Buying a leaf blower

Well I'm joining the leaf blower craze to clean my 15 foot 4" flex masonry liner. Could have bought the vacuum kit for my Stihl HS 55 but I decided to just get a dedicated electric blower instead. After reading many posts on the subject here's what I picked up...


Toro 51599 Ultra 12 Amp Variable Speed Electric Blower/Vacuum With Metal Impeller

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...c_mri?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

Final cost $51.96 shipped after an instant rebate


Rutland 17420 Pellet Stove Vent Brush 20'

http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/ProductDetails.aspx?SKU=2130008858

Final cost $22.85 shipped


Any thoughts?

macman said:

Groundhog said:

Rutland 17420 Pellet Stove Vent Brush 20'

http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/ProductDetails.aspx?SKU=2130008858

Final cost $22.85 shipped......

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Yep...the brush is fine, but this is the best, IMO. Mike Holton @ Englander turned me onto this last winter. Does the stove and dryer vent too. You can brush the pipe, and vacuum the ash all at the same time with the vacuum adapter that's included, and you can get extra extension rods for really long pipes:

www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2893251&cid=PPC:257947551

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Looks pretty cool Macman but I am pretty sure the drill option would be out on my chimney. Not really a fan of the screw together rods either. I have a set of fiberglass rods from my wood stove days and was going to just pick up a 4" poly brush but the flexible wire on the one I bought was pretty appealing. We will see. While researching pellet stack cleaning I found a lot of posts on what to do but very few on what to buy. Thanks for the post, your opinion is always appreciated.

packerfan said:

I would just get a cheap, variable speed blower. Thats what I did, and it has worked great for me. If all you are going to use it for is your pellet vent, why spend a lot of money.

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Checked Walmart, Sears, and Amazon for vacuum models and they don't seem to get any cheaper than around $50. I chose the Toro Ultra due to several top ratings including consumer reports and a higher CFM rating than the Weedeater model. My other concern was ease of adapting the intake tube to my liner. Not a lot of posts regarding connecting it so I figure I will have to improvise.

jamesdjs said:

Groundhog said:

Well I'm joining the leaf blower craze to clean my 15 foot 4" flex masonry liner. Could have bought the vacuum kit for my Stihl HS 55 but I decided to just get a dedicated electric blower instead. After reading many posts on the subject here's what I picked up...


Toro 51599 Ultra 12 Amp Variable Speed Electric Blower/Vacuum With Metal Impeller

http://www.amazon.com/Toro-51599-Va...1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1258421266&sr=8-1

Final cost $51.96 shipped after an instant rebate


Rutland 17420 Pellet Stove Vent Brush 20'

http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/ProductDetails.aspx?SKU=2130008858

Final cost $22.85 shipped
Any thoughts?

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Thats the exact model I used when shooting the video. Works great.

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Good to hear you like the Toro, your video post convinced me to give the blower a try. What is your vent diameter? Did you have to cut down or alter the intake tube on the blower?

Update:
The Toro fits perfectly on a 4" flex liner so it is looking pretty promising. It is a perfect snug fit, no alterations or adapters needed. Just waiting for my brush to arrive to give it a try. Planning on slipping it over the liner in my masonry chimney and plugging it in from the ground. I will have to bust out the flip video camera for this one.

Re-post from https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/46934/ for those of you who answered all my questions on this thread, thanks...

Finally found the time to clean my 4" stainless liner this weekend using my new Toro 51599 Ultra Leaf BlowerVacuum. Burned about 4.5 tons prior to the cleaning.



Steps were as follows:

1) Unplug stove and let it cool for a while

2) Removed the rear baffles on the stove and opened the door

3) Removed the chimney rain cap and brushed liner with a 4" pellet stove brush

5) Slipped the blower vacuum inlet over the liner pipe and secured with duct tape

6) Turned on blower and let run till exhaust air stream was clean then shut down

7) Vacuumed entire interior of stove and replaced baffles leaving door open

8) Ran blower again with baffles in until exhaust air stream was clear

7) Replaced rain cap and tested stove

Higher Res Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNnlXewOCQ

Xena said:

looks like fun! I have that same leaf blower and it does
a helluva job in the yard.

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It was a blast. I was thinking of using the bagging attachment to cut down on the cloud but the wind seemed to be cooperating.