How often should a pellet boiler be cleaned? Why is it important for the burner to always be clean? How does pellet quality affect boiler operation? Why is seasonal cleaning best left to an authorized technician?
By replacing a traditional solid fuel boiler, which burns wood or coal, with a pellet boiler, you gain significantly higher comfort. Pellet boilers are much easier to maintain, require less work, and, perhaps more importantly, cause less mess.
However, a pellet boiler is a more complex device with numerous mechanical, electrical, and electronic components, requiring proper maintenance for flawless operation.
Regular Cleaning – The First and Most Important Task
To ensure your pellet boiler operates correctly, regular cleaning is crucial. The efficiency of a pellet boiler is significantly higher than that of a wood or coal boiler, making regular cleaning relatively easier. Every pellet boiler has two compartments at the bottom. One contains the burner, which needs to be cleaned more frequently.
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The frequency of burner cleaning depends on the outside temperature and pellet consumption. It might be necessary to clean it daily during peak operation periods, while during transitional periods, cleaning every few days may suffice.
When cleaning, it’s essential to remove the accumulated slag from the burner, a perforated container that can be taken out. Over time, slag buildup can obstruct airflow through the holes, making combustion more difficult and increasing consumption. Therefore, keeping the burner as clean as possible is vital. You can clean it daily when the boiler is not in use, and wearing gloves will prevent your hands from getting dirty.
Cleaning Doesn’t Have to Be Detailed Every Time
Besides the burner, the burner chamber, where ash accumulates, also needs cleaning. Removing about 90% of the ash is sufficient. Thorough cleaning of every corner is only necessary at the end of the season to prevent ash deposits, which can absorb moisture and create a corrosive environment that can damage the boiler.
In addition to the burner chamber, the adjacent ash collection chamber, which gathers ash from the boiler, also requires cleaning, typically once or twice per season. After burning the first palette of pellets, check the ash level and clean it if necessary. This will help determine the cleaning frequency based on pellet consumption.
Like the burner chamber, detailed cleaning during the season is unnecessary; removing most of the ash is enough to make space for new deposits. However, at the end of the season, thorough cleaning is essential as the ash will start absorbing moisture from the surroundings, potentially causing damage.
Cleaning the Flue Pipes
Inside the boiler are flue pipes through which hot combustion products pass, transferring heat to the water. Over time, soot accumulates inside these pipes. Modern boilers are equipped with a lever that, when pulled, moves springs inside the flue pipes to scrape off the soot layer. This lever should be pulled periodically throughout the heating season.
Seasonal Cleaning of the Boiler
While the springs remove the rougher soot layer, a film eventually forms, hindering heat transfer from the flue gases to the water, increasing consumption. The extent of this buildup depends largely on the pellet quality.
Annual cleaning at the end of each season is advisable and is best left to an authorized technician. The technician will open the boiler and clean the flue pipes with brushes, conduct necessary checks such as water pressure and volume, inspect and clean the pipes that carry smoke from the boiler to the chimney, and advise on chimney cleaning needs, which are far less frequent than with wood or coal heating.
Annual cleaning should ideally be performed by an authorized technician. While you or someone knowledgeable may be able to handle this task, pellet boilers are complex devices. Like cars, each pellet boiler has specific features and quirks, best understood by a technician familiar with the brand, ensuring higher quality service.
Photo; Alfa-Plam, Kepo