cleaning an Englander stove?

[MCPO]

I`ve been asked by a neighbor how often and what is the normal procedure for cleaning the larger Englander free standing pellet stove.
Not the small 30-40K BTU model but the next size up.
John

 

[BrotherBart]

Normal cleaning and maintenance instructions are in the manual for the 25-PDV which is available here:

http://www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/25-PDVEand25-PDV.pdf

Advanced maintenance is covered in the service sheets here:

http://www.englanderstoves.com/PelletServicing.html

 

[MCPO]

Thanks Bro Bart. That`s exactly what I was looking for.
It seems Englander make it a point to state a fresh air intake MUST be installed while some others say it is optional.
John

 

[BrotherBart]

Yep. They say it is mandatory. I tend to agree with them. I have some concerns about CO levels with pellet stoves, any pellet stoves, when they are going through shut-down with the intake open to the room room air.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I`ve been asked by a neighbor how often and what is the normal procedure for cleaning the larger Englander free standing pellet stove.
Not the small 30-40K BTU model but the next size up.
John

i actually have one of the smaller units myself and in addition to the routine shown in the PDF files that BB posted i also literally wheel mine out on the deck , plug it in put in diagnostic to turn on the exhaust blower , then unload on it with my air compressor. it and i imagine most types of pellet stoves have little areas where its hard to get at with a vacuum, so this way i literally blow it clean.

this may not be an easy chore depending on where the stove is located in the house. it can be done while still hooked to the flue system but be very careful with the air at first until you are sure its not going to come back at you instead of out through the exhaust. then when finished , clean the vent. hope this helps.

 

[MCPO]

Well ,we just today bought the 25PDV at the local Hardware store .(as posted in another thread) The seller says he shuts his down and cleans his every nite.
Is this actually necessary? Isn`t it possible to get a few days out of it before it has to be shut it down and cleaned?
John

 

[Wet1]

Possible? Yes, but I noticed with mine it got clogged up pretty quick, you actually notice the efficency drop off. W/o a doubt, mine ran noticably better if I did a quick cleaning daily.

I'm really looking forward to the more relaxed cleaning schedule of my new Harman.

 

[packerfan]

Well ,we just today bought the 25PDV at the local Hardware store .(as posted in another thread) The seller says he shuts his down and cleans his every nite.
Is this actually necessary? Isn`t it possible to get a few days out of it before it has to be shut it down and cleaned?
John

I find that when I am running my stove 24/7 all I needed to do was give the burn pot a quick scrape in the morning, and then I'd do it again at night. I'd shut it down completely about once a week to vacuum out the ash that I couldn't remove while the stove was running.

 

[Bigbuck]

I have a englander and find that once a week cleaning is fine, I shut it down and remove the baffle and ash pan and vac. I also vac the the vent pipes and don't forget to vac the convection blower screen as it will collect dust and cause the unit to over heat and shut down, I have removed the back cover of the stove to do the cleaning of the blower screen.

 

[submerged]

The biggest thing here for heat loss is the blower fan cover getting linted over I use a 2-3 ft long bottle cleaner to scrape off the crud. once a month I take off the flue pipe and and with a shop vac stuffed into the exhaust blower hole I blow out the front side exhaust from the fire box and the vac takes all the soot that lays around finally with a small wire brush clean all the interior sides of the convection areas inside the stove and then a final vac after tha look into the exhaust blower hole and the sides will have a scale build up on them so bottle brush them too and then vac again. You will need different sise bottle brushes you can get at plumbing suppliers, flea market (tool guys), hardware stores the old kind not HD

Eddie

 

[rottiman]

I`ve been asked by a neighbor how often and what is the normal procedure for cleaning the larger Englander free standing pellet stove.
Not the small 30-40K BTU model but the next size up.
John

i actually have one of the smaller units myself and in addition to the routine shown in the PDF files that BB posted i also literally wheel mine out on the deck , plug it in put in diagnostic to turn on the exhaust blower , then unload on it with my air compressor. it and i imagine most types of pellet stoves have little areas where its hard to get at with a vacuum, so this way i literally blow it clean.

this may not be an easy chore depending on where the stove is located in the house. it can be done while still hooked to the flue system but be very careful with the air at first until you are sure its not going to come back at you instead of out through the exhaust. then when finished , clean the vent. hope this helps.

Mike , how do you "put it in Diagnostic" to turn on the exhaust blower?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I`ve been asked by a neighbor how often and what is the normal procedure for cleaning the larger Englander free standing pellet stove.
Not the small 30-40K BTU model but the next size up.
John

i actually have one of the smaller units myself and in addition to the routine shown in the PDF files that BB posted i also literally wheel mine out on the deck , plug it in put in diagnostic to turn on the exhaust blower , then unload on it with my air compressor. it and i imagine most types of pellet stoves have little areas where its hard to get at with a vacuum, so this way i literally blow it clean.

this may not be an easy chore depending on where the stove is located in the house. it can be done while still hooked to the flue system but be very careful with the air at first until you are sure its not going to come back at you instead of out through the exhaust. then when finished , clean the vent. hope this helps.

Mike , how do you "put it in Diagnostic" to turn on the exhaust blower?

Unplug the stove , and plug back in , immediatly (or at least quickly) push the "low fuel feed" and the "air on temp" buttons (use two fingers) together and release, this will show a dash in the blower speed, then push the "blower speed" up arrow, and the exhaust blower will start running.

BTW this will only work on stoves built 2004 and newer, if the stove is a non auto start unit this is not built into the system and the stove would need to be simply switched on

 

[rottiman]

Took Mike's advice and got the combustion blower running, fired up the compressor and started the interior blow down. I did a throrough vaccum cleaning before I started using the blow gun. It was amazing how much more ash came out of the stove. I did run the shop vac @ the same time and there was nothing coming out through the door. Followed up with a really good cleaning of the vent and then fired er' back up. AMAZING.......how much better the flame and heat production improved. Thanks for the tip Mike.