After almost 5 years of ownership, I finally did a “full” cleaning of the insert instead of paying a technician to do the job; as I am now retired, I am trying to save money. At roughly 2 tons in since the last full cleaning, I was putting it off, not sure what I was letting myself in for, thinking maybe this coming week I’d try it. Well, a couple of days ago, my wife went to turn on the insert and the fan just hummed instead of running so I unplugged it (turning to “off” did not stop the humming) ASAP; I presumed I had let dust/ash build up far too much around the fan. Yikes!
I watched the DVD supplied with the insert on cleaning, it did not look too bad although watching the techs previously, pulling the unit out from the wall looked daunting and always took two people. I started with my usual light front-end cleaning. Then, I dove in and went deeper, starting with pulling out the three iron plates above/beside the firebox. What the DVD does not show is that, if you have the pseudo logs, not only do you have to remove them but also the support bar for them with two wing nuts. Even then, a lot of wiggling to get the two side plates clear of the firebox by a couple of millimeters. Found a lot of dust/ash back there! Same was true behind the long lower plate retained by a cover, plenty to vacuum. More difficult was the motor cover, the retaining lever was so tight (what do I do about that in the future?) but once off I found a lot more debris to clean out.
Then it was time to clear the flue, and I had a kit with brush and wand sections, I estimated 16’ to the chimney cap. Well, the kit came with 3” and 4” brushes and I had no idea which to use, but the “throat” leading to the flue, above the fan, was about 3” so I used the former. A cordless drill powered it easily and we got some ash out but not a huge amount, which I took to be a good sign and it was obvious when the brush hit the chimney cap.
It was time to pull the unit out (our fireplace is flush with the floor so I never got the support kit). I tried it alone, got a few inches out and it was clear I was not going to be able to handle this alone. Once my wife (in good shape but petite) came home, I gave the the choice of trying to help or we’d call a technician. She agreed to the former, and we were successful, and only needed a couple of 3/4” wood scraps to support the ends of the rails. Behind it, I recall watching the techs removing a sensor near the flue that was not mentioned in the DVD. Easy enough to remove (1/4” nut driver, BTW) and wipe down, it really did not look very dirty and I have a vague memory of a warning not to use cleansers on the sensor. The little cover retained by a wing nut looked like it had unobstructed access on the DVD but in reality it’s buried in deep enough behind the machinery that it took a couple of minutes to find it! I was able to find and remove the wing nut by feel, fortunately I have experience working on British cars - and my hands are not particularly large. Taking a length of small-diameter hose that’s part of my ash-vacuum set-up and taping a straightened piece of coat hanger wire to it, I was able to feed it past everything in the way and vacuum out more debris.
Looking again at the flue, now I could see that the flue is 4” not 3”. (A) I’m going to have to go back in and clean further. (B) Can I ram the larger brush past the small throat and clean it with the inter in place? (C) I’d like to know more about the “leaf blower trick”, oft-referred-to here on the forum but I know no details. Can I rig a flexible seal between a blower’s nozzle and the throat of the flue with the insert in place, and blow all the ash out of the flue from below?
Anyway, got all that done, we were able to push the unit back in and clamp into place — it fired right up and is running great (whew!) Sadly, a few fresh chips in the mahogany finish and I think it came with touch-up paint but I cannot find it so I guess I need to contact Harman to buy more. Anyway, I think I am comfortable enough to now do it regularly myself instead of paying for service, we’ve traditionally burned about 1.5 tons/year and will see if we need to do this once per year or twice. Beyond that, I also read of the “dollar bill trick”, again with no details — but with the door closed on a bill, I can pull the bill out with some resistance; I wonder if I now also need to learn how to replace the rope gasket.
I watched the DVD supplied with the insert on cleaning, it did not look too bad although watching the techs previously, pulling the unit out from the wall looked daunting and always took two people. I started with my usual light front-end cleaning. Then, I dove in and went deeper, starting with pulling out the three iron plates above/beside the firebox. What the DVD does not show is that, if you have the pseudo logs, not only do you have to remove them but also the support bar for them with two wing nuts. Even then, a lot of wiggling to get the two side plates clear of the firebox by a couple of millimeters. Found a lot of dust/ash back there! Same was true behind the long lower plate retained by a cover, plenty to vacuum. More difficult was the motor cover, the retaining lever was so tight (what do I do about that in the future?) but once off I found a lot more debris to clean out.
Then it was time to clear the flue, and I had a kit with brush and wand sections, I estimated 16’ to the chimney cap. Well, the kit came with 3” and 4” brushes and I had no idea which to use, but the “throat” leading to the flue, above the fan, was about 3” so I used the former. A cordless drill powered it easily and we got some ash out but not a huge amount, which I took to be a good sign and it was obvious when the brush hit the chimney cap.
It was time to pull the unit out (our fireplace is flush with the floor so I never got the support kit). I tried it alone, got a few inches out and it was clear I was not going to be able to handle this alone. Once my wife (in good shape but petite) came home, I gave the the choice of trying to help or we’d call a technician. She agreed to the former, and we were successful, and only needed a couple of 3/4” wood scraps to support the ends of the rails. Behind it, I recall watching the techs removing a sensor near the flue that was not mentioned in the DVD. Easy enough to remove (1/4” nut driver, BTW) and wipe down, it really did not look very dirty and I have a vague memory of a warning not to use cleansers on the sensor. The little cover retained by a wing nut looked like it had unobstructed access on the DVD but in reality it’s buried in deep enough behind the machinery that it took a couple of minutes to find it! I was able to find and remove the wing nut by feel, fortunately I have experience working on British cars - and my hands are not particularly large. Taking a length of small-diameter hose that’s part of my ash-vacuum set-up and taping a straightened piece of coat hanger wire to it, I was able to feed it past everything in the way and vacuum out more debris.
Looking again at the flue, now I could see that the flue is 4” not 3”. (A) I’m going to have to go back in and clean further. (B) Can I ram the larger brush past the small throat and clean it with the inter in place? (C) I’d like to know more about the “leaf blower trick”, oft-referred-to here on the forum but I know no details. Can I rig a flexible seal between a blower’s nozzle and the throat of the flue with the insert in place, and blow all the ash out of the flue from below?
Anyway, got all that done, we were able to push the unit back in and clamp into place — it fired right up and is running great (whew!) Sadly, a few fresh chips in the mahogany finish and I think it came with touch-up paint but I cannot find it so I guess I need to contact Harman to buy more. Anyway, I think I am comfortable enough to now do it regularly myself instead of paying for service, we’ve traditionally burned about 1.5 tons/year and will see if we need to do this once per year or twice. Beyond that, I also read of the “dollar bill trick”, again with no details — but with the door closed on a bill, I can pull the bill out with some resistance; I wonder if I now also need to learn how to replace the rope gasket.
