It would help if you told us which one is available in your area. I see several that TSC sells; Snow Joe, Redstone, US Stove? They are all imported unfortunately, but the website doesn't give details. Some could be imported from Canada for all I can tell (except the Redstone - see below).. I have not used any of those. I have been very happy with the one I have, which is a ShopVac (Made in USA). I've had this ash vac for about 3 years and have not replaced the filter - I just take it out and bang it on a tree trunk until the majority of crud is released. Just be aware that the size of the barrel has nothing to do with how much ash it will be able to hold before you have to clean it out. Everything is about how fast the filter clogs. And if you're going to be taking it out to clean the filter, you might as well empty it. My Ashvac is rated for warm and cold ashes but the ones I see with a quick google search says cold only nowdays. Oh yea, I bought it fpr $90, so the price you mention is good. The US stove looks like it may be the one you are talking about, looking at the online price. This one confuses me because the pics show two different filter types. The last picture is much like my ShopVac and the description says the barrel is all metal (like mine) and the description says for both warm and cold ashes. Looking at the innards of the Redstone, it looks to be like the ShopVac except the material of the barrel. Their Redstone brand is usually made in China, if that matters - and is says cold ashes only. The snow Joe also says for cold ashes only and they don't show any pics of the inside. And just for reference - My first ash vac was a Power Smith. It not only didn't suck, but the motor would overheat easily (couldn't clean both my stoves at the same time), and the motor burned out about 2 weeks after I'd had it a year. I was so unimpressed that I didn't even try to see if they would honor a warranty that was slightly over.
We have one but I don't remember the brand name. Judy bought it several years ago. I don't use it except for the annual summer cleaning.
Good post. If they are only rated for cold ashes then they are nothing more than a glorified shop type vacuum. Sounds like the shop vac brand one is the way to go if it’s still being sold somewhere. Looks like I’ll be continuing to using my shop vac for summer cleaning like Backwoods Savage
Yea i kinda came to that conclusion last nite that the shop vac brand would be best bet…i have no interest in sucking up hot ash just wanted it for once or twice a season…I believe the model at that tsc currently is the us stove brand
campinspecter bought a Cheetah ash vacuum. He can't use it for the new boiler as it leaves too big of chunks to vacuum up. It plugs up very quickly
The US Stove vac is rated for both warm and cold also. I just have no experience with it. If I think about it, I'll stop by my local TSC and see if they have any. If they do, I'll take a look and see how similar it is to the Shop Vac. Of course, the Shop vac is US made, so that might tip the scales. Beware, for the Shop Vac to be heat resistant, make sure any that you look at has the metal canister around the filter. I'm looking at a bunch (at Lowes etc) and they don't have that according to the pictures.
I bought a Shop Vac to use with cold ashes but you have to use a bag inside the vac to keep ashes from flying all over the house.
