I admit I haven’t been religious about cleaning my stove. I mentioned before except for daily pot, window and ash cleaning (sides of pot) in ten years only once has a “professional†crew come to do a deep clean (I’m not convinced they actually did a complete job).
All this time it has been burning merrily along without fuss or bother until, that is the last day of December. On that day I put in the first bag of Kentucky Kernels which seemed to burn hotter than the Cleanfire’s . However, the next bag was an entirely different matter. Early in the evening I noticed there was a pile of pellets at one end of the pot that weren’t burning just turning into charcoal while the other end was burning furiously. Way back when that had happened and when I opened the door to stir the pot everything seemed to go back to normal. Not this time. No matter how I stirred or moved the pellets around the same condition prevailed. Eventually I turned the stove off.
When I opened the door the next day to try to determine the cause of the odd burn pattern I stirred the unburned pellets around and found some chunky matted material of a dark tan color. Upon poking them with a screwdriver they easily fell apart. Odd that they didn’t burn but clumped together cutting off the combustion air.
It took me a while to figure what the problem was. I noticed there was an excessive amount of dust on the pellet chute and realized an awful lot of dust was being fed into the burn pot along with the pellets.
That being the case I decided to remove all the pellets I could get and do a through vacuuming of the front end including the hopper and combustion air opening.
Upon checking the rest of the pellets in that bag it was full of dust. The pellets looked normal, hard and shiny but still had considerable dust with each pan full I removed.
I have no idea if more bags are in the same condition so decided to make one of those dust separators. Went you know where (HD and L) to pick up the necessary parts, came home and made it up. By the time I was finished I was tired and sore so left the first test for the next day. I made some minor mistakes which will be rectified tomorrow (wrong size wire mesh and dowels too close together).
So today (Monday) I sifted one whole bag using a colander with very little dust, or fines for that matter, to show for it.
So I’ve learned a lesson. I will do a through cleaning of the hopper and front end once a month and a complete maintenance in the spring.
One thing I found today, after the cleaning and removal of all(?) the dust from the stove we have a hotter fire on a lower setting and are using fewer pellets.
Boy, am I glad I found this forum, it’s been a godsend for me. Didn’t realize how little I knew about pellet stoves their care and operation.
Thanks to all you pellet stove guru’s my stove is running much better (and I have a much better idea how to care for it).
All this time it has been burning merrily along without fuss or bother until, that is the last day of December. On that day I put in the first bag of Kentucky Kernels which seemed to burn hotter than the Cleanfire’s . However, the next bag was an entirely different matter. Early in the evening I noticed there was a pile of pellets at one end of the pot that weren’t burning just turning into charcoal while the other end was burning furiously. Way back when that had happened and when I opened the door to stir the pot everything seemed to go back to normal. Not this time. No matter how I stirred or moved the pellets around the same condition prevailed. Eventually I turned the stove off.
When I opened the door the next day to try to determine the cause of the odd burn pattern I stirred the unburned pellets around and found some chunky matted material of a dark tan color. Upon poking them with a screwdriver they easily fell apart. Odd that they didn’t burn but clumped together cutting off the combustion air.
It took me a while to figure what the problem was. I noticed there was an excessive amount of dust on the pellet chute and realized an awful lot of dust was being fed into the burn pot along with the pellets.
That being the case I decided to remove all the pellets I could get and do a through vacuuming of the front end including the hopper and combustion air opening.
Upon checking the rest of the pellets in that bag it was full of dust. The pellets looked normal, hard and shiny but still had considerable dust with each pan full I removed.
I have no idea if more bags are in the same condition so decided to make one of those dust separators. Went you know where (HD and L) to pick up the necessary parts, came home and made it up. By the time I was finished I was tired and sore so left the first test for the next day. I made some minor mistakes which will be rectified tomorrow (wrong size wire mesh and dowels too close together).
So today (Monday) I sifted one whole bag using a colander with very little dust, or fines for that matter, to show for it.
So I’ve learned a lesson. I will do a through cleaning of the hopper and front end once a month and a complete maintenance in the spring.
One thing I found today, after the cleaning and removal of all(?) the dust from the stove we have a hotter fire on a lower setting and are using fewer pellets.
Boy, am I glad I found this forum, it’s been a godsend for me. Didn’t realize how little I knew about pellet stoves their care and operation.
Thanks to all you pellet stove guru’s my stove is running much better (and I have a much better idea how to care for it).