Pulling out the 52i for cleaning

[thundercracker]

Hi
Enjoying my 1st year burning on the 52i. I do a pretty good weekly cleaning, but i now have to pull the 52i out of the fireplace to get to the pellet chamber. seen the youtube videos, but my questions are related to actually pulling out the stove. (I know to shut off/unplug it, open both side doors, remove base trim). i dont have the rail kit, and my stove mantle is only 1-2" off the floor

- can i pull the stove out far enough to get to the pellet chamber without the need to disconnect any wires or the exhaust vent that goes up the chimney?

once it's out, what else other than vacuuming the pellet chamber do i need to clean (other than other vacuuming in the general back area)

thanks in advance.

 

[mr47930]

I was able to get in behind the unit without disconnecting any wires. I would run a brush through your venting if you haven't already, maybe check the ESP while you have it out. Hopefully you have some muscle because that SOB is heavy. I had an empty hopper and took all of the heat exchangers out before pulling it out to decrease the weight as much as possible and its still a beast to move.

 

[mr47930]

Also I assume you mean the fines box when you say "pellet chamber"? If your hand is any bigger than a 10 year old boys you will have to take the fan off that's directly in the way.

 

[thundercracker]

thanks for the tips. i'll have my sister-small hands to help me get that box. off. pellet chamber/fines box, i think that's what i'm talking about. i'm going to do my routine cleaning and pull everything out of the stove before i attempt to actually unplug and pull the entire stove out. i'll have to google ESP. did you disconnect the vent from the chimney to your stove in order to brush out the vent?

 

[mr47930]

I have a very short horizontal run from the back of the stove, maybe 3 feet so I just ran the brush up it from the inside of the house and stuck the ash vac in there to suck up what I knocked loose. I didn't disconnect anything. I really want to try the leaf blower trick to get it really clean but haven't got around to it. I don't think ill be pulling it out again this year. I plan on paying for a year end maintenance/cleaning/sweeping in March or April, ill let them do the heavy lifting.

why are you pulling yours out? Is something wrong or are you just doing it as regularly scheduled maintenance?

 

[thundercracker]

ok, thanks. i generally stick a brush up the vent from the inside of the stove during my weekly cleanings. I want to try and not disconnect anything if possible. i'm just pulling my stove out to get the fines box cleaned. havent done that yet, stove was new in OCT and i've burned about 60 bags. reading this forum guilts you into cleaning your stove well.

to do the leaf blower trick, wont you have to get to the top of your chimney? i would have to get to the top of my chimney to do the LBT. also, if you're doing the LBT and can get to the back of the stove and clean that, then what are you really paying someone to come and do, that you aren't doing? seems like you'd be wasting your money? (i'm asking here, not criticizing)

 

[mr47930]

I have the horizontal vent so I wouldn't have to get on top of my roof to do the leaf blower trick just a small ladder on the side of the house as the vent is 10ft in the air or so. This is also my first year burning pellets so I figure I would have a pro come out at the end of the year to see if I am doing things right. I also think they grease the fans and do a complete tear down cleaning. I think they also check to make sure the draft is correct, something I cant do. More for peace of mind than anything.

 

[thundercracker]

makes sense to me.​

 

[thundercracker]

makes sense to me.​

if possible, record their work, at the minimum, you have a "how to guide" for yourself, at best, you share with the rest of us!

 

[fire451]

I've had my 52 I out a few times already. if you're handy at all it is fairly easy to make some sort of a rail system to pull it out all the way, unhooking the wires is simple, it's a matter of 5 flat wire connectors, 3 for the stove 2 for the thermostat. I pull mine out far enough so I can get behind it, the fans need to be opened up and using a soft paint brush and vacuum i vacuum the fins of the squirrel cages, mine were very dirty, removing the fan behind the fines box makes it easy to clean, also makes it easy to get at the fines box, I then remove the ESP and clean it, then with a homemade gasket on the end of my leaf blower, I put it in the exhaust pipe and turn it on, blows everything up and out. I then inspect the gasket that mates the stove to the exhaust. if all is well I slide it back in and fire it up.

