Cleaning...honestly

[jmorden20]

Going to be getting a stove for next winter and people have been up and down about them. Main thing people say is you have to clean them all the time. I'm looking at getting a harmon or at least a better name brand and 2500 sq ft stove. wondering HONESTLY, how often do you guys clean the burn pot and ash drawer. not looking for the classic " the fish i caught was this big and weighted 80 lbs" or " it was the best day snowmobiling, fresh , deep snow all day" kinda answers. some actual cold hard facts to basically shut the mouths of the whiners and ones that complain about doing a little work/hobby. thanks

 

[SXIPro]

I have a Harman and scrape the burnpot once a week. I empty the ash pan when it is full, which depends on how cold it is outside and what pellets I am burning, but typically averages once a week on this as well.

When I first bought it I scraped the burnpot every day....not anymore.

I do a full cleaning every ton.

 

[rcook430]

You will learn alot depends on pellets. Harmans require less ash emptying because of large ash pan. For me scraping burn pot depends on the pellet. I am currently burning 2 good pellets, Hamers Hot Ones and Somersets. Hamers require less pot scraping but more ash removal and Somersets are just the opposite. But scraping the pot takes 15 seconds so no big deal.

 

[Bigjim13]

I have a P61A and scrape the burn pit weekly. My ash pan is pretty large and I can go about a month or around a ton of pellets without emptying the burn pot.

This year I got crap pellets and am cleaning the stove-full cleaning-and emptying the ash pan every 2 weeks.

Worse than the cleaning is the amount of dust I'm getting from cheaper pellets.

 

[Bigjim13]

At this point with the cleaning required from cheap pellets and the cost of oil-not worth burning pellets to be honest with you.

 

[Bioburner]

Cleaning is somewhat dependent on fuel. I like to wipe the exchangers daily but not necessary. Have hopper extension and can leave the Harman go for 3 days without looking at it. Bixby is pretty much feed it and clean out the pucks from the ash bin weekly and an hour to clean it proper monthly but that stove manufacture is gone. The Whits need tending daily if not couple times a day. Several other good manufactures out there but the exchanger and the large ash bin of a Harman p series is hard to beat.

 

[Bioburner]

At this point with the cleaning required from cheap pellets and the cost of oil-not worth burning pellets to be honest with you.

Not all areas of the country have low hydrocarbon prices. Might be able to get a nice used stove with winter to be breathing its last breath soon. Propain went up from 93 to 1.12 here

 

[mikesj]

The kind of pellet and the model of the stove dictate how much time you will spend cleaning.

I burned some crappy TSC pellets that produced plenty of heat earlier this winter, but I had to do a full cleaning after about half a ton.

Generally speaking, I do a full cleaning after burning around a ton, but I usually buy the cheapest pellets I can find, so sometimes it is less.

On a daily basis I probably spend less than a minute cleaning my stove. Probably less than 5 minutes to scrape the pot, clean the glass and scrape the heat exchanger once a week. I do a full clean every 3-4 weeks depending on use. For my set-up, a full clean takes about 30 minutes. I only empty the ash pan on mine when I do a full cleaning.

 

[Bigjim13]

Not all areas of the country have low hydrocarbon prices. Might be able to get a nice used stove with winter to be breathing its last breath soon.

True, his location is BC so options for heat vary

 

[Deromax]

With 24/24 burning, my stove will need one cleaning per week. At this point, the burn basket has begun to clog with solid residue build-up and the ash pan will be on the verge of overflowing. This is a 15 minutes cleaning and it includes fetching the vaccum downstairs, brushing all surfaces and the heat exchanger, scrubbing the burn pot and the baffle, emptying the ash pan, cleaning the glass, and when done, washing my hands and putting the ShopVac back in the basement.

Oh, so far this year, I had only one week of continuous pellet heating! We're back near 32F again!

 

[jmorden20]

That's awesome stuff guys, thanks a lot. Bigjim, my area only has gas or electric. I see you guys talk about propane and oil heat and have no clue of what your talking about. Other than the obvious. Electricity right now is 7cents per kW/h. Sounds like the east coast has a lot more choices for pellets. Not too much in northern BC. i like to do my research and this forum looks good. Lots of info and quick replys, which means lots of active users.

