The leaf blower strikes again

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Snowy Rivers

Minister of Fire
Feb 7, 2010
1,810
NW Oregon
Shut the Advantage 2T down earlier today and then cleaned it completely with the vacuum , brushes and other devices.

Finally a stuck the leaf blower on the pipe and LETERIP.

OMG the crap that came out was amazing.

I had not cleaned it beyond doing the normal cleaning details since I had installed it over a year ago.

The leaf blower is definately the pellet stove owners best buddy for sure.

Snowy
 
What? You blasted its air into the vent? I only see references to using the leaf blower as a vacuum, not a blower. What kind of cloud did it put out and where did all that crap settle? You know, carbon black is what's used in black ink. It sure has stained my hands often enough when I was washing my exchanger tubes.
 
I have the adapter set up so the suction side of the unit will go right on the Vent outlet.

I have a short 45 that I put on the vent and this allows me to angle the blow nozzle of the blower off into the trees behind the house.

Thing looked like Mt Vesuveus when I turned it on YEEEEEOWWWWY.

That thing really works well.

Stove again has the nice blue tinge to the lower part of the fire in the pot.

Snowy
 
arnash said:
What? You blasted its air into the vent? I only see references to using the leaf blower as a vacuum, not a blower. What kind of cloud did it put out and where did all that crap settle? You know, carbon black is what's used in black ink. It sure has stained my hands often enough when I was washing my exchanger tubes.

I think Snowy is using it only on vacuum side, not as a blower.
 
I was thinking that using it as a vacuum would include using a leaf bag or something to catch the sucked crap, but that would probably just create a big cloud around the bag, close to you and the house. Blasting into the distance is the only decent way to go. But boy, there better not be any wind blowing in the wrong direction.
 
new to pellet stoves, but what does the leaf blower do and and how do you hook it up,obviously this must be done from the outside totally puzzeled on this one please enlighten me .. thanks in advance
 
The whole concept is to get a high volume of high velocity air flowing through the little nooks and crannies of the stove that normally see very low speed airflow.

Every pellet stove built has places that you either can't get to at all, or can't get to without removing parts.

When you remove parts such as exhaust fans and such there will usually be a need for new gaskets and this is not only a $$$$ cost, but can require a wait time to get the item.

The leaf blower is connected up to the vent pipe using the blowers SUCTION SIDE

****(If you buy a unit to do this, be sure to get one that has the suction side adapters)****

You should clean the stove in the normal manner by scooping, brushing or vacuuming the ashes out of all the internal spots that are accessable.

Once this cleaning is done, the leaf blower (suction side) is connected to the vent pipe on the stove (chimney) THE STOVE DOOR LEFT OPEN and then the blower turned on.

Be sure that all the baffles and such are all back in place before doing the blower trick.
This forces the airflow through the heqat exchangers,baffles and such.

The Super turbulent, high velocity wind flowing through the stoves innards will clean out the remaining amounts of ashes that you can't easily reach.

I choose to aim the blower end off into the trees behind the house (I live out in the sticks)

If you live in an urban setting with neighbors close by, using the bag would be a good thing if you wish to keep piece in the hood.

If you go out and clean your stove and blow soot all over the neighbors clean white car, the general attitude and well being is likely to go downhill rapidly. To do this all over the neighbors clean laundry hanging on the outdoor line is, well, NOT GONNA BE COOL


A tall chimney can still benefit from the blower, you just have to be more careful when accessing the top of it to connect the blower unit.

Several good videos on Youtube

This is definately the finishing touches to cleaning the pellet stove.

IMHO, every stove should come with a leaf blower and the proper adapters, or at least the stove shops should sell them and offer instructions in their proper useage.

I just viewed the first Piccy from that thread link. Yup sure looked like mine did yesterday.

The black streak on the snow is a classic


Yeah buddy

Snowy
 
Snowy Rivers said:
stove shops should sell them and offer instructions in their proper useage.

Snowy

My dealer has the stacked right in the showroom.
 
Smart dealer.

I asked a local stove shop manager if they use the leaf blower, got the deer in the headlights look.

Guess they had not heard the good news yet.

Snowy
 
Im supprised they didnt say.....gee why didnt we think of that? Lol. Im a huge fan of the leaf blower trick. That would be a funny prank to pull on a friend. Hey can you take a look in the tube..I think its clogged....Then BAM! Just make sure you can run faster than he can. LOL
 
Here is a simple, 4-step process for connecting a leaf blower to a PL vent pipe for those who are confused on how to hook up their leaf blowers to their exhaust pipe -

(A) Remove termination cap from your PL vent pipe.
(B) If your leaf blower SUCTION port doesn't fit onto the end of your pipe (whether 3" or 4"), PVC pipe adapters work, especially with the HomeLite electric blowers. I ended up finding a 4" to 5" sewer pipe PVC adapter (cost was about $3) that fits perfectly onto my 4" PL vent pipe as well as fitting into my HomeLite Leaf Blower.
(C) Use duct tape or something to secure the adapter to your pipe.
(D) Pressure fit the leaf blower onto your pipe adapter (don't push so hard that you ruin the fan blade in the leaf blower, or even worse you damage your PL vent pipe). Hold onto the leaf blower (or have someone assist you) and fire it up.

