I've searched the forum a bit but wanted to see if there was an easier way to just find all of the basics of cleaning/maintenance. I have always been nervous about fire and we just bought a house with a pellet stove (Vista Flame 100). Everyone said it was so great to have a pellet stove and it seems like once we get the hang of the maintenance it will be but for now as first time home owners it's intimidating. At first it wouldn't turn on so we had a maintenance guy come, he did a full cleaning and fixed the igniter. It worked well for a few days but then wouldn't turn on again. He came back and said the burnpot had an excessive amount of buildup so the air couldn't get through, he cleaned it out and it worked again. We were given a Rigid wet dry vac, and from this forum it looks like we should use a drywall dust bag and a HEPA filter. How often should we be vacuuming out the whole stove? Weekly? He said we could just empty the burnpot debris back into the stove. When we empty the ash pan, should we just vacuum or dump out somewhere else? The manual is making me worried about the fire hazard of disposing ash. We will likely be burning the stove about 12 hours per day during the winter. If there is a thread with maintenance tips please direct me to that or any advice you have. I have watched a lot of youtube videos too and I see them vacuuming but I am not sure how often that should be. Thank you!