What a difference a deep cleaning makes

[nailed_nailer]

I just spent the last 3 hours deep cleaning my EF-2.

So far this year I have burned about 3/4 of a ton of New England's and a couple of oddball bags of other pellets.

Last weekend when the thermometer was dipping into the mid-20's here I had a hell of a time keeping my house warm. I had the stove cranked and it was all it could do to keep the house at 68. Last year I ran it at about the 3/4 feed rate and it heated the whole house no problem. I give it a regular cleaning about every 3-4 days so I knew I was due for a deep clean. Also My heat exchanger tube scraper had become disconnected from the pull rod and it needed to be repaired.

I pulled the fake firebrick liner and the 3 steel firebox liners. Noticed a lot of rust back there. I spent about an hour with a wire brush and the vacuum getting all the loose rust and accumulated ash out of the ash chambers. While there I also really cleaned the exhaust passages going out to the damper. The corners were caked with ash. I also really cleaned up above and around the heat exchanger tubes.

I then moved to the left side and pulled the combustion blower and vacuum tube. I cleaned the blower impeller with carburetor cleaner, a wire brush and compressed air. I spent some time straightening the blades as they were a little wobbly. I sprayed the electric side of the motor with electric contact cleaner. I let that sit then blew it out with the air. I then scraped and brushed the entire exhaust passage to and from the blower. I have noticed my damper has been a little sticky lately so I gave it a shot of powdered graphite. It now slides smooth. I blew out the vacuum tube and nipple just for good measure. I re-assembled the exhaust side and closed it up.

I then moved to the right side. I pulled the convection blower and gave the air passages a brushing. I took the blower down and blew it out with compressed air. I used some more of the contact cleaner on the electric side and also used it on the squirrel cage to free up the accumulated dust. I again blew it all clean with air. I oiled the ports on the motor with 3 in 1. I gave the inside of the stove a quick vacuum and re-assembled the convection side. I then closed it up.

I now moved to the rear of the stove. I have been having an issue getting my clean out "t" cap off. So I used an oil filter wrench to get it off and then cleaned out the vent stack with a 3" stack brush. I do this with the vacuum stuck in there with the brush to suck up any crap. Once clean I applied a health layer of hi-temp (2000 deg F) anti-seize to the threads of the clean out cap. Hopefully this will help next time. I re-assembled the venting.

I finished up scraping the burn pot liner, emptying the ash pan and giving the fire chamber a good vacuum. I also added a 1/4-20 nut and lockwasher to the back of the heat exchanger cleaning scraper. Now it works again like it used to .

I threw in a handfull of fresh pellets, hit them with the torch and away I go.

The convection blower is putting out about 1.5x the air it was before and the house rapidly heated to 74 degs. Temps are supposed to dip back into the 20's tomorrow so I will see how much difference I made.

Now with the heat taken care of....it time to start Christmas shopping...............

---Nailer---

 

[imacman]

Nailed, great write-up of the CORRECT way to clean a pellet stove, based on what you wrote. Only thing that might have made it even better would be the "leaf blower"( if your set-up allows it), and run a Lint Eater up and down the exhaust pipe w/ vacuum adapter.

But regardless, what you did is what everybody should be doing, and what many of us have been "preaching", especially to "newbies"......many of them think vacuuming the firebox, scraping the burnpot, and emptying the ash pan is "clean".

Read Kroosers signature......no words were more true, except I think the figure should be closer to 90%.

Keep us informed how the stove performs during the "cold".

Good job!

 

[jtakeman]

....it time to start Christmas shopping...............

---Nailer---

Nice write up nailer. I also want to Thank you for the xmas shopping reminder. Only 9 days left!

Great job.
jay

 

[Bigjim13]

I guess technically I'm still a newbie but I am super anal about cleaning my stove. I do a cleaning about once a week and a deep cleaning about once a month. I am still learning about all the nooks and crannies that I need to clean but I am getting there.

 

[krooser]

Great job...too bad the stove dealers don't tell prospective customers about this... maybe they don't want to scare people off but I'd bet they get more $$$ in their pockets doing stove cleanings the right way AND sell more stoves to boot.

 

[imacman]

...too bad the stove dealers don't tell prospective customers about this... I'd bet they get more $$$ in their pockets doing stove cleanings the right way AND sell more stoves to boot.

Bingo!

 

[HakunaMatata]

I really want to do this but im stuck. I cant get the 4 screws on the 2 steel firebox liners on the sides they are stuck. I could get the center ones out as they snapped but the center wont come out untill the sides do and it is such a bad angle to get a drill in their I can barely get the screwdriver in. I used PB blaster and tried hacksawing a line in the screws and then using a flathead screw driver and they thigns still wont budge are break. Any ideas? I wonder if someone knows a trick to this. I have a EF2 from 1993 that is. Runs great but is soo old would love to give it a good cleaning.

 

[nailed_nailer]

Hakuna,

I didn't have any problem getting my old screws out. I am surprised PB blaster didn't work I use a lot. I find using a short ratchet handle will let me get good access to the screws. If not you could resort to removing the screw heads.

In the old days we would have used a sharp cold chisel with hammer to break the heads off the stubborn screws.

Now a days you could use a cut off wheel in a dremel. They work great. Just don't let the dremel motor get too hot (they melt)

Once the screw heads are off you should be able to pull the fake brick liner out. Then the 3 plates. The screws will be in the plates and with the plates out you will be better able to work on them at a bench.

Your stove will love you for it.

The only hard thing that I have found is tipping the fake brick liner out the door. The trick is to kind of compress the top of the sides into the middle a bit and slide it.

Have your vacuum ready there is gonna be some dust

Good Luck,
---Nailer---