Heat Exchange Tube Cleaning

[Major91]

I have over the past 10 years come up with some interesting ways of cleaning my stove. I am interested in what people are using to clean in between the heat exchange tubes. My Earthstove has em on top of the stove so i use two different size paint brushes to get in between them to rid of ash build up.

Anyone wanna list there tricks of there trade in cleaning the stove? Lets hear em.....! :cheese:

 

[tsmith]

I have the Quad AE so I don't have tubes, but I too use a paint brush to clean the airfoil system and a cheetah vac to suck up the dirt.

 

[DMZX]

My stove have a clean device that scrapes down the ash build up. I pull it up and down a few times each time I open the hopper to add pellets. There is some soot build up that I get with a vacuum.

 

[Major91]

My stove have a clean device that scrapes down the ash build up. I pull it up and down a few times each time I open the hopper to add pellets. There is some soot build up that I get with a vacuum.

Fancy........my stove has no 'built in' devices..........but that sounds sweet if it is effective..............

 

[WoodPorn]

My Englander has no "tubes" it has merely a path behind the burn pot/plate, my best solution so far is to use a malleable dryer vent brush and shop vac to sneak into the turns and behind baffles. I'm still not positive that I get everything!

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

I have over the past 10 years come up with some interesting ways of cleaning my stove. I am interested in what people are using to clean in between the heat exchange tubes. My Earthstove has em on top of the stove so i use two different size paint brushes to get in between them to rid of ash build up.

Anyone wanna list there tricks of there trade in cleaning the stove? Lets hear em.....! :cheese:

some models of natural fire series earthstoves had an lower, and upper baffle
requiring removal of the top of the stove to really get it clean

 

[vvvv]

My Englander has no "tubes" it has merely a path behind the burn pot/plate, my best solution so far is to use a malleable dryer vent brush and shop vac to sneak into the turns and behind baffles. I'm still not positive that I get everything!

u really think the hole behind the burnplate is part of the heat exchanger?

 

[save$]

In a cold stove, every 3ed day, paint brush, vac held in other hand, rap the top between brushing and the ash will fall like a bad snow storm. brush the back and keep vac going always near the brush. Run the vac over every surface you can get at. Wipe the glass with a paper towel. 2-3 mins and you are done! After every ton, give the leaf blower method a try. open and close the door several times while the leaf blower is suctioning the system out. If you watch it, you will see any loose ash or unburned pellets jump right up and out! That whole process takes about 10 min.s if you don't have to climb to put the leaf blower in place. you can see the leaf blower work by going to www.youtube.com. Those two things are all the cleaning I do. I tried tearing down to get to the blower after doing the leaf blower trick only to find no ash in the exhaust. I'll keep checking that area, but for now, it has not been worth my time unless you consider peace of mind worth it.

 

[Havlat24]

In a cold stove, every 3ed day, paint brush, vac held in other hand, rap the top between brushing and the ash will fall like a bad snow storm. brush the back and keep vac going always near the brush. Run the vac over every surface you can get at. Wipe the glass with a paper towel. 2-3 mins and you are done! After every ton, give the leaf blower method a try. open and close the door several times while the leaf blower is suctioning the system out. If you watch it, you will see any loose ash or unburned pellets jump right up and out! That whole process takes about 10 min.s if you don't have to climb to put the leaf blower in place. you can see the leaf blower work by going to www.youtube.com. Those two things are all the cleaning I do. I tried tearing down to get to the blower after doing the leaf blower trick only to find no ash in the exhaust. I'll keep checking that area, but for now, it has not been worth my time unless you consider peace of mind worth it.

This.. I do the convection blower too..but I too have pulled apart my stove to find the exhaust blower pretty darn clean after the leaf blower.. Anything that is on there that you can remove would probably be back after a day or so of burning anyways in my opinion.

 

[wilbilt]

My old stove has a flat plate "shaker" baffle right above the tubes (it rests on them). I rattle it around whenever I clean out the burn pot, but it doesn't really clean the tubes very well.

I go at them with the brush attachment on the vacuum when I do a "good" cleaning, but more is needed. It burns and heats best when the tubes are CLEAN. Making them CLEAN is fairly tedious, though.

I envision a set of round wire brushes ranging from 1/4" to 3/4" diameter along with a shaped aluminum scraper doing the best job. Trying to get motivated to put it together.

 

[Nicholas440]

Quadrafire Castile Insert, and I use dryer vent brush. There's almost no dust in my convesction tubes.

 

[Major91]

I have over the past 10 years come up with some interesting ways of cleaning my stove. I am interested in what people are using to clean in between the heat exchange tubes. My Earthstove has em on top of the stove so i use two different size paint brushes to get in between them to rid of ash build up.

Anyone wanna list there tricks of there trade in cleaning the stove? Lets hear em.....! :cheese:

some models of natural fire series earthstoves had an lower, and upper baffle
requiring removal of the top of the stove to really get it clean

Is there any trick to get to the top plate easily? My stove is top vented and have yet to find an easy way of getting to that top area. Tp440 is my stove.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

see steps 6 and 7 from the Maint. section of the book for top baffle cleaning info
need a copy? i also have the svc book, pm me your email(remind me what you are looking for in the PM)

 

[teetah222]

my stove has a scraper built in, but when I do the monthly clean out I grab a paint brush and wipe off everything that the scraper doesn't get to.

 

[Xena]

Mine has a built in scraper too. Once a day for five seconds
scrapes off the powdery deposits. I run the stove so hot
that there's never much on the tubes other than a thin
powder coating which is visible in this pic.
Stuff releases easily with a soft paint brush and I do
that when I do the once per month cleaning.

 

[blueshawk1]

My stove also has the built in scraper. Every morning when I clean the stove, I use the scraper, drop the baffle plate under the tubes and vacuum them.