 

[thundercracker]

I've had my 52 I out a few times already. if you're handy at all it is fairly easy to make some sort of a rail system to pull it out all the way, unhooking the wires is simple, it's a matter of 5 flat wire connectors, 3 for the stove 2 for the thermostat. I pull mine out far enough so I can get behind it, the fans need to be opened up and using a soft paint brush and vacuum i vacuum the fins of the squirrel cages, mine were very dirty, removing the fan behind the fines box makes it easy to clean, also makes it easy to get at the fines box, I then remove the ESP and clean it, then with a homemade gasket on the end of my leaf blower, I put it in the exhaust pipe and turn it on, blows everything up and out. I then inspect the gasket that mates the stove to the exhaust. if all is well I slide it back in and fire it up.

nice description thanks. how hard is it to remove the fan to get to the fines box? is it as simple as unscrewing-removing-then screwing back in again?

 

[fire451]

nice description thanks. how hard is it to remove the fan to get to the fines box? is it as simple as unscrewing-removing-then screwing back in again?

on the right side of the stove looking in the sheet metal housing there are two sheet metal screws that hold the fan, they are a little tricky to get out but not impossible. there are two hex nuts holding the fan housing to the stove, no need to unhook the wires. after you get it in your hand then you can remove the other two sheet metal screws which will remove the cowling. something else to be careful of, when installing the cover back on the fines box, take special care in making sure the slot fits firmly in place at the top of the cover.
I hope all this babble is helpful.

 

[thundercracker]

I hope all this babble is helpful. [/quote]


yes! tremendously helpful! thanks very much

 

[thundercracker]

Thanks to you all, the pullout went as smooth as could be. Glad I did it, if only to clear the fines box. Dirty little box. I thank goodness I had a couple of straws on hand to get the box cleaned.

 

[thro9]

Thanks to you all, the pullout went as smooth as could be. Glad I did it, if only to clear the fines box. Dirty little box. I thank goodness I had a couple of straws on hand to get the box cleaned.

I recently heard a grinding sound coming from the auger. I'm figuring the feeder chamber needs to be cleaned and I've attempted to follow the directions within this thread but I'm unable to locate the 2 sheet metal screws for the fan. I see the 3 hex screws but the fan on the inside of the unit is attached to this assembly and I'm hesitant to pull this out. I'm wondering if my setup is the same. My unit is the 52i insert and it was manufactured in December of 2014.

I'm working on getting someone out with a smaller wrist to see if they can access the wingnut so I can bypass all of this but I'd like to know my options if they can't access the wingnut.

Thanks to anyone that can help!

 

[dotman17]

- can i pull the stove out far enough to get to the pellet chamber without the need to disconnect any wires or the exhaust vent that goes up the chimney?

once it's out, what else other than vacuuming the pellet chamber do i need to clean (other than other vacuuming in the general back area)

thanks in advance.

You may not need to remove the wires to your circuit board depending on your installation. I had my stove professionally installed and I found the guy was smart enough to leave enough slack in the electrical lines that made it possible to pull the stove far enough out w/o disconnecting them.

Assuming you are able to pull your stove out (I bought the rail kit -- and while pricey -- it sure does make it simple and easy to do), the 2 biggest things you can do are to clean the pellet feeder and use a 3" diameter flue brush to clean your exhaust both from behind the heat exchanger, cast iron panels in the front and from the back -- once it is pulled out.

This is also a good time to clean your chimney flue but I would have to disconnect the connections to the circuit board to pull the stove out even further to get to it -- and I've decided this first year, I'm going to have someone come out and do it for me professionally.

 

[dotman17]

Also I assume you mean the fines box when you say "pellet chamber"? If your hand is any bigger than a 10 year old boys you will have to take the fan off that's directly in the way.

This is where my wife comes in.

 

[dotman17]

I recently heard a grinding sound coming from the auger. I'm figuring the feeder chamber needs to be cleaned and I've attempted to follow the directions within this thread but I'm unable to locate the 2 sheet metal screws for the fan. I see the 3 hex screws but the fan on the inside of the unit is attached to this assembly and I'm hesitant to pull this out. I'm wondering if my setup is the same. My unit is the 52i insert and it was manufactured in December of 2014.

I'm working on getting someone out with a smaller wrist to see if they can access the wingnut so I can bypass all of this but I'd like to know my options if they can't access the wingnut.

Thanks to anyone that can help!

I bought mine in early 2017 and purchased the rail kit for a couple of reasons that I'm not going to get into -- but the guy above is right -- it can be built fairly easily I think. But nevermind that. I have pulled it out and was grateful to clear out the exhaust much more effectively when I could access it from the other end. As far as cleaning the pellet chamber, you either have to be a hobbit, know somebody who knows a hobbit, have hobbit hands, know somebody who has hobbit hands, or you remove the combustion fan. And if you attempt to remove the fan, I was told from a former Harman technician that the easiest way to do this was to lift the stove out and set it on it's front and access it from the back. I'm thinking one probably would want to remove the front door before smashing it. I don't know. It all seems like a PITA if you ask me. For as brilliant as they designed this stove, access to the pellet feeder chamber is pathetic.

