Help with leaf blower trick

westcafe said:

Our stove pipe goes into a flue of our chimney. How would I clean with the leaf blower trick?
UPDATE:
ok so I took the vent pipe off the flue and hooked up the shop vac to the 3" pipe with duct tape and turned on. I am assuming it worked ok, unfortunately I didn't get to see the black cloud of smoke you all get with the leaf blower. The vac was really full of black soot.

Click to expand...

Yep, some members who have their pipe running up their chimney who can't/don't want to climb up on the roof have used the shop vac method you tried. As long as it's a powerful unit, it should work pretty well.

Anything like that is still better than doing nothing, and since you say the vac had a lot of black soot in it, I'd guess it worked fairly well. BTW, I hope you had a filter on it that removes ash, like a drywall bag, or HEPA filter, or had the exhaust going out a door/window.

I don't think the shop vac is a strong as the leaf blower but unless you an get on the roof to do it from there the shop vac may be the best way to go.
I bet your vac filter is prettu clogged after you used it.

Just a thought. If your Shop Vac can also be used as a blower, you might want to run it through a couple of "cycles".

Vacuum the liner once
Change over to blower mode and blow the liner out.
Vacuum again

Does anyone think they still need to use a 4 inch brush after the leaf blower? I get alot of stuff comming out when I use the suction on the blower. The pipe looks very clean. I just havent used the brush at all. I suck it out once a month.

investor7952 said:

Does anyone think they still need to use a 4 inch brush after the leaf blower? I get alot of stuff comming out when I use the suction on the blower. The pipe looks very clean. I just havent used the brush at all. I suck it out once a month.

Click to expand...

As good as the leaf blower method is, it mainly removes loose ash from inside the stove, and whatever little bit that's loose inside the pipe.

IMO, I think the pipe should still be brushed, and THEN do the leaf blower trick.

I used the Lint-Eater before burning season started, and the inside of the pipe looked almost like new.

macman said:

investor7952 said:

Does anyone think they still need to use a 4 inch brush after the leaf blower? I get alot of stuff comming out when I use the suction on the blower. The pipe looks very clean. I just havent used the brush at all. I suck it out once a month.

Click to expand...

IMO, I think the pipe should still be brushed, and THEN do the leaf blower trick.

Click to expand...

thats how I get that big black cloud in my avatar. always brush first.

I made a thread on just leaf blower cleaning pics, everyone that has pic's post them up in there plus post the leaf blower you have and where you got it.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/45940/

westcafe said:

macman said:

westcafe said:

Our stove pipe goes into a flue of our chimney. How would I clean with the leaf blower trick?
UPDATE:
ok so I took the vent pipe off the flue and hooked up the shop vac to the 3" pipe with duct tape and turned on. I am assuming it worked ok, unfortunately I didn't get to see the black cloud of smoke you all get with the leaf blower. The vac was really full of black soot.

Click to expand...

Yep, some members who have their pipe running up their chimney who can't/don't want to climb up on the roof have used the shop vac method you tried. As long as it's a powerful unit, it should work pretty well.

Anything like that is still better than doing nothing, and since you say the vac had a lot of black soot in it, I'd guess it worked fairly well. BTW, I hope you had a filter on it that removes ash, like a drywall bag, or HEPA filter, or had the exhaust going out a door/window.

Click to expand...

yes it has a filter and it is a mess, probably will need a new one after this

Click to expand...

What I used to do before buying a ash vac is take a old t-shirt and cut it apart so I could put it over my shop vac filter. I would wet it down and wring it out very well and then rubber band it onto the paper filter. This works very well and can also be used for sucking up drywall dust and having it stick to the wet t-shirt. When you hear the vac laboring, as you would when a paper filter got clogged, I just wash the t-shirt and start over if I have more to do. I works very well and you don't need to buy special filter covers. If you do this the shirt needs to be just damp and not dripping wet.

Bkins

westcafe said:

Our stove pipe goes into a flue of our chimney. How would I clean with the leaf blower trick?
UPDATE:
ok so I took the vent pipe off the flue and hooked up the shop vac to the 3" pipe with duct tape and turned on. I am assuming it worked ok, unfortunately I didn't get to see the black cloud of smoke you all get with the leaf blower. The vac was really full of black soot.

Click to expand...

I'm having trouble picturing this. We have a P61A and the vent runs up our chimney, there is the pipe coming from the back of the stove and attaches to an elbow and some kind of bendable tube that gets to the rest of the vent pipe in the chimney. Are you saying you detached from somewhere in the back of the stove and vacummed it out or attached to the chimney and blew it out? I've been wanting to try the leaf blower trick but since mine goes up the chimney I haven't.

I posted a thread last year on how I converted an old shop vac for cleaning. https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/36637/
As noted by myself and others, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much suction form a shop vac motor as from a leaf blower.
Well, I got lucky about a month ago and snagged a Craftsman electric leaf blower/vacuum second hand for $35.00. I had already done the yearly cleaning though, so won't be trying the unit on the stove until later this winter.
If you look at the last picture in the referenced thread, there is a large foam rubber plug that I made up, mounted on a piece of threaded rod. I used it to block off the exhaust pipe leading up from the back of the stove into the older Selkirk chimney so that the suction would be pulling only on the inside of the stove. I inserted it by removing the cleanout Tee cap. This should work to allow the leaf blower to clean out the stove's innards without loosing suction from pulling air down the flue pipe.
I had less luck trying to block off the stove outlet to allow suction down the flue pipe only. Just no way to wiggle a plug up the cleanout Tee and right angle into the stove outlet. But, after doing a cleaning of the exhaust fan, I can see where I could plug the stove outlet from the inside of the outlet, with the fan removed.
FWIW, I'd settle for plugging the flue pipe and leaf-vaccing the stove. Simply make an adapter to attach a hose to the pipe where the clean-out cap is, plug the flue, and let 'er rip. I'll post a DIY when I do this myself later this season.

