Englander 25-PAH pellet stove cleaning

[JKC]

Hi,

I am looking at an Englander 25-PAH pellet stove. I have read that the pellet brand can make a big difference on how often you clean your stove. I am sure how hard you run your stove will make a difference also. I would like to know how often you turn the stove off to do basic cleaning. It looks like a basic cleaning would go quickly but I think it would have to be all the way cool to do this. If you have noticed a deference with different pellet brands. If you have what brand have worked best for you in this stove. Thank you for your help in finding a stove.

 

[farmgirl1985]

Hi,

I am looking at an Englander 25-PAH pellet stove. I have read that the pellet brand can make a big difference on how often you clean your stove. I am sure how hard you run your stove will make a difference also. I would like to know how often you turn the stove off to do basic cleaning. It looks like a basic cleaning would go quickly but I think it would have to be all the way cool to do this. If you have noticed a deference with different pellet brands. If you have what brand have worked best for you in this stove. Thank you for your help in finding a stove.

The manual recommends emptying the burn pot daily, and a pretty thorough cleaning weekly. We have the 25 pah and have found that Greenway pellets produce much more flyash and are able to clean the burn pot every 2 days instead of daily. Some other pellets make clunkers that have to be scraped out every 12 hours. I do let the stove cool down dump the pot and shop vac the burn chamber about every 2 days now.

 

[acammer]

I clean my PAH every 1-2 days when it's running flat out as it does when it's <20*F outside. If it's warm it runs on low a lot more and hence produces less ash so it might go a little longer, but still usually not more than 2 days. For my basic cleaning I shut the stove down and wait until the combustion blower quits running. Then I open the door (still hot, you gotta wait hours for that giant chunk of metal to cool) and vacuum off the door, and then all of the ash that has accumulated around the burn pot. Then I remove the air wash deflector, burn pot, and ash pan from the stove. Then I vacuum down in the cradle to get that area nice and clean - I usually need to use a small screwdriver to pull a stray pellet out of the ignitor tube. Then I vacuum out the bottom of the stove and the ash pan. To clean the burn pot I first knock out anything loose with a few taps on the floor, and then I scrape down all the internal surfaces with a scraper and a screw driver. Then I take a piece of a wire and clean out each and every hole on the bottom of the pot - the side holes do not usually need attention. Lastly I clean the glass, and reassemble. Takes less than 10 minutes.

About every 3-4 weeks (depending again on usage) I begin with my standard cleaning and then clean out the inside of the stove real good, using a paint brush to knock down all the ash that has accumulated on the walls and ceiling of the fire box. Then I vacuum that out and open up the heat exchanger clean out ports and vacuum out the ash accumulated there. Then, the key step, I take a nice soft mallet and start smacking the back wall of the fire box (front wall of the heat exchanger) - knocking it all around. You'll be amazed at how much more ash and crude falls out of that heat exchanger and into the cleanout ports. I usually go a few cycles of knocking and vacuuming until I don't get any more crude falling down into those clean out ports even with a fairly vigorous knocking. Then I put it all back together and admire the nice clean burn. Every other cycle I clean the vent piping and combustion blower too, but most of the junk is usually trapped right in the heat exchanger.

How often this sort of deep clean is required will vary greatly depending on what fuel you burn, how well you tune the stove for running clean, and how hard you run the stove. Dirty fuel, a dirty burn, and/or running flat out all the time will definitely shorten the interval for how long you can go before that heat exchanger starts to load up and really restricts the airflow. It's not usually a slow fade on my stove, it'll run nice almost right up until it needs the deep clean, and within 1-3 days I'll see the burn starting to get dirty despite having a standard cleaning and I know it needs a deep clean.

I'm burning Heatr's pellets this year, from my local home depot. Medium amounts of ash, pretty good heat, but something about them makes them seem to cling to each other, I can have the auger starve for pellets and the stove shut down when it still has 1.5 bags in it. I'm in the habit of checking the stove a few times a day, so whenever I do I just make sure that I push the pellets around so they arn't clinging to the side of the hopper. Other than that issue I'm pretty satisfied with them.

Hope that helps.

 

[JKC]

All,
If it takes about ten minutes for a basic cleaning how long do you have to wait for the stove to cool down to do this? It sound like the stove may take a while to cool down. Can you clean the burn pot with the stove still hot? Can you use two burn pots and swap them out?

Thanks for the help.

 

[acammer]

All,
If it takes about ten minutes for a basic cleaning how long do you have to wait for the stove to cool down to do this? It sound like the stove may take a while to cool down. Can you clean the burn pot with the stove still hot? Can you use two burn pots and swap them out?

Thanks for the help.

Cool down is like 20-30 minutes. Internal parts are still pretty hot when the combustion blower cuts off, but manageable, so I use that as my all clear indicator. You can definitely use two burn pots and swap them out - I have a second burn pot that I want to fix and start using for this. I clean my burn pot when it's hot - I wait till I can just barely handle it with my hands and then get to work. My PAH is my primary heat source, so the less down time the better.

 

[Polar Bear]

My stove runs 24/7... I shut it down twice a week to scrape burn pot, empty ash pan, and vacuum the visible fly ash. Thats about it for normal maintenance.

 

[JKC]

Thanks for all the help. This helps me see what needs to be done. I will just be using the stove on the weekends so the short cleaning time would be very nice.

 

[DocnWillow]

I clean my PAH every 1-2 days....open up the heat exchanger clean out ports....

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the most helpful post!!
I am curious tho..where are these?
"open up the heat exchanger clean out ports"
Thanks,
Ed

 

[OhioBurner©]

I assume he meant the exhaust ports, but correct me if I'm wrong, the covers with the round holes in them in bottom back corners behind the ash pan. I've been pulling the pot out and cleaning it out daily, even operating at low. After a fresh deep clean it could go 2-3 days but mine tends to get dirty fast so I try and clean it daily. My long exhaust and oak might have a factor in that. I've tried various pellets including softwoods and really haven't noticed a big difference in cleaning, I think my limiting factor is elsewhere besides the pellets. I have to bang on the stove and clean out the stuff that falls down into those cleanouts about every 2 weeks - the stove will start burning very poorly and sooty in about that time.

 

[acammer]

I assume he meant the exhaust ports, but correct me if I'm wrong, the covers with the round holes in them in bottom back corners behind the ash pan. I've been pulling the pot out and cleaning it out daily, even operating at low. After a fresh deep clean it could go 2-3 days but mine tends to get dirty fast so I try and clean it daily. My long exhaust and oak might have a factor in that. I've tried various pellets including softwoods and really haven't noticed a big difference in cleaning, I think my limiting factor is elsewhere besides the pellets. I have to bang on the stove and clean out the stuff that falls down into those cleanouts about every 2 weeks - the stove will start burning very poorly and sooty in about that time.

Correct - I was referring to the exhaust ports.