First thorough maint/cleaning of my PDVC

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Murphy118

Murphy118

Member
Sep 20, 2010
155
NE Pennsylvania
OK, I have been a member here for a few years and have learned more than my fair share. I did my own install, (hearth and tile work as well), and am so thrilled with my stove that I tell everyone about it and am probably responsible for at least half a dozen sales of this model and/or it's bigger brother. My first year I ran the stove manually, and last year i added a programmable thermostat,,,, wow I see a pretty good difference in pellet consumption, but even better the first floor of my house stays a toasty 72 degrees if that's where I set it!!!!!!! I would NEVER put my t-stat for my gas hot water system anywhere over 66,,,,,, and would have to sit around with my Snuggy on! I also have adjusted all of the settings (thanks to the wonderful info on here) to make my stove as efficient as I think it could be,,,, even changing settings for different brands of fuel. That being said, I have my stove pulled onto my back porch, and have the following dissasembled:
-both auger motors--greased with high temp grease
-conbustion fan-- removed, seperated from motor and cleaned like shiny new
-igniter--removed, cleaned and orifice cleaned to burn pot
-augers--removed, burnished on wire wheel, auger path tube burnished as well
-burn pot removed

Here are my questions/concerns;
I have about a total of 3 1/2 tons of pellets through it till this point, all of last season and most of the season before and i clean the burn pot and wear plate daily, ( i do not run my stove over night), and ritually vacuum it all out every Saturday morning during the season.
The amount of soot/ash/black stuff in the vent pipe, attached to the combustion fan blade and housing was really not too bad and it's all cleaned up nice now. I am ordering a gasket kit this evening to get it all back together but am wondering about the gasket (if there is one), for the room (convection) fan/housing. I have not removed this unit as of yet. Is there a gasket for that?
--Also is there any way to clean the actual heat exchanger? I can get in the rectangular opening behind the impingement plate, but I'm sure there must be alot of ash down on the bottom in there that just can't wait to get caught up in my shop vac's hepa filter.... or do I just vacuum what i can get from the opening?
----Also I am going to swap the 2 auger motors,,,give the bottom feeder a breather this season. Good idea?
----Also the gaskets for the bearing blocks of the auger motors look pretty good and seem to have had a few dabs of High Temp RTV on them,,, i was just going to re-use them since them seem good,,,,,good or bad idea??

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer,,, I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff, but as I remember,, I'll post!!!

John
NE PA
 
1. If the convection blower is mounted like my 10-cpm, the gasket is glued to the blower housing, and would not normally need to be changed.

2. The best you are going to do in cleaning the heat exchanger insides is to bang on the steel back wall of the stove with a hammer (not too hard...more like very firm tapping) to dislodge any ash stuck to the walls, then use a 3/4" rubber hose duct-taped to your vacuum to snake around in there, and finally, (if possible), do the leaf blower trick AFTER the stove is all done and re-assembled.

3. Good idea swapping the auger motors each year, IMO.

4. If the bearing block gaskets look good, leave 'em be. But might want to have a spare just in case, down the road.
 
Wow,
yesterday I cleaned out my vent piping. I did not do this last year, since I only consumed about 65 bags of pellets and knew I would do it this year after burning another 75-80 bags. First off, I used the high-temp RTV on the jounts and I literally could not get the elbow apart to make a straight shot for cleaning, so I used my dryer vent cleaning kit and my shop vac to suck/blow all of the ash out of the pipe. I only have about 3 feet in the house to the thimble, then the clean out T, then about 6 foot of rise to the cap. I was really suprised on the amount of ash that came out of the pipe when I blew it from inside to ouside. I will make sure that this is done annually from now on.
I have 2 tons of Lowe's Pres-to-Log (or something like that) and one ton of what I belive is NWP's, also form Lowe's that I got for $177.30 after the 10% moving coupon, and 6 months no interest on their card. NOt bad considering a pallet of Stove Chow was $279 when I bought my stove in Oct of '09 at Home Depot.
Just waiting on the gaskets so that I can get it all buttoned up before the cold comes.

Thanks for all the info,

John
 
Last year was the first year for my stove and i learned a bunch from the people on this site. I would clean my stove every week and thought i was keeping it pretty clean. I decided to build a adapter for my leafblower. After i did my normal cleaning i hooked up the leafblower and i could not believe the crap that came out of the pipe. Now i do it once a month during burning season. I pulled my combustion blower apart a while back and it was clean as a pin inside. I lubed up all the bearing and built a air filter for the room fan. I also have a programable thermostat on my stove as well. I burn my stove 24-7 during the season and love it.
 
