Cleaning a St Croix Hastings

[colbyc]

Hello Everyone,

I am a new St Croix Hastings owner (installed last week) and am fairly new to this board. I posted some quick questions and got good answers back quick. I have been taking the time to read through all the information on this board to get as familiar as I can with my stove. I think the manual leaves a bit to be desired. One thing that I have picked up on by reading posts is that the manual does not tell you everyithing that needs to be done for cleaning your stove weekly/yearly. If its not too much trouble, can soneone maybe give me a list of things that I should do each week and that at the end of the year. I want to start off right by cleaning this stove properly in order to make it burn as efficiently as it can not to bring on any problems prematurely. Anyting would be helpful. Thank you for your time.

 

[OU812]

I am new to this game but it seems like there are many variables to that question such as the type of pellets you use and how often you run it. If you use a good brand of pellet and keep out the fines, the cleaning should be minimal.

 

[krooser]

I have a St. Croix Pepin... bought it used last October.

My dealer, Earth Sense Energy Systems, has sold 9,000 stoves since the early 90's so I follow their recommendations pretty closely.

First, they recommend you open the intake air damper the width of a pencil... that's it. It shouldn't need any adjustment after that... mine hasn't been touched for over a year. Now I clean my ash pan once per week... I use about one bag per day as a rule. Clean you stove weekly... make sure you use the scraper daily to keep the heat exchange tubes clean. Also make sure to use the scraper that's under the versa grate... if you have one.

Remove the versa grate every time you clean the stove. If it's hard to remove open the stove door and start the stove... the versa grate will move ahead on it's shaft and will allow you to remove it. Also clean the two trap doos above the ash pan.

At least once per heating season... and every spring... use my "leaf blower" cleaning trick shown in another one of my posts. there is a large area behind the stove that can easily be cleaned using this method. Otherwise, snake a coat hanger, Romex cable or other device into those two trap doors above the ash pan... this is vary important!

Also make sure your ash pan is always tightly fastened... a leak there will cause a lazy flame and poor performance.

 

[colbyc]

Thanks for the feedback. Couple of questions regarding your post. Where do those two trap doors go to? Also with the coat hanger, what exactly am I trying to clean, just buildup and should I do this weekly with the coat hanger? I have also seen other posts about people rigging small tubing to their shop vac. Do you know where they are tying to get to with that hose? Thanks.