How often do you vacuum and clean your stove?

[dmac80]

Just wondering if my maintenance is about right. I do this per the owners manual

• Every day when the stove isn't running I empty the burn pot into the ash tray
  
• Once a week, I vacuum out the firebox, burn pot, empty ash tray, clean the glass and pull the heat exchanger rods in and out a few times
• Once a month I do weekly routine plus remove bricks and baffles from inside firebox and vacuum in there

At the end of the season I do the monthly routine plus vacuum the hopper/auger area, behind the stove (it's an insert) and simply unplug the appliance

What is your routine? Anyone else obsessed with keeping the glass pretty clean?

 

[Fsappo]

For every stove I burned in the showroom, I did the cleaning EXACTLY how the manual laid out. This was always a help when selling a stove to a customer or diagnosing one. For my own home, I never worried about pellet stove glass when I was a pellet burner. It wasn't the kind of flame I needed to look at. In the showroom, much different. Would wipe the glass down every morning

 

[fmsm]

depends on the pellets. Last year with Somersets every 2 weeks, when I was burning Cleanfire Pacific's it was every week. This year with Okanagan Douglas Firs I did it at 2 weeks and there was NOTHING to clean! Going to see what it is like after 3-4 weeks. I will give the glass a wipe and the pot a fast scrape once a week.

 

[TimfromMA]

It really depends on the ash build up. If the the stove happens to shutdown on it's own I'll ususally give it a cleaning even if it doesn't need it otherwise, here's the rule of thumb I follow:

Every couple of days: A 10 second vacuuming with the stove still running.
Every 10 bags: Shut the stove down and give it a good cleaning
Every ton: Run the lint eater up the vent pipe to clean it.
At season's end: Take apart the stove and clean every nook and cranny

 

[ironpony]

bi weekly cleaning, complete

 

[CladMaster]

Every 3 - 4 days depending on how hard it's worked and the crap pellets that I feed it when it's above 26F outside.

 

[michpelletburner]

i have just been just giving the burn pot a scrape/stir every other day along with a few pulls on the heat ex changer rod. I do a good vacuum of the stove along with wire brushing the x tubes and clean the glass once a week. Since this is my first year i haven't done a full clean up yet, i plan to brush the vent once ive gone through a ton.

 

[mr47930]

Scrape the burn pot in the morning, when I get home from work and before bed every day.
Weekly, usually Saturday morning when I wake up ill turn the stove off and let it burn out and cool. Once cool I scrape all of the ash into the ash pan and dump it. Then I take the ash vac and a paint brush and brush the heat exchangers and the medallion really good keeping the ash vac close to suck up all the dust. Wipe the glass and im back burning, takes 15 minutes total.
Monthly I do all of the above but take the heat exchangers and medallion out and scrape behind them.
I haven't pulled the unit out yet but I will be doing that soon.

 

[Polar Bear]

If I have company coming over, I'll clean the glass and make her "purdy"... other than that, the glass only gets cleaned bi-weekly at best.

 

[tiger]

Weekly and, as I'm really only burning on weekends, that's maybe 3-4 bags between cleanings BUT that's only "front end" cleaning (firepot, ash tray, the surfaces in front of the firebacks, the pseudologs and the glass), haven't started tearing the insert apart to get at the "back end"; I plan of paying the installer to come back for the first one, while I watch and take notes.

 

[becasunshine]

Every bleepin' day, like clockwork. I have an ash vacuum and it's a five minute job, including emptying the ash vacuum outside. The deep round burn pot in the Napoleon and the top feed of the pellets causes a clinker if I let it burn much longer than a day, with all but the best of the best of the best pellets. Extremely hot, low ash pellets will burn for two days without forming a clinker.

Per above, it's a five minute job. With an ash vacuum I don't have to shut the stove down for hours to clean it.

It brings up an interesting question: do stoves that push the pellets into the burn pot from the bottom require less cleaning because the new pellets push the ash from the old pellets out of the burn pot?

 

[TimfromMA]

If the stove is working properly, combustion air should blow the most of the ash out of the burnpot so it falls into the ash pan.

 

[becasunshine]

If the stove is working properly, combustion air should blow the most of the ash out of the burnpot so it falls into the ash pan.

Theoretically it does. Realistically we dump the burn pot every day. If I have to cool the stove enough to handle the burn pot (round, deep, cast iron) I'm going to vacuum it while I'm in there.

IIRC, the next iteration of this stove, the NPS45 as well as its corresponding insert, were equipped with a "purge cycle" which occurred automatically at start up, shut down and every 60 minutes while the stove was running. I'm guessing that this modification was to address this very issue. Here's a link to a product description on a stove store web site that describes the "purge cycle."

http://www.thefireplaceelement.com/napoleon-nps45-pellet-stove-88.html

And another product description, noting that the purge cycle is a new feature in the NPS45.

(broken link removed to http://www.consumersearch.com/pellet-and-wood-stoves/napoleon-nps45)

The blower is fine. The pot is deep. It accumulates ash and makes clinkers. We've been burning this stove since 2008. I have accepted my lot in life. On the up side, I have a clean stove, and a clean stove is an efficient stove. I have the time and the ability to clean it quickly- so why not?

 

[The Coopers]

If the stove is working properly, combustion air should blow the most of the ash out of the burnpot so it falls into the ash pan.