Cannot reiterate enough to ensure your leaf blower has a suction/vacuum port on it, or an opening where the blower can act as a vacuum. If you accidentally put the output end of the leaf blower into your PL vent pipe, you are going to be looking at a major mess inside your home.
 
gerry said:
new to pellet stoves, but what does the leaf blower do and and how do you hook it up,obviously this must be done from the outside totally puzzeled on this one please enlighten me .. thanks in advance
When we first got the stove I put up some Brick Paver's to stop the "Sparks" (uh oh, lol) from hitting the ground. Also serves as a wind break when they are all up. Fast Forward a couple years and I still left them there. They are not that unsightly. Now that I have the leaf-blower, I just re-arrange some of the top Paver's and Ta-Daaa. The leaf-blower holds itself up. I run it on its lowest setting the entire time I clean the stove. Then at the very end of cleaning, I CRANK'er UP and do a little Tap Tap Taparoo with my sons little hammer and a little 1x4 block of wood. Not to hard.

Just a simple Troy-Bilt with a PVC adapter. Sets on the Paver's damn near level too. The Paver's are my best helper. LOL. The leaf-blower is a Must-Have for a Pellet Stove.
 

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Leaf blower cleaning a pellet stove. This enlightenment first came to us from one of our own when Krooser made his first post on the subject. Just imagine all the leaf blowers sold and not one royalty going to him! well, no money, but many thanks. Sure made keeping my stove running at lot easier.
 
for an even better leaf blower experience, try taking a compressor with a fine blower nozzle and blast all of the nooks and crannies. With the leaf blower honking, none of the ash will backpuff into your house. When I did this to my P61, it was so clean I almost didn't want to fire it up. Almost ;-)
 
Making a fitting for a small air line to go on the end of one of my Blow Nozzles. Been thinking of doing the compressor thing for ahwile now. Do it at the end of the year, but its normally on the back porch. With the leaf blower, I may leave the stove in the house for its final cleaning.
 
You take the stove outside to clean it ???

Seems like a lot of work to me.

Once I had mine all set in place, I dont ever want to move them unless it would be to replace them.

The leaf blower seems to do a fantastic job of getting the crap out of the stove.

This last Sunday I cleaned the larger stove and the toal time from start to finish was less than 30 minutes.

Snowy
 
Just started using the leaf blower this year. But I used just compressed air before. Was only about 15 ft to the sliding glass door. Taking it outside was a thing of the past.
Never again. Having the millrights make me a hose fitting today. I was gonna do it. But one of the millrights has a Pellet stove and I told him. He is making them right now. Stove should never have to be moved again. Thanks to all on here. Go Leaf Blower GO!
 
Air Nozzle is done. He made me 2 different length tubes. One 14" and another that's 24". Quick dissconect at the bottom. Gonna give it a go this Sunday.
 

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Your on the right track. I used the leaf blower in combination with the compressed air, it works AMAZING.
Attach the tubing to the air nozzle, reaches all the nooks and crannies. Keep the stove door lightly closed not wide open, and use
short blasts of air, The vacum of the leaf blower will overpower the air pressure and suck out all the mess.
 
On the Harman Advance, on the left side, there is the port that you attach the magnahelic gauge to. Any thoughts on taking that bolt out and using a rubber cone fitting on an airgun to blow air through that?
 
Good question Yardbird, the only problem is that the air wouldn't blast straight into nooks and crannies to loosen that isolated crap like the nozzle would.
 
Running the leaf blower (stove door open) and if you can have the blower running, then poke the blow nozzle around up inside the heat exchangers and other places, it will certainly help get the lefty over crud moved out.

The air blast needs to be directly into the little "NOOKS AND CRANNIES" or it will not do much if anything.

Doing the leaf blower trick is best done with the door open, as in my mind there could be issues with the pressure sensor diaphrams if the door were closed.

The pressure switches are designed for very small pressure changes and not the huge blast of air coming in when using the leaf blower (sucker)

IMHO, using the leaf blower after doing a good cleanout is probably all thats needed to keep the stove quite happy and healthy.

Now I have seen some stoves that had some very poor designs when it came to the ash traps and these were extremely tough to clean.


I had an AVALON early on here at the ranch. This stove worked OK but the ashes were just a real toughy to clean out of the back baffles as there were only some small clean out ports.


One certainly does not need to make this task any harder than need be.

One can be too anal ya know.


Snowy
 
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