Issues with my 2008 25PDVC

[ciji.burnup]

In the 2 years I have had a pellet stove I have always come to this forum for my troubleshooting. I have a 2008 25pdvc. We run 100% hardwood pellets with less than 1% ash. It is very cold in Upstate NY with weeks if negative temps. We run the stove on 5 and 7 and it doesn't heat as well as I think it should. I have a few questions that I would like help with if possible.
1) Is it okay to run the blower on 9?
2) Should the ash build up on 5 and 7 or 6 and 8 within 2 days and require cleaning?
3) What would cause the flame to be very high and to create some black creosote buildup inside the stove and inside the very beginning of the bottom auger?
4) Aside from the normal cleaning of the inside of the stove, is there another area that I should pay special attention to? I have used compressed air and blew the dust out of the convection blower and the exhaust blower. it seemed to make a big difference in the heat output.
5) the heat comes through a vent above the glass door. The air pushes out the right side of the vent at a higher speed than the left side. Is this normal? If not what can I do to fix it?

Any help with these questions would be appreciated.

 

[jss227]

Turn the stove up to 9. It's cold outside.
1- Yes, I usually leave mine on 9, until the warmer months.
2- Yes, the ash builds up. I use a metal long handle spatula to do a quick ash scrape 1-2 times a day without shutting down the stove. I shut down and clean once a week.
3- More pellets, more flame and more creosote. Also a dirty stove can cause this by slowing the air through the stove.
4- I use a shotgun bore brush and a 2' long, 5/8 hose on my vac to clean the exhaust channels in the stove. Also, the area between the exhaust blower and the cleanout tee tens to accumulate a lot of ash.
5- Yes, this is normal.

 

[ciji.burnup]

Turn the stove up to 9. It's cold outside.
1- Yes, I usually leave mine on 9, until the warmer months.
2- Yes, the ash builds up. I use a metal long handle spatula to do a quick ash scrape 1-2 times a day without shutting down the stove. I shut down and clean once a week.
3- More pellets, more flame and more creosote. Also a dirty stove can cause this by slowing the air through the stove.
4- I use a shotgun bore brush and a 2' long, 5/8 hose on my vac to clean the exhaust channels in the stove. Also, the area between the exhaust blower and the cleanout tee tens to accumulate a lot of ash.
5- Yes, this is normal.

Thank you for the quick response. I appreciate it. I turned up the fan to 9 right after i posted and it already went from 68 to 72. I took a chance that it wouldn't hurt anything. I will definitely do some creative vacuuming and air blowing of all the aeas in the back as soon as it warms up enough to shut down for a few hours. Thank you for your help!

 

[jss227]

After doing a cleaning, turn your feed and air up to 9. It doesn't hurt the stove and really cranks out the heat After getting the temp to where your comfortable, turn the feed back down to what you normally run.

 

[Dr.Faustus]

if you can do the leaf blower trick, while the leaf blower is running, hit the exhaust channels with a good air compressor and blow gun. works wonders and it is fast. also use compressed air on the holes of the burnpot. it cleans it just as well as if you took off the whole burnpot and cleaned it that way.
after the lbt and compressed air routine, i usually disconnect my vent, put the shop vac connected to a smaller hose into the exhaust channel and hit the exhaust fan with compressed air without having to take it off. make sure the vac hose is stuffed in the exhaust channel tho!

I rarely use my stove on 9. with these temps its usually 7/9 or 8/9. last night i did run it all out 9/9 but with -18 and thats with no wind chill the stove just couldnt keep up and i supplemented it with some backup heat. Not the stove's fault, just that this house needs some major insulation yesterday.