In the few years i've owned mine, ive never had anything in the side holes.
My setup:
No Oak
fuel rod open all the way (about 8" flame on high)
dampener open all the way
my pipe goes straight out the wall, 21/2 maybe 3 feet 3" pipe
on cleanup days my wife or I does the following:
Vac out the chamber
open burn pot lever and quickly hit the sides of the pot with a hand wire brush (one of my welding brushes)
vac out ash pan
wipe down glass
takes all of 5 min
Heres a few pictures of what mine looks like after roughly more than 2 weeks with no cleaning (the pellets in the pan was from me pulling the rod when it was in start up mode, my bad >.< )
IMG_20141124_161519543 by
ompproductions, on Flickr
IMG_20141124_161535818 by
ompproductions, on Flickr
No hard deposits and the ash is very light and feathery