OK. Just finished my weekly cleaning, and here's what I do: hit off button, get dressed and shovel a path from the garage to the back door, which is next to the stove. I place the Crafstman shop vac w/ the standard filter out there, in the ON position, and put the hose and the power cord next to the door. I make sure there is an unopened bag of pellets inside. Stir up the ash with my favorite stove tool, a 12 inch gasket scraper, from Sears or an auto parts store. While the stove cools, I scrape the area around the burnpot, wearing my second favorite stove tool, an LED headlamp. I look like a geek, but who cares? I can see inside, where I need to. Oh, I am wearing rubber gloves by now. Around this time the blower shuts down, and I start to vac and scrape. I use the unoopened bag of pellets to hold the door as closed as possible. I have never had a problem, nor do I care, about dust or fires, becasue my 9 year old vac is outside, and if it catches fire, I'll have an excuse to buy the new one I've been looking at. That one I MIGHT be more careful with. Keep in mind that I have been doing this for 4 years. I would NOT use a vac inside that was not made for this work. Also, my combustion air blower sqeals for about a half hour, and then starts to quiet down. I have taken apart, cleaned, lubricated, adjusted, and while I can change the sound pitch by pressing on the motor, and loosening or tightening the mounting, it still sounds like metal on metal until it is up to temp. I tried Mike's airwash hole thing with no change.
