How often do you clean your stove?

I've only had my M55 for about two months now so I'm still a rookie. Up until this point I've been cleaning it every single Sunday morning. This includes a full vacuuming, emptying of the ash pan, and cleaning the glass.

Now am I doing this type of cleaning more often than most or is this typical?



PS. Picking up a ton of Barefoots this weekend to add to the stash.

It really depends on your stove and the pellets you burn.

I just did a cleaning on mine (new to me stove) after two weeks of solid running. I could have easily doubled that. But now I know.

Get a feel for the stove and the pellets your burning. If at one week it really isn't that dirty, go to two weeks. You will get a feel for it.

Sometime around the 1-ton mark would be a good time to do a deep cleaning.

Each stove and pellet is difference but I need to empty the ask every week in deep winter. If the ash pan is full I might as well clean it. Then I used a meat thermometer and found that the clean stove runs 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the stove after 1 week of burning. That was enough for me. I clean every week then a leaf blower trick every ton and an full teardown every year.

Funny thing about ash on the exchangers ;-).

When you guys say full teardown, what do you mean exactly?

I clean mine when I can't see the fire through the glass anymore. Maybe a couple times a week.

Dave

clean... scrape the burnpot - and the exchangers with the tool. about once a week.

Clean... unload the ashpot / and clean it out down there - about once per ton burned.

I haven't burned a pellet in my Harman P38 that created more ash then 1 ashpot per ton.

To me a teardown is to to start with:

The regular weekly cleaning which includes scraping everything inside the stove, cleaning off the exchangers, pulling out the baffles and cleaning them, sucking out the holes in the pot and scraping the put to bare metal.

Do the leaf blower trick including a dryer vent cleaner system

The tear down also includes the following
Pull all the access pannels off in the back and clean the dust and ash out.

Then pull all the motors off (cumbustion, auger, and distribution)and clean them including all the lovely dust bunnies and using pressurized air clean out anything else.

clean every sunday
deep clean every ton

I'd like to try the leaf blower trick. Is it as simple as shutting the stove down and attaching the blower to the exhaust outside?

Dust out all inside surface with a paint brush, clean glass and vac every 3ed day. Leaf blower with every ton. If it had not been for the dogs beating down a path around the house, I would have never been able to get to the pellet stove chimney. I have never used snow shoes, but if we get more winters like the last one, I am going to have to learn.

Yes with an off and cold stove, you attach the vacuum side to the venting and point the blower side away from anything you don't want covered in soot, then you let it rip.

There is more to it.

You should disconnect the vacume sensor and you should clean the stove first and I use a lint buster to breah up the soot in the exhaust pipe. I usually do mine with the door open and as it is running close it and open it a couple times. run it till it blows clear.

When the glass looks like crap I clean it. The inside of the stove maybe once every 3-4 weeks.

Eric

How do you disconnect the vacuum sensor? Is this a must?

There is a hose in the back of the stove unusally neoprene and it can be pulled off easily.. That being said I do not but I do not form a hard seal around the pipe where I hook up the leaf blower and I alway stert witht he door open and just barely close it as it is on. The issue is that a vacume switch is made to handle X level of vacuume then it will break if it see too much. You exceed it at your own risk. Just a pain in the tail to get parts and fix on a very cold Sunday.

I brush the ash off the heat exchangers every day. Just did it for today, and you can feel more heat right now. I figuare if I'm burning stove, may as well get every bit of heat I can.
Empty ash pan once a month and clean stove. Sometimes I give it a cleaning early if weather happens to warm up but its going to get cold again.

i vacuum everyday. take the back baffles off almost every other day.
wire wheel and scrape the burn pot *at least* every other day

i clean the glass either every other day or more.
took the side plates off to look at the blowers. no dust bunnies yet. having carpet helps minimize those.
not sure what my motor removal schedule is going to be.
i plan on doing a flue cleaning w/ the linteater after the first ton.

Seems like a wide range of opinions here.... I'll probably stick to---
a burnpot scraping everyday
cleaning glass a couple times a week
brushing interior, good burn pot scraping and ash pan emptying each week
cleaning of vent & combustion fan each ton
cleaning of distribution motor dust bunnies - who knows at this point. Have 2 labs so may need to do this a couple times a season?

Once a week for ash give or take,
once every ton or so for the flue, and the heat ports
once every other ton for the compressor and exchanger motors

Clean out the fire box and glass every day. Brush and scrape it every second day, I'm semi-retired so I guess I'm bored.

Hey everyone, I'm new here and new to burning pellets.
I'm interested in how these cleaning tips would apply to an insert...do you pull the stove out of the fireplace to get at the back of it for cleaning more than once a year? I also would like more info on the "leaf blower trick" as it applies to an insert.

I have a Breckwell P2000i and I've burned a few different brands so far. Stove Chow, Green Supreme and Greene Gold. I'll be buying a few tons next week of either the Greene Golds or Hamers.

ETA: I now see there's a thread for the leaf blower trick on an insert.

Welcome... Use the search function at the top of the page. One is for "Titles" only, the other above it, is a broad search (much more info).

This is the place for info. And yes you will have to pull the stove out. How often you do that is up to your cleaning regime. As long as you keep your stove, exhaust passages, and flue clean. And your motors are maintained and lubed (if necessary) You should have many years of enjoyment.

I dump the ashpan, clean burn pot, vacuum out, and clean glass about every 5-6 bags.

Every 10-12 bags I do the same but pull the inspection plates and vacuum those out and also vacuum out the "T" in my vent.

I probably could go longer if needed but it's pretty easy to do.


After I burn 1 ton, I will probably do the leaf blower deal. Not sure.. May just wait until the end of the season when I do a full tear down.

After each bag I clean out the burn pot (I get a lot of ash build-up), knock out the wear plate, scrape the ignitor area, clean the glass. Every 4-5 bags I vacuum thoroughly inside (including the heat exchanger) with a small shop vac with an ash filter which sits outdoors until I dump the ashes around a bush or two. If you start the routine early into ownership, it doesn't seem like much work.

I haven't done the leaf blower technique (see link below), but I read somewhere on this site, if you open your door slightly, you don't have to disconnect your vacuum switch. Sort of makes sense, but I would suggest a disconnect.

I removed the clean out cap at the "T" on my vent pipe, and I had quite a bit of ash built up and I think due to some ashy and inferior pellets I bought as a test. But do this too every few weeks. I've only burned about 1 1/2 tons since owning it, and so far so good. But I miss my fireplace insert which was great in our old house -- lots of free heat!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLRfu4WNaR8