and glass weekly. I plan to do a tear down and clean this coming Spring. This is my first season with a stove and so far I have had zero problems.

I do have one observation. The hotter burning, Douglas Fir pellets leave more soft ash clinkers than do the Pine pellets, but the Pine pellets produce more fly ash.

I see more of the big cleanings(weekly cleaning plus vent, blowers and/or leaf blower trick) once a ton or so. The once a week cleaning are less involved(vacuum, scrape and glass cleaning). I also have seen some that don't do there full gamut cleaning until the season is said and done.

I vacuum my pellet furnace daily as I shut it down every night. I brush out the inside of the burn chamber, the burn pot, and empty the ash pan every couple of weeks (that's how long it takes before it's ready to be emptied). Upper baffles and heating tubes are vacuumed out weekly. I figure by spending 10 minutes to keep the furnace cleaned out daily, that I don't stick myself with 1 hour cleanings that could result from letting it get too dirty. Saves time and waste by staying on top of the cleaning and keeping the furnace running at its greatest efficiency. The cleaner the pellet burner, the better it burns. Full gamut cleaning will come in the Spring at the end of the heating season - I'll vacuum out the hopper, brush out the PL vent, and use the leaf blower to remove any residual fly ash inside the vent. Some people I know with pellet stoves rarely clean their PL vents, unless they notice poor flames or exhaust backup problems.

I clean my stove daily. Scrape the burn pot, clean the baffles, vaccum the ash out of the burn box and vaccum the sides well And clean the glass.

My stove is just one that this must be done in order to keep it burning properly! Yeah, I get tired of cleaning it every day, but then I think what it costs to run that propane furnace and how much I enjoy the heat this little guy puts out.

WELL WORTH IT!!

I do the vacuum, scape and glass cleaning usually every 2 to 3 days. My first year with this stove Regency GFI55 insert and I've burned through a little more than 2 tons of Okanagan's. Today, I decided to remove the fake brick panel's in the firebox just to see how much ash was behind them. There was quite a bit on both sides so I vacuumed and scaped/brushed the wall's and opening's that lead to the combustion intake. There was roughly 1/8 inch of ash caked to the rear walls which came of easily with my ash vacuum. I've got to say that when I restarted the stove I noticed a big difference in the heat output, it felt much hotter than before. I think next season I'll be removing and cleaning behind these brick panel's after 1 ton or so. But I have to say the stove has performed great thus far.

The reasons you see the when it warms up is for several things.

They are running their stoves flat out and the temperature would plunge and take a very long time to recover.

They want to do a full cleaning which takes a bit of time and also requires that they work outdoors (Nicer if it is warm, right?).

I always take advantage of the closest warm day to a one ton mark or if there is going to be a cold spell.

My weekly clean out is quite short.

I clean my Harmon every Sunday, I shut it down in the early AM and do a through cleaning, burn pot, underneath burn pot, pull heat exchangers and vacuum out the heat tubes and clean out ash inside, also clean glass. I take the bottom panel off twice a year to make sure nothing blocking outside air. And at seaons end, my buddy pulls the auger and clean out all fans and blowers. I burn about 2.5 tons per year.

If I get the opportunity I pull the clean-out rod each evening when my stove cycles off and cools, and check for any soft clinkers.
About once every 10 days to 2 weeks (less if I notice more ash buildup than I like) I shut it down and remove the top baffle and rear sections, and vacuum everything out.
Around mid winter if we get a nice warm up I will run outside a run the lint eater brush down my stove pipe after opening my inside "T".

Once the warm weather arrives I will pull and clean my combustion fan and reinstall with a new gasket.

I normally clean my stove every weekend.....firebox, ash pan, burnpot, glass, etc. Even vacuum into ash traps some. But I have been known to extend my cleanings even longer......

Cleaning depends on the pellet being burned. Currently, I can't get away with more than every other day due to a big crumbling ash that accumulates in the burn pot. The glass get very dirty with ash as does the grates. I shut it down, let it cool off, then vac and brush the entire inside. Turn it back on, and it runs real good until the second day, then big lazy flame. Clean it and back to normal. With another brand of pellets, I cleaned every 3 rd day. No ash build up, but fine layer over all inside surfaces. Glass required wiping down. I do the leaf blower thing with every ton. Can do the whole thing in 10 to 15 minutes on a cool stove. I get good heat with the all the pellets I have been using, but some are much more messy than others.

the above comments are all well and good, but the regulars here are not the average pellet stove burner.....seems to me that many folks only do a rudimentary cleaning (dump ashes- thats it), and dont even consider a thorough cleaning until something malfunctions......which is WAY too long!

Lousyweather said:

the above comments are all well and good, but the regulars here are not the average pellet stove burner.....seems to me that many folks only do a rudimentary cleaning (dump ashes- thats it), and dont even consider a thorough cleaning until something malfunctions......which is WAY too long!

Click to expand...

Yup and those are the ones which may end up selling their stoves.....to US!!

Burning 24/7 whenever the outside temp drops below and stays below 40ish.
I scrape the burn pot and run the tube scraper daily while the stove is running.
Once a month the interior of the firebox gets stripped down and
thoroughly cleaned as well as the ash traps and heat exchange tubes
get cleared, glass cleaned, and ash pan dumped out.
After shutting the stove down for the season, I brush out the vent pipe
and remove the blowers and completely clean them as well as scrape
out the blower cavity. Am able to follow the above regimen when burning
low ash pellets such as barefoot and okanagan. Cleaning intervals may
be more frequent when burning lower quality/higher ash pellets so ymmv.

Most people would enjoy their stoves more if they did not clean them daily. There is no reason to shut your stove down and vacuum or scrap. When I first bought my stove 6 yrs ago, I would clean it every 2 days . I HATED that. Now I vacuum the brun area out every week and FULLY clean it every 1 1/2 ton. Now my wife and I love it. If you have to clean it daily, you could end up hating it.

"If you have to clean it daily, you could end up hating it."

Not if you like to be toasty warm! I have to clean mine daily and I stilll love it!

On my XXV, I give the burnpot a quick scrape once a day, and vac/brush it out once a week.
The blowers and vent get cleaned after burning about a ton. Very easy to clean.

My Advance only runs part time so it gets vac/brushed out once a month.

Compared to my XXV the Advance is a PIA to clean as I have to remove a bunch
of panels, the flame guide and ash bin just to get to the heat exchangers.
No such thing as a quick clean on that one :-S

Ever day I scrap the heat exchanger tubes and burn pot, brush the ash into the pan. every week I will shut her down and do a good cleaning scrap and vac the ash traps, etc. once a month will brush the exhaust vent and do the leaf blower trick. mid season Iwill bull both motors and clean them. when the heating season is over do another really good cleaning spray the inside with pan and cover all outside vents, unplug her with a note to remove all covers before refireing, then get the ac up and running.

I shut down, scrape and vacuum daily. I've tried going every other and there is just too much ash for that. I really don't look foreward to it as the house temps usually drop about 10 degrees and it takes a while to get the house heated back up. Is it spring yet?!

I clean out the burn pot everyday. Everyother day I clean out the ash down to the ash pan and then do the glass. Every sunday I do a deeper cleaning consisting of behind baffles, top baffle. And brushing the exchange tubes with a horse hair brush, does really good. Then I will shop vac out the exhaust path and go outside and shop vac out the horizontal out. This all takes about 40 minutes once a week, but it is worth it.

This summer I'm going to figure out the leaf blower thing.

I run 24/7 and clean at a ton burned