teach an old dog new tricks

[JamesGuido]

well, i bought it... now hoping i can/will learn how to use it.
done climbing ladders & walking on rooftops.



suppose i could donate my new-never-used-6"brush and the fiberglass rods...

 

[clancey]

I sure hope that works out real well for you and so glad you now have a option not to go on the roof and clean from the bottom. I had my stove installer come and clean my stove last week and he did it from the inside but he wore a mask with two breathing things sticking out on either side and this was for safety and maybe something like that would be good to buy while you get used to using your new tool...clancey

 

[Bobbob]

Used the same set up yo clean my Buck 81 last week. Pulled the first 3 burn tubes out, removed both baffles and the insulation blanket which took longer than the cleaning process itself. Had my shop vac hose end sitting in the firebox with the vac running as I ran up the liner with the brush spinning. Worked great! Not much less. Much nicer than getting up on the roof which hasnt been possible here with all the snow. I highly recommend this or similar product.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

You’ll definitely want a good strong shop vac to use while going from bottom up. That or using a sheet of plastic around door opening to minimize soot coming into room. Lots of people here seem to have perfected this pretty well. I was messy with going from bottom up, so have done top down with sooteater (easy roof to get on). Let us know how things go with cleaning. Cool looking stove set up BTW.

 

[JamesGuido]

You’ll definitely want a good strong shop vac to use while going from bottom up. That or using a sheet of plastic around door opening to minimize soot coming into room. Lots of people here seem to have perfected this pretty well. I was messy with going from bottom up, so have done top down with sooteater (easy roof to get on). Let us know how things go with cleaning. Cool looking stove set up BTW.

Thank you
well, i wasn't planning on going thru the stove to reach to flue... my idea was to remove this first section of flue to clean...
or is my thinking wrong?

 

[stoveliker]

Nothing wrong with taking a piece of pipe out. Do tape a bag to the pipe thru which you go up after poking a hole in it for the first rod with the wires. Tape it to the pipe and add sections of rod. And maybe have the wife hold a vac near where the Ross out of the pipe.

 

[kcmclellan]

Nothing wrong with taking a piece of pipe out. Do tape a bag to the pipe thru which you go up after poking a hole in it for the first rod with the wires. Tape it to the pipe and add sections of rod. And maybe have the wife hold a vac near where the Ross out of the pipe.

I bought myself an ash vacuum back when I started burning (8 or 9 years ago now). The HEPA filter is the main attraction of the so-called "ash vacuum," as this is the component that will save the motor from a premature death (very fine particulate such as ash and/or drywall dust are murder on vacuum motors). Other than that, there isn't too much difference from a normal shop vacuum, as neither type of vacuum can be used to clean out live, hot embers.... It is very handy to have when cleaning up the stove though; I usually hang the hose over the stove door when shoveling out ashes, to catch the inevitable rogue ash clouds that can be generated if I'm not being properly careful in my shoveling technique... 🤨

 

[JamesGuido]

I bought myself an ash vacuum back when I started burning (8 or 9 years ago now). The HEPA filter is the main attraction of the so-called "ash vacuum," as this is the component that will save the motor from a premature death (very fine particulate such as ash and/or drywall dust are murder on vacuum motors). Other than that, there isn't too much difference from a normal shop vacuum, as neither type of vacuum can be used to clean out live, hot embers.... It is very handy to have when cleaning up the stove though; I usually hang the hose over the stove door when shoveling out ashes, to catch the inevitable rogue ash clouds that can be generated if I'm not being properly careful in my shoveling technique... 🤨

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So… are you saying you think I need to buy this contraption to successfully clean my stove pipes?!

 

[stoveliker]

So… are you saying you think I need to buy this contraption to successfully clean my stove pipes?!

No. Just a bag and tape. That's how I do it.

 

[JamesGuido]

No. Just a bag and tape. That's how I do it.

Thank you!

 

[Max W]

So… are you saying you think I need to buy this contraption to successfully clean my stove pipes?!

Let my unfortunate and less than genius experience be the voice of caution. Make sure you have a filter much better than the standard pleated canister by itself. After scraping the soot across the top and down around the oven of our cookstove I rigged a hose attachment to reach into the bottom and vacuum it all out. My satisfaction with this new way was quite short lived. I turned my head to see a black cloud blowing out the vacuum’s exhaust . After a frantic reach for the switch, a loud Oh F and figurative slap to the forhead all I could do was start the clean up and think I’d have to break it to my wife when she was shortly to return.

My wife just asked what I was writing. When I told her her words were “ Oh my lord!”

Oh yeah, I also just got a soot eater and some extra rods and will use the bag taped to the pipe technique without any vacuum, even with the option of an effective filter, on my next clean.

 

[stoveliker]

I scoop out what I brush loose (the bag prevents clouds during brushing). If it's too little to scoop, then who cares.

But I go thru a thimble. However, many folks here go straight up and use a sooteater and a bag.

 

[kcmclellan]

So… are you saying you think I need to buy this contraption to successfully clean my stove pipes?!

No. Not at all.

 

[vbu]

I did mine when it was getting a little colder outside (40s), and I taped a bag over the opening of my insert. However I found that the draft sucked up all the small dust, and I just had some soot fall down, but did not make a mess at all

 

[MongoMongoson]

I have tried both ways... taking the baffle out going through the stove, or going up from below through a garbage bag. I have found that going through the stove is faster, less of a pain in the butt, and also helps keep the mess down. Like was mentioned above, the draft sucks out most dust.

I drape an old blanket over the top and front of the stove and get no mess at all. Shoveling the ash out makes more of a mess than the soot eater. I just did it this morning. Following the recommendations of others, this time I pushed the head up to the top and spun it on the way down. That seemed to work better than spinning on the way up.

 

[jmb6420]

I spin both going up then again when coming back down. I might be wasting time, I’ve never stopped to look and see how much more falls on the return trip.

 

[stoveliker]

I second the above; I spin going up and down. And I run my minisplit in the basement to make it warm enough there for draft to push the dust up and out.

I do clean when the stove is off because it's warmer (as in 40+) outside, so heating the basement to 70 F helps. I once had a stack of cold air in the chimney that kept flowing into the basement, even though it was 70 F there. My propane torch reversed that.