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[Boydz]

Hey Guys,

Just thought Id share with you what I found when removing my airbox on my Heatmaster 10KE over the weekend right before the cold snap. I was preparing for the cold and doing some maintenance and took a moment to look to the way back of my ash pan and realized I couldn't really get back there to clean it all, so I decided to remove the fan, airbox, damper setup from the rear and have a better look. This honestly took about 5min to remove with only 5 self tapping screws to remove. My unit was working fine and keeping up, but I still felt that the fan wasn't as strong as day one.
The pics show how much ash has built up in the rear 6" pipe that I couldnt really get to from the front side. Keep in mind that I've had it 2yrs now and have pushed about 20+ cords of wood thru it since I bought it and this is the first time its been opened. I used a shop vac and sucked it all out after poking it with various tools to loosen it all up since some of it was pretty hardened up. The fan works like day one now and doesn't seem like its running as hard as it was. Unit cycles faster etc.

You can also see the retrofit top air kit I installed last year from the dealer hanging down in the middle which redirects a small portion of air to the top side of the fire. This has made some difference in the amount of smoke being produced. You can really see some secondary burn occurring with it installed. It was a bit of a pain to install it, and the unit had to be completely shut down enough to get inside and cut a square opening in the bottom plate to slide it in. Couple hours job

Anyhow, Just thought this may help with Maintenance and things to check on from time to time.
Be sure to re-tape the 6" connection when you reinstall it to prevent air leaks to the fire box when the damper is closed. Mine was wrapped with foil tape from the factory.

Its hard to see but the bottom pic shows it cleaned out. The plate you see is actually at a 45deg angle back towards the fire box, so cleaning it from the from is near impossible. I go about 2weeks before emptying my ash drawer depending on how much wood Im shoving thru the unit.

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[CountryBoyJohn]

Thanks for the info Mr. Boydz!  I love how simple these stoves are!!

[Boydz]

Yeah - Me too

Just call me Ryan 

[CountryBoyJohn]

Sounds good Ryan!  I actually cleaned mine out really well last week too.  I didn't take my air channel off, but I did reach back through the ash "corridor" and scrape all the ash out from under that ledge that you can see if Photo #5 with a long poker and a garden hoe.  I don't think I have very much behind that ledge yet.  But, now I know how easy it is to check.  I'll probably make it a part of my year-end clean out procedure now. 

[Sluggo]

Talked to guy at Heatmaster about two weeks ago and claimed "a weak fan" was my imagination.  I also have a 10ke with my secondary deleted.  I'm guessing I have some buildup also!  You did your own retrofit on the secondary airflow?  Why not the dealer?  We must have the same dealer!  Not Scott or yoder!

[yoderheating]

Good job catching and explaining this Boydz. This should be checked ever year before firing up the furnace.

[CountryBoyJohn]

Mr. Sluggo, I believe I had the same symptoms you may have had. A weak fan was my diagnosis as well. I was wrong. I cleaned everything I thought I could, and I still had a very sluggish fire, anemic smoke, and long recovery times. Turns out, a crust had formed in my coal bed that was blocking air flow into my fire.

Near the end of your burn cycle, before you reload, empty your ash pan, plunge your rake all the way down in your coal bed till you hit the grates, pull all the coals forward till you expose all the back grates, the push all of it back and expose the front grates, smooth and level the coals, shake the crap out of the grates and empty the ash pan again. She'll burn like a new stove!

That's what worked for me!

[Scott7m]

Great post!!!

[Sluggo]

Countryboyjohn, I came across your post elsewhere about doing this and it seems to work very well!