I had some time this past weekend . . . I mean I took a picture of my napping cat so you know I was a bit bored.
In any case, my air control lever was a bit sticky and the stove had gone down to small coals so it was relatively cool so I figured I might as well open up the doghouse and apply some graphite . . . a step I did at the start of the heating season back in September. I find that over time sometimes the fine ash works its way into the doghouse and so a cleaning and application of graphite can be useful.
Incidentally, anyone can do this . . . even a dumb firefighter . . . I mean, you really can't mess this up . . . and you'll be glad you did this if you have the sticking lever as that lever will slide slicker than ___ on ice when you're done.
Difficulty Scale: Easy Peasy . . . even Firefighterjake can do it
Tools: Graphite powder from any hardware store, 10 mm socket or 18/32 socket if you don't have a metric set (although by now you really should since the world is going metric!), gloves if the stove is still warm to hot, brush
Step 1: When the stove is cool to warm (do not attempt to do this while the stove is a raging inferno with full blown secondaries firing off) open the door and clean out around the doghouse. I use my trusty brush . . . the one my wife lets me use . . . she gets to use the good brush . . . but then again that's probably because she figures this is an old brush and if I burn it up, it's no great loss.
Step 2: Using your 10 mm socket or 18/32 socket un-bolt the two bolts holding the doghouse to the stove frame. As you no doubt remember, lefty loosy, righty tighty . . . and i before e . . . and never cross the road without looking both ways. If the stove is still warm (as it was this day) I would strongly suggest using gloves . . when you pull out the bolts unless of course you want to add in Step 2B which involves a brief visit to the Emergency Room or Optional Step 2B1 which involves you running your blistered fingers under cool water and then looking for a bandaid and some aloe.
As you can see there isn't a lot to this . . . two bolts, two washers and the doghouse.
Step 3: At this point you will want to clean out the ash . . . in this case I used my brush and gently brushed out the ash. I also gently blew some away. I suppose you could also use a vaccuum to suck up some of the ash . . . but I would be very, very leary of doing this if I didn't have an ash vac.
Here you can see some of the ash that has built up.
And just in case you were wondering what you were doing when you opened and closed the air control lever . . . here's a look inside. First shot shows the air control "closed" all the way, second shot shows the air control open halfway and the final shot in this sequence shows the air control open. Incidentally, I took these shots since I was sliding the air control back and forth to dislodge some of the ash caught underneath the sliding mechanism.
In any case, my air control lever was a bit sticky and the stove had gone down to small coals so it was relatively cool so I figured I might as well open up the doghouse and apply some graphite . . . a step I did at the start of the heating season back in September. I find that over time sometimes the fine ash works its way into the doghouse and so a cleaning and application of graphite can be useful.
Incidentally, anyone can do this . . . even a dumb firefighter . . . I mean, you really can't mess this up . . . and you'll be glad you did this if you have the sticking lever as that lever will slide slicker than ___ on ice when you're done.
Difficulty Scale: Easy Peasy . . . even Firefighterjake can do it
Tools: Graphite powder from any hardware store, 10 mm socket or 18/32 socket if you don't have a metric set (although by now you really should since the world is going metric!), gloves if the stove is still warm to hot, brush
Step 1: When the stove is cool to warm (do not attempt to do this while the stove is a raging inferno with full blown secondaries firing off) open the door and clean out around the doghouse. I use my trusty brush . . . the one my wife lets me use . . . she gets to use the good brush . . . but then again that's probably because she figures this is an old brush and if I burn it up, it's no great loss.
Step 2: Using your 10 mm socket or 18/32 socket un-bolt the two bolts holding the doghouse to the stove frame. As you no doubt remember, lefty loosy, righty tighty . . . and i before e . . . and never cross the road without looking both ways. If the stove is still warm (as it was this day) I would strongly suggest using gloves . . when you pull out the bolts unless of course you want to add in Step 2B which involves a brief visit to the Emergency Room or Optional Step 2B1 which involves you running your blistered fingers under cool water and then looking for a bandaid and some aloe.
As you can see there isn't a lot to this . . . two bolts, two washers and the doghouse.
Step 3: At this point you will want to clean out the ash . . . in this case I used my brush and gently brushed out the ash. I also gently blew some away. I suppose you could also use a vaccuum to suck up some of the ash . . . but I would be very, very leary of doing this if I didn't have an ash vac.
Here you can see some of the ash that has built up.
And just in case you were wondering what you were doing when you opened and closed the air control lever . . . here's a look inside. First shot shows the air control "closed" all the way, second shot shows the air control open halfway and the final shot in this sequence shows the air control open. Incidentally, I took these shots since I was sliding the air control back and forth to dislodge some of the ash caught underneath the sliding mechanism.
