Specific ash vac recommendation

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heffergm

Member
Hearth Supporter
Nov 24, 2009
162
South Shore, MA
I was hoping to get some info on what ash vac to get for a specific task I'll need to use it for: vacuuming out the rear baffles of my encore via the bypass damper (ie from the inside, rather than by removing the collar which I can't do because of my intallation).

I can get back there with the regular house vac, but it'll destroy it if I keep doing that, never mind the wife. Basically, I need a very thin, very flexible hose. I know some have longer rigid extensions at the end, which I need to avoid if I want to thread the thing through the bypass.
 
I have the cheta ash vac, with steel hose. Seems to work well. Have used it 2 years now with occaisional sucking up of hot ember. No compliants, in fact sits near the insert to clean out 2x a week.
 
I have the Cheetah ash vac also - not happy with it, really. For it to work right, you have to vacuum at right angles to the stove box floor - if you don't, it will suck up a lot of cinders and clog itself. Problem is my stove box is small, so a right angle means a really bent hose, which failed after a short period of time. And, those hose rusted when I kept this vac in the basement over the summer (you would think it was a stainless steel hose, but I guess not).

If you had a big stove box, I could see where it would work better. But frankly, all I use it for now is to keep the dust down when I shovel out ashes, and to clean up dry ashes and debris from around the stove. I could have paid a lot less for something to do just that.
 
You should be able to stick a length of flexible hose onto the end. I do that with my shopvac when I connect it to my random orbit sander.
 
Cheetah makes an attachment for pellet stoves and small nooks and crannies. I know a lot of folks dont like to buy stuff when they can just make it themselves, so this is how my installer did it. He found a rubber plug, the right size to fit into the end of the vac hose, drilled a hole thru it, attached a 3' length of what looks like 1/2" diameter plastic hose (says he found it in a place that sells parts for fish tanks) and it works like a charm. Me? I would spend 15 bucks and get the cheetah premade version...possibly
 
Next time I'm in the hearth store, I'll check out the Cheetah attachment. That sounds like it might work better for me.
 
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