What vacuum do you recommend for cleaning the unit?

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Mortalis

Mortalis

Member
Nov 15, 2014
22
Southern Mass
My wife and I have been using our Shark Navigator Lift Off to clean the pellet stove after it has cooled enough that the ashes can be handled without a glove. I know, not the best solution. The vacuum works for this but I'm almost positive in saying that the filtration of the unit is not designed for very fine ash and dust.

The Love-less Ash vacuums are expensive and from what I can tell from the reviews, noisy.
There is a relative new-comer in the market, the Powersmith Ash vacuum that is more than half the price, gets high user ratings but is as noisy as the quietest Love-less.

Any other suggestions for an ash vacuum?
 
I think any ash vac is going to be noisy compared to your current solution. It's got to pull a lot of air through a fine filter which means a powerful motor. The previous small shop vac I was using required earplugs. I don't find that to be the case with the Powersmith I recently got. It's loud, but not painfully so ls to require earplugs. I only use it once a week, so the noise wasn't a big concern of mine.

There are several threads on here already discussing ash vacs in general, so try using the search box at the top of the page to read what's already been said.
 
Other thing to remember is that the vac is only used for the stove and a minute or two is all per session. Not like a whole house unit that gets used for a lot more around the house.
 
As much as I like my PowerSmith Ash Vac, I don't think I would use it on a "smart" stove with a digital controller. It doesn't have a ground prong on the plug, and it generates static like crazy.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies. Sometimes one forgets to use a search function on a forum to seek answers.
I will search and see what I can find before continuing this thread.
 
bcarton said:
As much as I like my PowerSmith Ash Vac, I don't think I would use it on a "smart" stove with a digital controller. It doesn't have a ground prong on the plug, and it generates static like crazy.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, haven't heard that as a concern before. Would the fact that the stove itself has a ground lug not help? Not sure if the actual chassis of the stove is grounded of it it's just the board.

Mortalis said:
Thanks everyone for the replies. Sometimes one forgets to use a search function on a forum to seek answers.
Click to expand...

If you have an Ocean State Job Lot nearby they've been carrying the Powersmith vac lately for a good price. That would let you pick one up and carefully try it for noise concerns while still being able to return it.
 
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I paid $40 for my Cleva from Home Depot. It's really loud, but it works quite well, and it was $40! I'll tolerate a little noise for that price, like somebody else said, it runs like 5 minutes/week, not like cleaning the entire home.
 
just never ever buy the country hearth vac.
i've gone into detail elsewhere on the site, but i'll just leave it at that for this post.
my experience was borne out by another site member who experienced the same crappy performance and beyond bad design and engineering of that pos.
 
Bought a small cheap ash vac (brand name eludes me at the time), it is cheap but tolerable. The filter clogs up like crazy, but is easily cleaned.
Proper bags for a good shop vac are crazy expensive, but do work well for dust containment. My shop vac is much more powerful than my ash vac, but I don't always have bags.
 
mchasal said:
Would the fact that the stove itself has a ground lug not help? Not sure if the actual chassis of the stove is grounded of it it's just the board.
Click to expand...
It should help, yes. I would be very surprised if the entire chassis of the stove wasn't tied to ground, I would guess that's a UL requirement. I certainly would NOT vacuum the stove with the stove unplugged. Every time I run my vacuum, I get small static electricity shocks as I approach the stove chassis with the vac nozzle. Static electricity can damage digital electronics at levels well below where you can feel it.
 
I try to run the stoves exhaust fan for as much of the stove cleaning as possible to suck out any errant ash and that would help keep any static from building with the electrical system of the stove being grounded.
 
ParadiseFound said:
I just purchased a ShopVac brand ash vac at Lowe's, it was $99
Click to expand...
I have the same and its loud but works well enough for the job I need it to do. But lord getting the filter cover over the can is a challenge!
 
Regular shop vac with a sheetrock bag. And only clean when stove is stone cold.
 
SXIPro said:
Regular shop vac with a sheetrock bag. And only clean when stove is stone cold.
Click to expand...
Use the HEPA cartridge filter with the shop vac sheet rock bag and you will filter out the finest fly ash particles. A damp towel over the exhaust port will also catch the fine ash.

I put my shop vac outside on the field stone walkway after I vacuum the stove, 'just in case'.
 
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I bought one of those Cleva's for 24 bucks(should have known for that price it was gonna be junk) from HD. Unpacked it, and it was back in the box in less than 2 minutes.
Terrible pos, from the noise it made, it sounded like it would suck the door off the stove, hardly any suction at all.
Got a PowerSmith for around 70 bucks on Amazon, works awesome! It is loud, but we don't care, we just wanted it to do a good job, and it sure does!
 
When I vacuum out the wood insert for its annual cleaning, I put another hose in the regular shop vac and stick it out the window.
 
I found a Power Smith vacuum at Benny's for $70. Only thing I noticed with the build quality has to do with the filter bag which by the way is double layered with a grey colored cloth interior and a fire resistance shinier exterior. The rubbered end that is to be captured under the rim of the top fitting on to the cannister doesnt conform quite as well as it should. The vacuum still seals well enough that dust does not escape while being used and the sound is on par with a small shop vac. For the 5 minutes that the unit is used to clean out the burn pot and reservoir it is easily tolerated. As far as not being grounded, the owner's manual states that the unit is double insulated which negates the need to have a grounded plug. FWIW, our floor vacuum that IS grounded with a three prong plug will exhibit static charge while we are using it also.

I like the accessory holders on the unit so that everything is "self contained". The unit comes with a floor attachment so that the unit could be used as a whole house vacuum if you so desired. One thing I wish it DID have and does not is a cord wrap. I suppose you could wrap the cord around the canister but that's pretty lame if you ask me. 16 feet of cord wrapped around the canister looks cheesy.

All in all with one use under my belt I feel it will do the job rather nicely. We will see once the canister starts to fill a bit more and the filter bag starts to clog how easy it is to clean the unit and the filter bag.
 
I use a small 2 gallon Home Depot Stinger....guess I paid 30 something some years ago..
Sock/Clamp free..
seriously, I don't get enough ash to lug a 5 gallon rig from the basement each time.
has a Paper filter but sock get's all the dust or I would hear about from the Boss...
and No.. I don't use if any Hot embers exist..
 

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I had an old shop vac that got left in the rain once long ago and never sounded the same(always wait for it to die on me but it's still chugging 10 years later). So when I got my stove 4 years ago I bought a hepa filter and duct taped a piece of garden hose on end of vac hose(to reach the nooks and crannies). The stove is close enough that I can put the vac outside the back slider and close dr on hose(just gotta be fast on the really cold days). But it works awesome then just empty and shake the filter downwind after each weekly cleaning!!
 
I use the Power Smith. I love it. Can't say one bad thing about it. As far as the power cord goes, it wraps around the motor nicely. Someone mentioned it was a pain to wrap a 16 ft cord but it's easy if you wrap it around the top. For the money (I paid around $80) it has good suction. I bought the optional micro-tools and it makes light work of my pellet stove. Have had no issues cleaning warm ash. So far it's been going strong since October.
 
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Tonyray said:
I use a small 2 gallon Home Depot Stinger....guess I paid 30 something some years ago..
Sock/Clamp free..
seriously, I don't get enough ash to lug a 5 gallon rig from the basement each time.
has a Paper filter but sock get's all the dust or I would hear about from the Boss...
and No.. I don't use if any Hot embers exist..
Click to expand...
Is the sock over the exhaust port?
 
I also use a PowerSmith ash vacuum and it works great.
 
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