Snow Joe ASHJ201 Ash Vacuum Review

Snow Joe ASHJ201 Ash Vacuum Review

If you have a fireplace, fire pit, pellet stove or wood stove, do yourself a favor and invest in a Snow Joe ASHJ201 ash vacuum cleaner.

Cleaning up after a fire, whether that be in your fireplace, fire pit, BBQ grill, or wood / pellet stove, investing in a quality ash vacuum cleaner makes the cleaning task so easy and fast.

And why we rate the Snow Joe Fireplace vacuum so highly is that it is specifically designed to clean up ash after any type of fire.

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Features Of The Snow Joe ASHJ201 Ash Vacuum

It's All Quality Metal

First of all, the Snow Joe ash vacuum is made of metal, all metal. The nozzle, the hose and the tank are all metal.

The reason that this is so important is that if you accidentally suck up some warm ash, the Snow Joe vac will be able to handle it. In fact this fireplace vacuum seems like it is built to handle hot coals, but as it is labelled cold ash, we think it is primarily done so for liability reasons.

Extra Large Storage

With regard to the tank, it is an extra-large one with a storage capacity of 4.8 gallons. This has 2 great benefits when using it. The first one being that the tank is all metal, and that’s it.

Once you have taken off the motor and removed the large pre-filter, you will find the ash is right there in the bottom of the tank. It is a bag free self-contained system.

Because of this design, you can easily tip the ash straight out of this tank and that is the job done. There is no fuss to cleaning the Snow Joe ASHJ201 ash vacuum and that is what we like.

Also, because of the great size of the tank, you can quite comfortably burn a month’s worth of fires before you need to empty the ash out of this vacuum. Having the extra size is definitely a time saver in the long run.

And then, once you find that you do need to empty the vacuum, it is so easy to reassemble it. Just place the motor top back on top and twist into place to secure.

Assembling and Operating the Snow Joe Ash Vac

Once you un-box the Snow Joe ash vac, you will find the initial assembly super easy as there are only 5 components to put together, these being:

  1. Lid of the tank which houses the motor and advanced filtration system (i.e. the pleated filter for fine particles)
  2. Metal Tank
  3. 9 foot metal suction hose
  4. 8 inch aluminum suction tube with an angled tip
  5. Larger filter that filters out larger particles

You simply take the top (motor and installed filter) out of the box. Followed by the tank which will have the hose, suction tube and large filter stowed inside.

Place the large filter on top of the tank, and put the lid of the tank on top. Then connect the suction tip/nozzle to the hose and connect the hose to the motor. That is it.

Operating is as easy as switching on the on/off button on top of the lid. Note that it also has the added safety switch which will not allow you to operate the vacuum without the filter being in place.

On the tank there is an inspection window so that you can see if there are any blockages occurring. The fine dust filter is easy to clean and reusable.

It weighs only 8.8 pounds so it is light enough to move it around as needed. It does however have a sound level of 92 decibels, so it could be considered loud in comparison to other vacuums out there.

Specifications

The vacuum has a 4 amp motor which provides more than sufficient power for its 500 watts of suction power. The high air flow enables you to clean fast whilst the angled tip makes it easy to get into tight corners and be thorough when cleaning up leftover ash.

No Ash Pollution During Operation

One really important component of a quality fireplace ash vacuum is that when in use, it should not expel any ash dust particles into the air. The Snow Joe ash vac is specifically designed to retain all of the ash particles within its advanced dual filtration system.

The first ‘coarse dust filter’ captures all of the larger dust particles. The second filter is known as the ‘fine dust filter’, which as the name states, captures the smaller finer particles.

The reason this second filter is so important is that the finer dust particles can be invisible to the human eye but detrimental to your respiratory system should you inhale them unaware.

Children and pets have small respiratory systems, so you do not want to be compromising their health with an ash vacuum cleaner that blows out fine ash particles that can be easily inhaled.

In fact, it is not healthy for anyone to breathe in this type of polluted air, in particular when you are using the ash vacuum cleaner at the coal face (pardon the pun).

So, it is therefore reassuring to know that the ASHJ201 vacuum has these two different filters working together to ensure that everything that’s sucked up remains contained.

Warranty

The 2 year warranty provided by Snow Joe gives you more than enough time to thoroughly use the ASHJ201 vacuum cleaner with cover.

Disadvantages

Really the only drawback with this ash vacuum cleaner is the airflow from the top of the lid and the wide tipped nozzle.

The airflow blows out in both directions so that you need to angle the tank drum away from the dust you want to suction otherwise you will be chasing airborne ash.

Plus the wide tip nozzle, although it is angled to get into corners, it is actually quite wide so it cannot easily get right into those small tight spaces.

Summing Up The Snow Joe ASHJ201 Vac

Overall, this ash vacuum cleaner is a well-priced and reliable vacuum cleaner. The warranty will provide more than adequate cover should any problems arise within a 2 year period. In other words, you have enough time to test it out with confidence.

It is a very sturdy soot vacuum cleaner, being that it’s made of full metal, and should the odd warm fire debris be suctioned, then this vacuum can surely handle it.

We really like how easy it is to open and clean after operation. Plus the storage of the hose is quite neat as it simply fits into the coil storage on top of the lid.

So if you have a fireplace, fire pit, pellet stove or wood stove, do yourself a favor and invest in a Snow Joe ASHJ201 ash vacuum cleaner. We are confident that you won’t regret it.

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