Let's hear about time it takes to clean your stove.

[Stevekng]

I haven't seen a thread about the time it takes to do the routine cleaning of anyone's stove. It takes me about 45 minutes to clean my two stoves, a quad castille ans an Enviro VF-100(Vista Flame rebadged Meridian). That includes burn pot, ash bins, scrubbing the heat exchanger tubes with a wire brush,vacuuming the inside if the combustion chamber, and blowing off the wires and control boards with a can of compressed air. I do this twice a week wit both stoves, on the same days.

Let's hear from you other folks about your stoves.

 

[imacman]

Glad you're keeping your stoves so clean, but twice a week? WOW. That is WAAAAAAY more than I would ever do, or need to. But then again, I have a multi-fueler......it can stand almost any burning situation.

Once a week is more than I usually do......usually once every 2 weeks is the norm....1 hour.

 

[SXIPro]

Once a ton for me. Mine's an insert so once I season I also yank it out of the wall to clean the fines box, all the motors/blowers and all that jazz.

The once a ton deal probably takes me 45-60 minutes. Theonce a season ' yank it out of the wall' deal probably 60-90 minutes depending on how strong I am feeling that day.

 

[moey]

Once every two weeks roughly empty ash bin vacuum up around burn pot open cleanout vacuum out, clean baffles. About 30 minutes. Sometimes I leaf blow it but most the time not. Usually once a day or two days I pull my cleanout lever to dump out the burnpot.

 

[bonesy]

I "clean" mine when the ash is about to flow out of the door when I open it. And by "clean" I mean I vaccum out the burn chamber and burn pot. The burn pot on my BigE does not fill up at all when burning properly. It may need a scrape once a week but it would take much longer to block any of the holes.

 

[Paul Raz]

I really just started this year, but I clean my insert religiously every Saturday for about 1/2 to 1 hour, depending on the type of cleaning that I do. If I take the (I guess they are called heat shields) off to get to the heat exchanger tubes and vaccuum everything it is about 1 hr.

 

[P38X2]

From a workably cool stove, about 25 minutes to re-ignition. Gets done every 3 weeks, sometimes less.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

What is this "cleaning" that you speak of?

Eric

 

[mepellet]

Stove takes 30-60 minutes to shut down. But after the conbustion fan turns off, it takes about 20 minutes to do my "weekly" cleaning that gets done at least every 2 weeks. This consists of brushing down the inside of the stove, scraping the burnpot, cleaning out the ignitor area, doing a quick brushing of the combustion fan, cleaning the glass, and vacuuming out the fines box at every other cleaning. Doing my "ton" cleaning takes an additional 30 minutes. This includes taking the combustion impeller off the motor shaft and brushing it good, cleaning the combustion blower housing, taking the firebricks out and cleaning behind them, emptying the ashpan, and cleaning the venting by using linteater and shop vac.

 

[343amc]

Once every couple weeks for me. It takes me about 30 minutes depending on how fancy I get with it. Usually a quick dump of the ash pan, vacuum and burn pot scrape.

 

[PoolGuyinCT]

My daily routine is 10 minutes tops.

Scrape burnpot, pull baffle plate and fire bricks quick vac..


I am a swimming pool contractor in New England, not to much else to do.


Ray

 

[john193]

I take great pleasure in cleaning my stove. I'm the same about my car so maybe I'm just one of those people. I have a mt Vernon ae which I clean weekly, takes about 30 to 45 min. I scrape and brush the heat exchanger, scrape the pot vacuum all over and clean the glass. Every other week I pull off the heat exchanger and clean the baffle behind it.

 

[briansol]

Saturday, I have the thermostat warm up the house earlier than usual (4am) and then drop the house to 62 at 6am. The house generally stays in the mid 60s for th emorning hours which is comfortable to me. By the time my lazy a$$ gets out of bed and wants to get some stuff done, the stove is cool and ready to be vaccumed --- unless it's SUPER cold out that day. In which case, i just let it run and crank it back up a few degrees and skip the weekly for another day.
I do the burn pot, ash pan, heat exchanged tubes with the ash vac's 'brush' and the glass.

Occasionally, if i'm burning a dirty pellet, or its warmer and there's been a lot of start/stops, i will open up the door and clear a clinker out of the burn pot with a big metal spoon. I try to get this when the stove is in standby mode waiting for its next call for heat. I keep my swing temp on 1.5 degrees, but i still cycle a lot. I tried higher settings, but it just got too hot in the house. The thermostat control is still not perfect. With time

About once a month on that saturday, I do the above plus open up the exhaust trap door and clean that pipe out as best i can with some minor shaking and banging on it to loosen up the free stuff just hanging out. I also do the flue passages and get the plastic straw type attachment out and give it the ol' TSA finest cavity search.

