Question yearly cleaning

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telegirl

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Hearth Supporter
Sep 28, 2010
9
mass
Hi Everyone,

Every year in the fall we have our pellet stove cleaned by a stove cleaner. This year we are having a hard time getting it scheduled.

I keep the stove very clean throughout the year. It is a st croix prescott. I clean and vacuum the obvious places, vacuum out the two dropouts against the back wall and keep the tray under the heat tubes clean. Once or twice during the season I clean out the pipe going outside. It is a very short run of direct pipe. I have always wondered if the professional cleaning was worth it. With the difficulties getting the person to do it this year, I am wondering if I really need to have that done or if what I am doing is sufficient. Are there any other must do tasks that I am missing? Thanks,
 
The guy that does my professional clean doesn't seem to do much more than what I would do for my Harman P69. Vacuum all the obvious spots, the fines box, clean the ignitor, esp probe, etc.

The only reason I do it is for insurance purposes. They made me do it when I bought the house. When I asked if it was a yearly requirement, they danced around the answer, but highly suggested it. If I would ever have a claim due to the stove, I wouldn't want a denied claim because I didn't have it professionally cleaned.
 
Not familliar with your stove, but are there any fans that you can remove and clean, and the area around them? Just a thought....

I had mine professionally cleaned the first year I owned the stove by my dealer, and he showed me how to professionally clean it. I do it myself now.
 
Sounds like what you do is more than adequate to keep it clean. This is the 6th season with pellets for us. I watched it being cleaned for the first two years, and in all honesty, wasn't much more than I did, if anything. Now, I do it myself. Three plus years, I have had no problem. I don't see an insurance company having jurisdiction on your stove cleaning.

Tom
 
We pull our fans and clean under them and clean the blades, and oil them. New gaskets

This year we brought ours outside and used the air compressor on it. holy cow - it got tons of stuff we couldn't get with the vaccuum and we can really tell the difference in how it is working.

also if you have the versa grate, put some anti sieze on the motor rods.
 
telegirl said:
Hi Everyone,

Every year in the fall we have our pellet stove cleaned by a stove cleaner. This year we are having a hard time getting it scheduled.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert on cleanings, but this is why I've always had my cleanings done at the end of the season (around mid-May). Once you get into this time of the year, everyone is out straight with endless installations, and simply don't make cleanings a priority.
 
Got 2 Golden Retrievers & a fella comes every year & pulls the stove out of the wall & really does a great job. I do the general cleaning(vacuum) every day. But my clean up guy gets a lot of dog hair out & price is right for piece of mind also.
 
bbfarm said:
We pull our fans and clean under them and clean the blades, and oil them. New gaskets

This year we brought ours outside and used the air compressor on it. holy cow - it got tons of stuff we couldn't get with the vaccuum and we can really tell the difference in how it is working.

also if you have the versa grate, put some anti sieze on the motor rods.
Click to expand...


I use the air compressor on my stove for the yearly cleaning. You'd be amazed at how much ash comes out no matter how clean you think your stove is.
 
CygnusX1 said:
I use the air compressor on my stove for the yearly cleaning. You'd be amazed at how much ash comes out no matter how clean you think your stove is.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I thought of that, as I have a compressor, but I wasn't so sure such high pressure air would be a good thing for the stove. Also, how do you manage to keep ash from not blowing all over your house with an air compressor?
 
The exposed exchanger of the p series Harman don't leave much of anywhere for ash to hide. Tube style exchangers seem to hide copious amounts of ash. Hidden panels behind fire chambers tend to fill up as well. LBT helps a lot.
 
Enigma869 said:
Interesting. I thought of that, as I have a compressor, but I wasn't so sure such high pressure air would be a good thing for the stove. Also, how do you manage to keep ash from not blowing all over your house with an air compressor?
Click to expand...


I strip the stove down first, pulling all the fans and motors, so there's not much chance for damage.
The stove gets hauled out to the driveway for air compressor cleaning. My wife would kill me if I ever tried a stunt like that inside the house.

Most of the ash comes from the exchange tubes. There's really no other efficient way of cleaning them on my stove except for using the air compressor.
 
CygnusX1 said:
I strip the stove down first, pulling all the fans and motors, so there's not much chance for damage.
The stove gets hauled out to the driveway for air compressor cleaning. My wife would kill me if I ever tried a stunt like that inside the house.

Most of the ash comes from the exchange tubes. There's really no other efficient way of cleaning them on my stove except for using the air compressor.
Click to expand...

Got it. That makes far more sense. All of our wives would kill us if we tried that stunt in the house. Luckily, based on Bioburner's feedback, it doesn't sound like this would provide much benefit on my P68.
 
I use compressed air on mine 2x a year.

But, if you can't move your stove.

Search the Pellet Mill for "Leaf Blower Trick" for a good stove cleaning method

---Nailer---
 
You need to do a THOROUGH cleaning of your stove and vent pipe after every season of use… remove and clean the combustion and room fans, clean the vent, clean out behind the fire box wall through the clean-outs, etc. Then use a leaf blower to finish the job. You should also use the "leaf blower trick" after every ton of pellets burned.

A clean stove is a happy stove.

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