# Shop vac for wood ashes??



## omnicat (Nov 29, 2005)

I've been carefully shoveling out my woodstove, and putting the ash in a lidded pot nearby.

Yesterday, one of our cats managed to get the lid off and make a bloody mess of it. The can was FULL.

I know that vacuuming up ash will ruin most "regular" vacuum cleaners. We've been thinking we need something to handle it for awhile - but this sort of puts it on a front burner.

It doesn't have to be the kind that can do live embers...just ash without dying. We saw a itsy little wet/dry shop vac, and we can afford it. But the friendly hardware folks didn't really know if it would handle ash.

I figger you all are smarter than them. So - 

Should I buy it??


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## dagwood (Jul 17, 2006)

I use a Sears Wet-Dry Vac to clean out the ashes in my Shop woodstove every week during Winter use. The Vac is nearly 5 years old and still going strong.


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

Embers stay for days in ashes. Here in MN, not using the furnace/stove for 6 hours makes a cold house.

How do you use a shopvac & not burn something down?

A friend put his ashes in a metal trash can. Three days later he put them on the pickup, wetted the surface (he's a fireman) and hauled them to the yardwastedump.

Got 1/2 way there, looked in the mirror, and the whole back of his pickup was flames.

He almost got it beat out with a broom, but the broom burned off, & winds that day reflamed the bed liner.

Burned the whole pickup to a crisp.

Did I mention he was a fireman & pretty careful with this type of stuff?

--->Paul


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## dagwood (Jul 17, 2006)

> How do you use a shopvac & not burn something down?


I dilute the ashes down good with water before I vac out the stove.


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## Country Doc (Oct 26, 2005)

I use a shop vac but only after the fire has been out a week or more and shovel rest of the time to a galvanized tub that. I dump the ashes on different parts of the pasture. It is hard on the vac filters and you will were them out faster.


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## jross (Sep 3, 2006)

I would never use a shop vac except in the fall after the stove has set for the summer. I put a cartridge adaptor on our old Montgomery Ward shop vac, cut an old Eureka high filtration bag and put it over the cartridge. I connected a 25 foot sump pump hose to the outlet and ran it outside the cellar window. After vacuuming the stove, I could not find any dust residue at the end of the sump hose, so I just tied an old filter bag on the end of the hose and left it coiled in the basement. I went to blow out the sump pump hose and no dust came out of it. I believe the sump pump hose just reduces the velocity of the shop vac exhaust enough to keep all the dust in the vacuum, where if it were allowed to exhaust normally dust would shoot out of it. Dumb engineering. Northern used to sell a metal cannister that connected to a shop vac and was supposed to trap hot ash. They don't seem to carry it any longer and it was expensive, so I suppose it didn't sell that well, or didn't work. I would never vacuum ash unless it was month old, or if I ever get one of those designed for hot ash.


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## via media (Jun 3, 2005)

Why will picking up ash with a regular vacuum cleaner ruin in? 

We push ash from the fireplace through a hole in the back which goes down a chute into the basement. I emptied the chute the other day and used our regular vac to clean up the ash that had flown around the room and two piles of ash that had missed the bucket.

Did I just ruin my little Magic Blue? 

/VM


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## dagwood (Jul 17, 2006)

via media said:


> Why will picking up ash with a regular vacuum cleaner ruin in?
> 
> We push ash from the fireplace through a hole in the back which goes down a chute into the basement. I emptied the chute the other day and used our regular vac to clean up the ash that had flown around the room and two piles of ash that had missed the bucket.
> 
> ...



Ash is very fine particled.....just like the dust from sheetrock. Their inherent properties are well known for causing the premature death of many a good vacuum cleaner.....


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## longshadowfarms (Nov 27, 2002)

I use a metal can and just clean out whenever the stove is as cool as it gets. I just shovel out the coolest parts and leave the nicest coals to restart. I take the ashes out immediately so they don't make a mess. Maybe not simple, but it works. It has been quite warm here this week so I'd let the stove go out. It was out for 3 days when I emptied it and there were still a few coals left in there.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I think you are just talking about vacuuming up the mess that the cat scattered and the floated out on the floor ash? Shop vac should work ok.

