Cleaning the New Englander 25...

[mediaman67]

Hi All,

This past year, I noticed that many of the walls in our house are slightly sooty, esp in the rooms that are closest to the stove.

I've owned the stove for about 6 years now, great unit overall - Every season in the fall, I open the bottom of the simpson flue I have (the bottom tee cap) and blow out all the pipe with my air compressor - I try to keep the burn pots, etc clean before every morning when I restart it for the day... I have an ash vac for this purpose.

Anyways, my question is, is there an easy way to do a deeper cleaning on this unit, without having to take it from the wall, etc? - can I just blow air though places, etc? I'm assuming that the black soot I'm seeing on the walls is a result of never getting the internal stuff clean over a 6 year period? - or is the problem more related to using a lesser quality pellet - Home Depot had them for Cheap last year, but I know that they were not near the quality I was using (produced more per pound, etc..) plus wife didn't like the smell as much...

I'll stick to better pellets this year, even though they are $300+ a ton now for the good stuff, it's worth it... I use about 2 and 1/2 tons a season, but we heat the whole 1500sq ft house with this unit most of the time, until the temp drops to below 15ish... then I use it, and the oil furnace, but mostly pellets.

Couple of folks on here that have the same stove - I guess I need to adjust the settings on it for a "cleaner burn"?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Sounds like a leak in your exhaust ducting, the stove itself is sucking in air, so it usually isn't pushing out soot. You should NEVER have stuff coming from inside the stove, into your home.

All connections need caulked/taped.

The stove adapter (Where pipe meets stove) is the usual culprit.

Also on your clean out tee, I'd suggest taping it, to seal it after your clean.

 

[mediaman67]

Sounds like a good idea - do you have a recommendation on what you'd use for caulk/tape there? concerned about using just duct tape, because of the heat there...

interesting that this just started happening this year really - it's just a subtle amount - you don't even really notice it at all when it's running - just at the end of the season...

I wasn't sure if maybe it could be a starting to fail door/window seal - or if the fan is blowing any of the soot inside (not the exhaust blower that always runs, the regular fan that kicks on after the stove warms up.

Thanks

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Sounds like a good idea - do you have a recommendation on what you'd use for caulk/tape there? concerned about using just duct tape, because of the heat there...

interesting that this just started happening this year really - it's just a subtle amount - you don't even really notice it at all when it's running - just at the end of the season...

I wasn't sure if maybe it could be a starting to fail door/window seal - or if the fan is blowing any of the soot inside (not the exhaust blower that always runs, the regular fan that kicks on after the stove warms up.

Thanks

Your stove should be "sucking", leaks on the stove cause bad combustion. You can check this with a lighter flame and by opening the door a hair. Check during low and high fire.

They make high temperature caulk, I used high temperature black from Napa, and high temp red.

I used the red internally when putting it together and a black bead externally. (Black stove pipe)

They make high temperature duct tape, more like an aluminum adhesive tape.

Got mine at a auto store.

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Also do you sweep your flue? Verified no obstructions?