Anyone have one? Pluses and minuses? How much can be vacuumed before the filters have to be cleaned? Amazon's got several in the $100 range and I'm wondering if they're worth it. My stove is in my living room. I deal with the ash as best I can, but sweeping wafts as much throughout the room as it actually cleans up. If a little vacuum could just suck it all up, that'd be great.
I bought the powersmith ash vac my first year burning. I do use it occasionally, but they just don’t have enough power to really just suck it all up. I like it for safety reasons but use a broom and dustpan for most and use the vac for tough areas. i use it more on my pellet grill when It doesn’t want to start but gets hot as I don’t want to burn up a regular shop vac. The ash vac is mostly metal so supposed to prevent that.
Just to add to this. I use the dustbuster to clean up around the brick platform the stove is on. I don't use it to clean out the stove? With the Fireview where I have no ashpan, I just use a shovel and 5 gallon bucket.
Wow. Not the dustbuster of old, they've come a long way. The filter isn't constantly clogged by the ash? I've got a shop vac with a secondary filter that requires constant cleaning after just a short bit of vacuuming, so I can't really use it. A little dustbuster would be perfect, as long as it can handle ash....
I use my shop vac as a negative air pressure tool... when it's time to scoop the fire box (after it's cool), I set my small ash bucket in front of the open stove... then rig the vac hose right at the rim of the bucket. Every scoop put in the bucket wafts up ash, as well as inside while scooping (no matter how careful I am.) I can see all of the fly ash float toward the hose... and then gone. After I've scooped everything I can out of the firebox, I vac what's left. 95% ends up in the bucket, most airborne dust in the vac.
Cleaning the filter is really easy and takes 5 minutes. I do it may once every 2 or 3 weeks. You can also buy cheap filters as replacements but I reuse the filters after just slapping the fine dust out of them on my deck railing.
I use the ash vacuum differently than most in that it is used once per year to completely clean the ash during the annual summer cleaning. Then everything is checked. Recaulked if needed along with checking all gaskets if needed. I don't remember the name and it is in the barn. No, I don't feel like going out in the snow and cold to look at the brand name.
I've been thinking about getting a dust buster to keep the hearth cleaner. My stove has an ashpan, so I wouldn't vacuum up ash from the stove. There seems to be a high amount of frags and other debris on my wood splits. I use an old snow brush to knock alot of it off before bringing inside. But, there's always stuff collecting on the brick hearth.
The new Dustbusters are great! I bought one about 5 or 6 years ago, and it lasted until just recently. The Lithium battery finally stopped charging so I bought a new one. It's even better! A stronger motor and high RPMs provide excellent suction. Well worth the price!
I ran one of the cheap Amazon units for a couple years. It would clog up and run very hot in short order. It was also so loud, you'd want ear protection when running it. The last straw was when the filter fell off and it blew black heat exchanger ash all over my living room when I was cleaning out my open fireplace. That was a brutal cleanup and sent that ash vac to its final resting place at the dump. The only decent one I've ever had was a Loveless Cougar unit but it was way overpriced and the hose inlet was very small and any larger leftover coals would clog it. So, to replace the Amazon unit, I then decided to take the advice I've read here and on the other forum and get a good quality shop vac and run a HEPA filter and drywall dust bag. This was an awesome investment and well worth the upcharge over the cheapo china bomb ash vac I had before. It's quiet, runs cool, has way more suction than any ash vac I've tried, and has a long hose that allows getting deep into my wood furnace without having to prop the vac canister up off the floor. The only downside to a setup like this is you can't do hot ash as it's going in a bag and not a metal canister through a metal hose...
I have an ash vac and it sucked no pun intended. Now I just use an old bissel cannister style vaccum with a hepa filter for cleaning around the woodstove, the door lip, etc. I need to wash the hepa filter out every couple uses but it works fine.
I have one I never used. A friend had gotten two of them and asked if I wanted one. It is still in the box. Currently I am using an old shop vac.
+1 on the dust buster. The brand we have is Ryobi but it's the same sort of thing. The filters are reusable. Take them out, knock off the crud outside. You can wash them w/ warm water & a little dish soap. Let them dry and you're back in business.
I tried a dust buster once and there was fine ash blasting out of the exhaust port and the cheap filter was gunned up in about 5 seconds
Our small cordless vacuum is able to be detached and fitted with a small adapter to clean around the stove and hearth area, kind of like a dustbuster. I then give the floor a quick vacuum as sometimes the floor gets messy with bringing in a load of wood with the upright part of the vacuum, works out well, its a new addition this year as I added an outlet to the top of the stars for easy charging.