 

[Bigjim13]

That's awesome stuff guys, thanks a lot. Bigjim, my area only has gas or electric. I see you guys talk about propane and oil heat and have no clue of what your talking about. Other than the obvious. Electricity right now is 7cents per kW/h. Sounds like the east coast has a lot more choices for pellets. Not too much in northern BC. i like to do my research and this forum looks good. Lots of info and quick replys, which means lots of active users.

Here in VT we have mostly fuel oil and propane, no natural gas.

I will say after 7 yrs of burning, the cleaning routine is getting old. I'd be willing to pay a little more to not have to clean the stove or deal with the dust. How much more is the question.

 

[Lake Girl]

Kitimat, BC is getting closer to Alaska but not sure if you get the same Aleutian Islands warming... Should be able to get some good Doug Fir or softwood pellets fairly easily though.

Not sure of oil prices in BC, Ontario pricing keeps pellets ahead by $20 mBTU and I paid $7/bag.

You may find a stove that can provide the BTUs but depending on lay-out, you may have issues with circulating heat. Some have found 2 stoves to be the answer for their homes...

 

[jmorden20]

Sounds like pellets are about 5$ a bag. 200-225 a ton. We get more snow than the cold. Average probably -5c / 25f. A week or 2 of a good cold snap. Looking at floor plans right now and coming up with the best possible place. 2 floor house with central open staircase and open upper floor plan. I got a feeling I could hear pretty much the whole house comfortably except for back bedrooms. Obi with big enough stove. The cleaning driving you nuts now after that many years.

 

[chken]

Going to be getting a stove for next winter and people have been up and down about them. Main thing people say is you have to clean them all the time. I'm looking at getting a harmon or at least a better name brand and 2500 sq ft stove. wondering HONESTLY, how often do you guys clean the burn pot and ash drawer. not looking for the classic " the fish i caught was this big and weighted 80 lbs" or " it was the best day snowmobiling, fresh , deep snow all day" kinda answers. some actual cold hard facts to basically shut the mouths of the whiners and ones that complain about doing a little work/hobby. thanks

You should pretty much scrape the pot once a day, minimum. And, emptying the ash pan depends not only on its size, but also the kind of pellets you burn and how well you've tuned your stove's combustion. Seeing as you are in BC, presumably you'll be getting DF pellets which burn very clean with little ash. I have a stove with a tiny ashcan, the size of a large teacup. I can go 5 days, or about a dozen bags before I need to empty the pan with DF pellets. Regular pellets, every other day. Also, with DF pellets you don't have the scrape the pot nearly as often, but still should do it daily.

 

[bogieb]

For both Harman's, I scrape the pot once a day. Unless I am using better pellets, then I go a couple of days. With middling pellets, I need to empty the ash pan every 3 weeks. Better pellets produce less ash which calls for less ash pan emptying, but access and cost of those better pellets normally mean I am using middling pellets.

When I had the St. Croix Hastings, I had to empty the ash pan every week - it had a smaller pan. I also had to remove the "clinker" once a day and pull the rod for the pot to empty out ashes once per day also.

As for glass cleaning, it totally depends on the stove and its interaction with the pellets. The P43 I clean the glass about once a week, but it still isn't very dirty and I only do so because it is in my living room so that top 4" of haze bugs me whenever I see it. On the P61a, with some pellets I need to clean the glass every day, other pellets I can clean the glass once a week (I do tend to let that one get dirtier as it is in the basement). On the Hastings, I cleaned the glass every 2 days.

On my Harman's I do a fairly good cleaning every time I empty the ash pan (3 weeks on average). On the Hastings, I did a pretty thorough cleaning every 2 weeks. Do the vents about every ton (per stove). I have never pulled a fan, blower, igniter, ESP or anything else on any of my stoves.

 

[Jason845845]

Harman p43, scrape burn pot every day (10 seconds), wipe the glass off every two weeks, full cleaning every ton (30 minutes).

England stove works 25-ep, almost full cleaning every day (20 minutes).

I say the time and money is worth it for the comfort, even with cheap oil.

 

[gfreek]

On my Harman , roughly every 2 weeks I do a minor clean: scrape burn pot, clean insides, clean exhaust fan blades, clean esp., empty ash pan,.. glass,. About once a month I'll clean the exhaust pipes, room blower.. Again all pellets burn different...You'll need to get a shop vac with a hepa or drywall/ash/fine dust filter or good ash vac..Buying , hauling , storing pellets..And getting used to the back round noise of the stove..

