Got me a LEAF Blower

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Snowy Rivers

Minister of Fire
Feb 7, 2010
1,810
NW Oregon
The little stove has been sooting up the glass far faster than it used to and I dont want to rip the thing all apart to clean the tiny nooks and cranies.

So tonight I stopped off and bought a little electric leaf blower at Ace hardware for $60

Fooled around looking through the plumbing fittings and found just the right BUSHING, that with a little trip through my lathe will fit the Blower as well as the Pellet pipe.

Looking forward to giving the stove a reeeeeeeeeeeeeal sucking out this weekend.

With all that wind going through the thing, it should rid the beast of all the fine stuff that normal cleaning can't begin to touch.

Can't help thinking about the fellow who hooked his leaf rig up backwards.

Will report back on how well the suck job does.

Snowy
 
When I use mine it pulls the pellets that were at the top of the flight down into the burn pot.

Just don't point it at anything you don't want totally dusted.
 
Made mine a couple years ago after reading koosers post. And it still is holding up..Used a section of pipe stuffed into the cutoff suction tube and some electrical wrap. Does wonders for my stove. The first time I used it was the wildest(black soot), now the soot is mostly grayish.
 

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Is there a minimum size blower/vac recommended? Most electric models seem to all be pretty close in CFM or MPH.
 
I cant get up to my chimney cap, so i'm wondering with a few adapters i could hook it up at the rear of stove and the blow my exhaust pipe up the chimney, few years ago my 3" pipe was blocked with creosote material and just blew out my pipe from the back of stove upwards.
 
My Troy-Bilt is rated at 240 mph and 450 cfm's. Like Smokey stated above, it will pull pellets from the flight and ash from the inside of the stove. One of my favorite cleaning tools. Make life much easier.
 
Snowy Rivers said:
The little stove has been sooting up the glass far faster than it used to and I dont want to rip the thing all apart to clean the tiny nooks and cranies.

So tonight I stopped off and bought a little electric leaf blower at Ace hardware for $60

Fooled around looking through the plumbing fittings and found just the right BUSHING, that with a little trip through my lathe will fit the Blower as well as the Pellet pipe.

Looking forward to giving the stove a reeeeeeeeeeeeeal sucking out this weekend.

With all that wind going through the thing, it should rid the beast of all the fine stuff that normal cleaning can't begin to touch.

Can't help thinking about the fellow who hooked his leaf rig up backwards.

Will report back on how well the suck job does.

Snowy


pics or it didn't happen

:lol:
 
PICCY"s it is then.

The weather is dreadful this morning and I still need to modify the little plastic adapter piece before I can use it.

I was wondering, will the massive airflow coming through the stove bother the exhaust fan.

The flow will likely spin the exhaust fan at WARP speed me thinks.

My exhaust pipe on the little stove is only 2 feet long.

I am looking forward to doing this little trick.

The Blower came with a LEAF Bag and I am thinking that using it may be a great idea to contain the huge black cloud of crap thats sure to come from within the stoves innards

Snowy
 
I thought the same thing. Mine only spins, maybe 100 RPM's. You can count them its so slow. No worries. Blow away. Did u buy a PVC adapter of some sort. That's what I used. Will take a pic when I get home from work. I like to see as many different set-ups as possible. Everyones my be a little different. But ALL have the same end result. Love this Forum!
 
Snowy Rivers said:
PICCY"s it is then.

I am looking forward to doing this little trick.

The Blower came with a LEAF Bag and I am thinking that using it may be a great idea to contain the huge black cloud of crap thats sure to come from within the stoves innards

Snowy

I seriously doubt the fan will be affected. BTW, don't forget to do the leaf blower AFTER a full cleaning to max effect. Banging the back wall of the firebox will help, and opening & closing the front door too.

As for the vacuum bag.....I don't think it will work....my guess the ash will goes right through. Better to blow it away and let the rain wash it into the soil.
 
I bought an ABS pipe adapter thats almost perfect.

It will nearly slide into the blowers "SUCK" adapter and almost slide over the Pellet pipe.

I will stuff that puppy in the lathe and take a little bit off the inside and out, so it will fit just right.

My little stove does not have all the "back Passages" as does the larger stove.

The heat/flame/exhaust goes up through the heat exchanger then straight back through a cast iron housing and then the fan and out the back of the stove right at the top.

The Original "Prodigy" did not even have an exhaust fan, but instead required a full height chimney to even function.

The room air fan has a "shunt tube" that adds a small amount of air to the firepot to help the burn.

The combustion air varies with the fan speed which varies with the fuel seting.

Each progressively higher heat setting sets the fan speed a little higher.

Never seen a setup quite like this one, but it works.


The later version of this stove (like mine) has an exhaust housing "Booster fan"
This helps things a lot, plus makes the stove capable of using a direct vent.


