Cleaning Flue of Pellet Stove

[germaira]

This is my first season with a pellet stove insert in my fireplace. The installer ran a flexible type of flue up my existing chimney. Soon after I burned one pallet of pellets the flue clogged. Most days I burn my pellet stove 24 hrs. a day. Is this normal to have to have the flue cleaned half-way through the winter season? I thought pellets were supposed to burn clean.

 

[Shane]

How many tons have you burned? Alot of manufacturers recommend cleaning after 2 tons.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Add to add what shane said, pellet quality has alot to do with it. If you have a high ash content pellet then it might be normal. Other then that, how is the stove running? getting a good efficient burn?

 

[begreen]

What kind of stove Germain? What brand pellets? Are you burning wood pellets only or a wood/corn mix? I've burned many tons, average 2-3 tons per year and haven't had any issues with the same type installation. Yearly checks show only a nominal amount of ash in the flue at the end of a season.

How often is this stove getting cleaned out? If the stove is not cleaned regularly, ash can get sucked up into the exhaust blower. That will clog a flue pronto. This all depends on the stove design and the quality of the fuel burned. For our stove burning premium wood pellets, bi-weekly cleanings seem to work just fine.

 

[germaira]

I have a Glowboy. I clean the inside out about every other day. I use Pennington Premium Oak Quality pellets. I've only burned 1 1/2 tons and the flue was clogged. The local company that installed it just started selling pellet stoves and doesn't know much about them...which is scary. I'm wondering about the quality of the pellets. This brand is the only kind I've been able to find in this area.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Im not blaming the pellets totally, but we carried pennington seed one year, seems like a good pelet but alot of people complained about ash. SO we dropped them. Other then that, listen to what BrGreen said, and call your dealer, he need to learn the product sometime.

 

[Czech]

I learned alot about cleaning last weekend, it doesn't stop with just the fire box. At the advice of this board, I tore the stove down and swept the vent, was amazed at what I was missing. I've burned full time here in MN since Jan, probably 2 tons of pellet corn mix. Got a load of ash out of the vent and more behind the fire bricks and combustion fan. Stove is working great now. Point is, just cleaning the box daily ain't enough in my opinion. Bee safe,

Bee

 

[drizler]

A lot of what plugs things up comes from behind the fire pot where the pipe comes in from the back. On mine you have to remove the stirrer, the firebox and back facia and then a couple knock outs. What builds up back there is scary. Often you will notice the flame gets dirty dark yellow or even orange and lazy. Mine needs it a couple times a season burning corn. I notice that the manufacturers are a bit close mouthed about this in depth cleaning stuff, maby afraid it will affect sales.

 

[Czech]

Quad sent a nice dvd along with the stove, it does go over detialed cleaning such as I did last weekend. The only problem is the stove on the dvd is brand new and they make it look soooo easy, it was a little tougher (not much) with a dirty stove. I originally was thinking I would only need to do a full clean annually, learned a leason there. I plan on at least 2-3 times a year next year.

 

[drizler]

Do it a couple times and it will probably be that easy. I just decided to tear mine down, remove the pot and back facia to clean in back of the burn area. Sure enough 2 tons of very clean corn or less and there was considerable buildup starting to block one side of the flue. You just have to keep those guys clean back there. Its not all that hard any you will notice a clearer flame and with mine a lot cleaner glass. Just one of those things you gotta do.