How often to clean behind the front Combustion Chamber Door and front Combustion Fan? Monthly? Yearly? Every Ton?

[techfranz]

The owners manual says that unlatching the combustion chamber door and brushing the fan are yearly maintenance items or every ton.

https://downloads.hearthnhome.com/installManuals/Accentra52i-TC_Consumer.pdf

However, some YouTube videos say to open the combustion fan and and the combustion chamber door during the monthly cleaning.

Opening the Combustion Chamber Door and the Combustion Fan cover is certainly easy enough, but I don’t want to take it apart more than necessarily.

How often do you clean the combustion fan and behind the front combustion chamber door?

 

[bogieb]

I usually do that every cleaning, which is every 3 weeks or so. I use 5-6 tons per heating season and schedule my cleanings according to the P43 needs (when its ash pan is full). It takes a lot longer for me to clean the rest of the stove, the 3 minutes it takes to open the combustion fan chamber, brush ash off the fan and check the exhaust is worth it to me. However, I run middle of the road pellets, so get more ash than those that run top of the line stuff.

Have I skipped that before? Absolutely, but not in the depth of the heating season.

 

[rickwai]

depends on how you use it and then pellets you burn. Run it for 3-4 weeks then clean it. If still in good shape extend, if clogged reduce time.

 

[Mt Bob]

You can wait that long, but you are not doing yourself any favor. Most people,after owning a pellet heater for a while,have realized that the cleaner the inside, the more heat output realized. Harman's (most) are generally considered very easy to clean (especially the P series), so there is no reason not to clean sooner. I have run longer, once for a test, and sometimes, dead of winter, too cold for a long shutdown, just quickly drop the plates from the Accentra, brush and vac. Also, dust,dirt, buildup on ANY type of fan blade can reduce the output by 30%. Amazing how many stoves,on here, magically run better after people clean the combustion blower impeller.Same with cleaning room fan, more heat comes out.

 

[techfranz]

Thanks guys! I will plan to keep cleaning the combustion fan and combustion chamber with my monthly cleaning unless it after some monitoring it looks like I can skip it now and then. The point about heat efficiency is well taken.