First pellet stove sweeping

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Ctwoodtick

Minister of Fire
Jun 5, 2015
2,107
Southeast CT
have a new castle serenity stove that is my first pellet stove that I’ve ever used. I ordered a brush kit do that I could sweep it myself. The instructions in stove manual say to remove the venting and then clean. My venting (ventis) has cleanout inside the house and out so I should have decent access to the inside of the venting. Is there any reason to remove the venting?
 
If you don't need to remove it don't
How long have you had the stove and
how many bags of pellets have you used ?
 
Started using the stove in oct 18’. I’d guess I’ve used about 40-50 bags.
 
You relay only need to sweep the chimney once a year
They are not like wood stoves . I only clean mine once
a year and get very little dust maybe 3 cups
 
If the stove starts burning bad with black soot it's past time to clean it. Get to know when it's normal. I had to do mine recently because of lots of BLACK soot. Whole inside was black. Cleaning chimney outside fixed it.
 
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No need to take the venting apart, run a brush through what you can then find yourself a piece of packing foam cut a piece to fit snug in the exhaust passage at the left bottom side of the burn pot then cut a round hole in the center of the foam for shop vac hose to fit snug then blow the exhaust out with the shop vac on blow mode. Very easy to do and it cleans out the entire exhaust path .The pic gives an idea what I mean but it's on my Harman but I just cleaned a Serenity for a friend and done the same thing. IMG_20190204_184214.jpg
 
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I clean my pipe after every ton, or about 2 months. That gets to be when it needs it. Too much longer than that, and it will not burn well anymore. I don't get black soot, but the fire will start going out if it gets too much ash in the chimney.

Everybody's situation will vary, so get used to what you need to do to keep yours running well.
 
No need to take the venting apart, run a brush through what you can then find yourself a piece of packing foam cut a piece to fit snug in the exhaust passage at the left bottom side of the burn pot then cut a round hole in the center of the foam for shop vac hose to fit snug then blow the exhaust out with the shop vac on blow mode. Very easy to do and it cleans out the entire exhaust path .The pic gives an idea what I mean but it's on my Harman but I just cleaned a Serenity for a friend and done the same thing.View attachment 240746
New cool idea!
 
I wonder if there's an upper limit for which units can be done this way. My Accentra insert leads to 16' of vent pipe up the chimney. I'd love to try this.

No need to take the venting apart, run a brush through what you can then find yourself a piece of packing foam cut a piece to fit snug in the exhaust passage at the left bottom side of the burn pot then cut a round hole in the center of the foam for shop vac hose to fit snug then blow the exhaust out with the shop vac on blow mode. Very easy to do and it cleans out the entire exhaust path .The pic gives an idea what I mean but it's on my Harman but I just cleaned a Serenity for a friend and done the same thing.View attachment 240746
 
16 ' is a long way to try and blow with a shop vac, I do it to mostly get the section of exhaust that can't be gotten with a brush and on a Serenity it blows out the area where the exhaust blower is. But hey it's easy enough to do so why not try it.