what is the hp of these leafblowers you guys are using? I tried to use my shop vac and it cleaned out the vent pipe pretty well but didnt’ touch the ash in my stove. I don’t think I had a great seal though. Are leafblowers a lot more powerful than a shop vac? I think my shop vac is 5.5 hp. Should that be able to suck the ash out of my stove? Thanks.
Leafblower/Shop Vac question...
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Leaf blowers are much more powerful than a shop vac. The one I use will blow over 200 mph. I'm sure that my leaf blower works much better than using my shop vac, which is the same size hp as yours.
My leafblower is a Toro Super, model 51592. I have 4" pellet vent. Use leaf blower on suction outside the house.
12 amp electric motor
390 CFM
230 MPH air speed
7.4 lbs unit weight
12 amp electric motor
390 CFM
230 MPH air speed
7.4 lbs unit weight
does the leafblower remove most of the ash from inside the stove or do you still have to vacuum the inside of the stove? Thanks.
Jambruins said:
I have a pellet furnace and can easily remove the combustion blower and vacuum its area at the output of the furnace. And it has a large fire box and heat exchanger area the leafblower won't clean. So I can't speak from experience about your question.
I have read posts for stoves that claim the leaf blower removes flyash from hidden voids in the stove around the stove vent output where the flyash has high accumulations. Maybe someone can speak from their experience using a leaf blower.
For more information you could also do a SEARCH on "leaf blower" on this forum and on the iburncorn.com forum.
Jambruins said:
The leaf blower does not clean out the inside of the stove where you can see... It cleans up areas that are difficult to access like the chimney pipe and the exhaust blower. You'll still need to vacuum out the interior of the stove every week.
The leaf blower can't really do anything in the cavernous interior space of the stove but it works wonders in the tight difficult areas of the rest of the exhaust path.
I think I'll be using the leaf blower twice per season based upon my results so far...
I've done the leave blower cleaning twice, first time cleaned the inside with a vac, removed the bricks and did all the airways .Then went outside and with my brush removed about 2 cups of ash from the horizontal vent I'm thinking this thing is pretty clean, then hooked up the blower and got about 30 seconds of heavy ash out of it. this was after burning little over a ton. 1 ton later I did it again but this time I did not clean the inside, ran the blower for about a min lots of ash but the inside didn't clean up so well, worked a little better when I cracked open the stove doors a little. I have to say the stove runs much better after the blower cleaning. The next one I do I want to do a before and after buy removing the panels and checking what the blowers look like before I start the cleaning, all that ash must be coming from somewhere lol
Just don't park your wife's car 25' downwind of the leafblower... don't ask me how I know this...
With the warmth expected here over the weekend, I was planning on trying this with my Shop vac. I don't recall the HP rating, but it is a craftman 16 gallon that says on it 170mph blowing speed. I have a section of 3" pvc pipe connected to a 2" reducer that fits right on my shop vac hose. I hope the 3" pvc will fit fairly well against the 3" pellet pipe, with a little duct tape to help.
exoilburner said:
The most important spec is the CFM and then the HP or amps. Air speed is irrelevant. 390 CFM thru a 4" vent pipe is only 51 mph. You get 230 mph when it's connected to a 1 7/8" diameter pipe.
One thing on the difference between leafblower and shop vac........
Shop vac has filter that drops suction very quickly when the fine ash hits it.........leafblower doesn't...
my money is on the leafblower.....
Shop vac has filter that drops suction very quickly when the fine ash hits it.........leafblower doesn't...
my money is on the leafblower.....
right, it is just that some people like myself dont have an electric leaf blower. All things considered, the leaf blower would be the best thing. Come to think of it, my grandfather has several electric leaf blowers collecting dust... maybe I'll see if I can snag one.
From what I have been reading, most find the use of a shop vac a disappointing experience. A leaf blower doesn't have the resistance of a filter and has higher capacity to move air. Besides, if you use a shop vac, you won't get to see that very impressive purging of your system! Just remember not to be too close when you turn the power on. Sort of like waning someone near you when you are going to "let 'her rip"
Many thanks to "Krooser" who brought us the use of the leaf blower. Very inventive. What a time saver. Worth every cent of a $40. investment.
Many thanks to "Krooser" who brought us the use of the leaf blower. Very inventive. What a time saver. Worth every cent of a $40. investment.
I used a 12 amp Shop-Vac (says 5.5hp). It has a small detachable vac atop the wheeled canister that unlatches.
I removed the filter and attached the 1 1/4" hose to the 3" horizontal stove pipe with a foam beer huggie after
enlarging the bottom hole to fit the Shop-Vac hose. The huggie was a snug fit inside the 3" vent pipe with no duct tape.
It blew clouds of ash for about ten minutes, the stove seemed to burn more cleanly afterwards. I do a complete
inside vacuum every ton and a half of pellets, midwinter and spring.
I removed the filter and attached the 1 1/4" hose to the 3" horizontal stove pipe with a foam beer huggie after
enlarging the bottom hole to fit the Shop-Vac hose. The huggie was a snug fit inside the 3" vent pipe with no duct tape.
It blew clouds of ash for about ten minutes, the stove seemed to burn more cleanly afterwards. I do a complete
inside vacuum every ton and a half of pellets, midwinter and spring.
Just tried the leaf blower, amasing at the amout of ash that came out and that was after I used my shop vac. great way to claen the pipe and it even got the ash out from my traps in the stove.
