So I had yesterday and today off. Since today was a nasty rainy day and so far has been in the upper 30's I figured it would be a great day to do a soup to nuts cleaning on the stove. For a little background we have a P61A that took the place of a propane stove that sat in an old brick fireplace. Out exhaust runs up the existing chimney and there is a cap on the top of the chimney. I normally scrape the burnpot daily and do a bit more thorough cleaning once a week with a GOOD cleaning monthly. This year though, I admit I have been slack. A number of reasons have contributed to that but mainly just time.
Started out cleaning brushing the exchangers and sides of the stove on the inside. Brushed down the fire brick and pulled them out to get behind and under them. Vacummed out and scraped really good the burnpot and auger tube. Pulled the ash pan out, vacummed out the ingiter. Got my vent brush and brushed and vacummed out the exhaust tube leading out the back. Pulled the side guards off, pulled and cleaned the ESP probe, dusted off and vacummed the combustion fan. Vacummed out the fine collection area.
Now for the surprising part. I pulled off the cleanout T where the vent pipe makes a 90* turn to go up the chimney and was SHOCKED at how much ash was in there. Vacummed it out, got the vent brush and brushed up as far as I could then stuck the Shop Vac hose up there to get any more I could. I knew I had been burning ashy pellets but was surprised to see the amount of ash in there that there was.
Havent cleaned the glass yet, needed a break after 1 1/2 hrs going strong on cleaning.
Sorry for the long post, this was all to say that I think I am done burning cheap ashy pellets. This was not much fun and for $30-$50 more per ton I could have Vermonts that were not to ashy at all.
PS-feel free to point out anything I missed!
Started out cleaning brushing the exchangers and sides of the stove on the inside. Brushed down the fire brick and pulled them out to get behind and under them. Vacummed out and scraped really good the burnpot and auger tube. Pulled the ash pan out, vacummed out the ingiter. Got my vent brush and brushed and vacummed out the exhaust tube leading out the back. Pulled the side guards off, pulled and cleaned the ESP probe, dusted off and vacummed the combustion fan. Vacummed out the fine collection area.
Now for the surprising part. I pulled off the cleanout T where the vent pipe makes a 90* turn to go up the chimney and was SHOCKED at how much ash was in there. Vacummed it out, got the vent brush and brushed up as far as I could then stuck the Shop Vac hose up there to get any more I could. I knew I had been burning ashy pellets but was surprised to see the amount of ash in there that there was.
Havent cleaned the glass yet, needed a break after 1 1/2 hrs going strong on cleaning.
Sorry for the long post, this was all to say that I think I am done burning cheap ashy pellets. This was not much fun and for $30-$50 more per ton I could have Vermonts that were not to ashy at all.
PS-feel free to point out anything I missed!