Pellet Stove Cleaning Day ...

10 Steps for Cleaning a Wood Pellet Stove

Time for the weekly maintenance cleaning of the wood pellet stove here at Check Point ... all in all, not a difficult task ... but somewhat finicky & needing a reasonable level of care and attention to detail.

What we used to get the wood pellet stove cleaned up: 

·          leather (or rubber) gloves
flash light &/or head torch/head lamp

·         large flat tray to work on in front of pellet stove

·         ash vacuum cleaner

·         scraper

·         small wire brush

·         cleaning rag or paper towels

·         fine dust cleaning gloves

·         wood stove glass cleaner (spray) & conditioner (gel)

 soot-covered glass of wood pellet stove BEFORE cleaning

Here's how we cleaned it, in 10 steps ...

1.  TURN OFF wood pellet stove & WAIT for it to cool down (~60-90 minutes) ... when glass is cool/cold to the touch, it's okay to start cleaning

#2.   OPEN BOTTOM HATCH (be sure to put the wing nut & washer up away from areas to be cleaned with vacuum cleaner)

#3.  RELEASE burn pot (pellet tray) hook & pull out burn pot

wood pellet ash in burn pot

burn pot being removed after ashes vacuumed out

larger charcoal pieces caught on outside of vacuum nozzle
 ... pull these off & add to ash drawer

#4.  SCRAPE ASH AWAY from all surfaces within the burning chamber ... all 4 walls, above door, all around combustion chamber area where carbon deposits may be heavier

back side of burn chamber after burn pot is removed ... see the charred black carbon deposits that need to be scraped off

#5.  CLEAN BURN CHAMBER really well - very important for this area to be free of any debris

vacuuming out the burn pot before removing it

Teresa scraping off the soot

close-up of soot/carbon deposit

#6.  VACUUM ALL AROUND the inside and WIPE DOWN with fine dust catching gloves (you can vacuum the gloves to remove the heavy ash layer that collects on them)

wiping the walls to remove ash dues

vacuuming ash off gloves

 #7.  CLEAN GLASS on DOOR - vacuum & wipe down inside glass of the pellet stove door, then wipe clean with Clear Flame Glass Door Cleaner (spray) & Glass Cleaner & Conditioner (gel)

inside of glass BEFORE cleaning

glass door AFTER cleaning

#8.  RETURN pellet tray to original position & lock in place with latch that secures it in place

FULL ash drawer

#9.  EMPTY ASH BOX  & return to original position

 #10.  CLOSE HATCH & fasten hatch door in place with  washer & wing nut

wood pellet stove ... ALL CLEAN & ready to be fired up again!

1st pellet dropping into the newly cleaned burn pot :)

pellets igniting ...

... we have FIRE!

ALL systems GO!

front row of burning wood pellets ... burning strong

clear view of the flaming burn pot ...
enjoy it while it lasts, 

…  the glass gets smokey over the next 1-2 days

Thanks HEAPS to Pam for her help with this pellet stove cleaning demonstration & to Wayne for his tutorial on cleaning the pellet stove before he & Lynn headed South :)  "Mahsi cho!" Teresa