mkpanache said:The Other One said:I am glad it is running. You have to really clean those heat exchange tubes often. Whenever I notice ash build up on the baffle below them, I remove the baffle and really clean them well with a bottle brush and a paint brush. If you do order a new motor, hold onto the old one. Its nice to have a semi-working spare. I am not sure if mine spins so freely or acts like yours. The motor could be the issue for not being able to get enough flame. It could also be not enough power coming from the control board (so the control board could be an issue). You may want to see how things run for a few days before ordering a new motor. All of the St. Croix parts are supposed to be sealed and not require oiling, but I have also never seen St. Croix suggest actually opening the combustion fan and cleaning it in any manual. (I don't get that).
By the way, I just saw that the service manuals are now posted on the St. Croix site. (190 page one instead of 62).
We have always had to remove the combustion fan to get to one of the ash traps. That was the only way we could clear it. I don't know if Mark has even cleaned the fan; I would have to ask him. We had the PDF on our old computer, and when we bought our new computer, we went to the link for the manual, and St. Croix was linking everything to installation manuals and nothing else. I am going to check out the service manuals. What I would love to see is a cross section of the stove of the left ash trap from the combustion blower to the front of the stove. We have seen the tunnel going toward the right, but I would love to see the section on the left. Maybe if we could visualize it, we could better clean it. It seems each time we cleaned, we were also moving ash, and not just cleaning.
The just moving ash can be a problem, somewhere on here is a diagram of the air flow through a St. Croix stove and it points out the area that gives the most trouble. Once you get this area clean you can keep it clean with a very strong shop vacuum by using it instead of a leaf blower, a leaf blower will usually just suck what ever is in there out if you leave it running long enough and go poking in all of the clean out ports and thump on the walls.
Most of us will say to do a normal clean out before using the blower. Some stoves have a very simple air path and the blower alone will clean most of the ash in the system out (provided it isn't in big sticky clumps).
When I use it on my stove my ash traps are empty afterwards. Since I can see up into the heat exchanger area I always hit that with the scrapper, a vacuum nozzle, and a putty knife. I can go quite awhile before I feel I need to remove my ash trap covers and attack things from that side. If you watch the burn you can tell when it is getting to the time to clean a bit more.