Quadrafire 1200i Cleaning

[Grumpy]

I have been using my Quad 1200i pellet stove insert for about a year and have run about 1 1/2 tons of pellets through it. The stove comes with basic cleaning video, but the dealer is not much help for more detailed info. Weekly I vacuum the inside and clean the glass. Monthly I remove the baffles and clean inside by the tubes. I also remove the small doors at the bottom and vacuum the blower areas. I don't like removing the small screws that hold these covers, as they seem very fragile. Am I missing any areas for cleaning or maintenance?

I have about 12' of 3"" stainless exhaust flex-duct going vertically up my existing masonry chimney. The chimney has a flex-duct to chimney adapter sealed to the masonry at the top. I have not cleaned this duct. There is no clean-out and it is a real chore to remove the insert. Since this is a pellet stove, how often should I clean the flex-duct?

I have been reading about sealing the existing chimney near the damper during wood stove installations. My damper was not removed, just opened to provide room to run the flexduct. Since this is a pellet stove, is there benefits to installing this blocking plate and insulation.

 

[begreen]

Burning 2.5 tons average per year, I cleaned glass and interior vacuuming every 2 weeks on the 1200i. And only did the full clean once a year in springtime. There was only a little accumulated ash in the cleanout box door where the pipe connects with the stove each year. Stove ran/heated fine at year 5+ when I sold it.

 

[PutnamJct]

Hey Grumpy,

Same stove, probably burned 4 or 5 tons in it since last year. I do a full vac every 5 or 6 days same procedure as you. I only pull off those 2 screw in trap doors every other month, not much is every behind them. The screws do seem a little weak on mine also. Feels like it would be real easy to pop the heads right off of them.

Does your glass get dirty within hours of cleaning it? What kind of pellets you burning?

Happy New Year,

John

 

[Grumpy]

John,
I use local brands.
Cleanburn from Tacoma, about $3.25 a Bag. Takes about 2 days to start making the glass dirty.

Northwest Pride from Idaho, about $3.50 a bag. Bought 20 bags at lowes end of last season at $2.60 a bag. Starts making glass dirty right away. Lots of ash and fines.

My glass gets dirty on lower corner of both side windows first, then the lower corners of the front glass. It never bothers us if I clean it weekly.

I would like to hear about creosote buildup in pellet stove ventduct. I would like to avoid disturbing my installation as much as possible. It took me a while to get all the small exhaust leaks sealed after installation. Have you cleaned, or looked at you exhaust ventdust?

 

[begreen]

Our glass would start getting slightly smoked after a couple days too. But the build up was gradual. Lignetics were the cleanest burning pellets we tried. But our local dealer switched to Blazers (WOW pellets) and they also burned well, though had more fines. We only tried about 10 bags of CleanBurn because Manke was just ramping up. They seemed to create a bit more ash, but burned well. If I still had the stove this year we would have probably been burning CleanBurn. Dels had a great price on them.

Never saw an ounce of creosote in our pellet pipe. I think it's a non-issue.