US Stove 5660 / Ashley 5660 -- What the manual does not tell you !

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

CladMaster

Minister of Fire
Nov 20, 2012
677
Maine
OK, where do I start !

The manual lacks some info that you should know when it comes to cleaning out the ash or you have poor heat / poor burn. This may also apply to other stoves based on the same fire box design -- Vogelzang VG5xx0.

The stove has fake brick panels inside the fire box on the back walls, there are three of them, well these come out, be very careful with them, they are very fragile and can break, not only that, they cost $$ to replace.

These fake panels are held in place by two screws, one screw for each panel at the top left and right. Remove these screws and the small holding plate, then remove the fake brick panels (all 3) and place them out of the way so that they do not get broken, some place high up would be good.

Now you will see a metal panel on the left and right, these are held in place by one screw in each, these are cleanout panels and are not documented in the manual ! The center panel does come out, but it's not required to be removed to clean out the stove, so leave it in place, be very careful, this center panel holds it's heat, it can be very hot to the touch after the stove has shut down.

Once you have these panels removed, it allows you to get to the 'V' channel that leads to the exhaust blower, you can clean this area with a brush on a long flexible / stiff wire and then vacuum the ash / soot. You will also have to clean the ash / soot off the walls that are visible now that these panels have been removed, I used a paint brush for this.

Now, when you look up inside the stove you will see the heat tubes, there are 14 of them, these need to be kept clean to allow the stove to produce hot air that is released into the room that you are heating. A small brush is ideal for this. There is also two small shelves, one on the left and one on the right in the top corners of the stove, ash builds up here and needs to be removed, the scraper that's build into the stove to clean the heat tubes does not extend out to the far left or right to dislodge this ash when the knob is pulled / pushed, here you will need to vacuum this area to remove the ash buildup.

Once you have cleaned all these area's out, put the stove back together in the reverse order that you took it apart, be very careful with the fake brick panels.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gperky and Mealie38
Yay,

You found the right and left side ash traps, a lot of stoves have them.

Some stoves have a couple of layers of them, the old timers call those hidden passages excellent places for the ash to build into solid ash cakes. Most recommend a good brush job or firewall back thumping (not on cast however) followed by the LBT or a super shop vac attached to the vent. Some died in the wool folks like to try to blow that crud out with a 100 PSI or higher air stream.

As always become one with the air flow and all will be revealed.
 
I ended up watching a few videos on the 5660 while I was still installing it back in september that went thru a complete cleaning including what you just said. Us stoves youtube has alot of great videos
 
Status
Not open for further replies.