4 Tons, 2 Stoves...Did the leaf blower cleaning this weekend! Wow!

LOL I thought the same thing, should have made a video. I too did the leaf blower trick on my stove yesterday. After reading about it I really only expected to get some ash for a few seconds but mine blew out stuff for over 10 minutes. There was such a big cloud of ash blowing out that one of our neighbors ran over thinking our house was on fire. (Yes, I SHOULD have warned the neighbors before hand. :red: )

Since I've been really anal about cleaning both the stove and the vent I was really shocked at how much stuff came out but the stove is actually burning better than it ever has so, it was certainly worth the effort. :coolsmile:

Instead of a leaf blower, why not use a shop vac? the hose on mine is 2" diameter. Insert hose into outside vent, duck tape to seal, turn vac on and let it run for a while. No outside mess, unless you like seeing a big plume of dust get all over the outside of the house and your neighbors freshly washed car ;P

jjdesch said:

Instead of a leaf blower, why not use a shop vac? the hose on mine is 2" diameter. Insert hose into outside vent, duck tape to seal, turn vac on and let it run for a while. No outside mess, unless you like seeing a big plume of dust get all over the outside of the house and your neighbors freshly washed car ;P

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I have been pondering the leaf blower clean out for the end of season cleaning, but have thought the same thing. My neighbors are close and I really do not want to be un-neighborly and blow all that ash and soot their way. I was thinking the same thing wish a shop vac, or even the ash vac I have. Those leaf blowers have some balls though, don't know if I could get the same results with a vac. I do have a drywall attachment for my shop vac that runs the suction into a five gallon pail of water before exhausting to the outside air. Works great with drywall dust, might work just as well with soot/ash. I'll post those results if and when I try it.

Well, my shop vac is pretty powerful - I would image its probably just as good as an electric leaf blower - I never found the leaf vacuum feature of the electric toro I used to have all that powerful. With a shop vac you can snake the hose all (or almost all) the way in to the stove through the horizontal pipe section coming out your house (provided it is a straight run to the stove).

The leaf blower is really powerful when it come to using it as a vac.
The leaf blower doesn't have an issue about clogging a filter.
Unless your outside vent is within 15 feet, I wouldn't worry about drifting onto the neighbor unless there was wind.
I got that really big gray black cloud. It was real bad for a very few minutes, then light gray for several more minutes. When all was said and done, the snow was only black for about 5 feet, then quickly cleared up in just a few feet more.
I think the next time I run mine, I will turn on the leaf blower, but not plug in the extension cord until I am well away!
Oh, what a change in performance. Lots of bang for your buck with this one.
Still don't know if it adequately cleans the exhaust blower. Haven't taken mine out yet because I am having problems finding gasket material which I am told I must replace if I take out the blower.

Smudge88 said:

Should have video tapped it. Made a difference in my Englander PDV. My girlfriend was dobtful about it working on her GlowKing insert. I got a piece of 3 inch metal dryer vent and snaked it through the cleanout hole in the fireplace to the outside. The Glowking right side baffle can't be cleaned real easy. Plus they don't make these stoves any more so I try to stay away from removing them. Let me tell you, she called me this morning and said the stove is burning like it did a few years ago, nice white ash on the glass!....Great idea from whoever thought of it!

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I think I was the guy who mentioned this (with much doubt from some folks). But I have to give props to my dealer ESES in Dale, WI who used this technique on my stove last year after I had the service dept. come out to cure my slow flame/soothy flame complaint.

Some guys haven't been sold on it.... your mileage may vary.

Can someone explain the process & what this is for? What if we're venting into an existing chimney?

I want to try the leaf blower, but if they are that powerful, is the exhaust fan on all stoves capable of turning the fast with out some sort of breakage or something. I am just afraid of sucking something loose that I can't fix.

