Brand New Enviro Empress Creosote Buildup

[heatherco]

Hi - We just bought 2 new stoves this year...the Enviro Empress and their EF2. The EF2 has been no problem so far. We are using Cleanfire Pellets.

My problem is that the last couple of days...since we cleaned it over the weekend, we are getting a ton of ash buildup and creosote all over the firebox. So much that it has literally clogged the igniter hole a couple of times. I vacumned it out about an hour ago and now it looks like it's building up again on the firebox.

Could this have to do with the air rod thing? (Sorry...still learning the technical terms). Is there too much air, not enough? Our manual is pretty lame.

Also...when I went to clean it I could not take the burn pot liner out from the metal plate under it. Had to remove the whole thing and still couldn't get it apart.

Dealer is not much help at all. I'm concerned because I don't like to see creosote buildup that quickly. I even vacumned the heat exchanger tubes on the top.

Any help would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks so much!

 

[Xena]

Creosote, or ash buildup? Creosote is not
common at all with pellets as far as my
experience goes. Plenty of ash to clean
but 10+ tons later I've never seen a drop
of creosote in this stove or in the pipe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote

 

[heatherco]

See...told you I'm new and still learning the terms. Sorry about that. Guess I mean ash buildup. It's just so black that I was thinking creosote. The strange thing is that the glass is still clean.

Any help would be great!

Thanks!

 

[mnoack]

Is your flame lazy & orange with black tips? If so, pull out the damper for more air. What level are you burning on? Low levels will produce more ash buildup on the firewall, especially at level one. Are you getting, for the most part, a reasonably tall flame at high burn levels? of not you may have an auger issue & low pellet feed will burn dirty.

You should be able to knock the burn pot liner out with a light tap with a mallet - wood or rubber would be safer than metal, or whack it with a piece of wood between a hammer & the insert. Make sure the pot, as well as the insert is clean & vacuum the air intake & the igniter tube to free them of obstructions. Where this is a new stove, you wouldn't expect the problem to be ash buildup in the ductwork or the baffles, but if the above doesn't work & it's a free standing stove - just behind the ash pan on the bottom there is a metal plate on either side held on by two hex screws. Behind these there is an access to the baffle area so that you can vacuum this area out. As of last year, there was no indication of the existence of these in the manual. If you take these off & you see a lot of ash there & you have not burned the stove much, It may be symptomatic of bigger problems.