Do check on the itsy bitsy vac before you buy it. I bought one and got it home, only to discover that it had a capacity of maybe a cup because the entire tank was filled with the filter head/motor stuff.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Shovel and metal bucket for me, shop vac filter plugs up "right now" and is a pain to clean, that when the fire has been out for weeks.
Have seen the "hot coal vacs", I think in the Lemans cat, but seem a little pricy for me.


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## omnicat (Nov 29, 2005)

_I think you are just talking about vacuuming up the mess that the cat scattered and the floated out on the floor ash? Shop vac should work ok.

Do check on the itsy bitsy vac before you buy it. I bought one and got it home, only to discover that it had a capacity of maybe a cup because the entire tank was filled with the filter head/motor stuff._

Thanks.

Yes, the mess the cat made spread ashes over several square feet of carpet. I wasn't thinking of vacuuming the stove itself. I shovel into the metal pot w/ lid. Thinking of adding a brick to the lid to foil the cat. (she never did that all last winter - sheesh!)

Also thanks about checking the capacity. One cup would not go far...


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## dagwood (Jul 17, 2006)

omnicat........set a few mouse traps in the top of the lid.....and be prepared to laugh yerself silly when the hairball sets em off......   :hobbyhors


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## jross (Sep 3, 2006)

omnicat said:


> _I think you are just talking about vacuuming up the mess that the cat scattered and the floated out on the floor ash? Shop vac should work ok.
> 
> Do check on the itsy bitsy vac before you buy it. I bought one and got it home, only to discover that it had a capacity of maybe a cup because the entire tank was filled with the filter head/motor stuff._
> 
> ...


Then just get a double filtration bag for any vaccum that will go over the shop vac filter, cut it, put it over the filter and secure it with rubber bands to keep it tight, then when done throw it out. The exhaust of the shop vac will tell you if the filter bag is working. You could go to home Depot or Lowes and get a retrofit kit to increase the filtering of your shop vac. I had to cut the circumference of the filter cage a little on our M.W. shopvac to get a retrofit filter to work, just nibbled it with tin snips.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Ok, this wasn't the actual question I realize, but this is what we do. We bought one of those 1 gal shop vacs and actually do use it to vac out the stove. It works great! It has a foam filter with a paper filter over it that is literaly a round piece of filter paper that is removable. I shovel out the stove first then vac out the rest (getting it this clean has made a big difference here). When I dump the ash I also remove both filters and beat them clean on a fence post. After 2 winters it's still works great.


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## morrowsmowers (Jun 14, 2004)

jross said:


> Northern used to sell a metal cannister that connected to a shop vac and was supposed to trap hot ash. They don't seem to carry it any longer and it was expensive, so I suppose it didn't sell that well, or didn't work. I would never vacuum ash unless it was month old, or if I ever get one of those designed for hot ash.


Harbor Freight now sells those metal cans that you connect in-line with the vacuum to clean up ash. For the shop vac you install a HEPA filter unit onto the center part inside the tank and then use drywall high efficiency bags which connect onto where the hose enters the tank. This will work well for ash, powder, drywall dust, sawdust, etc.

Ken in Glassboro, NJ


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

For the shop-vac brand products, the newer ones have bags on them like on your house vac but much larger. When you buy replacement bags, they have one that is made for sheetrock dust. I bet it would work. Not what I would do but if you think it is what you want to do, give it a try. Realize though, the bags are not cheap. $13 for 3 of the sheet rock ones.

Robert


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## via media (Jun 3, 2005)

Thanks, dagwood. Live and learn, I guess. *sigh*

/VM


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## Country Doc (Oct 26, 2005)

I bought one of those ash vacs. It is supposed to be fireproof. The directions warn you not to vac alot of hot coals(which I thought was the point of buying it). The biggest problem is they have a small intake that prevents 1 inch or larger coals from going in so you constantly are removing the coals from the intake. I'll sell mine if somebody wants it. I went back to the shopvac.


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## TheBlueOne (Jul 2, 2004)

I use a ShopVac with a SheetRock bag in it and have for about three years. As 'logbuilder' said, they are expensive bags but do capture all the dust/ash.


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## the mama (Mar 1, 2006)

Spring cleaning my fireplace, I scoop out the larger pieces, then use my house vaccuum to get the dust. Been doing this for years with no problem with the vac.I want the dust gone because then I put candles and dried flowers in the fireplace. This is in Florida.


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