Clean Yes or No?

Thanks a bunch.

Ihad an awesome idea of using compressed air to blow out the baffle on the Harman in my basement. NEVER AGAIN What a freakin mess.

anthony7812 wrote:Ihad an awesome idea of using compressed air to blow out the baffle on the Harman in my basement. NEVER AGAIN What a freakin mess.

yyeeeeaaaahhhhhh....that would create quite the cloud!

I used to use a small diameter shop vac hose that would fit up there. Poke it around and it would get most all the ash. Don't forget the ash that collects on either side of the exhaust port in the back of the Mark III. Take off the flue pipe and the small diameter shop vac hose poked around will get it out. You can also get the hose up to the back part of the baffle through the exhaust port. I used a drywall dust bag in the shop vac and it would catch the fly ash.

jkabdoors wrote:We started our Pocono in October this year and with the warmer weather forcasted for this weekend would it be a good idea to shut it down for a good cleaning
Thanks Jeff

...44* in mid maine, I let the fire die last night. Reconfigured the flue, I put the "T" on top with the baro at the horizontal junction for easy clean and making a box above the stove so the blower will blast into the cold air return.I"ll post pic's when done!

Ok so saturday is the day and I have looked at my L.L. cd that came with the stove which will help me with the power vent but there are no spots to oil the motors? After I watched the cd I went to the stove and I can't find any holes to oil. Is this correct?

michaelanthony wrote:

jkabdoors wrote:We started our Pocono in October this year and with the warmer weather forcasted for this weekend would it be a good idea to shut it down for a good cleaning
Thanks Jeff

...44* in mid maine, I let the fire die last night. Reconfigured the flue, I put the "T" on top with the baro at the horizontal junction for easy clean and making a box above the stove so the blower will blast into the cold air return.I"ll post pic's when done!

Good time to do a clean out. I don't know about stokers but hand feds do on occasion need a clean out. Not all maybe but my kitchen range for sure. When I ran it on wood, I cleaned it out every month or two. It has a special long handles tool that fits into a clean out slot under the oven. I would scrape creosote out.
Now that it's burning coal for a few years, I will take a look under the burners to the right of the firebox. If there is a good accumulation of fly ash, then you can be sure it has also made it's way around the rest of the circuit. Understand that the cookstove works like a base heater. You start it in direct draft and then it has a "oven" lever that you throw when it's going good. This pulls the exhaust over the top of the oven, down the far side, and under the oven to an exit below to the stove pipe.

Yesterday I saw a good bit of fly ash all the way across the top. I took the shop vac (with a drywall bag in it) and removed the 4 burner lids to the right of the two directly over the firebox. The stove was going, so I did it one by one and sucked up all that fly ash. Then pulled the plate under the oven and scraped under there. Low and behold it had a allot of ash! I held the shop vac hose in front and continued to scrape forward. This was the first time I did this after about 3 1/2 months of burning this year and most of last! I now know that every couple months this needs doing.
The upside is that the stove is running outstanding! Takes about half the air it was using on the primary to get the same temps!

Now I need to check the back pipe and stove pipe of the MO 116. That's fairly easy as it has a clean out at the bottom of the back pipe. Just put the stove in direct draft and hoover it. Done. The stove pipe would have to be a shut down, but I doubt there is much in that besides the two 90° elbows.

Goning to give it a good shot Thanks everyone

Did the every 5 weeks Full cleaning of the Koker and pipes yesterday.

She is purring like a kitten again.

Just something about spending an afternoon with the old girl and a 6 pack that relaxes the mind!

jkabdoors wrote:Ok so saturday is the day and I have looked at my L.L. cd that came with the stove which will help me with the power vent but there are no spots to oil the motors? After I watched the cd I went to the stove and I can't find any holes to oil. Is this correct?

Shoot Flyer5 a pm, he can explain where the oil holes are pretty well.

Shut down and cleaned her out.. Took 36 hours for the coal to finally burn out. I planned a clean out today so last time I added coal was Friday evening. I pulled the pipe apart too, I was expecting a bigger pile of ash where the chimney goes vertical but not much really.. The pipe has a layer around the inside of it. Quarter inch deep at most on the bottom side. The pic of the chimney is actually a little deceiving. There is actually a little pile of mortar where it looks higher. There is really only about a 1/2 inch of fly ash there. Back up and running again now

I shut down Saturday morning. Pulled everyhting apart and gave it a good cleaning. Had it up and running by Saturday night. Back to business! Too bad the weather is going to be warm again tomorrow...

Well we did it on Sunday and it turned out pretty good I think. I would like to thank everyone for the help with the questions we had.
I would like to thank my wife she did most of it, I never saw her that dirty. Thanks again. Jeff

How do you guys clean out the vent pipe on a Alaska Channing 3? It's screwed and caulked so it would be a pain to get it off then reinstall. Or is that just the only way to do it? I vaccum out the bottom and everywhere I can fit the shop vac into about once a month but when I bang on the direct vent housing on the outside of the house a bunch of ash falls out so I'm guessing there's a bunch in the vent pipe also? I haven't noticed a decrease in draft or anything. It's burning the same as when I started it in October.

Adkhunter wrote:How do you guys clean out the vent pipe on a Alaska Channing 3? It's screwed and caulked so it would be a pain to get it off then reinstall.

The flue pipe needs to be thoroughly cleaned once a year, that's a must. The only way you can do it in place is if you put T's in strategic locations. For example there is T on the bottom pipe and the top pipe can be accessed through the barometric damper:
Having said that unless you're burning year round like me you should remove the pipes entirely during the off season because the ash is going to get damp and those pipes aren't going to last that long. Store in a dry place if possible and if you want to take it a step further you can wash them down with some baking soda and water which will neutralize the acids.

As far the power vent that needs maintenance each year too, start another topic or do some searching on the forums.

Richard S. wrote:Other than the flue pipe what the hell are you guys cleaning?

Not much for me. I have no issues with ash build up etc. Mine gets brushed out in the Spring, once a year when it shut down.
Base Heaters are virtually maintenance free. I know its just terrible.