Cleaning a American Harvest 6039

[Beiny]

I just installed one of these stoves and the manual is not real good at explaining some procedures. So I would like to ask a few questions:
1. To tap the cleans out , do you need to shut the stove off to do this?
2.It seems I should tap the place where the pellets drop as well , do i have to shut the stove off to do this. And should i just open the ash dump tray after doing so to allow the ash to drop?
If anyone can give me a little more knowledge on cleaning the stove it will be greatly appreciated!!


Thanks

 

[Lake Girl]

Welcome to the forum! Is this a new to you used stove? If it is used, you will want to do a "seasonal" cleaning. I'm judging it is an older version of the 6041 Multifuel. There is a video on how to clean the 6041 here:

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I didn't watch it all but it goes through daily, weekly and seasonal maintenance. There might be slight changes between models but hope it helps.

 

[mustangwagz]

Welcome, Firepot Pete will be in eventually to chime in i assume as well. He too has one of these stoves, LakeGirl IS right, this is an early version of the 6041. Some 6039's had "slide outs" along with a Draft slide. Pictures can help us alot, but its pretty simple to describe your cleanouts.. Can they be "pulled" from outside the stove? If not.. then youve got the older model like mine that youve got to manually pull the clean out covers. This will expose the ones on back of firebox, and ones in bottom taht lead to the ash pan.

Can you do this while its running? Yes... but its gonna be HOOTTT!! and it'll throw some ashes around so if ya do it.. i suggest turning down your ROOM FAN blower to prevent to much air. i do it when my stove is running HARD and keeping us warm and i cannnot shut it down. Tap on the sides of the firebox (from inside..) Tap on it all over inside to help move ash to botom of the box.
The one over by the "agitator" is tough to get out when the agitator is in place, but it CAN be done.. its tricky!

as for center where pellet drop, i assume you mean the Draft? (under the burn-pot where pellets burn?) Thats a manual draft, if it has a slide handle on outside of stove, yes you can pull it and that'll not only let stuff drop, but will also let you fine tune your stove for best burning.


My Best suggestion for cleaning ANY pellet stove is to get a leaf vacuum and SUCK it out while doing this (STOVE has to be OFF) Youtube it and google Leaf blower trick for cleaning pellet stoves. Its great and does an excellent job! Well enough for me that i use an air compressor to BLOW the ash outta tight spots and hidden crevices (like behind the backing board on firebox rear wall.. remove that and you'll find 2 round holes that expose passages to blow out..one leading directly to your combustion fan)

 

[FirepotPete]

The video lakegirl posted will give you a good starting point as to what is what but I do a lot more than they show.

Do you have the manual slide draft on the stove? That's the sliding plate directly under the burn pot. That serves two functions. The first is as a manual draft adjustment the second is to allow ash to fall into the ash pan. Some 6039's do not have it. If you have it I would advise sliding it back and forth a couple of times a day, it helps keep ash from building up under the burn pot giving air to the pellets and burning better. This can be done while the stove is running.

The side slide cleanouts, these are next to the draft slide. As mustang said you will get a burst of flame when you open them, as you will sliding the draft plate also, and the ash that falls into the pan will be hot, but they can be used to eliminate ash from building up to far in the stove.

If you want to try and tap the inside heat ex-changers you can, but use something soft handled. It will be pretty hot in there and I don't usually mess with them during the week as I do a shutdown cleaning every week.

DO NOT tap around where the pellets fall out if you are talking the auger area. That white (when new) fake firebrick will break and then you will need to get a new one and they are expensive.

Now with the stove OFF and COOL. Do the thorough cleaning that is show in the first part of the video. Then with the agitator, burn pot, and the two vertical slide clean out plates still removed, remove the fake fire brick. Behind it you will find two 1 1/2" holes. I'm assuming this is a used stove so the previous owner may have inserted 1 1/2" knockout plugs. If you don't see the holes plugged go to a local hardware store and buy two of them, they will be in the electrical department they are made for blocking previous holes made in knockout boxes and panels, they are very cheap. If the holes are blocked grab the knockout plugs and remove them, you now have access to the entire wall behind where the fire brick was. This area needs to be brushed and cleaned, I do it every week when I shut down. I use a big bottle brush and a 3/8" wire bent to get behind everything back there. That includes the top of the auger tube and at the bottom where the fresh air pipe comes in right behind where the fire pot sits. If you scrape around that pipe on the bottom and pull the ash and crud towards those cleanout holes you will get a lot of junk out of there.

Also the two heat exchangers on the left and right side of the burn area of the stove, while tapping them will get some stuff out, I take that 3/8" wire and push it around in there, it will actually go behind the wall where knockouts were and more junk will fall back there to vacuum out. I then brush them out with a small bottle brush. Then if you look way on top of the interior wall you will see a bunch of holes, make sure when you clean behind the wall that you go all the way to those holes.

Lastly make sure you brush/vacuum the ceiling and around the top of where the door seals. Be careful by the top of the door, a lot of ash gets hung up on a ledge inside and if you just brush it without the vacuum going you will spill ash out the front of the stove.

Make sure you put everything back in the order you took it out, including those knockout plugs if you buy some.

This might seem like a lot but once you do it a few times, have the right brushes and a couple of bent up pieces of wire it only takes 10 minutes per week to get'r done and you and your stove will much happier with the heat output and less maintenance problems. Any more questions just ask, more than glad to help.

Stay warm!