Pellet Stove Maintenance Tips

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

You enjoy the efficient heat of your pellet stove during the cold months, but if you’re new to owning a stove or want to maintain it as best as you can, you’ll wonder how to clean it. While stoves and cleaning needs differ from household to household, some pellet stove maintenance tips will help keep your home warm and keep you safe. Consult the guide below for some pellet stove care tips and other useful information for pellet stove owners.

Why Clean Your Pellet Stove

Once we get into how to clean your pellet stove, it might seem excessive, so let’s start with why you should clean your pellet stove. Some proper care will save you time and money in the long run. Overall, cleaning your stove:

• Keeps your stove working: If ashes and pellets build up in your stove, it won’t work as well over time. You risk damaging your heating equipment all because you didn’t do a bit of pellet stove maintenance. You can lose temperature control, airflow and the ability to light your stove. You don’t want to go to light your stove on a cold day only to find it’s not working, so keep it clean.
• Creates a safer pellet stove: That buildup of ash can become dangerous if you don’t conduct some maintenance. Creosote, a chemical that results when you burn wood or other fuel, can build up as you use your stove. It’s dangerous to breathe in and also presents a fire hazard, so cleaning it is a must.
• Helps your stove last longer: Like many appliances in your home, a pellet stove is an investment. You want to get as much use out of that investment as possible, and proper maintenance can help that happen. As you clean your stove, you’ll remove any rust or buildup that could cause components to break or stop working. You’ll also notice if any parts need to be repaired or replaced to keep the entire system functioning.

How Often Should You Clean Your Pellet Stove?

On average, a deep clean once a week could be useful. However, every pellet stove is different, and it’s hard to say a specific time frame of how often you should clean your pellet stove. Check your stove’s manual to see if there are any cleaning recommendations. If your manual doesn’t specify or if you feel like you use your stove frequently, clean once a week. You may also clean the different components of your stove at different rates depending on your use and preference, such as:

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

You’ll also want to take note of the creosote buildup in your stove and clean it before it reaches a certain stage. At its first stage, creosote is dry and flaky but easy to clean. Second stage creosote is brittle and a bit harder to clean, while third stage 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, so you’ll learn what works best for you after a few maintenance sessions. If you aren’t sure what you need to clean a pellet stove, start with these supplies:

• Old sheets, blankets or other items
• A five-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

You may not need some of these supplies, but 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 it. If it’s outside on a lower point of an exterior wall, you won’t need a ladder to maintain your pellet stove. Be sure to check the manual that came with your stove to see any other recommendations for products to use or avoid when cleaning.

How to Clean Your Pellet Stove

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

1. The cleanout tee: Find this T-shaped vent pipe, which is usually inside your house behind the stove. Spread the sheet or blanket on the floor under the tee. Remove the cover by unscrewing or prying, whatever yours requires. The tee gives you easy cleaning access, but if your stove doesn’t have one, find a spot to separate sections of pipe to clean inside the vent. Wrap a damp blanket around the tee or vent opening and set a bucket under the opening to collect debris.
2. 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 cover the vent. Shine your flashlight into the vent to get an idea of buildup. Swirl the pipe brush from the opening of the vent down in and back up until you notice less ash on the brush, double-checking the vent is clean with the flashlight.
3. The rest of the vent pipe: Choose a vent pipe brush 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 end and lower it into the vent. Have someone at the other end grab the rope then move the brush back and forth. It’s an effective method, but messier than having a long enough brush to do the job yourself. Replace the screening and cap, and wait for ash to settle before going back inside if you worked alone. Collect the sheet that caught any debris and reattach your cleanout tee or sections of pipe, using sealant if needed.
4. The inside: Take a small cleaning brush and sweep the ash inside your stove down towards the bottom. It should fall into an ash collection tray, which you can then carefully dump with the rest of the debris you cleaned out of your stove.
5. The glass: With everything reattached and the inside of your stove clean, you can brush loose ash from the inside and outside of your stove’s glass, then use a pellet stove glass cleaner on the surface.
6. The outside: Now that you’re done with the vent pipe and the inside of the stove, it’s time to see how to clean the outside of a pellet stove. Wipe down the outside to get rid of any lingering debris. Once you’ve done this, you can take the ash you’ve collected outside to dump into a garbage bag.

If you want to use a vacuum to clean the inside or outside of your stove or any lingering debris, make sure it’s a specific ash vacuum and not your household appliance. 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 mind for the best way to clean a pellet stove:

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

Get the Best Fuel With Energex

One key to pellet stove care is using the best wood pellets on the market. At Energex, we offer hardwood and softwood pellets to heat your home throughout the seasons. We have 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 Program. 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. Remember to keep your pellet stove clean and always use Energex pellets for the best results.

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