To thoroughly clean the combustion package, the manual recommends removing the 'ramp' brick, which I assume is the same thing as the 'shoe' brick, which sits in front of the combustion package. I was able to easily remove the other bricks, but the shoe brick sits in a shallow pan formed by the casting in the bottom of the stove. As far as I can tell, it is impossible to remove it without removing the combustion package first, which would entail taking the entire back panel off the stove, plus there are a couple of phillips screws going through the front of the combustion package, and I have no idea what those attach to, or whether they could be removed without breaking the screws or damaging the combustion package.
The problem with the shoe brick is that it appears to be necessary to move it upwards about a half inch to clear the lip of the pan where it sits, but there is no clearance between the top of the shoe brick and interior of the combustion package. The combustion package is made of some kind of soft ceramic material that is extremely fragile, so I would be afraid to force the shoe brick up to clear the lip.
I jury-rigged a vacuum cleaner attachment using a short piece of garden hose that I could snake down inside the combustion package without damaging it, and suck up the accumulated ash. By carefully using the hosepipe attachment, I was able to suck out most of the ash, but the problem is that while trying to see if there was a way that the shoe brick would come out, I tilted it forward, and some of the accumulated ash managed to fall under the brick, and now it won't sit flat, but remains tilted forward. I don't know how I would remove the ash under the brick without first taking the brick out of the stove.
Does anyone know of a safe way to remove the shoe brick without disassembling the whole stove and completely taking the combustion package out first?
Don
The problem with the shoe brick is that it appears to be necessary to move it upwards about a half inch to clear the lip of the pan where it sits, but there is no clearance between the top of the shoe brick and interior of the combustion package. The combustion package is made of some kind of soft ceramic material that is extremely fragile, so I would be afraid to force the shoe brick up to clear the lip.
I jury-rigged a vacuum cleaner attachment using a short piece of garden hose that I could snake down inside the combustion package without damaging it, and suck up the accumulated ash. By carefully using the hosepipe attachment, I was able to suck out most of the ash, but the problem is that while trying to see if there was a way that the shoe brick would come out, I tilted it forward, and some of the accumulated ash managed to fall under the brick, and now it won't sit flat, but remains tilted forward. I don't know how I would remove the ash under the brick without first taking the brick out of the stove.
Does anyone know of a safe way to remove the shoe brick without disassembling the whole stove and completely taking the combustion package out first?
Don
