Mt Vernon AE Insert Cleaning Question

[joescho]

I was reading the thread on cleaning vs. something actually breaking on pellet stoves, and it got me wondering if I'm cleaning my MVAE insert the right way and throughly.

Scott made a good point about the fines building up in the pellet chute. Now about once a month I let my stove run out of pellets and vaccum out the fines from the hopper, but I know there's still a little bit of pellets in the chute soI do not stick the vaccum way down and suck everything out but now I'm wondering if I should.

Does anyone else completely suck everything out of the hopper? How much pellets do you loose?

I'm just wondering if cleaning the hooper out but not sucking everything out is doing the job or does it really need to be completely sucked dry....

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

I've had my MVAE for ! month short of three years. It runs on high continuously unless it's autocleaning or I'm doing my weekly cleaning. I never let it run out of pellets until the Spring when I clean it out for summer shut down. I think the AE is very tolerant of dust and fines. I've only had one problem and it was due to my not thoroughly cleaning the very bottom of the burn pot. Now I use a mirror and flashlight to get the job done.

 

[john193]

I don't clean the hopper until the end of the season when I empty it. I do however stick my shop vac hose up the pellet drop tube for a few seconds to suck up the fines. Sometimes the vacuum will pull a few pellets and when it does I back off a bit.

I'm not sure how much it benefits to do this but it can't hurt. The fines are pretty much back within a few min of stove operation.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

I have never intentionally emptied the hopper on my MVAE, except at the end of heating season.
I often upend a bag into the hopper and most of the fines go in along with the pellets. This has never caused a problem. I have seen fines dribble down the feed chute along with pellets so I assume that the MVAE auger design can transport fines without a problem. (Actually I have seen it pass things like a 3/4 inch brad and a screwdriver tip. The screwdriver was my fault, it fell off the mantle into the hopper unnoticed and wound up in the ash pan.)
Now don't report me to the moderators for stove abuse and brutality. The MVAE is an extremely robust stove and doesn't need babying.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

The fines are pretty much back within a few min of stove operation.

In any stove, the auger creates more fines as it crunches cracks and pushes the pellet along their way.

 

[Madcodger]

I don't clean the hopper until the end of the season when I empty it. I do however stick my shop vac hose up the pellet drop tube for a few seconds to suck up the fines. Sometimes the vacuum will pull a few pellets and when it does I back off a bit.

I'm not sure how much it benefits to do this but it can't hurt. The fines are pretty much back within a few min of stove operation.

Ditto. The MVAE just eats it all and couldn't care less. Pour slowly to catch anything crazy from going in (screws, keys, etc) but I wouldn't worry about vacuuming it out.

 

[joescho]

Well then I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing which is leave a little on the bottom of the bag and just not worry about the fines...

Allegheny's don't have too much fines anyway.

The little bit at the bottom of the bag gets dumped into a pail where I try to save as much pellets as I can and the fines get dumped in my wood stove in the basement. The pellets I keep in a bucket and when it's full it gets dumped in the hopper.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

fines get dumped in my wood stove in the basement.

Be careful, the fines are just wood dust and you can get a flash if you spill them through the air onto the fire. One of my woodworking buddies took his eyebrows off that way.

 

[joescho]

Be careful, the fines are just wood dust and you can get a flash if you spill them through the air onto the fire. One of my woodworking buddies took his eyebrows off that way.

yeah I thought of that. I try to dump them in when the fire is died down.