Drolet 45 Daily Maintenance??

[TCZON]

Hi Folks! We've been running our 'new to us' stove for the past week and a half or so. We're burning Gildale Premium Hardwood pellets for the most part, and around 2 bags/day on heat setting 3 (sometimes dropping it down to 2 if it's a bit warmer out, which hasn't happened much). This setting, with the assistance of some strategically placed fans, is heating our entire 4bdrm house with 10' ceilings, so in general, things are good.

On a daily basis, I am shutting down the stove to clean out the burn pot because it is overflowing. I generally do that in the mornings (since I'm on afternoon shift this week), which includes moving all the ashes into the ash bin, vacuuming out what I can and scraping the burn pot. When I get home from work around 11:30-ish, I'm having to stir up the burn pot to clean out some of the build up so that it will make it through the night. I have the damper wide open, since that helps, but I'm wondering if there is something else I should be doing.

I am going to pick up some softwood pellets this weekend, in hopes that they reduce the amount of ash/cleaning I need to do, but if this is what I should expect on a daily basis, then I'll just continue! If there is something I should be doing/trying/changing, PLEASE let me know! My hubby does all the 'electrical/heavy maintenance' on it, but I'm the daily/problem solver/fiddler to get it working at it's peak efficiency.

Any help or input would be appreciated.

Cindy

 

[hyfire]

Most hardwood pellets create more ash, try the softwoods. What do you mean by burnpot overflowing with ash or unburned pellets?

 

[TCZON]

It's filling with ash, then overflowing with unburnt pellets. We're going to do a complete "monthly maintenance" according to the maintenance guide this weekend, including I think hubby is going to check the chimney and sweep it as well. I'm also going to pick up several bags of softwood to see if that solves our issues. At this point, we're relying on the stove so much, I want to get as much heat as possible out of every pellet. The stove will burn really well for several hours after a cleanout, then it starts to get lazy, the ash pot fills up and then unburnt pellets bounce off. We had gone with the hardwood pellets, because that's what the previous owners were using, but maybe they didn't try anything different (and that's why they sold it!)

We're also going to replace the stove door rope. It passed the 'dollar bill' test, but barely, so maybe that is part of the issue? DH was going to pick some up, but wasn't sure what size, so that's my next job to make sure I know the right stuff to buy...

Cindy

 

[Lake Girl]

Generally, when buying a used stove, it is a good idea to clean out with compressed air while outside ... that ship has sailed

In case you don't have it, troubleshooting guide: http://www.drolet.ca/upload/documents/manuels/Maintenance 45 Series BW -0003.pdf

Softwoods create less ash and generally produce more heat ... I found they are worth the extra money

Let us know how you make out!

 

[Charlie0664]

On a daily basis, I am shutting down the stove to clean out the burn pot because it is overflowing.

Your stove needs a good cleaning, it's all plugged up. Mine did the same thing until I give it a good cleaning, now it works great. If you
give it a good cleaning then you should only have to shut it down once a week for a good cleaning, I do mine every Saturday and
my burn pot is about 1/4 full. Make sure you give your pipe a good cleaning, your burn pot is filling up because your stove can't
breath. These 3 pic's are very important, once I started cleaning behind this wall my stove works like a champ.



Take this corner wall off.


Make sure you give this exhaust duct a good cleaning, if it's never been cleaned before you will probably
fine it full and blocking the exhaust.


This triangle hole is the important one, it can be a pain to get cleaned out but you have to do it. I get my fingers
up in there as far as I can and pull out the ass, then I use a wire and the shop vac to get the rest.

P.S
I burn softwood pellets, my personal opinion, they give more heat (and I get a pretty good deal on them).

 

[TCZON]

What you posted was on our "to clean" for tomorrow. We're at about 25 ish bags through the stove now, so we're going to do the full "monthly maintenance" deal, as well DH is going to clean the chimney, just to make sure we're all good. He's also going to pick up some softwood pellets so once the cleaning is all done, we can start fresh with just softwood and see how that goes. From our short test with a part bag of softwood, I think that may be the ticket.

Thanks!

Cindy

 

[TCZON]

Ok the full "monthly maintenance" was done today, including a sweeping and vacuum of the chimney (since the chimney parts have been glued together??? We had to shove the shop vac hose down through the gooseneck to the bottom to clear everything out! I see a leaf blower purchase in our future this summer!) We also switched everything over to softwood pellets, which cost the same from our local pellet supplier than hardwood, so no price difference to deal with.

We got everything fired back up around 1pm, and when I got home at 11:30pm, there is almost no ash in the pot. DH had the setting up to level 3, but had to back it back down to level 2 because it got too warm, even with all the fans we have moving air around. We have also backed off the damper, so less heat is going up the chimney as well, which is a bonus.

