First off, thank you to anyone who can help me at all, you are greatly appreciated. Hoping to get an education on pellet stoves. I have a King Ashley 5500 pellet stove. Its vented thru the wall directly behind it. Has a 90 degree elbow, goes up about 24 inches then exits thru about 3 ft of pipe to outside. I have vacuumed it out every day as there is excessive ash build up but I have never removed the as plates next to the ash pot. Could this be causing the bad burning lately? I have been running on auto setting is it possible I need to do differently?
New to pellet stoves
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Cedarjunki
Minister of Fire
You will need to give alot more info in order to get any help. Im sure there are plenty of people with that stove willing to help. Is the stove new/used? What pellets are you burning? Changed pellets brands recently? How long have you been using it since you say you havnt cleaned it completely.. give as much info as you possibly can and you will get more answers than you can handle 
Sorry. I bought it lightly used. Ive had it for 3 weeks and have used it lightly on and off. I was using pellets from tractor supply and they left a lot of ash so I tried some from Lowes last night and they seemed to burn bad, so I thought. I was wondering if I need to do a more thorough cleaning to make a better assumption on the pellets. I have been sweeping it out with an ash vac every day to be safe , however the ash build up is getting worse. I have not removed the ash plates on the unit and cleaned them out. And I have not removed the exhaust pipe and cleaned out either although I didn't think that was required after 3 weeks of light use. When I bought the stove the guy told me to leave it on auto so I have.
Bioburner
Moderator
Lightly used= used it till didn't work any more and probably never properly cleaned along with "who reads the manual?"
Sounds like a used car sales pitch for a "low miles car" with just 120,000 miles. Spent two hard days looking at cars weekend before last so I saw the range of lightly used, low miles etc etc
Hopefully someone with direct knowledge of the stove series will chime in and give some first hand knowledge.
Welcome
Sounds like a used car sales pitch for a "low miles car" with just 120,000 miles. Spent two hard days looking at cars weekend before last so I saw the range of lightly used, low miles etc etc
Hopefully someone with direct knowledge of the stove series will chime in and give some first hand knowledge.
Welcome
Cedarjunki
Minister of Fire
Did you clean the combustion motor when you installed it? Gave the whole stove a thorough cleaning when you installed it? If it wasnt spic and span when you installed it then lack of cleaning from previous owner and 3 weeks of crappy pellets could make it need a good cleaning
alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
Lightly used= used it till didn't work any more and probably never properly cleaned along with "who reads the manual?"
Sounds like a used car sales pitch for a "low miles car" with just 120,000 miles. Spent two hard days looking at cars weekend before last so I saw the range of lightly used, low miles etc etc
Hopefully someone with direct knowledge of the stove series will chime in and give some first hand knowledge.
Welcome
To the OP, yes the stove probably needs a full cleaning, especially since you say the pellets you have been using are real ashy ones. Like Bioburner I don't know your stove well but seems to me others here have mentioned cleaning under those traps you bring up. 3 weeks without a full cleaning with ashy pellets is pretty long.
Get out the owners manual and give it a major clean-out, sometimes called "seasonal maintenance" You will have to partially dissemble the stove..The burn-pot and grate must come out and all areas around and under them cleaned..
Johnny_Fiv3
Feeling the Heat
I have the same stove (essentially). Shut it down, clean out the ash, then pull the plates. You'll need either a small, flexible hose to get in there or a long, flexible brush. Get a flashlight. Clean the ash from the areas above the door and the top of the firebox area. Trust me, you'll need the light for this and you are going to get dirty. These stoves are not hard to clean, just hard to clean without getting some crap on your hands. Take out the burnpot. Make sure it's clean underneath and that the air inlet tube is clean and clear.
Now, before you go tearing the stove apart to clean the combustion (exhaust) fan and housing: Look up the Leaf Blower Trick for cleaning pellet stoves. This requires a leaf blower/vac, not just a blower. Study up on how to do this and perform it WITH THE STOVE DOOR OPEN. Do NOT close the door and then put suction on the vent pipe outside. You will most likely damage the pressure switch, plus it works better if the door is open anyways. I ran damn hear 7 tons through my stove last winter and did the leaf blower cleaning this summer for the yearly. It had also cleaned out the combustion fan housing and fan. On some stoves, this may not work as well, but on ours it seems to. I did not have to pull my combustion fan to clean it because when I shined my light into the exhaust port on the back of the stove, there was zero buildup and the blades were clean.
Now one thing I like to do with the leaf blower running outside is hit the inside of the stove with compressed air in all the nooks and crannies. Especially behind those cleanout plates.
Keep in mind you should only need to do this type of cleaning once per year, before burning season. Normally, you just need to clean the ash from inside the stove, from behind those plates, and clean your burnpot during burning season.
Now a couple questions:
1. What HR setting are you normally on?
2. Do you know if the previous owner ever cleaned it?
Now, before you go tearing the stove apart to clean the combustion (exhaust) fan and housing: Look up the Leaf Blower Trick for cleaning pellet stoves. This requires a leaf blower/vac, not just a blower. Study up on how to do this and perform it WITH THE STOVE DOOR OPEN. Do NOT close the door and then put suction on the vent pipe outside. You will most likely damage the pressure switch, plus it works better if the door is open anyways. I ran damn hear 7 tons through my stove last winter and did the leaf blower cleaning this summer for the yearly. It had also cleaned out the combustion fan housing and fan. On some stoves, this may not work as well, but on ours it seems to. I did not have to pull my combustion fan to clean it because when I shined my light into the exhaust port on the back of the stove, there was zero buildup and the blades were clean.
Now one thing I like to do with the leaf blower running outside is hit the inside of the stove with compressed air in all the nooks and crannies. Especially behind those cleanout plates.
Keep in mind you should only need to do this type of cleaning once per year, before burning season. Normally, you just need to clean the ash from inside the stove, from behind those plates, and clean your burnpot during burning season.
Now a couple questions:
1. What HR setting are you normally on?
2. Do you know if the previous owner ever cleaned it?
Remove those plates. The first week I had mine I never cleaned behind those plates (the manual with this thing is pitiful). After cleaning those the stove burned much cleaner and was much more efficient, I do this every other ash cleaning. I couldn't imagine how packed yours could be if it hasn't been cleaned. I hand tighten the screws so I dont need a wrench each time. I use a shop vac and I shove a small hose into the end of the vacuum and shove a rag in around it to make the vacuum only suck from the small tube.
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