Since we are fairly new to the pellet stove community, your comment is helpful. I did notice that we accumulate ash inside the stove. Not in the burnpot but on the edges of the stove. I am assuming this is OK?

 

[TimfromMA]

Since we are fairly new to the pellet stove community, your comment is helpful. I did notice that we accumulate ash inside the stove. Not in the burnpot but on the edges of the stove. I am assuming this is OK?

It's normal.

Here's a picture of my stove I once took to show how dirty it was before I gave it a cleaning. While alot of the ash makes its way into the ash pan, some inevitably settles elsewhere.

 

[The Coopers]

Perfect! Thank you. Very helpful.

 

[F4jock]

Last real cleaning of my Harman was after three weeks of bag-a-day-plus burning. Pull the ashes forward a few times a day. Very pellet-dependent.

 

[Chris223]

I have a Quadrafire Classic Bay Insert and I probably clean mine weekly. With maybe a quick vac of the burn chamber in between a usual cleaning. On my stove there are these two little metal panels held in place by two screws which give you access to the heat exchanger ash collection... once I see ash building up higher than the two little slots underneath the metal panels I vacuum. I pull the burn pot scraper rod before each time I start the stove though. My weekly cleaning includes scraping the pot (though I RARELY get buildup it seems) vac everything, use a paint brush to brush away as much ash from everywhere as I can, use an assortment of a few bottle brushes to really get around the heat exchanger tubes, vacuum out the heat exchanger ash collection area, and clean the glass. Then usually 3-4 times per heating season I will pull the stove out of the fireplace a little bit and just vacuum inside the little trap door that provides access just before where the exhaust pipe starts to go up. I have the pipe and entire stove serviced by the dealer at the end of each burn season.

 

[twodogs02]

Harman XXV
Daily scrape burn pot morning and night, may pull ash buildup into ash pan if I notice, clean glass as needed

Every weekend, shut down brush heat exchanger with large stain brush, scrape pot, dump ash pan, vacuum stove and igniter chamber, check that all burn pot holes are clear and tend to that when needed

Every two weeks, the one week plus fine box.

Every ton, all the above, plus pull motors and clean, brush vent stack, then leaf blower

 

[Jason845845]

Quick Vacuum and clean the glass quick every day. Deep clean every 2 weeks. I havent had my stove long enough to clean blowers or piping.

 

[dmac80]

I have a Quadrafire Classic Bay Insert. I have the pipe and entire stove serviced by the dealer at the end of each burn season.

I have a quad insert as well. Other than a few repairs, I've had the stove "serviced" once but all they really did was vacuum out the whole thing inside and took it out of the fireplace and vacuumed all around behind it and in the internals, which I can now confidently do on my own. What else should they do in an annual "service" of the stove?

I get the fireplace chimney swept every other year. This year I watched and they vacuumed/shook the stove exhaust vent from the top and bottom of the chimney into a shop vac as part of the sweeping.

 

[fmsm]

I have a quad insert as well. Other than a few repairs, I've had the stove "serviced" once but all they really did was vacuum out the whole thing inside and took it out of the fireplace and vacuumed all around behind it and in the internals, which I can now confidently do on my own. What else should they do in an annual "service" of the stove?

I get the fireplace chimney swept every other year. This year I watched and they vacuumed/shook the stove exhaust vent from the top and bottom of the chimney into a shop vac as part of the sweeping.

Your entire venting should be brushed and vacuumed every ton

 

[JohnRXL]

Everyday that it's running, I vacuum out the burn pot and side pockets on my Englander 25PDV. I dump the ashes from the burn pot in the morning into the side pockets and give the glass a quick wipe and that evening I'll shut it down and vacuum it. And the cycle starts again the next day.

 

[kniffin50]

What, you have to clean these things,I'm going back to wood.

 

[chken]

I followed the manual's recommendation last year, my first season. Daily scrape and vac and wipe, took about 7 minutes. Weekly remove backplate and clean the firebox thoroughly. Every ton, do the Leaf blower after cleaning.

This year, I've finished the last bags of my LGs, and have started in on the douglas fir Blazers. Altogether, I've probably burned about 35 bags, give or take. Anyhow, since I'm using less ashy pellets, I've decided to push my stove a little. I don't do the daily scrape, vac and wipe anymore. I wait until Sunday, then I do my whole weekly routine, scrape, vac, wipe and clean out the firebox thoroughly.

Since I've changed my routine, I was wondering how much ash had collected in my vent pipe. So, this past Sunday, I did the leaf blower and guess what? I put the leaf blower up there and turned it on, and nothing! Nothing came out of the leaf blower. I actually put my hand into the airstream to check if it was actually working. Yep, working. I figured I must have a blockage or something, though I wasn't sure how that could be since there was air being pulled out the vent, just no sign of ash. I suspected perhaps the horizontal from the stove to the T might be blocking or something. Anyhow, I took it apart, and nothing, clean as a whistle. I put it all back together and turned the stove back on, and it's running just fine. I have to say, I'm a bit shocked. This is not the first time I've used a leaf blower on my vent, I must have done it 5 times last season, and always plenty of ash blown out by the leaf blower. The only difference from last season is the quality of pellet. I burned a lot of FSUs last year. Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with my new routine, other than filling up the hopper, I only open the door once a week to do a thorough 20 minute clean.