Christmas Gift for the Pellet Stove

[tchdngrnby]

Decided to spend the afternoon tearing down the stove and giving it a good deep cleaning. Bought the stove used so I had no idea of how much previous burning had been done. I used the advice that was given on this forum and cleaned the vent, fan, fire box, heat exchanger tubes, ash traps, ran a bottle brush up the traps, and then vacuumed up the gross amounts of ash that I pulled down. Then gave it the leaf blower trick..... Needless to say I was glad the neighbors were not home I also used a small rubber mallet to tap the vent plenums to see what else I could get out of it as well as opening and closing the door and ash pan door.... Prior to the cleaning I had run about 1.5 tons of Clean Burn and Atlas pellets through the stove and for the most part there did not appear to much more than a lite layer of ash. No creosote at all. So far so good.... The stove is happy and its time for me to have a "boilermaker"!

One thing I have learded in doing my PM's is that in order to remove the shaker plate, I have to put the St. Croix on the #1 setting and then keep an eye on the cam lobe on the shaker plate shaft. Once it rotates to the full "back" position, I simply unplugged the stove and let it cool. The plate lifts right out without having to fight the collar on the igniter. I keep a spare shaker plate for my weekly PM. I take the dirty plate to the garage and take a wire wheel to it, clean the holes with a drill bit, spray it down with WD-40, and wipe it down, and its ready for the next change out. This saves me a little time in getting the stove back online.

Merry Christmas to All!

Paul V

 

[littlesmokey]

Hope the rest of the family is as happy for the holidays as that stove must be :wow: One suggestion, skip the WD-40, it gets burned up, but could be a residue problem. It is really not a "high temp" lubricant, and may actually add to the build up on the burn pot.

 

[tchdngrnby]

Not using the WD-40 as a lubricant. Just using it to hose down the plate after cleaning it with the wire wheel and drill bit. Have not noticed any extra build up using WD-40 in this fashion. I have noted more build up using Manke Clean Burn pellets vs. the Atlas ultra premium brand. Using the Clean Burns, I had clinkers stuck on the side of the burn pot that I had to chip off with a small chisel. Before this cleaning, I used Atlas for 10 days and no clinkers at all....also the amount of ash in the pan was a lot less. Ash pan was only about half full after 10 days of burning.... Don't usually let it go that long before a PM....got busy with the christmas stuff besides having to work last week. I think you know how it goes!