VC Vigilant users

How do you clean the ashes out of the hard to reach baffle area of your stove?

For the upper chambers I remove the baffle plate just inside the exhaust and vacuum out the upper baffles.

For the lower chamber at the reburn I recently utilized an old paintbrush. With that, I was able to get far inside the baffle chamber to pull the ash out. Some people have doctored extensions for their shop vac hoses that could be fed into the baffles and vacuum the ash out that way.

If it happens that you've got a 2 pc. fireback, then the whole fireback assy. can be re moved! Look for the head of a bolt in the upper right corner of the fireback, 7/16". If you have that bolt there, cool. If not, well you gotta do it the hard way( not all that hard really) Somewhere in cyberland someone here could direct you to instuctions for Vig. IC or Vig. II fireback removal, I should think.

Although I don't burn a VC product currently, I've had both a Defiant and a Vigilant for years and years. I enjoyed removing the stove pipe and vacuuming behind the damper and then simply using a shopvac to vacuum all primary and secondary air channels.

Bill

I don't worry much about the upper parts of the baffle. I let the chimney sweep handle that when he comes. When I am scooping out ash from the box, I like to use a flat piece of wood, a 12 inch ruler is good, to reach back in there and sweep as much ash forward as possible. I do this every time so there is not much build up. I can't reach all the way to the back corner, though. A longer stick would not allow me to get the ruler back there in the first place. But it does an adequate job of keeping the ash below the secondary air holes in the fireback.