Am I that weak, or is Harman scraper bad?

[newf lover]

My other question is, is there something wrong here? I have burned 2 bags of pellets, Dry Creek. Little ash, good heat, life is good etc. I bought myself an ash vac and so decided to play with it today. I noticed already I have a thin layer of hardened ash in the burnpot that doesn't come loose with the scraper Harman provided. I was afraid I had put a hole through something because there was just a pea size area that had loosened. I ended up by using my finger nail and was able to peel some away. If it's just my lack of strength, I'll get a different tool, but I'm just wondering if there is something wrong with my stove. Actually, there is something wrong; a bearing/burring???? needs to be replaced and it's squeaking. I was told OK to use it until the part comes in. That's a different thread....

 

[hossthehermit]

My other question is, is there something wrong here? I have burned 2 bags of pellets, Dry Creek. Little ash, good heat, life is good etc. I bought myself an ash vac and so decided to play with it today. I noticed already I have a thin layer of hardened ash in the burnpot that doesn't come loose with the scraper Harman provided. I was afraid I had put a hole through something because there was just a pea size area that had loosened. I ended up by using my finger nail and was able to peel some away. If it's just my lack of strength, I'll get a different tool, but I'm just wondering if there is something wrong with my stove. Actually, there is something wrong; a bearing/burring???? needs to be replaced and it's squeaking. I was told OK to use it until the part comes in. That's a different thread....

My word, sounds like a job for POTMAN

 

[MCPO]

My other question is, is there something wrong here? I have burned 2 bags of pellets, Dry Creek. Little ash, good heat, life is good etc. I bought myself an ash vac and so decided to play with it today. I noticed already I have a thin layer of hardened ash in the burnpot that doesn't come loose with the scraper Harman provided. I was afraid I had put a hole through something because there was just a pea size area that had loosened. I ended up by using my finger nail and was able to peel some away. If it's just my lack of strength, I'll get a different tool, but I'm just wondering if there is something wrong with my stove. Actually, there is something wrong; a bearing/burring???? needs to be replaced and it's squeaking. I was told OK to use it until the part comes in. That's a different thread....

I ddidn`t like the Harman tool either so I took a large screwdriver sharpened the tip and bent it the shape of the Harman scraper tool and it works good. It chips / scrapes the clinkers off the burn pot more efficiently. Sometimes ya just gotta improvise.

 

[trogers]

I'm using a pry bar like this instead of the Harman tool. I got a set of three prybars for $8.00 bucks at a local auto parts store.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00971905000P

 

[tinkabranc]

I only use the Harman tool for the quick daily scraping. I use
a screwdriver and/or chisel for the weekend cleaning to make
sure I got all the clinkers I may have missed during the week.

 

[drizler]

I'm using a pry bar like this instead of the Harman tool. I got a set of three prybars for $8.00 bucks at a local auto parts store.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00971905000P

No need to go out and buy a nice quality tool like the one pictured just to scrape a burn pot. That is a job better suited to a similar $4 scraper from the Chinese tool Store. It's all you need for a job like that. My question though is it really necessary to get it that clean? You should see how nasty mine gets when I get to burning corn in there and it works just fine many years later.

 

[itworks]

I only use the Harman tool for the quick daily scraping. I use
a screwdriver and/or chisel for the weekend cleaning to make
sure I got all the clinkers I may have missed during the week.

AMEN! The Harman tool works pretty well, but once every 1-2 weeks I use a 1/2' chisel, with a lil tap of my hammer.

 

[crausch]

From other posts on this forum I have devised my own toobox. I use all of them when needed. I use the harman scraper, I bought a gasket scraper for the hard stuff, a 90 degree o-ring pick to clean the holes, a paint brush to clean additional ash out of the pot, and a 1-1/2 inch metal putty knife that I bent 90 degrees to pull additional ash out of the pot. What I really need now is a cool looking box to keep it in, like an ole time chest.

Anyway, a little cleaning with the right tools goes a long way. I only spend a couple minutes a day. My wood stove took much more than that.

 

[itworks]

From other posts on this forum I have devised my own toobox. I use all of them when needed. I use the harman scraper, I bought a gasket scraper for the hard stuff, a 90 degree o-ring pick to clean the holes, a paint brush to clean additional ash out of the pot, and a 1-1/2 inch metal putty knife that I bent 90 degrees to pull additional ash out of the pot. What I really need now is a cool looking box to keep it in, like an ole time chest.

Anyway, a little cleaning with the right tools goes a long way. I only spend a couple minutes a day. My wood stove took much more than that.

