How to clean grate and ash tray every day, while also keeping the house warm?

[stovemama]

Hi all!

I love our pellet stove. But I really don't understand to clean the grate and ash tray every day AND keep the house warm. How long is it supposed to take for the stove to cool completely? I have left the stove off for FOUR HOURS, and there are STILL tons of embers to deal with when I clean.

(Plus most days, it isn't even practical to leave the stove off for several hours. The house becomes uncomfortably cold.)

I end up struggling to handle the grate and ash pan and to empty all the embers and ash without burning my hands or our floor. Whereas what I'd like is for everything to be cool enough that I could start the daily cleaning by just vacuuming most of the half-burned pellets and ash up with our ash vacuum.

We have a Piazzetta brand, Monia model, about five years old.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thank you!
stovemama

 

[jackman]

I don't shut down the stove to do a clean and scrape. I put on a pair of heat resistant gloves and give it a quick once over with the door open. It only takes a minute or two and doesn't smoke enough to be an issue.

 

[woodnomore]

On my stove you can turn the feed off and still run the combustion blower coals should no longer glow after 5 minutes. I use oven mitts to pull the bin. Less than 5 minutes later burning again.

 

[tlc1976]

I don’t have that problem even in subzero weather. Mine in stock form pretty much cools the embers by the time shutdown is complete. For me the glass is the last thing to cool. But it takes no more than a half hour.
On my stove I added a bypass switch for the exhaust fan. When shutdown is complete I keep the fan on and open the damper fully. In probably 5 more minutes the burn pot is cold to the touch and the glass has cooled sufficiently, again that is the last to cool. I have an OAK which helps. The fan bypass is also nice for sucking out the dust I stir up when cleaning.

 

[DneprDave]

I clean mine once a week, during the day when the sun is out, it only takes a couple of hours for it to cool down and my oil furnace takes over when the pellet stove is down.

 

[Dataman]

Clean my Harmon XXV when it's running and Hot. Takes about 30 seconds. No smoke escapes. Beauty of the Harmon Model.

 

[bogieb]

My first thought is to ask why you have a bunch of half burned pellets. Sure, it happens, but there shouldn't be that many that they still have hot embers after that long. Unfortuantely I don't know anything about that stove, but maybe some adjustments to the settings need to be made to get rid of those half burned pellets.

 

[zrock]

I was wondering the same why so many hot embers after 4 hours.. You may need to tweek your settings to get a much better and clean burn. During the week i just give the pot a quick scrape while stove is operating. On the weekend i give a good clean and vacuum after it shuts down. I leave the shop vac sitting outside under a bag after just in case their are some hot ones inside. I just buy the cheap steel shop vac's from hardware store so if they last a year and burn up no huge loss..

 

[tbear853]

Mine ….. fan pulls combustion air through so when I open the top door to do a scrape & knock off any excess to fall into bin below, no smoke as fan still pulls, but now it pulls room air in through open door. Then I shut top door, open lower door, remove metal bin and take it to dump. I aften hit off button but that only stops the auger until the stove cools in a hour or more time, but a stopped auger means I have ample time to take bin out to dump it & return (3-4 minutes max) and once I return the bin, I hit green start button after shutting door. Stove still hot, it just "goes on" heating.

I don't clean glass except when I do a more involved vacuuming, etc with the stove cold, maybe weekly, maybe 2 weeks. Fired it up just yesterday, old (1992) stove is doing great!