The past two years, we have been fortunate that the pellets we bought burned well and gave a decent amount of heat. This years batch produces a lot more ash and doesn't seem to burn as hot.
The real problem, however, is that we are getting a yellow-brown buildup on the glass, which is very difficult to remove, even with a damp paper towel dipped in ash. The Stove Bright glass cleaner we have will do the trick, if I use lots and lots. This cleaner is mostly isopropanol, according to the poison-control label, but there must be something else in it as well, because pure rubbing alcohol does very little to dissolve this buildup. We never got this, the past two years, and whatever the stuff is, it is the same yellow-brown color as you see on the fingers of nicotine addicts.
The other problem is a crusty buildup on the heat exchanger tubes. This stove is made by Enviro (Hudson River Chatham model) and has a burn chamber that looks similar to those of other Enviro models posted in this forum. The problem is that even within a couple of days from the previous cleaning, the tube scraper can't cope with the crust, and it takes a lot of persistence—and a vise grip—to get the scraper to take enough off to pull out all the way. I have tried scrubbing with one of those plastic pot scrubbers, without much success. Should I be using steel wool or a Charboy instead? I can eventually get the scraper to come all the way along the length of the tubes, but it takes a great deal of time and effort. I thought of trying to pull the scraper while the stove is still hot (thinking that the crust will be softer), but I remember reading on this forum that doing that is a no-no, because it will deform the tubes. Any thoughts? Removing enough of the parts to pull the heat exchanger out to work on more easily would be very time consuming and not something I'd like to do, except annually.
The real problem, however, is that we are getting a yellow-brown buildup on the glass, which is very difficult to remove, even with a damp paper towel dipped in ash. The Stove Bright glass cleaner we have will do the trick, if I use lots and lots. This cleaner is mostly isopropanol, according to the poison-control label, but there must be something else in it as well, because pure rubbing alcohol does very little to dissolve this buildup. We never got this, the past two years, and whatever the stuff is, it is the same yellow-brown color as you see on the fingers of nicotine addicts.
The other problem is a crusty buildup on the heat exchanger tubes. This stove is made by Enviro (Hudson River Chatham model) and has a burn chamber that looks similar to those of other Enviro models posted in this forum. The problem is that even within a couple of days from the previous cleaning, the tube scraper can't cope with the crust, and it takes a lot of persistence—and a vise grip—to get the scraper to take enough off to pull out all the way. I have tried scrubbing with one of those plastic pot scrubbers, without much success. Should I be using steel wool or a Charboy instead? I can eventually get the scraper to come all the way along the length of the tubes, but it takes a great deal of time and effort. I thought of trying to pull the scraper while the stove is still hot (thinking that the crust will be softer), but I remember reading on this forum that doing that is a no-no, because it will deform the tubes. Any thoughts? Removing enough of the parts to pull the heat exchanger out to work on more easily would be very time consuming and not something I'd like to do, except annually.