I bought a Toro Electric leaf vac today at HD $49.99. pURCHASED A 4 INCH pvc adapter in the plumbing dept.
I was blown away how well this worked. Just a note. When removing the down vent at the end of vent pipe if you have this set up there is a rubber gasket there.I just removed it and the end of the PVC fit perfect.Held the vac up for about 2 min until no more black smoke came out. Before I hooked vac to pipe I gotta be honest there was so much crap in the end of vent pipe I was saying this isnt gonna do a good job.Well I can tell you take it from a sceptic.
THIS WORKS FANTASTIC !!My wife thought I was nuts as she was watching what I was doing. When she saw all the crap come out of the pipe she said could you imagine the mess in the house if you brushed the pipe like I was going to do ? YIKES !
Thank god for this site
I was blown away how well this worked. Just a note. When removing the down vent at the end of vent pipe if you have this set up there is a rubber gasket there.I just removed it and the end of the PVC fit perfect.Held the vac up for about 2 min until no more black smoke came out. Before I hooked vac to pipe I gotta be honest there was so much crap in the end of vent pipe I was saying this isnt gonna do a good job.Well I can tell you take it from a sceptic.
THIS WORKS FANTASTIC !!My wife thought I was nuts as she was watching what I was doing. When she saw all the crap come out of the pipe she said could you imagine the mess in the house if you brushed the pipe like I was going to do ? YIKES !
Thank god for this site
I cleaned mine today with my leaf blower. I taped a 10 ft. chop-vac hose to it, put the blower outside on a table, and was able to use all the attachements to my shop-vac by useing the blower with an extra long hose this way.
I also like the long flex shop hose because I have control on where the ash goes. I put it on the flower beds, and my yard. I empty the ash pan in my garden after I scoop as much ash out of my stove as I can.
The rest, and it is not much, I blow on the yard on a calm non-windy day. If ash helps things in the garden it has to help in the yard and flower bed. I also save some ash and sprinkle it on my veg. plants in the garden in the summer, bugs don't like it.
That is how I contain my ash, and it stays in my yard and garden.
I also like the long flex shop hose because I have control on where the ash goes. I put it on the flower beds, and my yard. I empty the ash pan in my garden after I scoop as much ash out of my stove as I can.
The rest, and it is not much, I blow on the yard on a calm non-windy day. If ash helps things in the garden it has to help in the yard and flower bed. I also save some ash and sprinkle it on my veg. plants in the garden in the summer, bugs don't like it.
That is how I contain my ash, and it stays in my yard and garden.
anybody try this with a Harman P series?where would it get ashes out that I can't reach?...I clean out the burnpot..under the burnpot..the ash pan area the exchangers and all around the inside..the combustion fan and exhaust vent....where else can this clean that I'm not getting?...I even get that lip just above the door that seems to hold a ton of ash..all this done with my trusty paintbrush..
When I read this post, my first thought was "I thought I hadn't typed my response yet!"investor7952 said:
Today, I bought a Toro Electric Leaf blower/vac (the ultra model) for $69 at Home Depot. And, I purchased a 3" to 4" rubber sewer pipe adapter. The 4" end slid onto the suction side of the Toro vacuum nice and snug. I removed the vent cap and the 3" fitting slid snug onto the vertical vent pipe.
With the pellet stove door ajar (and turned off), climbed back up on the roof and turned on the Toro and immediately turned it off with my jaw down around my knees and my eyes wide open.
A HUGE plume of black and grey dust cloud was headed across the street and towards my neighbors two story white house, with their white Escalade and white Mercedes parked out front. Luckily, a breeze caught the plume and scattered everything and it disappeared.
So, I rotated the Toro about 30 degrees and the perfect unsuspecting target was headed towards the perfect spot. And two trees were going to block the view. 3 - 2 - 1 ON! First blast plume of black and grey dust. OFF! 3 - 2 - 1 ON AGAIN!! 2nd black plume of black and grey dust.
SUCKERS
Nailed the wacked-out liberal freaks and sent them running That'll teach them to outlaw pellet stoves in our area, along with everything else you can think of.OK. That part didn't happen. But, trust me. It crossed my mind.
Back to reality. I did rotate the vacuum, turned it on and off twice because the plumes of black/grey dust were HUGE and I didn't want to upset the neighbors. O H M Y G O S H ! ! ! I still can't believe how dark and thick the plumes of dust were.
Then, I decided to rotate it so it blew towards my roof. Heck, it's going to rain tomorrow so big deal. So, I turned it on, climbed down off the roof, went back inside and let it run for a few minutes while I tapped on the vent pipe, cleaned the heat exchanger, etc.
Stove runs great.
I would also like to here from someone who has use this trick on a P series Harmon stove to find out how much crap it will pull out of them, before I committ to buying another leaf blower - I have a good leaf blower, but I threw out the vacuum attachment, because I never used it (Grrrr!).
If you can adapt the intake of the blower to your vent pipe you don't need anything else. my WeedEater blower doesn't use any of the vacuum attachments when I suck the ash out of my stove... just one stove pipe coupler and a piece of PVC.Sawduster said:
Believe me you will get lots of ash out of your stove no matter what brand.
I use my leafblower every week as part of my regular cleaning, which includes removing the brick panels cleaning the heat exchangers, its the best $40 ive spent.
I have a 6" pipe exiting the wall with the OAK surrounding the exhaust. it kind of looks like a jet engine. Does anyone else have this set up? If so does the Leafblower trick work?
Thanks Marc
Thanks Marc
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