I inherited an ancient Whitfield Quest pellet stove as part of our house purchase in Colorado in 2007. It's in the basement, so I had only used it a few times prior to last year. However, we used it numerous times last year. I was today embarking on a thorough cleaning of both the stove and the chimney/flue. And from outside the house, I shined a flashlight into the interior of the exhaust pipe and could hardly believe what I was seeing. It looks like the previous homeowner or some installer BENT the end of the exhaust pipe at the stove end and then just left it that way. With the flashlight, the opening at that end looks like a half-moon. And it's metal, not ash buildup.
So anyway, I am now wanting to pull the pellet stove away from the wall to be able to see more clearly what's going on with that, but I don't know how to perform such a removal properly. As you can see in the photo, it's a pedestal stove. Is it mainly secured by gravity? And does it look like this can be pulled out by simply cutting through the exhaust pipe, to free it up and twist it out, and then replacing that exhaust pipe with new pipe? Any special instructions on how to re-install a new exhaust pipe? (Note: the dark circle in the exhaust-pipe photo is just a distorted image of a knot in the knotty pine plank on the wall)
So anyway, I am now wanting to pull the pellet stove away from the wall to be able to see more clearly what's going on with that, but I don't know how to perform such a removal properly. As you can see in the photo, it's a pedestal stove. Is it mainly secured by gravity? And does it look like this can be pulled out by simply cutting through the exhaust pipe, to free it up and twist it out, and then replacing that exhaust pipe with new pipe? Any special instructions on how to re-install a new exhaust pipe? (Note: the dark circle in the exhaust-pipe photo is just a distorted image of a knot in the knotty pine plank on the wall)