I'm always open for tips and ideas, but I think we're on to something here. We're holding on to our hardwood pellets for when the temps are milder, but tonight is back down to -13C, and if I can maintain the kitchen, which is the coldest room due to the back stairs bringing cold air down to it at 20.5C and the livingroom at 23C, I'm pretty satisfied!

Cindy

 

[Lake Girl]

Good to hear you are making progress with your stove. Lots to learn here so don't be afraid to use the search! Your new best friend is a clean stove

 

[Charlie0664]

We got everything fired back up around 1pm, and when I got home at 11:30pm, there is almost no ash in the pot

You gave your stove a good cleaning, you should be able to go a week before you have to shut it down
to clean out your burn pot (if your burning around a bag a day).
Glad it's up and running and working good, personally I love my 45, great little stove.

 

[TCZON]

Thanks all! The search option here has been tremendously helpful for sure! Right now we're down to burning about a bag and a half a day by the looks of it, and it's maintaining the house at heat level 2. I figure if I have to clean out the burn pot twice a week, that's still WAY better than once a day, with an extra quick scrape out while it's burning The clean stove and the switch to softwoods has definitely been a huge improvement. Next up is to replace the door seal, as it looks like the one in there is not the SBI factory one, but a generic, and I don't think the seal is perfect. We'll be ordering that from Home Hardware, and when we do the next major maintenance, we'll replace that as well.

 

[Polar Bear]

Cleaning out the burn pot twice a week is normal.

Every 12-24 hours... there's an issue.

Glad it all worked out.

 

[Polar Bear]

ps. was this thread posted only to Canadians?

 

[TCZON]

You'd almost think so Polar Bear! I'm just sooo glad I found this forum. The knowledge base here is amazing. We're now working on figuring out a battery backup system, and also a wifi t-stat. I don't know that I would have even started to figure that out without the vast pool of knowledge this forum has!

 

[Polar Bear]

You'd almost think so Polar Bear! I'm just sooo glad I found this forum. The knowledge base here is amazing. We're now working on figuring out a battery backup system, and also a wifi t-stat. I don't know that I would have even started to figure that out without the vast pool of knowledge this forum has!

It is very informative and has helped me out immensly as well.

It essentially runs full circle. You arrive here not knowing much. You read, and ask, and begin to understand the fine tunings about the issues. You eventually become very well informed and can then pass it on to another who is lost.


I'm still learning a thing or two, but compared to when I arrived... night and day.

 

[hyfire]

The door seals for the pellet stoves have graphite in them for higher temps, thats why they are dark in colour, compared to the white ones FYI.........Over cleaning won;t hurt anything also. I run a $70 current innovations Wifi stat from ebay, works great on the eco-65 no big wiring issues, I;m sure your stove will work with one too.

 

[TCZON]

Thanks hyfire! Tony wants to pick your brain about your inverter/power back up system too. With 3 power outages in the last year, ranging from 9-23hrs long, having battery backup is a high priority for us, and we have 6 6V deep cycle golf cart batteries sitting in the basement, just waiting to be repurposed!

 

[Lake Girl]

As to only Canadians answering - pretty funny it worked that way but Drolet is a Canadian stove company so makes sense they are more popular here!

A little TLC means Happy Burning!

 

[Mt Bob]

Well guess I have to pick on yall so you don't feel left out.Gee if pellets cost as much as beer in canada,how do you guys stay warm? Feel better? Buy the way only ever saw 1 drolet around here,never been burned,rich people.Looked like nice unit,I could own one.Bob

 

[Polar Bear]

Well guess I have to pick on yall so you don't feel left out.Gee if pellets cost as much as beer in canada,how do you guys stay warm? Feel better? Buy the way only ever saw 1 drolet around here,never been burned,rich people.Looked like nice unit,I could own one.Bob

Whiskey for those cold nights ha

 

[hyfire]

Thanks hyfire! Tony wants to pick your brain about your inverter/power back up system too. With 3 power outages in the last year, ranging from 9-23hrs long, having battery backup is a high priority for us, and we have 6 6V deep cycle golf cart batteries sitting in the basement, just waiting to be repurposed!

Its nothing special just a prosine 1000 pure sine wave inverter with the hardwire transfer option. I put some cords on it, when normal power drops it changes to battery automatically, only drawback when you use that mode it takes 1 amp from the battery's all the time, so you need to get your own battery charger, I use a ctek charger, like the ones at crappy tire. The wifi T stat has its own 24v transformer, connected to normal power, so when that drops the stove will shut down in 30 min or right away depending on the stove settings the eco-45 may have the same programming.