Deep clean Englander 25 PDVC exhausts into chimney?

[kharrisma]

Hi Forum Folke,

Englander 25 PDVC, short run of exhaust with 2 90 degree bends into chimney. I have cleaned everything in the stove - - both blowers, ignition and low pressure ports, burn chamber & pot, and behind baffle, blown out vacuum sense tubings, lower feed auger tube, the igniter and port, and tested the vacuum switches with a meter. My question is this: how can I clean the inaccessible area between the bottom of the opening behind the baffle plate and the internal duct to the exhaust fan? I can clean the labyrinth behind the baffle plate, but only to the bottom of the opening behind the baffle plate; the exhaust ducting continues further to the exhaust fan housing, but there's no way to access that area. I can't use the 'leaf blower trick' as I don't have metal chimney piping that's accessible from outside, just a 90 right off the exhaust port of the stove, a four-foot vertical run to another 90 set directly into a thimble set into the masonry of a chimney (the thimble is at about head height.) I do remove that exhaust piping pre-season every year, as it's usually nearly half-full of ash on the short horizontal portions. The vertical stays pretty clean. Is this something where I'll likely have to remove the stove from the dwelling so I can do a big blowout outside, or is there another trick to force a LOT of air through the exhaust from the inside of the stove, pushing it out along the normal exhaust path into the chimney? Any tips, tricks, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

[ericofmaine]

Unfortunately, I think you may be spot on that you'd need to take it outside to do this. That said, you could try to hook a shop vac with a GOOD filter to the exhaust port and try for a "mini-LBT." If it were me, I'd replace your lower 90 with a T fitting. That can help with getting some of the pipe ash out as well.
Make sure the stove is off and well cooled down as an ember and the airflow can cause a fire inside the shop vac.

Eric

 

[Darby1224]

Hi Forum Folke,

Englander 25 PDVC, short run of exhaust with 2 90 degree bends into chimney. I have cleaned everything in the stove - - both blowers, ignition and low pressure ports, burn chamber & pot, and behind baffle, blown out vacuum sense tubings, lower feed auger tube, the igniter and port, and tested the vacuum switches with a meter. My question is this: how can I clean the inaccessible area between the bottom of the opening behind the baffle plate and the internal duct to the exhaust fan? I can clean the labyrinth behind the baffle plate, but only to the bottom of the opening behind the baffle plate; the exhaust ducting continues further to the exhaust fan housing, but there's no way to access that area. I can't use the 'leaf blower trick' as I don't have metal chimney piping that's accessible from outside, just a 90 right off the exhaust port of the stove, a four-foot vertical run to another 90 set directly into a thimble set into the masonry of a chimney (the thimble is at about head height.) I do remove that exhaust piping pre-season every year, as it's usually nearly half-full of ash on the short horizontal portions. The vertical stays pretty clean. Is this something where I'll likely have to remove the stove from the dwelling so I can do a big blowout outside, or is there another trick to force a LOT of air through the exhaust from the inside of the stove, pushing it out along the normal exhaust path into the chimney? Any tips, tricks, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

What I did was cut a piece of garden hose and shove it in the exhaust duct, shove the other end into the vacuum hose, hold at the joint to get suction and then run the hose back and forth going in as far as you can. Not a perfect solution but all I could come up with.

 

[Rascal08]

thats exectly what i did to clean the exhaust ports behind the plate you can and should remove the exhaust blower and use the same tubing to clean from that way also. worked great for me the last 6 years running the same stove