First Cleanin gof the Season

[sparkydog00]

I like my house warm...and my stove clean...have been burning for the past couple of weeks off and on....thought it was time to clean the stove.
Will share my adventures with the forum...
The stove is a 3year old Harmen Accentra insert...
First have to empty the Lovless ash vac...must have a clean vac for the first cleaning.
I am burning Rocky Mountain pellets.
First there is more crud on the window then I like seeing...am chaulking this up to the slow burn rate...have the stove set at 70 degress room temp mode...feed rate is 4..it doesn't burn fully very often...just much little flame and smoldering...but the house is warm.
Anyway...
I am impressed with the total lack of clinkers produced by the Rocky Mountain pellet. Seems all the pellets I have burned in the past produced some form of clinker..
NEWP and Maine Woods brands were notorious offenders last year.
There was nothing to scrape out of the burn pot...this after roughly 15 bags burned....very impressive.
Will see how the pellets perform on higher burn rate when the temps get colder....hope the glass staining isn't an issue then.
Had the Harmen guy come out and "professionally" clean my stove over the Summer....what a waste of 150 bucks...
But he did point out that I was installing the heat exchanger plates upside down...3 years and someone tells me that....
Back to the stove cleaning...
Nothing in the burnpot...
A little elbow grease and the window comes clean..
Stove back on line ...house is warm...
Now I can relax and enjoy a cold one...

 

[SXIPro]

You call cleaning the glass and the burnpot a cleaning? :bug:

 

[Xena]

Had the Harmen guy come out and "professionally" clean my stove over the Summer....what a waste of 150 bucks...

Did you watch him clean the stove? It's more than likely he cleaned
a lot more than the burn pot and the glass.

Brushing out the vent pipe, brushing/vac heat exchange tubes, clean/vac hidden ports, and remove & thoroughly clean
the fans are part of, or should be part of a "professional" cleaning.

 

[SXIPro]

I don't see why folks don't do the professional cleaning themselves. If someone is selling you a $3K stove they should walk you through the entire cleaning process either pre-sale in their shop, or when they are doing your install. Then you can save big cash over the life of the stove, and be more knowledgable about the appliance that keeps you from freezing to death.

 

[imacman]

......they should walk you through the entire cleaning process either pre-sale in their shop, or when they are doing your install. Then you can save big cash over the life of the stove.......

You seem to be missing the part of this that the dealer calls "making $$ after the sale". It's in THEIR best business interests to not show you any more than they have to....not saying all dealers do this, but I'd bet there's quite a few.

 

[SXIPro]

......they should walk you through the entire cleaning process either pre-sale in their shop, or when they are doing your install. Then you can save big cash over the life of the stove.......

You seem to be missing the part of this that the dealer calls "making $$ after the sale". It's in THEIR best business interests to not show you any more than they have to....not saying all dealers do this, but I'd bet there's quite a few.

True, but an educated consumer would insist on it to seal the deal.

 

[imacman]

......they should walk you through the entire cleaning process either pre-sale in their shop, or when they are doing your install. Then you can save big cash over the life of the stove.......

You seem to be missing the part of this that the dealer calls "making $$ after the sale". It's in THEIR best business interests to not show you any more than they have to....not saying all dealers do this, but I'd bet there's quite a few.

True, but an educated consumer would insist on it to seal the deal.

That's the "fly in the ointment"....most new pellet stove buyers just think you plug it in, pour pellets in, and your done. I bought pellets from a woman this summer who had a real nice Lopi Leyden stove, but decided to sell the pellets since the stove didn't work after 2 months. I asked her when she last cleaned the stove, and her reply was " I vacuum behind the door every few days just like the dealer( + installer) told me to do....I just can't figure out why it won't run".

Any questions???

 

[krooser]

My dealer used to offer a class on how to do a through cleaning of your stove. They dropped this class after very few customers took advantage of it.... I guess we all know better.

Two years ago my stove wasn't working right and I had the tech out to do a cleaning. That's when I discovered the "leaf blower" trick. Although I wasn't home at the time, the service guy gave me a great description o how he does it and I went from there.

This fall I'm having him come back and show me exactly how he cleans the fans, lubes the Versa-Grate and generally does the routine maintenence on my St. Croix. I have lubed the Versa-Grate myself with anti-seize last year and it works flawlessly... but I do need to see him do the other stuff.

 

[sparkydog00]

You call cleaning the glass and the burnpot a cleaning? :bug:

Hold on...i brushed out the ports behind the heat exchangers....as well as brushing off the heat exchangers themselves....
Sorry about not specifing that.

 

[sparkydog00]

Had the Harmen guy come out and "professionally" clean my stove over the Summer....what a waste of 150 bucks...

Did you watch him clean the stove? It's more than likely he cleaned
a lot more than the burn pot and the glass.

Brushing out the vent pipe, brushing/vac heat exchange tubes, clean/vac hidden ports, and remove & thoroughly clean
the fans are part of, or should be part of a "professional" cleaning.

Yes I did watch him ...he pulled the stove out and cleaned a probe in the back....and I asked him to clean my comb fan on the bottom...he wasn't happy about doing that...but I he did...he remarked how clean I keep my stove...and questioned why he was here...
He won't be next year.

He doesn't do the chimney and such...that is the realm of the chimney sweep.

 

[sparkydog00]

My only complaint is that Harmen is so secretive about their stoves....it is a pellet stove not a military jet fighter for Christ sakes.
I owned a Lopi and was able to get a technicians troubleshooting guide for my stove. Gave everything you needed to fix and keep the stove going forever. Harmen is exactly opposite....they want to keep you totally in the dark...they want you to call a Harmen tech for any and all problems....when 95% of them you could easily fix yourself if you had the right information.
Bad baseness model in my humble opinion!

 

[sparkydog00]

Okay...
So the soot on the glass was bothering me....
So upon further investigation...I found the Hopper seal was comprimised in the back by stray pellets.
Glass and fire look much healthier now!