WOW. Near disaster. This topic may seem obvious to seasoned pellett burners but if it spares anyone a disaster or worse it is worth posting.
I had a half day at work today for the holidays. Before leaving for work at six this morning I shut off the stove planning to clean it when I got home. Around 1 PM I arrived home and vacuumed out the stove and cleaned the glass. Good, boy, thinketh I, doing these routine maintenance chores before guests start arriving in earnest. A half hour later I noted with some alarm there was smoke coming out the tube of the shop vac. Being a curious sort I opened it up to see what was up. The filter was ablaze. Thanks to crises management classes at work I analyzed the situation.
1) Why am I concerned? Because my house is about to burn down.
2) Does this situation warrant immediate action or would sleeping on it produce a better result? No this is a major league yahoo frickin' disaster that warrants immediate action
3) What actions can I take to yeild a positive result? Haul the burning vacuum into the front yard and kick the thing out into the snow.
I'd have thought a six hour cool down period would have been enough to extinguish any embers. If you're never going to see me on Jeporady I still consider myself a reasonably intelligent person so you might think the same. NOT THE CASE. In retrospect the vacuum not only sucked up those remaining embers it provided the oxygen necessary to reignite them. Were it not for that telltale puff of smoke (which none of the smoke detectors caught onto) right now I'd likely be watching the local fire company hose down the ashes of my home and it's contents and possibly bagging and tagging my stupid ass.
I don't know how long it takes for those last remaining embers to cool off. Again it's longer than six hours. In the future my plan is to make sure all ash is cool to the touch, but still to put the shop vac out of doors on the driveway away from anything combustible while I figure this quandry out. I lost an 80 dollar vacuum. You could lose a whole lot more. Learn from my abject stupidity.
Happy holidays, merry Christmas, or whatever is appropriate to your life. I hate to post here and admit just how stupid I was, but again if it spares just one of you a similar disaster I'll be a fool for you.
I had a half day at work today for the holidays. Before leaving for work at six this morning I shut off the stove planning to clean it when I got home. Around 1 PM I arrived home and vacuumed out the stove and cleaned the glass. Good, boy, thinketh I, doing these routine maintenance chores before guests start arriving in earnest. A half hour later I noted with some alarm there was smoke coming out the tube of the shop vac. Being a curious sort I opened it up to see what was up. The filter was ablaze. Thanks to crises management classes at work I analyzed the situation.
1) Why am I concerned? Because my house is about to burn down.
2) Does this situation warrant immediate action or would sleeping on it produce a better result? No this is a major league yahoo frickin' disaster that warrants immediate action
3) What actions can I take to yeild a positive result? Haul the burning vacuum into the front yard and kick the thing out into the snow.
I'd have thought a six hour cool down period would have been enough to extinguish any embers. If you're never going to see me on Jeporady I still consider myself a reasonably intelligent person so you might think the same. NOT THE CASE. In retrospect the vacuum not only sucked up those remaining embers it provided the oxygen necessary to reignite them. Were it not for that telltale puff of smoke (which none of the smoke detectors caught onto) right now I'd likely be watching the local fire company hose down the ashes of my home and it's contents and possibly bagging and tagging my stupid ass.
I don't know how long it takes for those last remaining embers to cool off. Again it's longer than six hours. In the future my plan is to make sure all ash is cool to the touch, but still to put the shop vac out of doors on the driveway away from anything combustible while I figure this quandry out. I lost an 80 dollar vacuum. You could lose a whole lot more. Learn from my abject stupidity.
Happy holidays, merry Christmas, or whatever is appropriate to your life. I hate to post here and admit just how stupid I was, but again if it spares just one of you a similar disaster I'll be a fool for you.