The vent on my stove is right near an outdoor stairway, so I am decidedly cautious about making a nasty MESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS all over the stairs.

I was not real hapy with the choices I had for vent locations on that end of the house, so I chose the lesser of the evils.

Under running condtions, the vent is fine, with no soot or such on the steps or the house.

I will work through it the first time and learn from the experience.

If it gets messssssy, then I will make changes to the M O .

Hmmmmm maybe I can run the BLOWER while the stove is burning and save haivng to shut it off :bug:

Now that would be interesting, FLAMES coming out the leaf blower.

The plastic unit might not fare well me thinks.

Snowy
 
Snowy don't give them any ideas about using the leaf blower as a flame thrower.

They already have enough ways to injure themselves or make a mess of things.
 
I'm still kinda new to the pellet world and wonder how the leaf blower thing works. Do you do it from the inside of the house and blow all the ash outside? My pellet stove is an insert so would it still work blowing it up in the chimney or would it just fall back down from the chimney cap? Sorry for the dumb questions but thanks for the help : )
 
You use a leaf blower with a vacuum function. Stick vacuum end on the end of your flue outside and it sucks the ash out. This is done after a Good Clening
 
Snowy Rivers said:
PICCY"s it is then.

The weather is dreadful this morning and I still need to modify the little plastic adapter piece before I can use it.

I was wondering, will the massive airflow coming through the stove bother the exhaust fan.

The flow will likely spin the exhaust fan at WARP speed me thinks.

My exhaust pipe on the little stove is only 2 feet long.

I am looking forward to doing this little trick.

The Blower came with a LEAF Bag and I am thinking that using it may be a great idea to contain the huge black cloud of crap thats sure to come from within the stoves innards

Snowy

Here, on this link, you will find someone using the bag with the leaf blower for cleaning their pellet stove. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw1HXA89joc Look around and you will find other videos of others doing their leaf blower thing. I can understand you not wanting the big mess, but that can be some of the fun of the whole thing. Using it after each ton of pellets burned only gives me a gray cloud. Not the big black one that was like the smoke monster that was on the "lost" show. Got that the first time but not since.
 
I used a 4" to 3 1/2" PVC reducer. Cut down the vacuum tube, till the 4" end fit snug. A little Liquid Nails around the inside and outside, to seal and affix to the unit. Not an expensive set up. The best tool to have in your bag of pellet tricks!
:: Edit... I need to learn how to rotate pics. They are right side up when I'm posting them. Sorry if you get a kink in your neck ::
 

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A good adapter to use for leafblower cleaning purpose, is a black rubber "fernco" of the proper size.
They're available in the plumbing isle of your favorite store!
 
Do you set the stove to low or just keep at max flame for a good CLEAN ?

Please show pics..

:)
 
Taperbill said:
Do you set the stove to low or just keep at max flame for a good CLEAN ?

Please show pics..

:)

Holy Sheeet, I want a picture of THAT SHOW!!! :sick:
 
Taperbill said:
Do you set the stove to low or just keep at max flame for a good CLEAN ?

Please show pics..

:)

Depends upon how fast you can stomp out all of the fires you could start.

Most of us geezers can't move that fast so we do the leaf blower routine with the stove off and cold.
 
UPDATE

Ok, the weather is dreadful outside but I got out the new leaf blower and machined the adapter piece and got it all set to go.

Cleaned the stove in the usual manner and then hooked the sucker up to the pipe.

OMG the crap that came out of that thing was horrific. Its no wonder that the door glass
was smoking up fairly quick and the fire was not its usual lively sort.

Tossed a fire right back in the little critter and OHHHHHH MY what a difference.

Leaf blowers should be a part of the stove maintenance kit from the factory me thinks.

200 MPH wind sure has a way of getting soot a moooooooooving.

Had a family member watch the blades on the exhaust fan, and it was really a haulin I am told.

I am looking forward to using the blower on the Big Whitfield in the near future.


Hmmmm just thought about something.

I ya find that a batch of beeeeeeees has moved into the pipe, just hook the blower up and suck their Butts out.

Not sure that they would like the trip through the fan though.

Here is a couple pix of things this morning.

The 45 angle cap is off the vent in the pix.

Its a TORO blower, cheapy but it works well.


Snowy
 

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I will try and snap a Piccy of the show, the next time I do it.

The weather was nasty today with heavy wind and rain. I managed the two snapshots early when it was not really bad out.


I tried to post this message a few minutes ago, but we were right in the middle of a huge downpour with lightning and hail and my satelite internet would not work for about 10 minutes.

Not often that the internet stops.
The satelite TV will scew up too during those types of events.


Snowy
 
I just happened to look at the same toro leaf blower a week or so ago at ace. I got to pick one up since it worked so well for you, and next stove cleaning I'll finish up with the old vac trick!!
 
I have an old one in the back of the shed.

Must have a go.

I wonder if it would work with a Garn?
 
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