 

[jzm2cc]

In Norhern Michigan and have experience with P61a and now St Croix Prescott EXP as sole heating devices. At most once a week glass clean, firepot scrape, quick ash wipe down on sides and exchanger, and usually dump ash pan just to be certain. We burn quite ashy pellets but they burn very well. Personally not interested in a stove that requires daily cleaning.

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

Burnpot once per week, ash pan area once per month (average). Leaf blower clean on the exhaust once every ton burned.

EDIT: Once you know what you're doing with your cleaning pattern, it seriously takes 5 minutes per time for a pot scrape, 15 minutes when emptying ash (this include vacuuming the inside of the stove), and an hour on a Sunday to do the leaf blower deep clean. It's not that bad.

 

[OhioBurner©]

Cleaning really varies by stove, and Harmans seem to be one of the least amount of work to clean so if you were already thinking about a Harman I'd probably stick to that. My Englander needs to be shut down and burn pot taken out of stove and cleaned out, then replaced and stove re-started just about daily. Not saving much fuss over a woodstove. And I need to do a deep clean about every 2 weeks, which is a bit more work and getting dirty.

 

[OhioBurner©]

Cleaning really varies by stove, and Harmans seem to be one of the least amount of work to clean so if you were already thinking about a Harman I'd probably stick to that. My Englander needs to be shut down and burn pot taken out of stove and cleaned out, then replaced and stove re-started just about daily. Not saving much fuss over a woodstove. And I need to do a deep clean about every 2 weeks, which is a bit more work and getting dirty.

 

[bags]

I have been running a Harman P68. I am heating a two level home 2,350 SQ FT with high ceilings and tons of windows and glass doors. A difficult place to heat. I do a quick pot scrape daily and empty the ash pan once a month or after burning one ton. I can and have gone days without doing anything like pot scrapes without issue. A clean stove is a good running one but Harmans are very, very tolerant.

Maintenance and cleaning on a Harman are minimal compared to many other brands of pellet stoves. I am doing a similar floor plan and sized space you are referring to. A thorough cleaning takes about 30-45 minutes depending and is really only necessary once per month on average.

I have ran two tons thru mine before doing a cleaning because I simply did not have the time or the weather was too cold and I just didn't feel like messing with it. Harmans require MINIMAL cleaning and maintenance vs. many other stoves. My dealer runs his P68 in his shop ALL winter without cleaning it other than dumping the ash pan or switching to another empty one, occasional pot scrapes, and quick scrapes of the heat exchangers up top. All this can be done with the stove still running. He doesn't even clean out his igniter compartment because he never turns his stove off.

I used to heat with wood 100% and work wise etc; there is no comparison. If you are looking for dependability and simplicity then I highly recommend a Harman. Sounds like a P68 would serve you well and heat what you want to with ease. A P61 might do it but it is nice to have that little extra. Another huge plus is all the radiant heat these units throw along with plenty of distribution air from the blower. I'm sold on them. Well worth the extra cash. I stay very busy and if I had to clean and tinker non-stop I would have likely already given up on a pellet stove or not have been a happy camper about it. There it is. Cut and dry and straight to the point.

Good luck and read up here some more. If you do not mind frequent cleaning, tinkering, shut downs, etc; there are some good cheaper stoves. Not being a jerk but I just do not have the time nor patience for that currently.

 

[DneprDave]

I never scrape the burn pot on my Whitfield. All I have to do is vacuum out the ash that accumulates in the combustion space once a week. There isn't any hard deposit that would require scraping. I also do the leafblower trick every ton.

I only burn CleanBurn douglas fir pellets.

 

[mikesj]

A couple of other things to keep in mind are dealer support and your own mechanical inclination. The dealer who sold me the stove was worthless- he really didn't know anything about it. I don't think he sells Harman's anymore. Fortunately I have another dealer close by who has been way more helpful.

It doesn't take much to figure it out and this forum is a great resource, but there is definitely a learning curve with these things.

As far as mechanical inclination, it also doesn"t take much. Harman's are pretty straightforward to work on. Are you cool with taking a cover or two off and cleaning the fans every now and then and pulling the esp to clean it every ton or so? None of that stuff is a big deal, but some people can"t or won't do that kind of stuff.

I grew up with a wood furnace, and I can say that for me, heating with pellets is about 90% less work.