St. Croix Probs

[LFD1212]

would love to get some help for this problem I am having.. I have a St Croix Prescott that was installed about 7 years ago .. has run perfectly for those years.. until about November of this year. I had a company come out and clean the chimney and the stove.. since then the stove has been running poorly.. running dirty. and giving me an intermittent flashing #2 LED on the control panel I have had the people back who have worked on it twice now and still having the same issues.. I had email St Croix and in talking with a rep there and he came back with that the combustion fan was not working to capacity and it should be replaced.. I have now done this and still having issues... the stove is vented out through and existing external chimney that was lined at the time the stove was installed with a stainless steel liner and also was capped at the time of the cleaning as well due to the fact that a birds nest was found in the chimney when it was cleaned.. not sure where to go now actually thinking about having the chimney removed and just using a direct vent out to try to alleviate the problem.. any help would be greatly appreciated

also not sure it makes a difference but I presently am burning Cubex pellets

 

[subsailor]

Has this only happened while you were burning Cubex? If so, try another pellet and see what happens. It can make a difference.

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

how are the door gaskets? do they pass the dollarbill test? also was the stove cleaned real good?

 

[rickwai]

it is probably still plugged up inside the stove. Use a small long flex handle wire brush or fridge coil brush from lowes and go up thru the ash traps. They do build up in there then the best thing you could do for this stove is the leaf blower trick. leave door open and open ash traps, it is amazing! I was sceptical of the leaf blower trick until I did it, I am a believer!!

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

it is probably still plugged up inside the stove. Use a small long flex handle wire brush or fridge coil brush from lowes and go up thru the ash traps. They do build up in there then the best thing you could do for this stove is the leaf blower trick. leave door open and open ash traps, it is amazing! I was sceptical of the leaf blower trick until I did it, I am a believer!!

X2

 

[woodsman23]

Tap on the stoves backwall to release trapped ash.

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

when I clean my Lancaster I take the firebrick panels out remove the ash pan covers, then run a dryer lint brush up there so I can see it coming out the top. I also remove two small metal plugs from back wall and run a drain snake hooked to a drill and get up there as far as I can with the drill going. I also remove the combustion blower and clean the impellars on that and vacuum in side as far as I can get. I also tap, not beat, on the back wall of the stove then vacuum as much as I can. Since I don't have a leafblower yet I hook up my shop vac to the exhaust outside and turn on the vac in suction mode. While it is sucking I go inside and tap on the back wall. THis seems to help the stove a lot.

 

[magsf11]

i have the same stove and is old as yours. like everyone else said about cleaning it i do as well when cleaning the ash traps i use a old bike brake cable to scrap out the ash. found out that can get into places the brush cant.

 

[KodiakII]

You have a dirty stove. Bang on the back wall with a rubber mallet and or take a length of outside casing for a bicycle brake cable and hook up to a cordless drill and clean up through your traps. Leaf blower trick also does wonders, but mind your vac. switch

 

[LFD1212]

Thanks for all the input.. I clean the stove religiously and have snaked up both sides with a dryer vent brush have also vac'd out the air inlet tube as well just to be sure.. this is my second year burning Cubex and all the problems started when I had the stove serviced and the chimney swept in November. prior to this the stove has run wonderfully so while I understand what you all are saying I am having a hard time saying its just a dirty stove all of a sudden that way.. any other ideas? .

 

[KodiakII]

Are you running an oak? If so maybe check for obstructions in it, ie mouse nest etc. If not maybe you have leaky gaskets, or your draft control got moved when they serviced it. Have you tried adjusting it at all? Also give your chimney a visual inspection.

 

[rickwai]

Seems weird that tove worked go until you had it serviced. Maybe when cleaning the pipe they shoved all the ash into thefan cavity? When brushing my pipe out I start combusion fan then brush pipe. I run brush in carefully until I hear bristles ringing on fan bade. Fan blows ash out as it is loosened , works great

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

if this was me, I'm a little crazy, I would be taking the stove outside with no exhaust hooked up and try burning it there. if it burns good then you have a block in your exhaust system. but it still sounds like a blockage somewhere and if you say the stove is clean, that would lead me to believe its in the chiminey somewhere. if it ran good good before the service you had done then it has something to do with the service.

 

[krooser]

you have a dirty stove....

 

[Xena]

Same stove here. I clean my own stove and stack. I'm gonna agree with the others in thinking you have a blockage somewhere. Tapping on the back wall of the firebox will dislodge a lot more crud than running stuff up through the ash traps. Also I find a lot of ash jams up in the one foot horizontal piece from stove to cleanout T.

 

[LFD1212]

just thought I would post a follow up as this issue has been resolved now for Me.. first a huge shout out to John from Hearthworks.. and to St Croix stoves themselves... huge thumbs up for customer services. I did not have a dirty stove.. but I did have a blockage.. When John hooked up the vacuum gauge to the stove.. nothing.. horrible air flow.. he ran his drill with a length of bicycle brake cable into the 2 lil holes on either side of the burn pot on the back walk and blasted out a build up there. then bang.. huge vacuum.. stove has been running awesome since this but now I know. thanks for all the help

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

just thought I would post a follow up as this issue has been resolved now for Me.. first a huge shout out to John from Hearthworks.. and to St Croix stoves themselves... huge thumbs up for customer services. I did not have a dirty stove.. but I did have a blockage.. When John hooked up the vacuum gauge to the stove.. nothing.. horrible air flow.. he ran his drill with a length of bicycle brake cable into the 2 lil holes on either side of the burn pot on the back walk and blasted out a build up there. then bang.. huge vacuum.. stove has been running awesome since this but now I know. thanks for all the help

That is a dirty stove by any name.

 

[imacman]

......I did not have a dirty stove.. but I did have a blockage........ blasted out a build up there........

As Smokey said above, you had a DIRTY stove. What do you think a "blockage" in the stove means???

The company that did your "cleaning" obviously didn't do a very good job.

 

[The Other One]

I had my stove "cleaned" one time when I first bought my house. They did not know how to properly clean a St. Croix. These need some special attention.

 

[LFD1212]

thanks for all the opinions.. I posted that to try to give some others who might be having an issue some direction to look
and for the record.. "blockage" and "dirty" ARE two different things but i am just saying.. for those with the positive help.. I thank you ..

 

[Xena]

Yup what ^ they said.^. Tapping the back wall above and around the ash traps at each cleaning interval has kept mine clear for the past eight years. Never needed to run anything up the ash traps but yeah a blockage means the stove hasn't been cleaned properly meaning crud stuck = dirty. We all learn at one time or another.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

thanks for all the opinions.. I posted that to try to give some others who might be having an issue some direction to look
and for the record.. "blockage" and "dirty" ARE two different things but i am just saying.. for those with the positive help.. I thank you ..

For the record blocakage and dirty are the same thing that blockage was ash not a nice clean empty combustion air path.

Some of the newer St. Croix stoves even have a third clean out so you have a better chance at removing all of the ash.

St. Croix also at one time had their service folks cut a third cleanout port on their stoves.

Even then there is also entrring the exhaust path from the combustion blower cavity or using a very strong vacuum or leaf blower and thumping the back wall of the firebox to dislodge all of the ash.