I had a problem with smoke in the montage when starting cursing black unburned pellets and the fire box walls getting all black. I found 2 causes 1. This stove had straight out venting down near the ground and moisture came in and mixed with the ash under and on top of the exhaust impeller blades and then hardened up causing the blades not to spin properly!!! 2. There was also ash clogged up in the ash traps behind the refractery brick that the brushes could not get out! So I took a good compressor and blasted the hard chips of ash out from the ash traps and back blowing by taking out the exhaust blower and putting the compressor hose in there too! You can see how much more I got even after a fairly good cleaning. Pic 1 - Hard ash on and under impeller blades Pic 2 - shop vac hose and high pressure nozzle Pic 3 - here comes the ash! Pic 4 - see ash and chips of hard ash we could only get by blasting with air Has anyone seen this???
Hi Don, FWIW, seen it here, it's a pellet stove version of creosote - not enough combustion airflow, pellets w/ high resin content (e.g.: pine), and moisture.. Once airflow is reduced, it becomes 'additive' on buildup. Took 3 days to cleanup the tiny Francesca stove here, when purchased. Lots of scraping, brushing, compressed air, and cussing. Keep an eye on the airflow passages and impeller .. It took several days of good burns, and repeated cleanings, to get everything out here. ( A follow-up may be in order, if this is a customer's stove. )
Thanks so much for your comments. I got it all cleaned up nice but the stove is 10-12 years old so the auger motor died! I found the top auger bearing was grinding and squeaking so I am going back with not only a new better quality auger motor but a new top and bottom auger bearing too. Then I will let you know.
