Anyone there?

Here are my unsolicited words of wisdom. If you only have a gas leaf blower, requiring you to stand near the vent while using the LBM, make 100% sure you are standing upwind when you hit the throttle.

Don't ask me how I know this.

 

You know. It is really too bad it isn't easier to clean the horizontal section of the pipe. If you have to clean the stove that often, you can do it. But if you have to clean the horizontal section of the chimney out it gets a little more complicated to get to it. I guess I will buy a leaf blower. For now I have just left the stove off until I get time to clean the horizontal out.

 

Have any of the stove manufacturers made a design that makes cleaning the horizontal section and into the back of the stove easier yet?

 

Get a simple electric leaf blower and if you can reach the termination cap attach the suction part of the blower there and it will get the horizontal section and ash trap. You want the stuff inside that stove from the combustion blower back to just above the burn pot.

 

Thanks. Does the suction part of any simple electric leaf blower fit into top of 3" pipe I have?

Termination cap on my chimney is rectangular.

 

You may have to make an adapter, depending on the size & shape of the inlet on the LB. Also, make sure the one you buy is vacuum model.....some only blow air and don't have a removable inlet cover.

 

I simply remove the termination cap and place the leaf sucking section over my 3" pipe and let it rip.

 

Well, I don't know when I am going to get time to do it. But, before I buy a leaf blower. Wouldn't my large shop vac do the job? I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. I have a shop vac similar to this, but an older model.



Under the hood/motor and in the tub is just a spout(for lack of a better word) where the "stuff" just blows into the tub. What do you guys think? Should be able to make a tight fit one way or the other and make it work. Eh?

 

Gas...you can try and snake that through the horizontal section.....maybe hit it with a brush before you do that.

 

I was thinking of sucking it out first. Then hit it with a brush, and then suck it out again. I knew a nice girl one time that... Oh, never mind.

 

343amc. How do you know this? Please explain.

 

It isn't just that short horizontal section, remember that it is the interior exhaust path (this is hidden and is behind your firebox wall). There are usually two access panels one on each side that gives access to this area, however you need to get the areas that branch off from there cleaned with a brush before a regular strength shop vac will do much for you. Thumping on the firebox walls (do not do this with cast iron, you will crack it, this is how we old timers removed cast iron steam lines and such when the joints wouldn't move, a couple of quick raps and it cracked) will loosen a lot of crud and it will fall down so you can get at it with the vacuum. All the leaf blower does is make like a giant super strength vacuum, it also will coat anything that the discharge tube is pointed at even something many 10's of feet away. They have been known to suck small animal parts, caramels, kids toys, nuts, and other things out of those passages. An air compressor blows such stuff out.

Some shop vacuums (remember filters, you need heppa filters) can also do this but most will fail, not enough air flow.

It really works wonders, do it every ton or so.

 

I have taken those two panels off each time I clean my stove. But I can not get into the areas very good. I take a small putty knife and do the best I can and then keep sucking it out with a vacuum. But I know I'm not getting a lot of it. So you don't think even that shop vac will be powerful enough? I see the vacuum says 175 blowing mph. A leaf blower at Lowe's like this seems to have the same mph rating. Just curious if there is much of a difference in suction power.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_269584-86886-125B_0__?productId=3029455&Ntt=leaf blower&pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=leaf+blower&facetInfo=

 

Electric leaf blower Gas, a cheap one several hundred cubic feet per minute you want airflow volume. Ditch the gas powered toy, you need sucking power not blowing. If you want to use a blower get an air compressor with well over 100 PSI and make certain you have the nozzle blowing away from where you stick it into the stove, the goal is to get the stuff out of the stove and not into the stove room.

Search pellet stove leaf blower cleaning on YouTube, watch the smoke show!!!!

 

LOL. Ya, that would make a little mess in the room eh? LOL I have seen a few of the videos.

 

Bottom line on this is that the shop vac will get some, but the LB seems to do the best job, overall.

Speaking about the difficulties in getting all the crud from the interior ash traps/air passages, once you remove the 2 side panels and the fiberboard back panel, the rear wall on all Englander stoves are steel. As such, you can rap with a mallet (I use a small steel hammer) pretty hard, and you'll be amazed how much more crud will dislodge & fall down.

Getting into that back cavity IS a challenge, but a piece of 1/2"ID x 18" rubber tubing duct taped to that shop vac hose will allow you to snake around in there AFTER the banging treatment.

Once you've gotten as much ash out as possible, then do the LBT. It's the "final touch". Make sure you leave the front door cracked open with a screwdriver, or disconnect the vacuum hose from the stove or switch so you don't damage it.

 

When I first read about the LBM on another forum, I decided to give it a shot. All I had was a gas leaf blower/vac. No big deal, right? The stove wasn't burning that great so I figured it couldn't hurt. I did my cleaning inside, then I put the vac attachment on, climbed up on the roof, ran the brush down the pipe, fired up the blower, put the vacuum end over the pipe and held the throttle to the bar.

Problem is the wind was coming from the north. I was on the south side of the vent pipe. Need I say more? Only took me a second or two to realize the error of my ways, but the first second or two is when you get the biggest blast of crud out of the pipe. I looked like a picture of an old time coal miner.

Stove burned a lot better afterwards though.

 

LOL. I knew what you meant from the beginning when you said "Don't ask me......." I just thought it would be cool to here the particulars. LOL
I just finished for the day about 1/2 hour ago. I am certainly not going down to clean out the chimney on the pellet stove outside. The wind is blowing here and the temps are dropping. I am going to let the electricity keep the camp at 40 until I get to the chimney. I wish I had made time to do it when we had a warm day. But I had too many other things I wanted to do. Oh well. Live and learn. If I have to I will wait until Friday to go down and do it. Suppose to warm up then. 12-14 hours between work and home the next three days.

 

I have an insert, and its tough to get to get up on the roof ,take the cap off, and perform the lb trick for me. My big clean comes when I can get the boys over and take the rig out on the porch and use compressed air. However during the season when I clean I use a good shop vac with a heppa filter. I use a long boiler type soft brush to loosen things up behind the clean outs Smokey refered to. Since my rig is steel I also rap on the sides and back with a big fiberglass type heavy wire brush that I also wire brush out the burn pot. I have adapted a small hose to the shop vac that is able to reach in behind the brick and firebox. I usually do this every week or so, mostly on Sundays.
Gasifier, after each ton or so I will pull the unit out of the fireplace far enough to get to my clean out. I will stick the shop vac hose way up the chimney and lightly tap on it to knock any ash there down in the vaccuum. Then I will block the chimney off with a rag, making sure I can pull it back out, and use another adapter to the shop vac hose to the cap end of the chimney . This close proximity will get alot of the ash i couldn't reach from the front side of the unit, especially from the comb. blower area. I have a 6.5 hp shop vac and clean or replace to filter every few cleanings so the vac can pull its best. This however is still not as strong as a good size Leaf blower.

If I could easily use the leaf blower I would. Maybe when I install my new stove and pipe I will "engineer" a better chimney cap that will allow me an easier way to attach the leaf blower. But for now this has worked well for the last few years. Maybe this will help you.

Schoondog