What is gasket scraper, and a 90 degree o-ring pick? Just when I thought I had all the tools necessary to clean my stove.

 

[sydney1963]

I don't get it. I have never had to scrape or chisel anything off of my burnpot or liner, just vacuum it clean. Maybe I'm just lucky.

 

[Matt715]

My dealer gave me this big carbide scraper and told me to really get in there and scrape the burn pot weekly with it. He said the Harman tool is fine for light cleaning and getting into hard to reach places like the auger tube. Other than those two tools, I have a screwdriver and a paint brush.

 

[Matt715]

From other posts on this forum I have devised my own toobox. I use all of them when needed. I use the harman scraper, I bought a gasket scraper for the hard stuff, a 90 degree o-ring pick to clean the holes, a paint brush to clean additional ash out of the pot, and a 1-1/2 inch metal putty knife that I bent 90 degrees to pull additional ash out of the pot. What I really need now is a cool looking box to keep it in, like an ole time chest.

Anyway, a little cleaning with the right tools goes a long way. I only spend a couple minutes a day. My wood stove took much more than that.

What is gasket scraper, and a 90 degree o-ring pick? Just when I thought I had all the tools necessary to clean my stove.

O-ring picks: (broken link removed to http://www.matcotools.com/Catalog/toolcatalog.jsp?cattype=T&cat=2344&page=3&#)

Gasket scraper: http://www.matcotools.com/Catalog/toolcatalog.jsp?cattype=T&cat=2527&page=1襳
Obviously you don't have to get professional grade stuff- like another poster said, the cheapo tools would work fine for most people.

 

[newf lover]

Thanks for the suggestions. I know I'm going a bit overboard, but it seems like many problems with stoves are due to not keeping it clean enough. I was just surprised that I had to chip/scrape anything off with any force after 2 bags. Appreciate all the help. Time to visit the hardware store tomorrow...

 

[imacman]

Just an observation.......I don't what you all are doing that requires all these tools. I have barely had to scrape anything in my burn pot, and I have burned some not-so-great pellets, just to see how they burned. I use the end of my little flat bladed screwdriver, and it takes me all of 10 seconds to scrape the burn pot, if at all.

 

[natnyer]

you really have to be smarter than the stove.

 

[Xena]

I don't get it. I have never had to scrape or chisel anything off of my burnpot or liner, just vacuum it clean. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Me too. When I burned corn in the mix my burnpot had clinkers
that hardened and needed to be scraped off. Haven't burned corn in
a couple of years so no hard deposits in the pot. Monthly cleaning
consists of vacuuming only. No scraping or chiseling here.

 

[ResOps]

is the burnpot a fixed unit in these stoves? The burn pot in my EF3 pops out so I take it to the garage whack it with the ball pean hammer to loosen any chunks and use the wire brush to clean the loose stuff. I do this every Saturday morning

 

[cncpro]

On the Quadrafire CB1200, the burn pot is bolted to the unit so it seems to make more sense to clean it in place. This unit has a cleaning lever that opens a trap door at the bottom of the pot. Without regular chiseling and scraping, deposits form on the trap door which prevent you from operating the cleaning lever. I once thought that there was something wrong with the pivot bolt for the trap door but I now see the big picture. My tool of choice (so far) is a large flat screwdriver which provides just enough leverage to scrape off the deposits. Other than that I have no clinkers or anything that the ash vac doesn't pick up.

Hopefully this post will clarify things for those who can't understand why some posters are having an issue.

If these deposits weren't interfering with my cleaning door I probably wouldn't bother with them at all.

 

[crausch]

I have not had really hard to clean problems yet. No stubborn clinkers or anything. I just thought I would have some tools handy incase I did need them. So far I mostly have some fine ash and some clumpy ash that I just scrape out of the burn pot. However, the design of my burn pot has 5 small holes in the bottom of the pot. Sometimes the clumpy ash will sit in these holes. Just a light poke with the o-ring pick and the holes cleared for ignition. I use about a 1" wide gasket scraper for the sides of the burn pot. The Harman scraper does not easily clean the sides of the pot. I found that the gasket scraper is just easier and sharper to use.

The burn pot holes on a Harman are too small for this next suggestion, but for those who have larger burn pot holes, I remember someone saying that they use a gun barrel cleaning brush to run through their holes. I thought that was a pretty smart idea.

Anyway, A little light scraping and a paint brush to sweep most the ashes out of the pot and after only a few minutes (2 to 3 minutes) I have clean pot and ready to burn.

