cleaning a pellet stove

[smirnov3]

Just a quick newbie question - for scraping the firepot of a pellet stove, the best thing to use is a steel wire brush? Or is that too rough?

 

[Retired_Ted]

A steel scraper, similar to a thick putty knife, came with my Harmon insert. I don't see why a wire brush wouldn't work just as well. Might send more debris into your room, however. Noob here too, btw.

 

[HarryBack]

ok, the scraper that came with the stove is OK, but heres something better. Get yourself a mechanics' prybar. Its around 18" long with a handle on one end, and somewhat of a chisel-tapered point on the other. You can scrape the burnpot down, like Im sure you all do religiously, once a week, while the fire burns. Takes about 30 seconds, and your hands are nowhere near the fire. As for a brush, I dont think it would dislodge the carbon well that accumulates there...at least in the Harmans.

 

[begreen]

The scraper that came with the Quad was like a stiff putty knife with maybe an 1 1/4" wide blade. When I sold the stove it was still in the package, never needed it. The spring-loaded burnpot cleaner built into the stove worked pretty well. Any clinkers left in the burnpot were easy to remove by hand. I did this every other week.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

The scraper that came with the Quad was like a stiff putty knife with maybe an 1 1/4" wide blade. When I sold the stove it was still in the package, never needed it. The spring-loaded burnpot cleaner built into the stove worked pretty well. Any clinkers left in the burnpot were easy to remove by hand. I did this every other week.

then you wernt burning corn! ;-)

Scrapers work best, the quad drop system works real well if your using clean fuel. That mechanic pry bar sounds like a good idea, but this inst brain surgery, use what you got to get the carbon off the sides, i think a scraper of some sort would be better then a brush.

 

[begreen]

Nope, no rat feed in my stove. Just NW sawdust.

 

[GVA]

Is it a bottom feeder?

Yeah the pry bar is a good call, or even a big screwdriver, I made a tool for my stove out of 1/2 inch keystock bent and angled to match the stoves scraper..... with the tip almost like a chisel tip but not sharp. The burn pot is the only place you would use this though it's pretty rugged use the scraper to clean everything else. Bottom feeders need to have the burn pot scraped better to allow the new pellets to be pushed up into the fire.......
Just a side note....... some pellets even premium vary from year to year and can result in a higher carbon buildup than you are use to..

 

[drizler]

mine came with a metal scraoer which isn't made to be gentle. Like a putty knife on a pole. I would think with a brush you are going to get it all over you . Ijust get in there and give it a quick scrape then if I am in the mood suck it up with the vacum cleaner wand. Rat food. Don't knock it till you tried it. I just left half a ton in bags sitting on the basement floor with the door open to the hay field all summer and not one hole. Besides it gives off more heat at half the price. Hard to beat that.

 

[begreen]

Here it's just the opposite. Pellets are inexpensive and predictable in cost. Corn costs more than wood pellets and if I left it out in the garage, it'd be half gone by now and every vermin this side of the rockies would have moved in to enjoy the feast.

If I was in the midwest, I expect I'd be buring maize. When it's cheap and available, go for it.