2 ton cleaning

[4Dtvman]

This is my full year of burning pellets. Last year I installed the stove late in the season and only burned 2 tons. Gave it a good cleaning by reading the book and reading how to here.

But I also read all the doom and gloom problems here and in the back of my mind I feel like I'm doing something wrong because I've never had a problem with my stove. My Breckwell fire place insert is a simple stove compared to my brother in law stove next door.

It's been 2 tons of cheap pellets from the HD which I'll never buy again since the start of the season. I expected the stove to be REALLY dirty. Saturday I got all set up, bought a new brush so I can clean the 20 foot pipe from the inside (bottom up). Let the pellets run out and the stove to cool down. Cleaned the front, which is simple and do weekly. Pulled it out and to my surprise it wasn't that dirty at all. Removed the fan motors, clean the fins with a small wire brush and vaccumed evreything I could find.

Now for the dirty part. Pushed the brush up the pipe and out came the ash.on the fireplace floor. Not much at all, less than a quart of ash. The ash was fluffy and not a deep black. Put everything back together in a record time of 3 hours.

O yes I replaced the gaskets also.

So after all this reading I can't fiqure out why my stove wasn't that dirty compared to what I read here. And that was after 2 tons.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I see no mention of having cleaned the ash traps on that insert.

Most stoves have at least one level of ash traps on each side of the firebox behind the fake fire brick panels, several have more.

They frequently have a very small opening that you have to work through.

The exhaust flow goes above the burn pot and gets split into a left and right hand going stream over, around, and through the heat exchanger tubes it then exits the fire box and goes down (normally) behind the firebox wall (and at this point things diverge between stoves of the same general type) to come together just before meeting the combustion blower.

If you haven't cleaned these out you now have the accumulation of ash from burning two tons of pellets.

 

[4Dtvman]

Of course I cleaned those but I didn't want to write a book and as I said it, I followed the instructions in the manual.

I'm the type of person that I lay's out the screw in order that were removed in a straight row. I spend a lot of time planning and thinking before I do anything. That's the way I work on my bikes also.