Which Leaf Blower To buy

I got a Craftsman 200 MPH / 430 cfm off of Craig's List. I got a 3" to 4" rubber plumbing adapter for the hook up.

Give the guy a picture so he can see Sucked the ashes out of 2 stoves this afternoon.

I have a weedeater cheapo electric that used to be the same color as Bio's but it's ash grey now....lol

The Weedeater snout fits right up to the bottom of the cleanout tee 4" with no adapter needed. Might need an adapter for 3......Was cheap (somewhere south of 50 bucks at Blowies)....

Just make sure the business end (where the crap bloiws out) is pointed away from anything even remotely valuable...including you.

I only use mine for suckouts (that don't sound right even though it is)..... Have a high buck gas backpack blower for yard duty.

This was a picture of its maiden run. Sucked carmels out of stove that a mouse had stole and stuffed into the exhaust fan. Saved having to take fan off.

Bioburner said:

Give the guy a picture so he can see Sucked the ashes out of 2 stoves this afternoon.

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Yeah, sure, I just cleaned up my basement and now I can't find anything . Thanks for coming to the rescue with a pic for him!

titanracer said:

Did my 1st deep cleaning today, wishing I had a leaf blower. Maybe buy one with my Christmas gift cards I get. What make and model should I get and where did you buy it. What fittings will I need to hook it all together? By reading previous post on here in the past, I know there is a lot of you guys who have set-ups that work great, would like to get an idea on what to buy and how to hook fitting together. I do have a 3" vent pipe to work with. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!!

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Which ever one blows the best

I go with cheap

Cheapest one you can find, I picked up a B&D at Wally World when they had them on sale a couple of years ago. Just pick one that is going to adapt to your vent without too much trouble. Mine takes a bit of duct tape, but works well.

Unless you have plans to actually use it for blowing leaves. Go CHEEEAAAPPP... At three times a year or 6 minutes a year it will last forever.

I got one of these last February for $20: http://www.echo-usa.com/Products/Shred-N-Vacs/ES-250. Walked into Home Depot on their "get rid of all this stuff that was returned" day. The box was broken up, and it was missing the included sample of 2-cycle oil.

I'll probably go to the Sears parts outlet and get a refurbed electric model for the stove, though. The Echo is really a pretty good machine,esp. for $20.

You are gonna beat on it (not use it for it's intended purpose), so why be pained if it poops out. A landfill special is all thats needed. Just remember to stay away from the business end when sucking and point it away from anything of value unless you want it painted ash grey....

titanracer said:

Did my 1st deep cleaning today, wishing I had a leaf blower. Maybe buy one with my Christmas gift cards I get. What make and model should I get and where did you buy it. What fittings will I need to hook it all together? By reading previous post on here in the past, I know there is a lot of you guys who have set-ups that work great, would like to get an idea on what to buy and how to hook fitting together. I do have a 3" vent pipe to work with. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!!

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In general, there's some Chinese OEM that makes all of these and different brands put their names on them. Here's the one I have:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Homelite-220-mph-350-CFM-12-Amp-Electric-Blower-Vacuum-UT42120/202071356

It's a Homelite leaf blower/vac. The bottom where the air sucks in flips open. That's key, because you need a way to get an adapter to fit between that and the stovepipe.

Anyhow, as I noted, mine is a Homelite, but you'll find an exact match with a Toro and many other brands. They're usually around $40.

The vac part may be useful in connecting to an adapter. I use the vac part to connect to a 4"-3" rubber adapter used for plumbing when connecting PVC pipe to cast iron, etc. Then the 3" rubber opening may connect to your stovepipe. It depends. You kind of have to figure out what works for you, but all the leaf blowers themselves are pretty much the same model.

Its probably been inferred but go electric. Last thing you want to be doing is messing with fuel storage in something you are going to use for 2 minutes at a time.

I like the echo PB 250 it is a handheld unit as is very reliable. I have found many uses for it around the house other than blowing leaves. It runs about 169.00 here on the west coast and occasionally goes on sale.

