Stove & Chimney Maintenance

2 Questions.
1. Do you have to or should you clean your chimney for your pellet stove? I have a metal chimney that goes straight out through the roof. If so, how often? Do they build up ash or creosote or neither?

2. There is a saw dust catcher ( for lack of a better term) on the rear of a Harman XXV stove. You have to remove a plate to get to it. Its on the lower side of the feed shoot before the auger. How often should this be vacuumed out? I did mine once last season.

I do a complete cleaning of my Harman Accentra once a month. That does include cleaning out the vent pipe and the fines box(saw dust catcher).

To answer you first question yes. Ash will build up in the exhaust pipe and can stop you stove as it will not be able to make enough vacuum. You can get creosote in the pipe if you have a low/poor burn. I do mine every 2-4 week or about every ton of pellets I burn.

The 2nd question I empty out my fines collector about every 2 weeks. An ounce of prevention is way more than a pound of cure when it comes to a pellet appliance.

Thank you for the reply. Its difficult to get to the fines collector as my stove is installed in a corner hearth and you know how heavy theses things are. I am thinking about getting some of those furniture moving discs and put them under the feet of the stove. Disconnect the stove pipe and spin the sucker around. It would be so nice to have open access to the back of the stove. I guess I better get busy. Neither of those things have been done in while.

Thanks again

I have had my P68 for five seasons. Within the first 3 or 4 months, the stove did not run right. Techs came out and found the problem....the fines collector was full. They emptied it and it ran fine. I clean that once a year, and there is never hardly any in it. I have to attribute that problem to the pellets I used in the first year. I don't remember the name, but they were in a red, white and blue bag; somthing like US Pellets. Haven't bought them since and haven't had a problem; but if I do, I know where to check.

Tom C.

My stove is also in the corner. All I do is remove the right rear panel to get to the fines box, not too difficult

Here is a detailed write up on the XXV that Member Spock did.. Its just below this thread (down a few)

See here > First 1 Ton Cleaning - XXV