I've had thirst stove foe 8 or 10 years now and have only cleaned the inside and pipe going to chimney. I do vacuum out back of stove where vertical chimney attaches. While doing this I noticed a lot of fine ash on top of the blanket. Is it ok to leave the ash there? I used a wooden 1' ruler to gently scrape some to the back where I could vacuum it out. I read about how the top comes off but the two 10mm bolts in the front loosen a little but don't free up to remove. Didn't want to snap anything so I stopped. The front griddle bolt does loosen so I can twist the tab around.. can't get to the rear griddle bolt from the front. If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it! Thanks
Can you spray some rust penetrant on the front screws and work them a little? It would be more trouble than you need to snap one off. That's a nice stove and hearth set up you have there.
That's what I was thinking. I could try to force bolts out/in, out/in like when tapping threads. The stove is now clean and ready to run. So I'm gonna take the season to plan things out to tackle in spring. Just don't want to screw things up this close to needing stove.
On my f500 I found that loosening the front bolt enough to rotate the tab allowed me to lift and slide the griddle forward for removal. At least, I believe this is the case. Its been a while since I first removed mine. BTW, I now run the stove with the griddle merely held on by gravity. A wood stove operates under a vacuum so mechanical securing of the griddle isn't needed once the stove is installed. I don't bother tightening the front bolt. This allows me to easily remove the griddle for flue cleaning.
Semipro thanks thats good to know will try it. did you have to pry up front of griddle or did it just push up from below?
Ok so I got the griddle off. Front bolt loosened twisted retainer clip to rear. Couldn't reach rear bolt without taking stovepipe off again. Pry front up carefully wiggled griddle and it slipped forward a little After wiggling and lifting griddle came out. Gasket has no cement on it, just laying there! Lots of ash in top of blanket. Will clean and put griddle back in with loosely tightened bolts. Back bolt loose to slip it in then tighten up front bolt a little
Thanks good idea To be honest the 3 bolts holding the whole top on didn't really back off except for maybe a quarter to half turn. I left them alone. The two bolts holding the griddle on turned easily. Just didn't have access to the rear one. With the griddle off it was easy to get to the blanket to get ash off. I didn't want to vacuum it since it's so fragile. I used a wooden paint stir to gently scrape it forward to fall into burn chamber. Kind of like spreading sparkle with the angle of tool. Worked well full access with griddle off.
I just cleaned the 6" rigid SS chimney liner for our F500 and it was really straightforward. I got up on top, removed the cap, brushed the liner, and replaced the cap. Almost all the creosote had accumulated at the top of the flue - a good sign I think. My wife watched for ash exiting the stove as I cleaned the flue. She never saw any -- possibly due to the outside air source we use. I then opened the front door on the stove, pushed up on the griddle a bit and removed it. I see no reason to bolt it down. I took my ash vac and cleaned out the creosote pile that had fallen to the shelf where the pipe connects, then reinstalled the griddle and started the first fire of the season. Warm wife, better life.
Spray with Blaster. Tap bolt with a hammer, give it a little pull with a wrench (counterclockwise and clockwise), repeat till loose. If its really tight you can tap the wrench with the hammer. (both directions)
TurboDiesel Thanks for the reply. thats what I was thinking but since I got the griddle off I have full access to clean and would only remove whole top to replace blanket sometime in future
Semipro I have a masonry chimney and cleanout door outside and will replace it in the future with a stainless one. Will be nice to be able to clean from the bottom, I getting kind of old to be going up in the winter to clean. Outside cleaning is one project then cleaning the inside a second. I remove the inside pipe and elbow and vacuum where you do as well. I'm thinking about leaving bolts off of the griddle I flash back to my old Vermont casting Defiant and when I had a BIG puff back and the griddle was lifted off. Was kind of like the movie Backdraft with the gasses igniting, and totally my fault. But wow!!! Thanks for the reply
Yeah, I've had a puff back and griddle popped up a bit but nothing exited the stove and I was kind of thankful for the "safety valve" effect.