US Stove 6041 I used a air filter for a car i have the part number at the shop i will try to get some pics i have to take the side cover off to take pics
 
Hmpf...
I just saw on Home Depot's web page that they are now selling Englander parts,,,, auger motors, convection blowers, combustion blowers, igniters, all kinds of gaskets,,,,etc. Prices don;t seem to be all that good. Just waiting for my gasket kit direct from Englander to put it back together,,,,,,,,,

John
 
I have US Stove 6500 in my basement is vented up a masonry chimney and out the roof.

Can we use the leaf blower to clean the pipes like I saw on the videos? Will it really clean out the pipe and the stove?

I now use the brush and flexible rod and vacuum cleaner but when I pull the brush down I have black everywhere. Will the leaf blower help eliminate the mess?
This is our 2nd season and haven't started the furnace for the season and am really dreading the mess but love the furnace and the warmth.
 
Murphy118 said:
OK, I have been a member here for a few years and have learned more than my fair share. I did my own install, (hearth and tile work as well), and am so thrilled with my stove that I tell everyone about it and am probably responsible for at least half a dozen sales of this model and/or it's bigger brother. My first year I ran the stove manually, and last year i added a programmable thermostat,,,, wow I see a pretty good difference in pellet consumption, but even better the first floor of my house stays a toasty 72 degrees if that's where I set it!!!!!!! I would NEVER put my t-stat for my gas hot water system anywhere over 66,,,,,, and would have to sit around with my Snuggy on! I also have adjusted all of the settings (thanks to the wonderful info on here) to make my stove as efficient as I think it could be,,,, even changing settings for different brands of fuel. That being said, I have my stove pulled onto my back porch, and have the following dissasembled:
-both auger motors--greased with high temp grease
-conbustion fan-- removed, seperated from motor and cleaned like shiny new
-igniter--removed, cleaned and orifice cleaned to burn pot
-augers--removed, burnished on wire wheel, auger path tube burnished as well
-burn pot removed

Here are my questions/concerns;
I have about a total of 3 1/2 tons of pellets through it till this point, all of last season and most of the season before and i clean the burn pot and wear plate daily, ( i do not run my stove over night), and ritually vacuum it all out every Saturday morning during the season.
The amount of soot/ash/black stuff in the vent pipe, attached to the combustion fan blade and housing was really not too bad and it's all cleaned up nice now. I am ordering a gasket kit this evening to get it all back together but am wondering about the gasket (if there is one), for the room (convection) fan/housing. I have not removed this unit as of yet. Is there a gasket for that?
--Also is there any way to clean the actual heat exchanger? I can get in the rectangular opening behind the impingement plate, but I'm sure there must be alot of ash down on the bottom in there that just can't wait to get caught up in my shop vac's hepa filter.... or do I just vacuum what i can get from the opening?
----Also I am going to swap the 2 auger motors,,,give the bottom feeder a breather this season. Good idea?
----Also the gaskets for the bearing blocks of the auger motors look pretty good and seem to have had a few dabs of High Temp RTV on them,,, i was just going to re-use them since them seem good,,,,,good or bad idea??

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer,,, I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff, but as I remember,, I'll post!!!

John
NE PA
Click to expand...

Hello

Here is a thread on a very thorough cleaning we did on my neighbor's 25-PDVC
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/76319/

The convection room blower has a reusable gasket. You can see in the pic. click to enlarge
 

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Polish Princess said:
.....vented up a masonry chimney and out the roof.

Can we use the leaf blower to clean the pipes like I saw on the videos? Will it really clean out the pipe and the stove? ......
Click to expand...

It will IF you have a liner from the stove all the way to the top of the chimney.....the leaf blower has to be attached to that. If you just have the stove venting up an unlined chimney, it won't work (besides being the wrong way to vent the stove).
 
Thanks Pyro,
I had my encounter with the convection blower, saw it like pictured, cleaned it all up, blew it all out and cleaned vanes,(we have a yellow lab, so I got rid of all of his DNA from inside of it!).
Stove is all ready to re-install, 'cept for the combustion blower, waiting on gasket from Englander. I also ordered the complete gasket kit, (ready for next year), and was able to find 2 auger motors and a new igniter that will be put away with the gasket kit,,,,,,,in the event of a failure during the heating season.
All pipes are clean and good to go, 3 pallets of pellets being stored at my buddies business inside on his racking.
Thanks again for all the info, it's like having an expert service tech literlally at your fingertips.

John
 
imacman

Thanks for helping me, yes the vent is all the way to to top of the chimney with the specified amount of flue above the roof top so seems like should work. Also, should we put a filter in our blowers? That really makes sense to have them.

Doesn't say in the model 6500 manual to have.

Also, do we need a specific type of leaf blower? We have one on a small shop vac is just a blower will that be powerful enough?
 
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