So, to do this, I will try the wife approach first. She's got way smaller hands than I do and we'll try and get her to remove the cover and then figure out some slick way to vacuum out the chamber. Since I don't own a vacuum with those small hoses, maybe that guy's trick of a straw would work but he didn't go into elaborate details about how he used that straw to clean it out. I suspect he just used it to scrape stuff out.

If I'm not happy with those results, or we are having problems getting the feed front plate back in, I'll resort to remove and cleaning the whole combustion fan. I see 3 screws on it and 2 of them are going to be the work of the devil to remove w/o turning the stove upside down.

Anybody else have some better ideas on how to do this? Please provide details on exactly what you did. If you removed the fan, please provide your best approach. If you worked around the fan (with hobbit fingers), please provide your approach removing, cleaning, and reassembling the cover. If you removed the stove and turned it upside down and then removed the fan, please tell us if you suffered a back injury.

Thanks.

 

[dotman17]

Here's the diagram. What's not shown is the pellet feeder chamber to the right of the combustion motor:

 

[dotman17]

So to recap, you need to pull the ash lip out. I noted earlier in another thread that if you have any of the screws in the red circles behind the side doors, you need to remove them. Pull the lip straight out. At this point you either build or buy a kit that you can slide the stove out on. It's kind of heavy so before I started, I made sure you burn down all the pellets in the hopper as that's like another 40+ lbs I didn't have to pull out. Also, I removed the medallion, cast iron panels, etc from the front of the stove as well. Basically all the stuff you remove when you clean it from the front and all that crap has to weigh 10 lbs at least.

Unhinge the latches on the sides of the stove and open the side doors wide open. Use jambs or whatever to keep them open. Now pull the stove out like six inches with care not to stress or damage the fragile electrical connections and wires on the stove's control panel. You need to do this so you can disconnect the power supply and other electrical connections that obstruct your ability to slide it entirely out. The panel that you need to unscrew is on the left side of the stove. It's the main control panel of the stove. There are 2 vertical screws toward the front door which you need to remove that hold the panel in place. Slide the cover to the left or towards the back of the stove. This will expose the main circuit board on the underside. I took a picture of it with my phone so I could reconnect all the wires later. I also disconnected the fewest wires possible -- only the ones that were too short and would yank the board if left them in. In my case, I removed exactly 3 connections. Your configuration may differ.

Once I was sure I did not damage any electrical connections and freed it of the containing ones, I continued to pull the stove out until it was fully out on my service kit rails and gave myself enough access room. I was then able to find the feeder panel and gain access through the back of the stove. It has a tight wing nut pinning the panel of the chamber. I had to entirely remove the nut. Now the easy part, or so i thought. I had to clean out the gunk in the chamber. Only problem is even with the panel off, the space is so tight and the entrance to the chamber is at a 90 degree angle from the back of the stove that it's hard to get to and clean. The tight space, as shown in a photos earlier in this thread, is very small and I had to get clever. I used the skinniest attachment on my shop-vac and then inserted 3 large straws into it. I then had to approach it at the few angles I could from the side of the stove -- and it worked!

 

[Ssyko]

A useful vac extension i made out of a 2 dollar kerosene siphon/pump from ace hardware. I cut the corigated hose off and wrapped electrical tape around one end till it fit snug inmy shopvac hose and it can get into all the nooks and crannies ive run into on 5 diff stoves
https://www.zoro.com/dayton-hand-dr...7TtkojqsMIWldVG82isFBumd-lzXQc0UaAmuCEALw_wcB

 

[dotman17]

A useful vac extension i made out of a 2 dollar kerosene siphon/pump from ace hardware. I cut the corigated hose off and wrapped electrical tape around one end till it fit snug inmy shopvac hose and it can get into all the nooks and crannies ive run into on 5 diff stoves
https://www.zoro.com/dayton-hand-dr...7TtkojqsMIWldVG82isFBumd-lzXQc0UaAmuCEALw_wcB

I just ordered a couple of those.

 

[Ssyko]

Best 2 bucks I’ve spent on stove maintenance