Bigjim13 said:

westcafe said:

Our stove pipe goes into a flue of our chimney. How would I clean with the leaf blower trick?
UPDATE:
ok so I took the vent pipe off the flue and hooked up the shop vac to the 3" pipe with duct tape and turned on. I am assuming it worked ok, unfortunately I didn't get to see the black cloud of smoke you all get with the leaf blower. The vac was really full of black soot.

Click to expand...

I'm having trouble picturing this. We have a P61A and the vent runs up our chimney, there is the pipe coming from the back of the stove and attaches to an elbow and some kind of bendable tube that gets to the rest of the vent pipe in the chimney. Are you saying you detached from somewhere in the back of the stove and vacummed it out or attached to the chimney and blew it out? I've been wanting to try the leaf blower trick but since mine goes up the chimney I haven't.

Click to expand...

Hey Bigjim13,
Despite all the buzz there seems to be little practical information on how this works on a masonry stack. I believe the drill is to use the vacuum inlet on the blower to suck the fly ash out through the top. No detaching anything, just open the stove door to allow air flow. I just purchased a blower and plan on trying this next weekend when my brush comes in. Have run 4.5 tons through my stove so I need to do something. I pretty much have the same setup so I will post on how it works. I have a 4' flex liner, might want to check the diameter of yours. Since most chimneys are 8" square I would imagine there is plenty of space to adapt the leaf blower to the stack.

Groundhog said:

Bigjim13 said:

westcafe said:

Our stove pipe goes into a flue of our chimney. How would I clean with the leaf blower trick?
UPDATE:
ok so I took the vent pipe off the flue and hooked up the shop vac to the 3" pipe with duct tape and turned on. I am assuming it worked ok, unfortunately I didn't get to see the black cloud of smoke you all get with the leaf blower. The vac was really full of black soot.

Click to expand...

I'm having trouble picturing this. We have a P61A and the vent runs up our chimney, there is the pipe coming from the back of the stove and attaches to an elbow and some kind of bendable tube that gets to the rest of the vent pipe in the chimney. Are you saying you detached from somewhere in the back of the stove and vacummed it out or attached to the chimney and blew it out? I've been wanting to try the leaf blower trick but since mine goes up the chimney I haven't.

Click to expand...

Hey Bigjim13,
Despite all the buzz there seems to be little practical information on how this works on a masonry stack. I believe the drill is to use the vacuum inlet on the blower to suck the fly ash out through the top. No detaching anything, just open the stove door to allow air flow. I just purchased a blower and plan on trying this next weekend when my brush comes in. Have run 4.5 tons through my stove so I need to do something. I pretty much have the same setup so I will post on how it works. I have a 4' flex liner, might want to check the diameter of yours. Since most chimneys are 8" square I would imagine there is plenty of space to adapt the leaf blower to the stack.

Click to expand...

So are you going to disconnect the pipe and pull the stove out to attach the blower to the back? Oh wait, just reread-no disconnecting. How do you plan on doing it then? Are you going to attach the blower to the pipe at the top of the chimney and then suck it out?

Bigjim13 said:

Groundhog said:

Bigjim13 said:

westcafe said:

Our stove pipe goes into a flue of our chimney. How would I clean with the leaf blower trick?
UPDATE:
ok so I took the vent pipe off the flue and hooked up the shop vac to the 3" pipe with duct tape and turned on. I am assuming it worked ok, unfortunately I didn't get to see the black cloud of smoke you all get with the leaf blower. The vac was really full of black soot.

Click to expand...

I'm having trouble picturing this. We have a P61A and the vent runs up our chimney, there is the pipe coming from the back of the stove and attaches to an elbow and some kind of bendable tube that gets to the rest of the vent pipe in the chimney. Are you saying you detached from somewhere in the back of the stove and vacummed it out or attached to the chimney and blew it out? I've been wanting to try the leaf blower trick but since mine goes up the chimney I haven't.

Click to expand...

Hey Bigjim13,
Despite all the buzz there seems to be little practical information on how this works on a masonry stack. I believe the drill is to use the vacuum inlet on the blower to suck the fly ash out through the top. No detaching anything, just open the stove door to allow air flow. I just purchased a blower and plan on trying this next weekend when my brush comes in. Have run 4.5 tons through my stove so I need to do something. I pretty much have the same setup so I will post on how it works. I have a 4' flex liner, might want to check the diameter of yours. Since most chimneys are 8" square I would imagine there is plenty of space to adapt the leaf blower to the stack.

Click to expand...

So are you going to disconnect the pipe and pull the stove out to attach the blower to the back? Oh wait, just reread-no disconnecting. How do you plan on doing it then? Are you going to attach the blower to the pipe at the top of the chimney and then suck it out?

Click to expand...

Yep the plan is to attach it to the top of the chimney and suck it out. Planning on slipping the blower nozzle over the 4' flex pipe and plugging the blower in from the ground. Checked the fit today and the Toro I bought fits perfectly over the 4" flex liner. Since you have a 3" liner you could probably need to get a rubber sewer line reducer at the depot to get a fit. Here's some pics I snapped when checking the fit.