 

[GVA]

My dealer gave me this big carbide scraper and told me to really get in there and scrape the burn pot weekly with it. He said the Harman tool is fine for light cleaning and getting into hard to reach places like the auger tube. Other than those two tools, I have a screwdriver and a paint brush.

If that is truely carbide I would hesitate to use it on the mild steel burnpot.

A screwdriver bent works fine but even this is harder than the burnpot.
the idea is to have it sharp enough to get the edge under the clinkers and they pop right up.

 

[mralias]

On the Quadrafire CB1200, the burn pot is bolted to the unit so it seems to make more sense to clean it in place. This unit has a cleaning lever that opens a trap door at the bottom of the pot. Without regular chiseling and scraping, deposits form on the trap door which prevent you from operating the cleaning lever. I once thought that there was something wrong with the pivot bolt for the trap door but I now see the big picture. My tool of choice (so far) is a large flat screwdriver which provides just enough leverage to scrape off the deposits. Other than that I have no clinkers or anything that the ash vac doesn't pick up.

Hopefully this post will clarify things for those who can't understand why some posters are having an issue.

If these deposits weren't interfering with my cleaning door I probably wouldn't bother with them at all.

I have the same stove and pull the lever at least once a day when the stove is in the down cycle. I have never had to use a metal object of any sort to clean my burn pot. I Vac the pot once every two days and it keeps it clean. I get very little clinkers and can suck them up with the vac from the ash pan. This leads to my question. What type of pellets are you using? Wondering if different pellets are making the difference. BTW, the stove has been great!!

 

[MCPO]

Different stoves, models, pellets and burning styles will usually dictate to each user what tools or techniques work best for him.
We can all suggest a particular method and tools that we personally employ but it might not work as good for the next guy.
The best he can do is to try a suggestion that appeals to him and see if it suits his liking and go from there.

 

[Matt715]

My dealer gave me this big carbide scraper and told me to really get in there and scrape the burn pot weekly with it. He said the Harman tool is fine for light cleaning and getting into hard to reach places like the auger tube. Other than those two tools, I have a screwdriver and a paint brush.

If that is truely carbide I would hesitate to use it on the mild steel burnpot.

A screwdriver bent works fine but even this is harder than the burnpot.
the idea is to have it sharp enough to get the edge under the clinkers and they pop right up.

Yes, it is carbide but you have to use your judgment when you use it- it doesn't mar the metal when you scrape with it. I'm sure you can do way more damage going after the carbon with a chisel and a hammer. I really don't get that much build up on the burn pot since I stopped burning Marth pellets. Once weekly I shut the stove down and vacuum it out and scrape the burn pot- most of the carbon is right in the front of the pot. At most it takes me 30 minutes to scrape the pot and pull the removable panels to clean the heat exchanger and exhaust fan.

 

[slls]

On the Quadrafire CB1200, the burn pot is bolted to the unit so it seems to make more sense to clean it in place. This unit has a cleaning lever that opens a trap door at the bottom of the pot. Without regular chiseling and scraping, deposits form on the trap door which prevent you from operating the cleaning lever. I once thought that there was something wrong with the pivot bolt for the trap door but I now see the big picture. My tool of choice (so far) is a large flat screwdriver which provides just enough leverage to scrape off the deposits. Other than that I have no clinkers or anything that the ash vac doesn't pick up.

Hopefully this post will clarify things for those who can't understand why some posters are having an issue.

If these deposits weren't interfering with my cleaning door I probably wouldn't bother with them at all.

I have the same stove and pull the lever at least once a day when the stove is in the down cycle. I have never had to use a metal object of any sort to clean my burn pot. I Vac the pot once every two days and it keeps it clean. I get very little clinkers and can suck them up with the vac from the ash pan. This leads to my question. What type of pellets are you using? Wondering if different pellets are making the difference. BTW, the stove has been great!!

I pull mine every time I am around it, some times 5-6 times a day. If I have clinkers, I don't know until I empty the ash pan. Great stove, exceeded my expectations.

 

[newpelletstove]

I am using the Harman XXV scraper, but I started wearing two gloves (an old pair of ordinary gloves). If the stove is on, gloves help protect my hands from the heat, which lets me do a more thorough job. But with the stove on or off, gloves let me get a more comfortable grasp on the rectangular bar, and if I grasp with two gloved hands, this lets me use the scraper with more force. This has enabled me to use the Harman scraper to more effect (I used to do it with one, bare hand, and couldn't do as much with it.). I can use the bar to push down, pull up, or knock sideways.

Of course, if I reach in and feel more stuff hardened to the hidden surface of the burnpot, and the tool can't get it, I can still use a screwdriver.