Also if I would to do this, I would clean my exhaust pipe out with the shop vac so I could see how much is really coming out of the stove.

chrisasst said:

I want to try the leaf blower, but if they are that powerful, is the exhaust fan on all stoves capable of turning the fast with out some sort of breakage or something. I am just afraid of sucking something loose that I can't fix.

Also if I would to do this, I would clean my exhaust pipe out with the shop vac so I could see how much is really coming out of the stove.

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You're not going to break anything using a leafblower. It's standard operating procedure at my dealer... they've been doing it for many years on thousands of stoves.

You can still clean the soot out of your vent pipe... but you'll be amazed at how much ash comes out. Do a regular cleaning, dump your ashpan, and hook up the 'blower and stand back.

You can use the search feature to see my post about hooking up and using the leafblower plus at least one video.

save$ said:

Still don't know if it adequately cleans the exhaust blower....

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Still recommend pulling the exhaust and room air blowers yearly
for a good cleaning. I use a toothbrush and compressed air.
Blowers almost look like new when finished.

Tried the blower trick.LOVE THE BLOWER TRICK! Turned it on,went inside the house,opened and closed the stove door several times,couldnt beleive the suction against the door.I was using a shop vac from inside the house with 25' of hose outside but this does a better job.

THANKS KROOSER

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.

Hooked up my Poulan gas powered leaf blower yesterday after a good inside cleaning of my old Reliance 2220.
WOW! Must have been a bushel of ash & soot that came out. What a difference in performance! The old timer is burning like new.
Thanks so much for this great idea!

I have a Stihl back pack leaf blower. Pretty heavy duty. Has anyone adapted one of those for this? Might it have to much power, causing damage?
Thanks for the ideas

TZBROWN said:

I have a Stihl back pack leaf blower. Pretty heavy duty. Has anyone adapted one of those for this? Might it have to much power, causing damage?
Thanks for the ideas

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I've never used a backback blower but I really don't think it will do any harm. Most blowers will build up a 140 mph (or more) wind.. that's pretty strong already.

You'll be amazed at how well this works.

I wanna try this on my P68 but i want to do it right..just a few questions
1.Ashpan in or out make a difference?
2.The plate that latches behind the ashpan..leave in out take out?
3.Leave the hopper open or closed?
any other helpful suggestion will be appreciated

Today I bought a Toro Ultra leaf blower and PVC adapters; the stove cleaning will take place tomorrow. I compared the suction power of the leaf blower vs my 6.5 HP shop vac, and the shop vac doesn't event come close. Factor in filter clogging, and I can see why people are reporting such good results with the leaf blower. It's time for cold beers now, will report back tomorrow.

richg said:

Today I bought a Toro Ultra leaf blower..

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I have that one. It kicks ass. I don't use it on the stove but
do blow dry the harley with it after washing and do the usual
leaf cleanup work with it. You won't be disappointed with this one.

How would this work on an insert? It sounds like you use the leaf blower or shop vac attached to the vent out of the house, but for me that means up my chimney 30'. I don't understand, nothing new for me!! Can someone explain?

JB

JB said:

How would this work on an insert? It sounds like you use the leaf blower or shop vac attached to the vent out of the house, but for me that means up my chimney 30'. I don't understand, nothing new for me!! Can someone explain?

JB

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If you had a window close by, you could probably pull the insert out and attach the blower directly to the
back of the stove exhaust outlet (with some sort of adapter of course), then rig up a long piece of - something
that would be flexible and fit over the end of the leaf blower tube and run it right out the window.
That's how I would try it anyway.

HarmanP68 said:

I wanna try this on my P68 but i want to do it right..just a few questions
1.Ashpan in or out make a difference?
2.The plate that latches behind the ashpan..leave in out take out?
3.Leave the hopper open or closed?
any other helpful suggestion will be appreciated

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Ashpan in... have someone open and close the door during the cleaning. Not sure on the hopper but I leave mine closed on my St. Croix... if it's full of pellets it's basically closed anyway.

Have fun... you'll be shocked at the volume of ash coming out!