Dustless Technologies MU405 Cougar Ash Vacuum, Black
by Dustless Technologies
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List Price: Our Price: $239.95 You Save: $19.05 (7%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $219.99 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Dustless Technologies MU405 Cougar Ash Vacuum, Black
Customer Review: Look Elsewhere!
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this ash vacuum less than one month ago for use with a pellet stove. In that time, and with only light use, the "flexible" hose has cracked, the motor is making a funny noise as it winds down, and the suction is significantly decreased long before the canister needs emptying. I would never buy this again, and would recommend to anyone needing an ash vac to look elswhere.Customer Review: Useless for coal stoves...
Summary: 2 Stars
With a fat Amazon gift certificate burning a hole in my jammies, visions of a clean coal stove danced in my head. I had been lusting after one of these ash-vacs for years, and now finally, it would be mine...
Boy do I wish I had read a review like this one prior to purchasing this vacuum (which I will return tomorrow). Didn't even have to dirty it, reading the instructions was all it took. Unfortunately, it required getting in to my livingroom to figure this out, since in none of the online descriptions at various sites, including Amazon, did it mention that this unit is for FINE ASH ONLY. In other words, the steel nozzle opening, approximately the diameter of a nickel, is designed to admit fine powder ONLY, and even that in small bits with the nozzle pressed against the firebrick in a "small circular pattern", allowing the ash to "sift" into the hose incrementally. (The instructions went on to detail all the various ways the thing could get itself plugged up...)
HELLO! Has anyone out there ever heated with solid fuel full time? It would take all day to suck up ash in that manner, not to mention that burning wood/coal does not produce exclusively fine ash. For coal especially, clinkers - the molten residue of trace minerals found in anthracite coal, are part of the bargain, and are produced in such abundance that it would render this tool effectively useless for coal burners.
In addition, though the hose is metal, intimating that the odd live coal is no biggie, the filter system in this thing is CLOTH - ie. you can burn holes in it with live material. Then it leaks. Right.
I'll have my 200+ bucks back and suck my ash chamber out with my shop vac, thanks - especially since the stuff would have to be cool anyway. (You can buy fine particle filters and bags at Home Depot). So much for my simplified stove cleaning fantasies...Oh well.