Sorry for the hijack but do you need to do a leave blower on stoves that don't get ash behind the heat exchanger? I ran the leaf blower on my XXV and there wasn't a lot of ash after cleaning the stove and brushing the pipe

Some stoves designs don't have many hiding places for ash or the venting is straight and little value of burning season use but I think all could use at end.

I had a st croix lancaster that I cleaned that I still could not get over a .1 vac on. I went all thru it, it looked spotless. I went back because it stillwas not burning right. loked up the leaf blower and a bunch of stuff blew out. Hooked the mag back up and bam! .3 vac!! All is good

twodogs02 said:

Sorry for the hijack but do you need to do a leave blower on stoves that don't get ash behind the heat exchanger? I ran the leaf blower on my XXV and there wasn't a lot of ash after cleaning the stove and brushing the pipe

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It's like every step in the cleaning process, you only do it, as you need it. Clearly, you don't need to do it too often. My first leaf blowing this season, I got so little ash, I thought the leaf blower was broken!

chken said:

In general, there's some Chinese OEM that makes all of these and different brands put their names on them. Here's the one I have:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Homelite-220-mph-350-CFM-12-Amp-Electric-Blower-Vacuum-UT42120/202071356

It's a Homelite leaf blower/vac. The bottom where the air sucks in flips open. That's key, because you need a way to get an adapter to fit between that and the stovepipe.

Anyhow, as I noted, mine is a Homelite, but you'll find an exact match with a Toro and many other brands. They're usually around $40.

The vac part may be useful in connecting to an adapter. I use the vac part to connect to a 4"-3" rubber adapter used for plumbing when connecting PVC pipe to cast iron, etc. Then the 3" rubber opening may connect to your stovepipe. It depends. You kind of have to figure out what works for you, but all the leaf blowers themselves are pretty much the same model.

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I am thinking of getting this model.. Would you take a pic of the business end of the blower that hooks to the Exhaust Vent? I have a 4" Vent Pipe so I'm assuming I'll get a standard 4 to 4 rubber sleeve .. does it go around a 4" collar on the blower? A simple Pipe clamp possibly to hold it in place?

Thanks,
Jason

It was a pvc sewer venting adapter I think. I just took the blower over to the plumbing dept with a section of venting and started fitting together.

Due to public demand...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4633582/Screenshots/IMG_0164.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4633582/Screenshots/IMG_0165.jpg

The first is my Homelite leaf blower as in my other post. It comes with a leaf vac attachment. Not all do. I've connected it to a 4" to 3" rubber coupling from the plumbing dept shown in the 2nd pic. Mine was from Ace, but the mfr, makes them for all the plumbing stores. You can get the same one from HD or Lowes, etc. Of course, your stovepipe might be 4" so you don't want a reducing coupling. And, some stove pipes have slightly larger or smaller diameters, so it won't fit everyone's stove pipe.

Just like Bioburner said, what you do, is you bring a piece of your pipe with you to the store and then go to the plumbing dept and try things until you get a fit.

For example, if you don't have the leaf vac attachment, you could use a piece of white PVC to connect your leaf blower to a rubber couple and then to your stove pipe. I did that until I realized the vac attachment could fit to a couple.

I know someone else had a tapered leaf vac attachment and was just able to slip it over his stove pipe for a perfect fit, no rubber couple required. So, it pays to just walk around your plumbing dept with a piece of your stove pipe and the leaf blower you want to buy!

titanracer said:

What is the white piece above rubber fitting, is that part of the blower or something else you have added.



Yes please post a picture of your connection end of all fittings needed to make this work. I have been looking at this same unit. By looking at a lot of pictures of different leaf blowers, there just isn't something completely round there to hook up like a rubber reducer. There always seem to be some plastic that part of blower that extends from it to where it looks like a rubber fitting just won't wrap around something round sticking from blower unit.

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You don't look for a fitting for the blowing end, but the sucking end!