I've got a breckwell big E, I cleaned and inspected everything on the stove this past week ie; pulled all the blowers and motors off and cleaned/blew them out, made sure no birds made a nest in the outside pipe. I noticed that the heat exchange tubes are getting a build up on them. Is there a way of cleaning that off as you can only physically get to the lower row of tubes? Has anyone used a chemical cleaner like a HD degreaser, oven cleaner, or even a blow torch? I'm thinking that is cutting down on efficiancy, any thoughts?
Heat tubes
- Thread starter scubanut
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I wouldn't spray anything into the stove. But thats maybe just me.
There are tube brushes available at most plumbing supply house's. I bought a couple 1' dia. 1 I left straight and the other I bent the tip in an L shape.
Scrubbed as much as possible off. But it is tought to get in there. The more you get off the better the efficiancy would be. I would think that would act like an insulator.
jay
There are tube brushes available at most plumbing supply house's. I bought a couple 1' dia. 1 I left straight and the other I bent the tip in an L shape.
Scrubbed as much as possible off. But it is tought to get in there. The more you get off the better the efficiancy would be. I would think that would act like an insulator.
jay
I use an Inflation Brush. They are made for milking machines on dariy farms. Go to any real farm supply store and you can get one. Works better than anything else I have tried.
Big E here as well.
Big E here as well.
Think I might give the oven cleaner a try this afternoon, I also have some industrial degreaser out in the garage. I'll try each on half of the tubes and see if they work or not. I'll let you know when I shut down for cleaning this afternoon.
Chris
Chris
scubanut said:
Page 17 in the Big E manual shows how to clean the tubes. There is a hooked rod, you put the tool with a hole that comes with the stove, and just pull a few times.
slls said:
The built in scraper works pretty good during the burning season, but when you work on them with other tools during your annual clean out, all kinds of stuff comes off.
The verdict is in, and no kaboom
I had four different cleaners to use, but it only took the first one to do the job. I thought i should start out on the mild side so I grabbed the household degreaser under the kitchen sink first. I was prepared with gunk foaming engine cleaner, crc brand brake cleaner, and sodium hydroxide industrial degreaser aka dominant. The last two I know for a fact will take paint off fairly efficiently. The stuff that did it was Fantastik all purpose HD cleaner. Five and a half tons of pellets last year, I had about a 1/16th of an inch of build up on the tubes and about half of that on the back wall of the fire box. Soaked it with fantastik and let it sit for about five minutes, and wiped it off right down to the original paint. Be prepared to use alot of paper towels, and use the good ones. I used the cheap ones and broke through, my hands are pretty black The fantastik reacted with the soot and made the fingers tingle a little, so use some gloves!
Chris
I had four different cleaners to use, but it only took the first one to do the job. I thought i should start out on the mild side so I grabbed the household degreaser under the kitchen sink first. I was prepared with gunk foaming engine cleaner, crc brand brake cleaner, and sodium hydroxide industrial degreaser aka dominant. The last two I know for a fact will take paint off fairly efficiently. The stuff that did it was Fantastik all purpose HD cleaner. Five and a half tons of pellets last year, I had about a 1/16th of an inch of build up on the tubes and about half of that on the back wall of the fire box. Soaked it with fantastik and let it sit for about five minutes, and wiped it off right down to the original paint. Be prepared to use alot of paper towels, and use the good ones. I used the cheap ones and broke through, my hands are pretty black The fantastik reacted with the soot and made the fingers tingle a little, so use some gloves!Chris
Yea, No Kaboom. Glad you started with the weak stuff. No Fumes either. If I ever need to remove ash build up, I will try the fantastic!( I am really glad you didn't go for the dynamyte)
Good tip!
jay
Good tip!
jay
Just for the record, I don't think the combustible chemicals would have been an issue. With proper ventilation and allowing the stove to "dry out" before starting it up would have been sufficient. I under stand that the blower motors and eletronics are not deemed explosion proof units, but using a little common sense and waiting for the VOC level to dissipate, would make it safe. Of coarse, if common sense was so common, everyone would have it right? I too am glad the simple stuff worked!
Chris
Chris
It seems to me the heat exchanger is such an important part in the construction of a pellet stove and maybe the most overlooked or at least the least engineered with respect to heating and cleaning.
Harman`s accordian style is kinda simple but still a PIA to clean. Tube types exchangers (to me) seem to be even more efficient being that they can absorb heat on more surface area but cleaning them has to be as bad or even worse.
Harman`s accordian style is kinda simple but still a PIA to clean. Tube types exchangers (to me) seem to be even more efficient being that they can absorb heat on more surface area but cleaning them has to be as bad or even worse.
Last season after about the third ton, I pulled both blowers off to clean them. The exhaust blower had alot of ash buildup on it, but I just knocked it off with an old tooth brush and blew the motor windings out with comp. air. I did the same thing during my start up inspection and cleaning this year. Be very careful with that fiberglass gasket, it is very fragil. Mine fell apart this time, but I was able to save it. I do have a packet of three new ones coming this week. The heating blower was the worse of the two though. Alot of dust build up on the squirrel cage and hard to get completely clean because of the small veins. Thinking about attaching a small piece of furnace filter on the intake of that on. When that squirrel cage gets dirty, the stove gets louder (vibration).
Chris
Chris
I wish I could get to my heat tubes...well I can but I have to stick my head into my small door and look up with a dust mask on. Is there someway I wonder if I can take my front panel off or something... I have a kozi 120, which no one else has I guess...so
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