actually, it was thick ash stuff..
Talking about thick ash stuff.... I finally got around to doing a way overdue thorough cleaning on the P68. It was a mess with ash. I had ran a bit over two tons through it and hadn't been cleaned since around Jan 21st if I recall correctly.
Ash was up, over, and out of the ash pan. When I opened the ash door to pull the pan and avalanche poured out. I knew I was way overdue but with everything going on I had just not had nor made to time to get the clean in. Or I said the hell with it and simply didn't feel like digging in and doing it.
WOW! I won't put it off like that again because it took longer to get it done and all back up to great again. The performance was lacking. The fact that we have two Aussies now that shed fine fur is another matter. My distribution blower was seriously impacted and jammed up with dust bunnies. The fines box was stuffed like I have never seen it and the fire box as well with ash.
About all I did in the last two months was scrape the baffles and inside of the box walls a couple of times along with daily or per bag pot scrapes. On a positive note I will say you can neglect these P Series and they still keep trucking.
I have rigged up a filter of sorts and put that around the rear base where the fans and blower motors pull air from in hopes to catch dust bunnies prior to them getting sucked into the mess. Bioburner had done something similar I remembered him telling me about since he has some fluffy dogs. Where has he been? Haven't seen him in awhile.
I will be upgrading my filter system before next season but am fine with what I have to get thru the remainder of this burning season. After running three years here when I do my next clean I will pull all of the rear and side panels / covers like I did yesterday and give it all a very good go over and clean.
After this last clean the P68 is running like a champ. I was surprised at what I pulled out of the distribution blower fan. It was caked with dust and tumble weeds. I had noticed that it was not pushing air as it normally does. Night and day difference now. I guess you don't notice it as much when it slowly collects dust and hair over a long time frame.
So if you think your dist. blower fan doesn't seem like it is throwing heat as well then it likely is not. It might be time to pull the blower and give it a serious clean. It's held on with two 3/8" screws. Not too hard to do but I needed extensions to get at the top screw. I'm also very glad I listened to the advice of the dealer here and pulled my stove out from the wall 6" like he suggested. That made it easier to service back there. But it still wasn't tons of fun laying along side reaching back to get at stuff.
I earned a ribbon all right. 1st Place Slacker for cleaning........ Never again!