Once a year, usually in late april/may or so after i'm sure i'm done burning for the year. I do a full scrape on the pipe with a lint eater type tool, and do all the blowers.

 

[heat seeker]

Every three or four days, I shut it down and brush the exchanger, burn chamber and walls into the ash pan. I give the burn pot & bottom slider a quick scrape and visual for clogged holes. Clean the glass. Check the ash traps, which never have more than a token amount of ash. Whole cleaning takes 15 minutes.

I brush the vent and do the LBT every ton, more often if I'm burning really ashy pellets or the weather is fine. That takes all of 20 minutes, including getting and stowing the blower and cord.

I empty the ash pan, which is kind of small, once a week or so.

This stove is a breeze to keep clean. Unless it's idling due to t'stat operation, it runs on at least heat level 3, usually 4, so no soot or 'sote buildup anywhere.

 

[nksdad2007]

Two to three times a week depending on the pellets and the weather. Usually takes me 20 minutes(45 if my son helps). Then every 6-8 weeks I clean and brush the vent which adds about another 15-20 minutes.

 

[ChandlerR]

Every couple of days depending on how hard it's run, I'll pull the burn pot and clean it. A quick glass cleaning and I'm back in operation. Takes less than 10 minutes. I have a good pair of welding gloves so I pull the pot while it's still hot. The ashes go in my outdoor fire pit.

Every three or four weeks, I'll do the prior procedure and pull the exhaust blower, clean it and vacuum out the T and what piping I can get to. I'll clean the heat exchanger tubes, vac out the internal air passages, clean the room blower of fur and throw it back together. Takes between a half hour and 40 minutes.

 

[robert65]

Every 3 days or so for 15-20 minutes, and a complete cleaning from top to bottom every 2 Tons

 

[kmapsrule]

No ash pan so once a day - shutdown long enough for embers to stop glowing, empty burn pot, brush tubes, restart... approx 10 mins
Once Every 7-9 days - Full shutdown, brush out insides, vacuum interior - Approximately 20 minutes once cool enough all blowers stop
Once Every Ton - Full Shutdown, brush out insides, vacuum interior, clean pipe and exhaust blower chamber, pull room blower and remove the extra cat and dog, oil all motors - approx 1.5 hours

 

[m159267]

Having geothermal I use the pellet stove to supplement when temps get colder: 20 degrees F or colder at night or highs of low 30's or colder during the day. Bottom line is I always clean a cold stove before I start it or if I run it continuously for 3 days I shut it down and clean it. Cleaning usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Final spring cleaning usually takes about an hour.

 

[jtakeman]

Weekly cleaning around 1 brewski, Monthly is an easy 2. Spring full cleaning deal? Well 3 should do it!

Seriously, I spend all week with time limits and deadlines. So I try not to put time limits on my stove chores. I just take my time and do more than needed.

 

[Boondoggie]

Once a week, about 15 minutes. I shut it down before I leave for work on Friday and then clean a cold stove when I get home and fire it up for the weekend.

 

[peirhead]

Once cooled, 15 minutes to brush down the inside, gun brush the burn pot holes, remove and clean interior plates (3) and vacuum while blowing compressed air around the inside and exchanger tubes. I used to do this 2x per week, and several times measured temps before and after cleaning...big difference I've gotten lazy though and gone to once a week, but have to empty the small ash tray at least 2x per week

*** TIP*** for QUAD OWNERS I have found scraping the burn pot floor (door) while the stove is just beginning a shutdown cycle (hot) and then dump the burn pot.... keeps the carbon buildup on the door way down. I thnk is the cooling cycle that causes the carbon buildup

 

[Northwoodneil]

I clean every Saturday although I wouldn't need to. On Sat. 1 I brush the inside of the stove, chip any carbon build up, brush the combustion fan, and vac it all up. On Sat. 2 I do all of the above plus run a brush down the venting and clean the ESP and glass, and empty the ashes. 30 min on the first Saturday almost an hour on the second.

 

[Northwoodneil]

Might I add the time it takes is just about enough to make the missus wonder why the stoves not running

 

[ltlhawk]

I do a quick cleaning every 3 days, meaning pulling burn pot, scrap if needed. I brush all the surfaces and empty the ash pan. Lube up the agitator and put it all together. Then clean the glass. This all takes about 15 minutes. Every other week I pull all the inside plates and give it a real good cleaning.