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Are you asking yourself if the maintenance connected with a pellet or wood-burning stove obligatory? Yes, it is required by law: a specialised technician will carry out all the necessary checks, and once completed, will hand you an inspection and maintenance report. You should keep this safe to show to the technician before the next check.
Is this enough? No. If you want a pellet or wood-burning stove that works at its best, you need to clean it regularly. In fact you should clean your stove on a daily basis. Cleaning is quick and easy to do and ensures your appliance is working at maximum efficiency. Given that your chosen technician will be able to correctly install your pellet or wood-burning stove, we wanted to share with you some tips that will help you in the daily cleaning of your stove.
In summary: you are responsible for cleaning, the specialised technician is responsible for extraordinary maintenance. In practice, what can you do yourself now and what does the technician need to check each year?
If you’re curious to discover all the secrets for perfect maintenance of your pellet or wood-burning stove continue reading: our tips will be helpful for heating you safely and ensuring the long-term efficiency of your stove.
Modern wood-burning stoves, even the best performing ones, generate ash inside the firebox even though the quantities are much lower than in the past. Pellet stoves have more efficient combustion and create little ash, especially when certified pellets are used, but this doesn’t mean that they don’t need regular cleaning.
If you own a pellet or wood-burning stove or you’re thinking about buying one, you need to know that daily cleaning is essential because it ensures:
Essentially, properly cleaning your stove will help you consume less fuel and make your heating system safer and longer-lasting.
The two types of stove (pellet and wood-burning) share many operations that you can carry out by yourself. Let’s look at the main ones.
Always remember to follow the manufacturers instructions – these are usually given in the instruction manual. Remember also that annual maintenance of the pellet or wood-burning stove should only be carried out by a specialised technician.
If you are wondering how to clean a stove, let’s start with an important premise.
All stove installation, cleaning and maintenance procedures should be carried out with the flame out, the appliance completely cold and with the electrical cable on the appliance and/or on any accessories installed on it, disconnected.
This is an essential condition and should be checked before carrying out any kind of operation. Once this is clear, let’s start with cleaning the stove.
If your stove doesn’t have an “automatic cleaning” button or if you’re not completely satisfied with the cleaning, here are the main operations you can perform in order to clean the stove:
The choice of material used for combustion is the fundamental basis for quick and easy cleaning. Correctly seasoned wood ensures optimum combustion and also prevents the build-up of residues and encrustation, both on the glass and inside the chimney flue. The same is true for pellets: if you choose certified quality pellets, the benefits are assured. You don’t know how to choose the best ones? Don’t worry, we’ve thought of everything: read these guides for choosing the best wood and best pellets.
Do you love watching the fire burn? This small pleasure will be denied if the glass becomes blacked by soot. It’s not just a question of aesthetics: cleaning the glass regularly and correctly helps preserve the integrity of the seals. This prevents excess fuel consumption caused by increased air flow into the combustion chamber. Read about the most effective and quickest methods for cleaning the glass.
If you use the stove all day, a build up of combustion residues is inevitable. If you neglect the cleaning, it may affect the smooth functioning of your appliance.
In both cases, use a dedicated ash vacuum to remove the ash. Normal vacuum cleaners don’t have suitable ash filtering systems. Ash is extremely fine and would end up depositing itself on your furniture.
There are other operations that you can do on your own at least once a year:
Considering the function of the cladding and its normal usage, it should be sufficient to clean the Majolica cladding with a soft, dry cloth. At most you can use cleaning products designed for ceramics, as long as they aren’t aggressive or abrasive.
Use a soft damp cloth to clean the parts in painted metal. Do not use alcohol, diluents, benzines, acetones or other degreasing or abrasive substances, they could ruin the stove.
Ash from natural (untreated) wood, created by combustion inside a stove or fireplace, is comprised mainly of calcium, silicon, potassium and magnesium oxides. What does this mean?
It means that, once you’ve made sure the embers are completely extinguished by leaving them in a metal container for at least 24 hours, you can decide whether to use the ash:
At worst you can dispose of it in the organic waste bin (compost), making sure there are no inorganic/foreign bodies.
Different from ordinary cleaning, extraordinary maintenance of pellet and wood-burning stoves is required by law. But what is it exactly and who should do it?
Once a year, normally at the end of the winter season, when the heating system can “rest” a little, it is necessary to call a registered technician to carry out annual extraordinary maintenance.
This is a procedure required by law which includes several fundamental operations such as:
After having carried out all the necessary checks, the technician should restore all the initial connections (air inlets, power and water supply, smoke extraction system); he should also switch on the device to check it is operating correctly and correctly expelling fumes. The frequency of extraordinary maintenance is usually set out by the stove or fireplace manufacturer, and is shown in the user and maintenance manuals provided with the appliances.
Where these instructions are not available, you can follow the table below, which sets out the frequency for maintenance based on the type of appliance and its power expressed in Kilowatts.
The maintenance of pellet and wood-burning stoves – which is required by law, remember – can only be performed by a registered technician.
This specialist, after having inspected the system, should issue an inspection and maintenance report to the owner, who must confirm in writing that they have received it.
The inspection and maintenance report should indicate, amongst other things, the following elements:
How to carry out maintenance on a pellet stove? Or a wood-burning stove?
Consider the cleaning of your wood-burning or pellet stove as an investment. In addition to ensuring the long life of your appliance, it will also save you money and heat your home safely.
Stove maintenance is basically divided into two parts:
You can carry out the ordinary maintenance of your pellet or wood-burning stove yourself with a few quick and simple daily actions. In general, everything you need to do is written in detail in the instruction manual provided with your stove, or you can follow the tips we’ve given you in this article.
Usually once a year, however, you are required to carry out extraordinary maintenance on your pellet or wood-burning stove. This is also detailed in the instruction manual for your appliance.
Differently from ordinary maintenance, this should be carried out by a specialised technician: only they are authorised to scrupulously check the correct operation of the stove. After having thoroughly inspected the appliance, the technician is required to issue an inspection and maintenance report, which summarises all the operations carried out.
Follow these simple tips and use trained and competent technicians and you can enjoy the warmth of your stove all winter.