Genuine Love-Less Ash Cougar Black Vacuum Cleaner
This is a great ash vacuum because:
- Uses a powerful 6 amp motor
- The 3-gallon canister is made of fireproof rolled steel.
- The patented Love-Less Ash primary filter is fire-resistant up to 1,000°F.
- Other parts in the Cheetah II ash vacuum are constructed of fire-resistant thermoplastic.
- The dual filters are specifically designed to capture even the smallest ash particles, and can be cleaned without removing the vacuum lid.
- A quieter alternative to the Love-Less Ash Cheetah II Vacuum Cleaner, which is exactly the same as the Cougar only slightly louder
- Limited One-Year Home use warranty provided by Love-Less Ash
- Made in the USA!
- The Love-Less Ash Cougar has been the best selling ash vacuum for more than 20 years.
- Please be sure to read the safety information below, as well as all the information in the owner's manual that comes with your vacuum cleaner. If there are discrepancies between the information below and the owner's manual, always follow the owner's manual.
Some Safety Information
Regular household or shop vacuums should NEVER be used for cleaning out your fireplace, wood stove, pellet stove, or grill. Hot embers, hidden under ash, can stay "alive" for days. Surrounded by the flammable dust and debris inside a regular vacuum bag or filter, these embers can easily start a fire. Often, these types of fires take hours to start, and therefore can occur after you go to bed or leave the house.
In addition, ash is composed of incredibly fine particles -- as fine as talcum powder. A normal vacuum bag or filter cannot capture particles this fine. These particles will be blown right through the vacuum cleaner and out the exhaust port, landing all over your house. If you're lucky and your house doesn't smell like an ashtray, it will require a hearty dusting, which is no fun for anybody.
Although a HEPA filter can generally block particles this small, there are so many of these tiny particles in your fireplace, stove or grill that the expensive HEPA filter will quickly be overwhelmed and need to be replaced. Plus, even with a HEPA filter, there's still the risk of fire.
What You Can Safely Vacuum
First, it's advised that you always wait until all the embers in the fireplace, wood stove, pellet stove or grill have completely died and cooled off. If the vacuum hose gets too hot to hold with bare hands while you're vacuuming, STOP! This is a sure signal that the ashes are too hot. At this point, gloves are not the answer! Give the ashes more time to cool and/or be sure to rest the nozzle on the firebrick, or base, so you are removing only fine ash from the bottom of the pile -- not large chunks of hot embers
The Love-Less Ash company uses a few key terms:
- "Firefly" -- the tiny sparks that float up and out of the fireplace; they glow for no longer than a firefly's light -- about a second before they burn out.
- "Cigarette" -- a piece/chunk of partially burned fuel (wood or pellet) that has a red hot glowing ember attached, much like a cigarette.
"Fireflies" are unlikely to burn a whole in your Cougar's filter; there generally isn't enough material to burn long and hot enough to get through the fire-resistant material.
"Cigarettes", on the other hand, can potentially burn a whole in your filter. There is often enough material with them that, if lodged against the filter, with swirling air, the ember could heat up above the temperature limit of the fire-resistant filter. If "cigarettes" are present, let the ash cool for longer.
Love-Less Ash Vacuum Operating Instructions
