Enviro EF3 Cleaning Proceedure with Pics

[gutterboy2ca]

Hey Guys, decided to take pitty on the 9 year old stove today and give a good cleaning, noticed it was getting Dark Yellow Flame most of the time, so waited till it was 20 Below to tear it apart, lol.One thing i wanted to point out, never run across it myself in any threads is MAKE SURE, to take out the little tray directly below the Heat Exchanger and Remove the Fly Ash, my wife had been doing most of the 2 time/week cleaning and had missed this for couple months, My Bad, maybe i forgot to tell her it was removeable,heh.After 1 hour or more cleaning this stove this morn,completely disassembling it,and scouring it.This thing is really performing now,its just over 12 O,clock position and over 80 in here,minus 5 F outside and dropping to minus 30 F tonite.Glad i did it this Morn..

 

[gutterboy2ca]

Also forgot to add, i bought this stove Used from the dealer,was there floor model for 8 years.doubt it ever got a thurough cleaning before i bought it.8 years,said all its had was a convection Fan replaced,assume thats the Fresh air fan,looked newer and shiny..

 

[Revig]

It's a wonder why these units run like a champ with a little elbow grease! Good job!!

 

[Pellet1]

Those pics remind me of how my stove looked when I brought it home first. I did all of my cleaning while the stove was still on the truck. Even did a test burn while it was there. No question, that stove needed a good cleaning. I used the old leaf blower on the vent yesterday--another story.

 

[ShaneR34]

Good Stuff!

I gave my EF3 a pretty good cleaning last week. I didn't tear it all apart as it looked pretty good. Biggest pain was getting acces to the exchange tubes as I wanted to give the insides a good dusting.

I have mine running @ the 3 o'clock position right now with these temps, and kept it at the 2 o'clock overnight...we're heating 2100 square feet and it's doing fine.

I should get out and look at the vent soon, though. I saw quite a bit of smoke coming from there off and on this morning...didn't seem normal.

 

[gutterboy2ca]

Be interested to hear how that went for ya Ken..I was going to go to Canadian tire and try to buy one yesterday but decided to hold off till spring,although whern i had the Exhaust fan off,i stuck my fingers out the output tube,and could feel some soot in there,maybe 1/16th of an inch thich,hard to tell really.

 

[gutterboy2ca]

ShaneR34,i have yet to see smoke come from my flue yet,don,t even appear to be any when i first start it,weird,trying something diff with the Damper though,think i had been leaving it closed too much all winter.This time after the cleanout, i have left ot almost all the way out continuesly,i see no Heat output diff,and the Glass door looks as clean as it did yesterday morn when i cleaned it,not sure if its damper related, or all the Guck i pulled out of the stove, or both.. Minus 25 cels outside, Plus 28 inside, i'll take it...Burning 2 full Bags/24 hr though, setting is at 2 O,clock.

 

[ShaneR34]

I thought it was a little weird too. At first I thought it was just the extreme cold (just heat hitting cold etc). but, I took a look when I put the garbage out this morning and it's intermittent...almost like something is being burned off. Everything else looked ok. Anyway, I'm not sure...I'll keep an eye on it and give it a cleaning once this cold snap is done.

Strange you should mention the damper. I too have changed settings...I'm burning Eastern Embers and I noticed the burnpot was filling up a lot quiker than what it was. So, I now keep at 1/2 for 12:00 or lower and full open for anything over that. seems to burn fine with those settings (I don't have an OAK).

 

[gutterboy2ca]

ya, same here shane on the OAK, i have enough drafts in this 1947 story and a half, theres no shortage of air,lol. One thing i would like to buy though is a point and shoot digital temp guage, see them at canadiantire but there $100, don,t think i need one that bad, but while cleaning the stove i noticed the Exhaust motor was almost too hot to touch,makes me think there bit too much resistance running there,Brushes maybe.When i put it all back together and started it, 1 min later i had a squeal in that motor, thought it was blades possibly scraping slightly, loosened off the mounting screws, didn,t change it.Finally a shot of Multi lube on the motor shaft and it was quiet as could be, maybe i cleaned it so good with the shop vac i sucked the lube off it.. (that don,t sound good does it, lol) Oh well, runnin fine now, prob be lookin at a new Blower motor somewhere down the road.9 years and lord knows how many ton thru it, Guess its to be expected..Those Eastern Embers were the worst pellets i run thru my stove, with ( Cozy Comfy) being a close second.What part of NB? Can,t you find any EnergeX to try? or LG Granules? or Even Green Heat from Ace Hardware, there top 3 i tested for heat output/Cleanliness.

 

[ShaneR34]

Those strange sounds get to ya, eh? lol...I hear a strange rattling from the back everynow and then. Funny thing is, if I step on the floor in front of the stove, in a certain place, it stops. When I move again, it starts...lol. I meant to take a looke when I was cleaning last week, but forgot. I haven't heard it since, though...so maybe I accidently fixed it..heh.

I haven't had too many problems with the Eastern Embers, really. The Comfy Cozy brand were horrible though. I would like to try the Candian Tire brand...heard some good things about those (from you I think..lol). but, I have a pallet and a half of EEs left to burn, so I'm not really in the mood to throw even 6$ at a bag to test.

 

[ShaneR34]

Oh...I'm in Lower Coverdale.

 

[56 chevtruck]

geez gutter you didnt clean it in 8 years?pretty good luck with it if you only changed convection fan. good to know i bought mine ef3 in nov 2006 stove has been pretty good to us.(knock on wood ) yes that metal plate up top make sure it is in its slots fully as well when you put back in. mine fell out one time luckily i was home when it happened.cold spell starting here today . hide in rec room and turn up the ef 3 :coolsmile:

 

[ResOps]

Good pictorial GB.... And if you haven't been pulling the exchanger shield off weekly you woulda been loosing a ton of heat. I pull the cleaner daily and can tell when they're getting dirty. You'll be in heat heaven now.
good post!

p.s. you did put the insulation back in behind the mid-plate didn't you ?
:lol:

 

[gutterboy2ca]

LoL, yeaH ResOps, i did put it back in, this is the second time for removal of the fake Brick panel,as for your question 56 chevtruck, i just bought the stove in Oct 2nd this Fall, it was there in store Demo for past 8 years, they are sales/Installers, but i'm guessing it hadn,t been completely cleaned for a couple or 3 years, just my guess.They couldn,t get me a new Enviro EF3 as they were all sold out, but had just rtemoved this one i got and installed a Maxi in the store in place of it, so not being able to find a stove anywheres in Oct i dished out $1200 can for this one,and they gave me Full Warranty on it since it had not left the store,Old stove, New one was $2695.00 so i figured what the Heck, see if we even like a Pellet stove or not.Jury's still out on that Too, lol.Burnin more Bags then Predicted,and Price increase has put us even with Electric(which we haven,t turned on a Heater yet)But if ya wanna shut the bedroom door for some Ehhh" Privacy, you'll freeze ya Patooter off in matter of Mins,lucky for me 5 mins and i'm back downstairs anyways, lol....Yikes"'

 

[ShaneR34]

But if ya wanna shut the bedroom door for some Ehhh" Privacy, you'll freeze ya Patooter off in matter of Mins,lucky for me 5 mins and i'm back downstairs anyways, lol....Yikes"'

Hah! And my wife told me this wasn't normal...Thanks for the proof!! :lol: