Pellet stoves & vacuums. A lesson in smoke inhalation.
Embers=no vacuum.
So. This year I bought a pellet stove as an alternative to the mile high gas bills I paid last year. Well, I had been cleaning the stove every other day by means of a household vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment. All was wonderful, warm and easy on the wallet until last week (I intentionally forget which day) when I was short on time and therefore not taking the usual safety precautions that are NECESSARY when dealing with a solid fuel heat source. I began cleaning in the usual manner by opening the door and vacuuming the inside of the stove after having let it cool for around 45 minutes or so. While doing so I noticed a glowing ember on the inner left side of the fire chamber so, I turned off the vacuum and looked at the vacuum bag compartment to see if there was any smoke. There wasn’t any. My wife at this point was watching me clean the stove and I had made the comment that there was an ember on the left hand side. I proceeded by starting up the vacuum and watched it for a few seconds. No smoke. Well, I figured why not finish cleaning out the firepot where there were no embers, only ash. Great idea! Only seconds later smoke started billowing from the vacuum and quickly filling the room. I immediately shut it off.
Now you would think this is where I would take the darn thing outside right? Wrong. I couldn’t help but open the bag compartment to see how bad it was. (Not good. VERY DUMB.) Flames appeared from the cleaner bag while ash and embers fell on the hardwood floor that my wife and I had refinished only weeks prior.
(Speed Racer Mode)
I unplugged the vacuum, yelled for water to douse the floor with and rushed outside with the vacuum in hand. The good news is that the hardwood floor only suffered a few minor discolored spots from the hot embers. However the plastic vacuum did not fare so well after coming in contact with Mr. Flames. That night I returned home from work to discover 2 new vacuum cleaners. A regular household and a shop vac.
Moral of the story: Showering before work is not worth nearly burning your house down.
The vacuum wasn’t That bad. Just a few small melt marks as you can see below:
