Preventing rust in the offseason in your pellet stove

[Augmister]

I made the mistake of not disconnecting my stove from the chimney last season and had a bit of rust to deal with inside the stove.
I will disconnect and clean the 3" riser and plug the hole in the chimney for the summer. Do you leave the stove door open or closed during the off season and do you cover the exhaust tube that fits into the clean out?

I am also going to take apart the fire pot as I can't get the bottom opened to use the ash pan below. Rust. Will probably give the inside of the pot a light going over with an appropriate dremel bit to clean the residue.

Has anyone re-painted the inside of their stove? The fire pot? What do you use or advise?

 

[humpin iron]

Quad recommends that you spray the inside of your stove with paint for the off season. Prevents the nastiness from mixing with humidity and eating the inside of your stove. Just use cheap BBQ black, do not invest in good stove paint, it's all gonna burn off first fire next year.

 

[JoeS]

I spray the inside of my stove with Pam. No rust and it looks good as well!

 

[Barrett]

i was thinking about spraying everything down with wd-40. would that be bad?

is it really necessary to disconnect the stove pipe? could i just take the bottom off the clean out tee and stuff a rag in the stove side?

 

[el gordo]

i too am wondering about the best, safest way to store the stove during off season. this was my first winter using my Harman(which i love) but with oil prices so low and pellets not dropping like i thought they would im going to be shutting her down this weekend, probably until next fall, so as to save the 1.5 tons of pellets i have left to go towards next winters bounty anyways, to all those who are veterans of the pellet stove what are the best ways to store it, keep it rust free, etc. thank you in advance for any reply.

 

[AmandaSkye]

I didn't even know I had to do this! Thank God for this forum!!

 

[GVA]

first remove (burn) all the pellets..
do complete cleaning.
lightly spray the insides with wd40
put a desicant bag inside firebox to help absorb any moisture (in a pinch I heard a box of baking soda inside works too).
UNPLUG THE STOVE .......................and help protect the board from those summer electrical storms and brown outs ETC.
Get a piece of string or wire and wrap it with aluminium foil make a snowball sized ball and put it in the exhaust pipe outside (leave the string hanging out for easy removal)
And most important leave a note in the stove, hopper or control panel reminding you about the pipe being blocked...

Rinse and repeat....... ;-)

 

[GVA]

For the harman people.....
I should also say a quick shot into the fresh air intake with the shop vac on blow will help remove the ash under the burnpot that you can't reach.....remove the ignitor access cover first...

 

[tinkabranc]

Everyone does their own thing, but this is my routine:

Empty hopper.

Unplug stove for the season.

Clean every nook and cranny inside and out.

Plug up vent cap with newspaper ball and wrap with plastic bag to keep the bees/hornets from
making a home in there during the summer. My vent cap is near ground level and in the shade
so the bees are attracted to it.

Leave a reminder note inside hopper to clear vent pipe before filling.

Box of baking soda in the ash pan.

Purchase pellets for the next season

 

[stoveguy13]

all of the above will work carefull with the dremel dont want to eatto much up cloud cause a problem down the road

 

[Augmister]

If you have not done this...please, please, please buy yourself a surge protecting power strip (APC, etc.) to protect your precious mother boards from taking an electrical hit. Of course in the summer, you can leave your stove unplugged. We upgraded our power to 200 amp service and my electrician made a boo boo. As a former IT guy, I have everything in the house plugged into to these power strips. Cost him $200 to replace them ALL and no damage to HDTV, stove or computers.
Priceless!

 

[Kenny1]

I just give the stove a good cleaning, unplug it, and seal up the vent. LCBO bag and duct tape - real high class ;-P

I do put a plastic zip tie through the plug, with a tag on it to remind myself to remove the bag on the vent before using the stove again!

 

[MrVStar]

I do the typical year end cleaning. On the outside i take the vent cap off and wrap the pipe good with plastic bag and put the vent cap back on. This was you can't see the bag. I leave myself a note connected to the plug to unwrap the pipe. I also open a bag of cat liter and put it inside the stove to absorbe any moisture. I had a Castile stove so what I did was take a small bag of cat liter and paint it black and placed it on top of the fire pot. Then slit the bag open. It was very hard to notice. Now That I have a Harmon I just dump the liter in the ash pan. Sometimes if its a wet spring/summer I will replace the liter. Never had any rust problems. Knock on cast iron!

 

[abrucerd]

This is a very helpful topic.

Last year was my first with the stove... I didn't do anything special for end of season cleaning and ended up with some rust in the fall.

I'm curious about sealing off the vent... is this more to prevent humidity or insects/birds/bats etc? My vent goes straight up through my roof... what's the best way to seal it off, or does it matter just as long as it's sealed?

Thanks.

 

[GVA]

It's more to keep out pests rather than the humidity

 

[exoilburner]

To all that used paint, Pam, WD40 as a rust preventer during your season end clean-out.

How much smoke do you get the next season?

How thick is the first puff of smoke?

How long does it take for the smoke to stop?

 

[OU812]

Using Pam is a great idea for the pellet stove. We coat our cast iron pans with it and never have any rust. Also, I would rather burn the Pam off rather than WD40 when its time to restart the stove.

 

[Nicholas440]

If you're going to put cat litter inside the firebox, make sure you leave the door open so the cat knows where to go crap.

You might also want to put a note on the door , letting the cat know the litter is inside.... also in the fall before you fire it up , make sure you check to see that the cat isnt inside the stove !! ... (couldnt resist)

I was going to use a can of 1200 degree engine manifold paint on my firebox, I have used it in the past on a hot rod I buit, I painted the headers, and exhaust with it and as hot as those headers got the paint stayed on and stayed bright.

I also think the pam is a good idea, probably by the winter season it will have been dried out enough that you wont have a grease fire going on in your firebox.

 

[magsf11]

thats what I am worried about with the wd40 in the stove having one hellof a fire ball.

 

[krooser]

I shut my stove off and walk away... pretty easy. In the fall I clean it, lube it and fire it up...

 

[Fencible]

Anyone with a plow truck or who farms will be familiar with Fluid Film (google it). I've used it for several years and it's great, both on my truck preventing winter salt from rusting the undercarriage, and my P68 and Accentra from rusting in the summer time.

It's solvent free, lanolin based rust/corrosion preventive and lubricant that provides long term protection and lubrication for all metals.

No flareup upon restart.

Great stuff! Comes in everything from a spray can to a 55 gallon drum.

 

[chrisasst]

...........

 

[drizler]

I double the UNPLUG THE STOVE idea. That is about the best thing you can do as those circuit boards don't have any real protection whatsoever. Don't for a minute think that fuse is going to help one little bit either. That would suck royally to go to fire it up and have weird control issues or a dead board. I can't see any reason why WD 40 would flare up unless you just sprayed it and it was still in aerosol condition. Just hose hell out of it with any spray oil you have on hand. I never did think all that much of WD myself. It works but it is so thin that much of it either drips, runs or evaporates away when I used to use it on things. The paint will probably protect it better in the long run. I pull my whole chimney down for the summer and clean and oil it up with whatever heavy oil I can find to wipe on. For me it it is easy as it goes up the outside wall and comes down in a few minutes for inspection and maintenance.

 

[chrisasst]

Ok, I was just at the store and was looking at high heat paint. It says do not use on metal directly in contact with a flame or something like that. Why is this?

 

[rowerwet]

solvents in paint will go boom! only works if the stove is hot, which is what the waring is most likely for. kind of like the "caution blade turns when engine is running" warning on my lawn mower!