Leaf Blower preference

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Caribfan

Member
Feb 4, 2012
125
Southern Maine
I'm sure this has been covered at some point on this web site, but what is everyones preferred leaf blower? I'm looking for electric, light and cheap. What materials do you use for an "adapter"?
 
I know im new and hate to hijack but I've read this before what is the leaf blower method can somebody post a link for a thread or shoot me a short description
 
Homelite UT42120. $40. I used the first section of the supplied vac tube (gives you a little extra distance away from the house) and taped a 4"-3" PVC adapter on the end. Didn't mod the blower housing in any way. Stupid easy. Works great.
 
I posted earlier today " new tool-sucker" sucked the carmels out of an exaust fan today. Has picture of what I did cost me forty two total.
 
I posted earlier today " new tool-sucker" sucked the carmels out of an exaust fan today. Has picture of what I did cost me forty two total.

I saw it and got a good chuckle. That is what prompted me to post this thread. It is about time to clean it out.
 
Could be put in "Why to use an OAK" . Those dust bunnies and thier kin are hell on pellet stoves!!
 
I'm trying to keep the oaks out, acorns,corn,carmels, fiberglass too. The little vermin just have thier hearts set on a pellet stove of thier own.
 
As for the fiberglass, last season I convinced a whit owner on here to use one on their unit, the mice or whatever had built a nest in the combustion blower cavity out of Owens pink.
 
I usually just duct tape a long piece of dryer vent tubing to the end and blow the ash right into my garden. My neighbors probably wouldn't like the huge ash cloud floating over the neighborhood anyway.
 
I know that a lot of stove owners like this leaf blower trick. I keep wondering though about possible downside to it.
First, I have to assume that the stove door is open when this is done so that the vacuum sensors are not subjected to the extreme low pressure. Then I worry that the combustion blower is seeing much higher velocities than it is designed for. The combustion blower is driven by the moving air just like a wind turbine. The blower housing gaskets are also seeing a much larger pressure difference than normal.
So I have to ask if anyone is seeing higher failure rates of these components since they started using the leaf blower trick.
I am not trying to rain on anybodies sunny day. It's just that after 40 some odd years of trying to anticipate what might go wrong, I have trouble turning it off.
 
I measured my O.D. and my I.D. of my venting and made a trip to the hardware store. I found a 4" reducer (from 5") and cut the vacuum end and Liquid Nails it in there.

I also put a wrap of duct tape on, to make sure I get 100% of the suction through the vent.

Click to enlarge
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I know that a lot of stove owners like this leaf blower trick. I keep wondering though about possible downside to it.
First, I have to assume that the stove door is open when this is done so that the vacuum sensors are not subjected to the extreme low pressure. Then I worry that the combustion blower is seeing much higher velocities than it is designed for. The combustion blower is driven by the moving air just like a wind turbine. The blower housing gaskets are also seeing a much larger pressure difference than normal.
So I have to ask if anyone is seeing higher failure rates of these components since they started using the leaf blower trick.
I am not trying to rain on anybodies sunny day. It's just that after 40 some odd years of trying to anticipate what might go wrong, I have trouble turning it off.

You should replace the metal mount plate on a combustion blower with clear plastic and give it a whirl it doesn't turn the impeller at anywhere close to what the motor does.

There will not be as extreme low pressure as you might think either but if you are worried you can remove the vacuum hose from the barb on the stove end.
 
Combustion motor not running high for very long to possibly score shaft etc. IMO. Open vacuum is harder to produce a serious vacuum to possibly damage seals. Used to service well pumps and thier priming systems. Be fun to hook up the larger vac gauge when I suck out the Harman tomorrow.
 
My combustion blower barely spins when I run the leafboower. Compared to the 3,000 it spins at full tilt, its probably around 60-100 RPM with leafblower running. I can watch and count the RPM's on the cooling fan on the back.of the motor.

As for pressure. Some disconnect the vac line (I do). Others have never done so. No problems so far. :)

Well, unless a clean stove is considered a problem ;em
 
I'm sure this has been covered at some point on this web site, but what is everyones preferred leaf blower? I'm looking for electric, light and cheap. What materials do you use for an "adapter"?

Look for one with the highest volume of air movement. Hightest "CFM" (cubic feet per minute). It needs to have enough air movement to pick up all the fly ash and move it out of the vent pipe. My Electric Toro is rated at 390CFM.

And as said before get one that you can easily adapt to fit your outside pellet vent pipe. My Toro gets a pretty good seal on my 4" vent pipe with it's standard attachments.

I run a vent pipe brush down mine to loosen everything up before I pull a suction on it with the leaf blower.

I get a little creosote and ash build-up on the outside end piece of the vent pipe and screen so I remove it and wash off the creosote with the garden hose and nozzle.


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I need a new leaf blower. Ours doesn't suck so we just put the intake air on our vent and it is really hard to hook up tightly.
 
You should replace the metal mount plate on a combustion blower with clear plastic and give it a whirl it doesn't turn the impeller at anywhere close to what the motor does.

There will not be as extreme low pressure as you might think either but if you are worried you can remove the vacuum hose from the barb on the stove end.
I appreciate your reassurances, but I remain skeptical. A combustion blower moves, perhaps, 100-150 cfm. My leaf blower moves 375 cfm. Why should the driven impeller be moving at a mere 60 rpm. My own experience while rebuilding my Englander 25-pdvc says it is a lot faster. I hooked the blower of my shop vac to the vent of the stove. I turned it off when I heard the whine of the combustion blower motor.
I don't know that it does any harm, but replacement parts are expensive and I am reluctant to risk them for a quick easy cleaning. So I am looking for some empirical data that says failure rates don't increase with use of this technique.
 
I appreciate your reassurances, but I remain skeptical. A combustion blower moves, perhaps, 100-150 cfm. My leaf blower moves 375 cfm. Why should the driven impeller be moving at a mere 60 rpm. My own experience while rebuilding my Englander 25-pdvc says it is a lot faster. I hooked the blower of my shop vac to the vent of the stove. I turned it off when I heard the whine of the combustion blower motor.
I don't know that it does any harm, but replacement parts are expensive and I am reluctant to risk them for a quick easy cleaning. So I am looking for some empirical data that says failure rates don't increase with use of this technique.

You can gather your own data, some combustion blowers have cooling fans that are attached to the same shaft as the impeller so folks on here have seen what happens in real life. There is a huge difference in generating air flow at the ends of an impeller verses sending air flow through the combustion blower cavity they do not result in identical rpms at the motor.
 
Clearances and direction of flow through said impellers. Stove impellers are far from having tollerances so are pretty poor in design to free wheel when air run past. I watched the fan on the stove yesterday that had carmels stuck in and was turning fair when we finally shucked out the candy. Plugged in the stove and it ran at a speed that was far faster. I don't have a optical tach but would shure like one if someone was to get me one.
 
Vacuum gauge that I first hooked up was in pounds. Didn't even register. Hooked up the manometer and only read 1/4 inch of water. Now my stove running with 8 foot of vertical exaust and pellet kit reads 3/4 inch, and the fan is spinning pretty good but not screaming by any means.
All tests with door open. Vaccum switch is safe IMO.
 
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