DIY How to Clean Your Pellet Stove and Vent Tutorial

See how I remove all of the build up left in this Harmon brand pellet stove's vent in my "DIY How to Clean Your Pellet Stove Vent w/Brush Tutorial Demonstration [Pellet Stove Vent Cleaning]" video. I begin by making sure that the stove has completely cooled down. On the pellet stove, I then loosen the latches located on each side of the pellet stove. This will allow me to pull out the stove and gain access to the back.

This thing is really heavy and the manufacturer recommends using a kit to support the stove for slide-out and cleaning. I'm able to gain sufficient access to the back without using the removal kit but I'm also very careful not to knock it over front ways, which is entirely possible if not careful. The vent brush cleaning process is the same as performing a chimney sweep more or less. Once the pellet stove has been pulled out I place a bowl underneath the vent so it will catch the debris as it gets removed.

There is a removable bottom finish piece that pulls straight out towards you. Set it aside until reinstallation.

This is what it looks like when the piece is being removed. This will expose the needed latches in which to pull the pellet stove out with.

These are the front latches (there are rear ones too) that release the pellet stove tray in the front in order for it to pull out and clean it. There is one on each side that will need to be unlatched. One thing I always come across when performing this cleaning at this phase of the process is that the latches naturally fall back into place after you release them so before I go to pull the stove out I double check to made sure the latches have not found themselves in the latched position. These latches unlatch towards you if you are standing directly in front of the stove.

These latches unlatch to release the stove from the back part (flush wall pieces) of the stove.

When unlatching these they flip open in the opposite direction of the front latches. Just like the front latches there are two on each side that need to be unlatched before you can move onto the next step. These ones can be a little harder to see but the insert portion of the stove won't release until these two are unlatched.

I pull this tray out and clean it out with a shop vac which is a really nice accessory to have when performing a full cleaning on this.

This can be dumped or vacuumed. This tray is easily removable and should be cleaned out often.

The stove can now be pulled out a little bit just enough to be able to access behind it and up into the chimney vent for cleaning.

Here's the bottom of the vent that will need to be cleaned. Even though I'm able to clean the full length from the top, I've found that some of the debris still collects around the bottom so I always clean it up from the inside (bottom) as shown here.

Here's a picture of a couple of the brushes that I like to use. In this demo I've got some new ones.

You can get these brushes with various heads for attachments on them.

I get on the roof and remove the vent cap for access to clean down through the top.

Once the bindings and fasteners have been removed the cap should just be able to pull off. I set it aside for reinstallation.

This is the brush being inserted down through the top. I scrub it much like you would a bottle brush cleaning out the inside of the vent.

I show how much build up collects over time.

It's a good idea to have a professional take a boroscope camera to the inside of your vent to make sure there isn't any perforations, heavy creosote build up, deterioration or defects in the lining.

Now replace the top of the vent cap assembly and move to the inside cleaning portion.

I brush this until no more debris falls out.

This shop vac is pretty big to lug around and works well but a smaller one will work just fine.

Repeat this process a few times and as much as needed until you can't get anymore debris out everything.

Repeat the process as much as needed then reinstall everything in the opposite order it was removed.

You'll now have a well working, safe and clean pellet stove system. Below is the full video on this.