Quadra fire 3100 - clean vents with compressed air?

[Nerd]

Ello Gentlemen!
Well it's that time of year. Just finished sweeping the chimney and brushing off any visible and reachable buildup inside the stove. One thing I've been wondering is how to clean out the vents and air ducts, since there's inevitably some ash building up inside of them and they're not really easy to get to. The guy at the stove store didn't really have any answers and seemed puzzled by the question.

I'm thinking about blowing compressed air into the little holes inside the stove and holding an ashvac outside the vent to suck up whatever gets blown out. I think canned compressed air would actually work well since they come with that little plastic straw nozzle you can slide into the air holes inside easily.

What have yinz done? I'm not having any issues yet, just being proactive. I've done this a couple times last year for a proof of principle. More air volume than what canned air offers would help. But it's better than nothing... I guess I could figure out a way to step down the air compressor output nozzle to something I could get into those little holes...maybe I'll try that this year.

Jeez those rear vents look clogged now that I see the pictures-hopefully thats just some ash that got pushed into the openeing while cleaning and it's not actually filled that much! It really can't be that full...

Anyway, hope everyone is well and can't wait for colder temps!

 

[begreen]

Normally, the secondary and airwash vents are under positive pressure and do not need cleaning. The exception might be the boost air ports at the back of the firebox. Their air supply is supposed to get cut off by the ACC timer after the fire starts. After that ash could get in there, but usually that is blown out during startup.

The ash in the OAK connection is curious. Has there been any serious puffbacks in the stove? Is there an outside air connection?

 

[Nerd]

Normally, the secondary and airwash vents are under positive pressure and do not need cleaning. The exception might be the boost air ports at the back of the firebox. Their air supply is supposed to get cut off by the ACC timer after the fire starts. After that ash could get in there, but usually that is blown out during startup.

The ash in the OAK connection is curious. Has there been any serious puffbacks in the stove? Is there an outside air connection?

You're right that most of the vents really shouldn't (and aren't) taking on ash. The ones in the back of the stove there are taking some ash on by virtue of being in the back so when some ash builds up and I go to shovel it out some always gets in there. It may be considered a design flaw but I'm not sure how it could be avoided. You want some air down low..but then it's at risk of getting some ash pushed into it.

Anyway, no outside air connection other than to the room. The stove is a champ too! Proud to say we haven't bought another tank of oil since the first tank when we moved in in 2020. Only thing that could have been better is if we could have bought a coal burning stove! My parents have an old Brunco we'll never get rid of!