Does everyone here just use a shop vac, not an ash vac? Is the only difference the ash vac is metal? I started using my shop vac because I had to order the ash vac and had to wait for it to arrive. Now I'm thinking I should just save the $80, return the ash vac, and just use my shop vac. So far I've hardly ever had any ashes, so anything I vacuum up will be easy to make sure it completely cool before I do. Plus I imagine the shop vac I more powerful anyway, and probably does a better job.
Jjk, I was just coming back to this thread to make a confession: I just ordered a Powersmith Ash Vacuum from Mill Fleet Farm.
We used the Shop Vac when we first installed the pellet stove. In terms of cleaning the pellet stove, there's nothing better, IMHO, if you have a good filter and drywall filter bags. A Shop Vac with a clean filter has
great suction.
I asked for a warm ash vacuum for Christmas a couple of years ago, though, for a couple of reasons. Our Napoleon is one of those pellet stoves whose burn pot really likes to be clean; if pellets are the least bit ashy, the Napoleon will make a clinker in a day. The burn pot is round and deep and it has a tendency to collect ash (and make clinkers) even with the best pellets. I find myself shutting down the pellet stove to empty the burn pot more days than not.
If I'm going to shut down the stove to empty the burn pot, I might as well clean it while it's down.
Typically we shut the stove down for several hours to clean it, in order to make absolutely sure that we are not sucking an ember up into the Shop Vac. During the shoulder seasons, that's not an issue- we shut the stove off during the warmest part of the day, and often overnight as well or the house gets too warm for comfortable sleeping.
During the coldest part of the year, and during especially cold winters, I begrudge the hours that we spend with the stove sitting idle while we wait for several hours to make sure that it's safe to use the Shop Vac. Acquiring a warm ash vac meant that we could let the stove cool to the point where we could handle it comfortably, innards, burn pot and all, with bare hands, and that *should* be cool enough to safely use a warm ash vacuum.
And it should have worked out OK, but our first try at a warm ash vacuum was less than satisfactory. We purchased a less expensive ash vac. Less expensive, in this case, was relative- it was still over $100 =(. We were never happy with its performance and I wish we'd taken it back. Even though we could suck up warm ashes it never cleaned the stove as well as the Shop Vac. Bonus round, it required expensive (think about $17 each) and frequent HEPA filter replacements, despite the "pellet stove ash sleeve" that was used to "protect" the filter. I stretched those HEPA filters out by washing them weekly and letting them dry- but when the HEPA filter failed, the vacuum let us know we were done by belching soot out of the exhaust into the house.
After a particularly bad soot-belching incident I was DONE. We got rid of that ash vacuum and went back to the Shop Vac, and back to waiting several hours to safely clean the stove.
Per above, with the Napoleon's deep burn pot, that's not optimal. I've been looking out for an alternative, off and on, since last season, and when someone here started a thread about the Powersmith Ash Vacuum it caught my attention. I waffled about it just long enough to miss the initial sale but I just bought one at a pretty good price with free shipping using a free shipping code.
All that being said- we'll still use the Shop Vac. Our Shop Vac has a long hose that reaches all the way up into the stove from the direct vent outside- so I know we'll use it in that capacity. Depending on the suction of the new Powersmith, we could very well use the Shop Vac for the Big Cleans a couple of times a year, if the Shop Vac has more suction.
So don't fret your ash vac purchase- it will pay for itself over time when your pellet stove shut down is minimal during the cold season. Plus, there's a lot to be said for the peace of mind of using an ash vac as opposed to a Shop Vac. Trust me, I *knew it* on those occasions when I felt like perhaps I'd pushed it in terms of letting the stove sit cold for several hours. I may have shaved a few minutes off of my "safe stove" threshold, and I paid for it with anxiety, so I stopped doing that.
EDIT
I could have just said, yeah, what rayttt said^^. And he does make a good point- the Powersmith has a 10 amp motor. I'm not at the house right now so I can't go look, but I'm pretty sure that our Shop Vac is a 6 gallon with an 8 amp motor. We don't yet have the Powersmith so I don't know how the suction will compare, but anything at all is better than the first ash vacuum we owned. =/ I'm excited to get a decent ash vac, though.
