PowerSmith PAVC101 10 Amp Ash Vacuum,Green / Black

Working great. Been using for more than a week. Using it on a pellet stove wgich has very fine ashes. No problems. Seems to be a very sturdy vac...also no blow by of ash which is key using indoors.

Used this once so far and it worked great to clean my furnace. It has good suction and is surprisingly quiet. Bought accessories but did not need them this time

I read every review before purchasing this ash vacuum, so I'm going to address every issue addressed in those reviews. If you are buying this to use on a pellet stove, you will definitely NEED TO BUY the PowerSmith PAAC302 Ash Vacuum Cleaning Kit. (It allows you to get into the small areas you won't be able to navigate with the vacuum's accessories. If you have a regular wood burning stove, or maybe even a more spacious pellet stove insert, you might want to wait and see if you need the accessories kit. PRO: Seriously good suction power. Even if you use the smaller accessories with the optional cleaning kit, it still maintains powerful suction. PRO: It is fairly quiet. Not much louder than a regular vacuum cleaner. Other reviewers complained it was too loud; they have obviously never used a shop vac. This is far quieter than a shop vac. PRO: Lightweight, but sturdy canister. It rolls around like a dream and has a handle on the top so you can pick it up and carry it very easily. PRO: The floor vacuum accessory is AMAZING. I was going to buy another vacuum to sweep up the pellet dust/ash that falls around my living room, but I do not need to. It has great suction on wood, ceramic tile, and vinyl flooring. I don't have carpet flooring, but it has a switch so you can adjust for carpet. PRO: Dumping the canister is easy. YES - it is a messy process. You are dealing with messy ash. The cool part is that the bags that hold the 40 lbs of pellets slides over top of the canister opening. So take the vacuum outside, remove the filter (messy) and shake it out, put the empty plastic pellet bag over the top of the canister, turn it upside down, wait a few seconds for the ash to settle, then remove the canister. PRO: The cord is long enough for most needs. The hose is plastic, but strong enough not to be damaged from normal use. PRO: The unit sets up very easily. (Anyone can put it together.) The canister snaps are easy to use. The unit looks great. PRO: The price is a good value for this highly functional vacuum. NEUTRAL: The "full" indicator is too vague to really be helpful. (You'll only see the red indicator when the vacuum is ON.) But I was able to do 2 full deep cleans, and 5 basic cleans, without having to dump the canister. (By the way, the vacuum will automatically shut off when it gets overheated from being too full.) NEUTRAL: The top of the vacuum will heat up. No, it will not BURN you to touch it. If the unit does overheat, you will have to let it cool off for about an hour. However, you should be able to accomplish a deep cleaning of the ash without it overheating. It doesn't overheat under normal floor vacuuming operation. It only overheats and shuts off under prolonged heavy suction and ash filtering...and that just keeps you from burning out the motor. (DO NOT SUCK UP hot embers unless you want to burn a hole in your filter. Be smart and only use this once your ash is cooled or medium, but without embers. If you have a pellet stove, you'll need to deep clean every few days anyways.) NEGATIVE: Someone reviewers mentioned they get a shock when using it. YEP -- me, too. The manufacturer really needs to put a different plug on this thing. I suspect a 3-prong plug would eliminate the shock issue. (As for the shock, it is not going to hurt you or kill you -- it's a tad more than an static electricity zap, but it really is annoying.) Not everyone who owns this unit is reporting zaps, but it does do this on mine. If you GROUND yourself to the stove with one hand while vacuuming with the other, it eliminates the zap all together. If you clip an alligator clip to the metal on your stove, and the other clip to the metal canister snap, it reduces (but doesn't eliminate) the zap. I will likely buy a 2-to-3 prong cheater/adapter (cheap and available at any home improvement store) to see if this works. I suspect having that extra ground will eliminate the problem. That's it for the negatives. That zap is the only negative thing I have experienced and I can work around it. For all the PROS this vacuum offers, it is well worth the money. It has made pellet stove ownership far more enjoyable for me.

