Did a full cleaning of my Big E. First one.
This was after I burned 50 bags of crappy Maine Woods pellets and 10 bags of Lignetics.
I had been doing frequent burn chamber cleaning, etc, throughout the 60 bags, but no blower cleaning.
I took out the combustion blower and found some of the blower fins had some ash caked up on them but most were just covered with soot.
I was able to clean them completely so they look like new again, except for under the fan. That's still black with soot but I was able to scrape that area some and get some of it off. Problem there is my brush wouldn't fit under the fan blade.
I was surprised that there wasn't more ash since the Maine Woods pellets leave so much in the burn chamber.
I was also able to clean the convection fan blades completely.
Also did the full vac of the burn chamber, behind ash doors, etc.
Not as bad as I thought.
I'm very glad to be done with the single ton of the Maine Woods and back to my 90 bags left of Lignetics.
The LG's are are much less trouble maintenence wise, etc. Much less cleaning required.
I'll never buy those Maine Woods again.
The only thing I haven't done yet is to run a brush through my vent pipe from the top down to the clean out tee. I'll do that in the spring after the burn season.
Everyone I work with who have pellet stoves do that just once per year after several ( 5+ ) tons and they all say they find very little ash come out of the pipe. So I think I can get away with just cleaning the pipe once per year/after 3 tons.
Also found just a bit of dust in the clean out tee. I took that off too to check it.
Didn't find any creosote anywhere to speak of.
Thanks alot for all the help and advice.
FG.
This was after I burned 50 bags of crappy Maine Woods pellets and 10 bags of Lignetics.
I had been doing frequent burn chamber cleaning, etc, throughout the 60 bags, but no blower cleaning.
I took out the combustion blower and found some of the blower fins had some ash caked up on them but most were just covered with soot.
I was able to clean them completely so they look like new again, except for under the fan. That's still black with soot but I was able to scrape that area some and get some of it off. Problem there is my brush wouldn't fit under the fan blade.
I was surprised that there wasn't more ash since the Maine Woods pellets leave so much in the burn chamber.
I was also able to clean the convection fan blades completely.
Also did the full vac of the burn chamber, behind ash doors, etc.
Not as bad as I thought.
I'm very glad to be done with the single ton of the Maine Woods and back to my 90 bags left of Lignetics.
The LG's are are much less trouble maintenence wise, etc. Much less cleaning required.
I'll never buy those Maine Woods again.
The only thing I haven't done yet is to run a brush through my vent pipe from the top down to the clean out tee. I'll do that in the spring after the burn season.
Everyone I work with who have pellet stoves do that just once per year after several ( 5+ ) tons and they all say they find very little ash come out of the pipe. So I think I can get away with just cleaning the pipe once per year/after 3 tons.
Also found just a bit of dust in the clean out tee. I took that off too to check it.
Didn't find any creosote anywhere to speak of.
Thanks alot for all the help and advice.
FG.