How To Clean Pellet Stove Exhaust Pipe

pellet stove maintenance tips

Why Clean Your Pellet Stove | How Oftentimes Should You Clean Your Pellet Stove? | Pellet Stove Cleaning Tools and Supplies | How to Clean Your Pellet Stove

You enjoy the efficient oestrus of your pellet stove during the cold months, but if you lot're new to owning a stove or want to maintain information technology as best as yous can, you lot'll wonder how to clean information technology. While stoves and cleaning needs differ from household to household, some pellet stove maintenance tips will help go along your home warm and proceed y'all condom. Consult the guide beneath for some pellet stove care tips and other useful data for pellet stove owners.

Why Clean Your Pellet Stove

Once nosotros become into how to clean your pellet stove, it might seem excessive, so let'due south get-go with why you should clean your pellet stove. Some proper intendance will relieve you time and money in the long run. Overall, cleaning your stove:

Keeps your stove working:If ashes and pellets build upwardly in your stove, it won't work as well over time. Y'all chance damaging your heating equipment all because you lot didn't do a chip of pellet stove maintenance. Y'all can lose temperature control, airflow and the power to light your stove. Y'all don't want to become to lite your stove on a common cold day but to find it's not working, so continue information technology clean.
Creates a safer pellet stove: That buildup of ash can become dangerous if you don't behave some maintenance. Creosote, a chemical that results when you burn forest or other fuel, tin build up as you use your stove. It's dangerous to exhale in and also presents a burn chance, so cleaning it is a must.
Helps your stove concluding longer:Like many appliances in your home, a pellet stove is an investment. You want to get as much use out of that investment every bit possible, and proper maintenance can help that happen. As you lot make clean your stove, you'll remove any rust or buildup that could cause components to interruption or finish working. You'll besides notice if any parts need to be repaired or replaced to keep the entire system functioning.

how often should you clean your pellet stove

How Often Should Y'all Clean Your Pellet Stove?

On boilerplate, a deep make clean once a week could be useful. Notwithstanding, every pellet stove is different, and information technology's hard to say a specific time frame of how often you should clean your pellet stove. Check your stove'southward manual to see if at that place are any cleaning recommendations. If your transmission doesn't specify or if yous feel similar you use your stove ofttimes, make clean in one case a week. You may also clean the different components of your stove at different rates depending on your utilise and preference, such as:

The glass: Depending on the blazon of pellets you burn and how often yous use your stove, you lot tin make clean the glass every day to every few days. Keeping the glass clear improves the appearance of your stove and helps you monitor what'southward going on inside.
The burn pot:Scraping out your burn pot once a twenty-four hour period can help reduce buildup and make it easier to deep clean later. If your pellets don't produce a lot of ash, you may but have to scrape out the burn pot every 2 or three days.
The ash pan:How often you lot empty the ash pan depends on how large it is and how oft you lot burn. Some sizes are better to dump out once a week, while larger ones tin can go almost a month, though you should empty it while you're deep cleaning your stove.
The vent pipes:Again, dissimilar factors impact how often to clean this component. In full general, you don't want to have buildup thicker than a quarter of an inch in your stove'due south vent pipe, so check information technology regularly until you know roughly how long it takes to reach that point.

You'll also desire to take note of the creosote buildup in your stove and clean it earlier it reaches a certain stage. At its first stage, creosote is dry and flaky but piece of cake to clean. Second stage creosote is brittle and a chip harder to make clean, while third phase is sticky and tar-like and requires professional cleaning. Take care of things yourself before they progress, and you'll avoid the expense of a professional pellet stove cleaner.