This is a solidly built, good quality product that does what it says, but it could be substantially improved with a couple of minor tweaks to the design. The basics are there: it has good suction, the filter bag works well, and it doesn't blow ash all over the house like a regular shop vac does. It's also somewhat quieter than my shop vac. Here's how to make it work better: 1. It comes with a 3 foot long hose, which is about two feet too short. You can buy a longer hose with an add-on accessory package, but you shouldn't have to. I would have gladly have paid a few extra bucks for a longer hose. 2. The brush accessories that it comes with are poorly designed, Powersmith should ship it with just a couple of better quality brushes. I use a slip-on round brush made for Rainbow vacuums which has a replaceable ring of natural bristles (nylon bristles melt too easily if the stove is still hot). This does a much better job cleaning out the fly ash from our pellet stove. You can get these on Amazon pretty cheap from the vacuum stores, it's worth spending a few bucks on this since it's the only part that really touches the stove. 3. It really ought to come with another filter bag so that you can alternate them in use. This vacuum does not have a provision to shake loose the accumulated ash in use, so its suction is noticeably reduced towards the end of the stove cleaning. If it slows down too much, you can take off the motor/top-unit (while carefully leaving the filter bag sealed to the canister) and tap the bottom of the bag several times to loosen up the ash caked onto it. This will get it sucking well again, at least for a while. If you have a really big job you'll have to take it outside to empty it and shake out the filter bag. If you have a spare filter you can put the dirty one aside and swap a new one in to speed things up. Either way, do not empty the vacuum inside as this will send fine ash and soot everywhere. 4. The hose to canister connection gets very difficult to loosen when it gets gritty and dusty (in other words, after the first use). It would be nice if they at least marked these parts where they connect so you can tell where it should be indexed to remove and install the hose. Molding the connector ring with some finger ridges would help as well, since it's hard to turn. You will end up disconnecting the hose every time you take it outside to dump, since the hose is rigid and awkward. You have invert the canister to empty the ash, and the hose gets in the way. A spot of white paint to show where the hose connector lines up would make it easier to re-install. These are small details, but it would make a difference in the ease of use.

This ash vacuum was purchased to replace another model of ash vacuum that was nothing but problems from the start. Since receiving the vacuum, it has work flawlessly. It is considerably quieter than the other model I had, and it does not lose suction after using it. The filter is easy to clean and keeps the dust from getting up into the motor which the other one I had did. The only thing I would suggest is to get the cleaning kit with the smaller adaptor for the hose because the metal tip that come with it is a little long and that make it hard to get into the corners of my pellet stove. Other than that, I highly recommend this ash vacuum.

Works well lots of suction. Unit actually has 2 filters, a standard pleated filter and the filter liner. The liner is heavy duty and well constructed. Filters work well they did not set off my air purifier that will go off if u fart to close to it. Good long extension cord, hose locks in well and flexible. Only reason I locked it down a star is my hose attachment for my stove will not fit in the hose without the metal pipe. I can live with that but would have been nicer if I could shorten that up

Good vacuum. Much quieter than the last one. I ordered the accessory pack based on other reviews that said the hose was too large to fit into their stove, but I never even opened it. I think our pellet stove is a pretty typical size and the hose, even with the metal piece and the brush attachment both installed, fits to clean it just fine. So I recommend getting this vacuum and not getting the accessory pack unless you find that you need it later. The vacuum even comes with a floor attachment, which I did not expect, so I can vacuum the floor around the stove more easily. It also has a top port where you can attach the hose to blow air instead of drawing it, so you can blow dirt and dust out of the motor and other areas of the stove. Let me say again: it is MUCH quieter than the last ash vacuum we had. I used to work as quickly as I could because the noise of the last one made my ears hurt, but this one doesn't bother me at all. The lower noise level alone is worth one star.

Unlike some others, I vacuum up glowing embers out of my wood stove with this vac. Works amazing! I can get most of it empty before the heat sensor kicks out. I never let my woodstove go out all the way in the winter, so emptying it is a pain, this allows me to take out the light/white ash and of course I get glowing embers in at the same time. LOVE IT!

This worked great for all of a month and then suddenly mid vacuum it shut off and wouldn’t turn back on for more than a few seconds. We followed all manufacturer instructions. Don’t waste your money.