This is my second year with my 7300e. My pump is undersized for my situation so I know my return water temp is probably cooler than yours and I have not had near the amount of creosote buildup as your stove. I frequently adjust my temp differential depending on outside temps. Warmer weather I run 8 to 10, cooler weather 12 to 20 so it will run longer if possible. I am not sure of the wood type you are burning. In southern pa, oak splits the size of what I saw in another of your videos would take 2 or more years of stacked drying in the air to get below 20 percent in the center of those big pieces. My big oak splits would still be visibly wet deep inside after only 1 year. You must have low humidity out there to get it below 20 percent in a year. I only have experience with oak however, and there are big differences between the different types of oak as well. I do remove the inside panels and clean off the buildup every Two or so cords but my buildup is not nearly as bad as what I see in your video. Another thing I do is remove both upper pieces of refractory blocks...the triangle piece and the piece behind it and make sure that the two air passageways are not plugged. Those passageways accept the air from behind the two back panels. I wonder if you would have better luck with smaller splits although it take a little more time to make them initially? Might be worth a try.
Yea, I split next year's wood much smaller thinking that could be part of it. I run a 10 degree diff but I might open it up if it stays cold. Some of the buildup in the air intake is from since it was new. I never had to clean it out and it had some in it, but everything behind the plates was new and built up in the inlet. It's just frustrating. The E series takes so much more prep work like you said to split it small and get it dry.
I have struggled myself to keep up with the seasoning/ split wood issue. The problem for me was that I didn't have smaller, seasoned splits ready for the first year of burning. So, I made about 8 cords of small splits (2-3") about 8 months in advance to help the situation. But, although I split small, 8 months is still not enough for hard oak to season up nice. the end result was the stove burned well, but I consumed almost all of the 8 cords that winter. I was hoping that I would have been able to burn less and keep a few cords of the original 8-10 I split for the following year so they would have had time to properly season. But, as you know, the less seasoned the wood is, the more of it you burn. I am not sure of exactly your method of cleaning out the creosote it, but this is what has worked for me: I let the stove burn down good on a friday night (if its not too cold). On Sat morning, I light a hot kindling fire in there and get the water temp up to 186 or so, just before the cut-off. I shut off the pump so that the stove water remains hot. I remove whatever coals and ash is in there then remove the panels. I take a weed burner torch with an angled sharp scraper (something like this, just make sure it is angled and the blade is not too thin..(www.homedepot.com/p/ROBERTS-4-in-Pro-Floor-and-Wall-Scraper-with-18-in-Handle-10-188/303069300) and gently and carefully apply about 3 inches of flame to the inside surfaces while following immediately behind with the scraper. I wear long, welding gloves while I am doing this. So, the torch is in one hand and the scraper in the other, otherwise, the creosote cools and is hard to get off. The creosote runs right off using this technique. I do have to take a fresh air break every few mins since my head is mostly in the stove while I am doing this. I heat up gently, the square inlet hole and use a tool which was part of the set of tools I got to clean out my pellet stove years ago to remove the softened creosote from that square inlet chamber. Here is a link to the tool: pellet-stove-parts-4less.com/products/whitfield-grate-scraper-for-many-models. This tool will help you reach in that square tube once you get the creosote to soften with heat. Of course, only apply enough heat to melt the creosote and not so much that it damages the lifting solenoid or warps the inlet plate. I realize that you must be careful with using a torch to heat the inner box because of the metal stress that occurs from uneven heating, however, I am only heating enough to soften the creosote and I keep the flame moving while I am scraping. Since you upgraded your stove to the new style refractory, I believe you will have two air passages which sit beneath the back refractory piece (underneath the two back panels). Make sure they are free of creosote otherwise, fresh air cannot enter into the nozzle and will impact the gasification process. I keep a tube of refractory cement in my caulk gun so that I can easily reseal those two pieces of refractory after I remove them for cleaning. I am hoping to stockpile enough oak this year so that in future years, I can have larger but also perfectly seasoned splits. In my case, I think that will take care of most of my creosote issue assuming we don't have winters which are too warm to run this type of stove. Thanks @@DanielFarmChannel
After a month I had to clean everything out again. I even moved to burning drier wood. Anyways, I got a weed burner based on your comment and one I saw elsewhere. I have the stove running and I stick it down in the air inlet from the back. One guy says he does that weekly. I'll do the same and see if it prolongs the need to clean everything out.
