Englander happy dance! Cleaned with leaf blower, no more lazy fire!

[cotton25]

Thanks to all the posters here on the board! I've lurked off and on for quit a while and picked up TONS of information!

Last night hubby and I went to Menards and bought a Yardworks Leaf Blower/Vac for $39.99. BEST Christmas present ever!

Since I get the pleasure of cleaning the stoves, seeing all of that ash OUTSIDE was wonderful!

We have a two story farm house built in the late 1800's with a dirt basement and solid rock walls. We shut the upstairs four bedrooms off last night because the wind chill was 21 below here in Iowa. We have two Englande 2PDV's, one in the northwest corner of the main floor and one in the basement. We shut down both stoves this morning to try out the new leaf blower, the house was at 72% and the basement was 65%. Never enjoyed seeing a black cloud so much! The old house must be insulated pretty decent because we lost 2% on the main floor and less downstairs during the cleaning!

Got the stoves back up and running quickly and two hours later the living room (room next to the stove) is 74% and the basement is 72% and both are still raising.

Thanks again Heath.com and ALL the POSTERS!

 

[hearthtools]

Thanks to all the posters here on the board! I've lurked off and on for quit a while and picked up TONS of information!

Last night hubby and I went to Menards and bought a Yardworks Leaf Blower/Vac for $39.99. BEST Christmas present ever!

Since I get the pleasure of cleaning the stoves, seeing all of that ash OUTSIDE was wonderful!

We have a two story farm house built in the late 1800's with a dirt basement and solid rock walls. We shut the upstairs four bedrooms off last night because the wind chill was 21 below here in Iowa. We have two Englande 2PDV's, one in the northwest corner of the main floor and one in the basement. We shut down both stoves this morning to try out the new leaf blower, the house was at 72% and the basement was 65%. Never enjoyed seeing a black cloud so much! The old house must be insulated pretty decent because we lost 2% on the main floor and less downstairs during the cleaning!

Got the stoves back up and running quickly and two hours later the living room (room next to the stove) is 74% and the basement is 72% and both are still raising.

Thanks again Heath.com and ALL the POSTERS!

Just keep in mind Sucking out the ash will never do as good a job as taking the baffles out and cleaning with a brush and Vac.
and it will not suck out any critters that may have gone down the pipe or put things down the pipe.
(broken image removed)
nor will it get the house dust and pet hair off the out side of the blowers.
(broken image removed)

 

[cotton25]

Touche --

Didn't mean to imply I cleaned the stove only with the leaf blower.

I did a regular cleaning including removing the impingment plate inside the stove, used the shop vac, attachments and my trusty metal toothbrush to get those pesky corners. Even vac'd out the bottom of the hoppers to get evey little piece of loose saw dust. Then I made sure the blowers were clean at least from the outside. And all of this was done with the stove unplugged.

BUT --- it was such a smaller less messy task! The exhaust system is close to spotless without me being sooty from head to toe and we have the most beautiful flame in both the stoves.

 

[imacman]

I can't agree with Rod more.

While the leaf blower is a great tool for getting ash out of the hidden nooks & crannies in a stove (thanks again for my buddy Krooser for turning everyone on to this method last winter), but it still doesn't compare with doing it AFTER a good standard cleaning as he mentions above. It will NOT remove the baked-on soot and ash that is inside the combustion blower that can only be removed by scraping and/or wire brushing the fan blades, nor will it clean the convection blower like the one in the picture above.

Clean/scrape/brush as much of the stove and pipe that you can, and THEN leafblower it!! ;-)

 

[Xena]

Yup yup. I'm with Rod and Pete on this one.

 

[smoke show]

Has anyone ever implied this replaces normal cleaning?
just wonderin.

 

[imacman]

No Pane, I'm SURE that given some of the questions that get asked on this forum, there are more than a few people who thought all you need is a leaf blower. A newbie could easily get that impression, IMO.

 

[hearthtools]

Has anyone ever implied this replaces normal cleaning?
just wonderin.

I have been seeing a lot of post saying to do the leave blower trick.
My belief is if you are going to spend the time Just do the job right and
clean it from cap to Ashpan. that is how I do it I start at the cap and I finish with cleaning out the ash pan.
this will also save you time screwing around. I have been guilty of it also.
see this post were I kept screwing around and did not do a full tare down and took me over a week to figure out the problem
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/12660/

 

[jtakeman]

No Pane, I'm SURE that given some of the questions that get asked on this forum, there are more than a few people who thought all you need is a leaf blower. A newbie could easily get that impression, IMO.

Yes, I agree and I think Rod was just trying to clarify that. You never know what people will take of it. Specially when all they see is the leaf blower and no other cleaning actions specified.

Better to be safe than sorry and Safety first too!
jay

 

[smoke show]

ok, thanks.
I like opinions.

 

[trogers]

Has anyone ever implied this replaces normal cleaning?
just wonderin.

Not sure about your questions, but I have run inot 4-5 people that only use the blower trick. I used it in the spring along with my "cap to pan" cleaning and was impressed with how much it removed when I got inside the stove. That siad, I still had to brush of a lot of the fan parts.

 

[imacman]

.....That siad, I still had to brush of a lot of the fan parts.

That's exactly why we said that a regular cleaning is needed before you use the leafblower....it won't remove baked on ash & soot.

 

[teetah222]

So, speaking as a newbie... I don't see a easy way for me to use the leaf blower as I'd have to hook it up inside the house and blow out the roof, or on the roof and try to suck it all up as my pipe goes through the roof. What I plan to do is use the chimney brush that I bought that can be hooked to a drill and use it to clean the stuff from inside the stove pipe. Then I'll have to vacuum the floor under the clean out cap, I'm sure, but I don't see any other way... unless one of you has a suggestion?

 

[krooser]

So, speaking as a newbie... I don't see a easy way for me to use the leaf blower as I'd have to hook it up inside the house and blow out the roof, or on the roof and try to suck it all up as my pipe goes through the roof. What I plan to do is use the chimney brush that I bought that can be hooked to a drill and use it to clean the stuff from inside the stove pipe. Then I'll have to vacuum the floor under the clean out cap, I'm sure, but I don't see any other way... unless one of you has a suggestion?

The leaf blower not only cleans the vent but also the inside of the stove where all the "hidden" ash accumulates... it may be to tuff to get on your roof but many here do and it works fine....

 

[investor7952]

Has anyone ever implied this replaces normal cleaning?
just wonderin.

Not sure about your questions, but I have run inot 4-5 people that only use the blower trick. I used it in the spring along with my "cap to pan" cleaning and was impressed with how much it removed when I got inside the stove. That siad, I still had to brush of a lot of the fan parts.

I also have the Harman accentra insert and the blower trick works great. I have a short pipe out the back of the stove so sleaning that pipe is a breeze. I also clean the temp sensor probe and the little box to the left of that where all the little pieces and dusct collect. Vacume the 2 fans and good for another week or snly takes about 30-40 min tops