Love-Less ash vac

[chad]

Hi, all!

Does anyone have any experience with the Love-Less ash vacuum? From what I've read it looks like you can suck up hot ashes and embers with it, which would be great if it works like it should. A store here in town has them on sale for $159. The canister is some kind of steel, and decorative with a winter scene.

 

[Heat Miser]

Hi, all!

Does anyone have any experience with the Love-Less ash vacuum? From what I've read it looks like you can suck up hot ashes and embers with it, which would be great if it works like it should. A store here in town has them on sale for $159. The canister is some kind of steel, and decorative with a winter scene.

I have one. They work as advertised but are a bit loud. They are not for HOT ashes though. Cool and warm ashes are OK. I use mine to clean up around my stove and around the ashpan, doors, inside, around andirons, etc. They're a lot safer to use than a house vacuum as they are purpose built for this task. Using a house vacuum to clean up ashes near a wood stove is a fire danger. You could suck up a hot ember and it could smolder and catch fire in the bag at a later time. For $159 I'd say that is a good price and is probably worth doing to have a clean hearth/stove and piece of mind. The other advantage is they have a double (fire resistant) filter system that doesn't blow the fine ashes all around your room when you use it.

 

[JoeS]

I have one and use it to clean out my Pellet Stove. I have heard about converting a shop vac by purchasing the special filters but I like the idea of being able to suck up warm embers without the fear of a fire. That is a very good price as well!

 

[ControlFreak]

I bought one and used it for a while. I eventually put it up on ebay and got rid of it because I didn't find it to be all that helpful. Any ashes that get on the hearth I sweep with a small broom and then throw them back into the stove. Maybe a bit more dusty than the vacuum, but it saves me a lot of time. I don't let hot embers get out of the stove. I found it to be more hassle than its worth to drag the thing out, and I can shovel ash out of the firebox faster than it could vacuum them up. I also had a small collection of embers catch fire inside the vacuum when I first got it and figured I could vacuum up the ash from around the embers. That was before my shovel sifter came along.

I use a shovel with holes drilled in it to sift the hot coals from the ash, then use a different shovel to carefully shovel the ash into my bucket. Leaning the bucket into the firebox keeps any spilled ash where it belongs.

--- Dan