guide me to the right vacuum

I use a 6 gal Shop Vac that I bought from Lowes. I also bought the hepa filter and I use bags too for easy cleaning of the vac. Been doing it this way for 4 years now....works great for me and at a minimal cost ;-)

lots of people are talkin about those $200 ash vac's.
They like them and they work.

I got a shop vac with hepa filter, works great !
Many posts here about that.

Been there, done, that. For a pellet stove, a shop vac and some common sense was the right choice for me. I bought a 6 gallon shop vac from Lowes, Clean Stream HEPA filter and standard bags to easily dispose of the ashes and I'm very satisfied with my choice.

I still use a shovel and a bucket for the wood stove. Then the shop vac for final touch up.

I don't vacuum wood burning appliances until they are good and cold.


Edit - Haha, walked away for a while then posted and noticed the other people beat me to it.

lightyear,
Is this the one you were looking for??? https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/37587/

I have a Loveless Ash Vac, they are expensive but I've used mine now for 3 years, never have to replace any paper filters, and I dont have to wait several hours for the stove to cool down.

Most people use a regular shop vac with hepa or drywall filter, and thats fine. Whatever you can afford to get the job done is good. I chose an Ash Vac because it can suck up hot ash, and I dont have to worry about it.

The Ash Vac is very well made, and mine has a 10 year warranty on the motor which is good. You can buy several good shop vacs for what you will pay for just one Ash Vac, but in my opinion the Ash Vac is a tool, its part of the arsenal I use to keep my stove clean.

I just picked a ash vac at menards for 49 bux on sale. It seems to work good. It is all metal can I did not see any ash come tho into the room when i used it. It is a lot cheaper then any one I could find online.

I also use a 6 gallon Shop-Vac with HEPA cartridge filter and fine-particle collection bag to suction the ash/soot out of my stove, which I do every few days. The collection bag traps even the finest ash which keeps the filter clean for a much longer time, and no soot or ash is blown into the air, works very well, and it only cost me $50 on Amazon. It came with a disposable fine-particle collection bag as well as a HEPA cartridge filter.

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Vac-9650...XE/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1294450633&sr=8-13

Nicholas440 said:

I have a Loveless Ash Vac, they are expensive but I've used mine now for 3 years, never have to replace any paper filters, and I dont have to wait several hours for the stove to cool down..

Click to expand...

+1

I also use a home depot 5Hp shop vac with the drywall bags and it works like a champ, no issues at all!

I bought my ash vac at menards on sale for 49.99 woorks good for the price. Before that i used a stanley 5 gallon stainless steel shop vac that menards has on sale now for 29.99 with a dry wall bag filter.

I just use a regular Craftsman 16 gallon shop vacuum with no issues. Sometime in the future I will upgrade the filter on it but for now I use a real long hose and leave the vacuum out side when using it and I dump it after every use.
The dedicated ash vacuums sound nice but they will not pick up anything but ash and I have a hard time justifying the $$$ they want from them.

Not sure if you're close to Allentown, PA but here's a nice deal on Craigslist for a Cheetah II MU305. $120 is a very fair price. If you can pick it up for $100 it's a steal.

http://allentown.craigslist.org/for/2140664199.html