Heat Kit Cleaning :

From: Stephen Bushway <sbushway(at)mac.com>
Subject: Heater Cleaning
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007
To: Norbert Senf <mheat(at)heatkit.com>

Norbert,

I got a call from someone who I built a Heat-kit heater for about 6 years ago, saying the heater/chimney wasn't working as usual.  I went over, cleaned out the base channels, bench run and chimney.

I then took a mirror and looked up the channels and couldn't see anything but black.  I took a long handled "noodle" brush that Copperfield sells and reached up and freed up a bunch of soot that seemed to have bridged across the top portion of the lowest channel sections.   I looked at the wood they'd been burning and much of it was punky.  And recently they'd been mixing in pine.  They had been told (not by me) that "you can burn anything in a heater".

Best, Steve

The graphic, below, shows the location of a built-in constriction in the base channels. It is about 10 " up and, hopefully, somewhat
accessible via a cleanout. Sometimes, after a lot of use, you can get a buildup of soot and ash right there which can constrict the flow. The easiest way to clean it is with a "pellet brush", used for cleaning pellet stoves. It comes on a flexible fiberglass rod that can be bent around corners.

If there is a loss of draw in the heater, and increased smoking, this is the likeliest cause.

Pellet Brush