Pellet Stove Cleaning Tools and Supplies

Your setup may require different wood pellet stove cleaning tools, and so you'll learn what works best for you subsequently a few maintenance sessions. If you aren't certain what you need to clean a pellet stove, starting time with these supplies:

Old sheets, blankets or other items
A 5-gallon bucket
Garbage bags
A screwdriver
A flashlight
Flexible vent pipe brushes
Other cleaning brushes
Rope
High-temperature sealant
A ladder
Protective gloves and a face mask
Pellet stove glass cleaner

Y'all may not need some of these supplies, simply it depends on your stove. For instance, if the vent pipe of your stove exits through your roof, you'll need a ladder to access information technology. If it's exterior on a lower point of an exterior wall, you won't need a ladder to maintain your pellet stove. Exist sure to check the manual that came with your stove to meet any other recommendations for products to use or avoid when cleaning.

How to Clean Your Pellet Stove

Now that you know why it'southward of import to clean your pellet stove and the supplies you'll need, it's time to learn how to make clean a pellet stove. Conduct a deep clean with these pellet stove care & cleaning tips or follow a certain pace for routine maintenance. Put on your protective gear, grab your supplies and follow these tips on cleaning a pellet stove:

The cleanout tee:Observe this T-shaped vent piping, which is ordinarily within your house behind the stove. Spread the sail or blanket on the floor under the tee. Remove the cover by unscrewing or prying, whatever yours requires. The tee gives you lot like shooting fish in a barrel cleaning admission, simply if your stove doesn't have one, discover a spot to dissever sections of pipe to clean inside the vent. Wrap a clammy coating around the tee or vent opening and set a saucepan nether the opening to collect droppings.
The opening of the vent pipe:Go to where your vent ends, which may be on your roof or somewhere else outside. Remove any caps or screens that embrace the vent. Smoothen your flashlight into the vent to get an thought of buildup. Swirl the pipage castor from the opening of the vent down in and support until you notice less ash on the brush, double-checking the vent is clean with the flashlight.
The rest of the vent piping:Cull a vent pipe castor that's extendable to reach the rest of your vent. If you can't extend the brush, you may need to tie a rope to either finish and lower it into the vent. Take someone at the other end catch the rope then motility the brush back and along. It's an effective method, but messier than having a long enough brush to do the task yourself. Supercede the screening and cap, and expect for ash to settle before going back within if you lot worked lonely. Collect the sheet that defenseless any debris and reattach your cleanout tee or sections of pipage, using sealant if needed.
The inside:Take a small cleaning brush and sweep the ash inside your stove downwards towards the bottom. It should fall into an ash collection tray, which you can so advisedly dump with the rest of the debris you cleaned out of your stove.
The glass: With everything reattached and the inside of your stove clean, you lot can brush loose ash from the inside and exterior of your stove'south drinking glass, then use a pellet stove drinking glass cleaner on the surface.
The outside:Now that you're washed with the vent piping and the inside of the stove, it'south time to see how to make clean the exterior of a pellet stove. Wipe down the outside to go rid of whatever lingering debris. In one case you lot've done this, you lot tin take the ash you've nerveless outside to dump into a garbage bag.

If you want to utilise a vacuum to clean the inside or outside of your stove or whatsoever lingering debris, make sure information technology'south a specific ash vacuum and non your household apparatus. Use tools specifically made for cleaning pellet stoves or ash throughout the cleaning process and don't forget to wear your gloves and mask. Keep these other safety tips in heed for the best fashion to clean a pellet stove:

Look 24 hours after using your stove to clean it and so information technology cools.
Unplug the stove before cleaning information technology.
Clean your stove on a calm 24-hour interval with no wind or risk of a downdraft.
Open a window to counteract downdrafts and let you make clean in a well-ventilated area.

get the best fuel with energex

Get the All-time Fuel With Energex

One central to pellet stove care is using the best wood pellets on the market. At Energex, we offering hardwood and softwood pellets to heat your home throughout the seasons. We take over 25 years of experience giving customers the sustainable energy they need for their pellet stoves, and we're proud to qualify for the Pellets Fuel Institute (PFI) Standards Programme. With Energex, you know you're getting exactly what's on the label.

Purchase Energex pellets for your pellet stove today, and experience the difference quality heating pellets make for and your home. Recall to keep your pellet stove clean and always apply Energex pellets for the all-time results.