Coalpail.com Forum

It's not so much the vacuum but the filter.Fly ash is even finer than sheet rock dust.
DON

How about this idea:

Keep a cheap shop vac outside the house (weather protected) & run a hose into the house near your stove/appliance (or just a cheap wall plate to attach a hose too) Put an on/off switch nearby.
Use this "dedicated" shop vac to keep your stove free of dust. (whatever ash/dust that is not captured by a cheap filter will be blown outside anyway)

Quiet, ZERO dust & cheap!

Pretty good idea Devil. Now to get a 12 foot hose or extension. I use one of those cloth filters with a tie at the top and it worked fairly well. Then I placed a cloth filter underneath and I get no dust at all, but the suction is reduced a bit. Still like Devil's idea better. Good suction with no mess at all.

kootch88 wrote:Still like Devil's idea better. Good suction with no mess at all.

Thanks John.......Come to think of it....I have a spare (old) shop vac I don't use anymore & a plastic shed for my lawn mower right outside. (on the same wall .......next to my stove) I'm going to connect it up & run a hose to a wall fitting & switch I'll install ......so that I can use this instead of my good, central vac system! Then I'll just connect a short plastic hose to the new fitting & vacuum the dust all winter long!

(plus the added benefit of pleasing my wife with ANOTHER hole through the wall!! )

Edit: Just though of an added benefit for people with very tight homes:..This could double as a dedicated supply line for bringing combustion air to the stove when not used as a vac....I believe engineers would consider this an "Elegant" fix for a problem! )

If I were to try Devil's system, I'd have to see how it would perform unprotected in a rainstorm -- just to see what happens! BZZZZZZZZZZ!!

I use a Rigid "Professional" 16 gallon, 6.5hp with the filter gauge on the front. With fly ash, the gauge turns orange pretty quick but will continue to pick up stuff for a long time. This is using the filter that came with it. It's a normal wet/dry pleated paper filter. Nothing fancy & easy to clean with compressed air. None of the ash gets by the filter either.

I just use an old Sears household canister vac with the disposable bags. I haven't seen any dust blowing out the exhaust port. I admit I was surprised, it seems to handle the ash just fine.

edit: double post

I have a Clarke brand commercial grade canister vacuum. Bought years ago from a warehouse club. What's unique about it is the huge filter bag. It's almost the diameter of the drum and almost half as tall as the drum. The filter doesn't need replacement, just cleaning. The collected dust serves as a filter agent. Dirt is sucked to the bag and when it builds up enough it just falls in the tank. The total area of the bag is so large that a collection of dust on it doesn't reduce it's suction power. Works great and I've easily saved the high initial cost in not having to buy replacement bags. I do clean the filter by removing it and blowing it clean with the air hose. Best done up wind on a windy day. The illustration shows the construction. There's an inner filter like on most canister vacuums. That's surrounded by the huge fabric filter that builds up with dust. I suspect this filter (#8 in the illustration) would fit other drum style vacuums. Especially those that use standard steel drums. The large filter is removed when you use it as a wet vac.

Yanche-That is the system the FEIN vac uses.
Devil-Yor plan sounds good except when you get to the part about sharing the shed with the lawnmower and the gasoline fumes!
If you suck up an errant live coal or Mr Vacuum has a 'sparky day' you may have some extra heat at your house you were not bargaining for!

CapeCoaler wrote:Devil-Yor plan sounds good except when you get to the part about sharing the shed with the lawnmower and the gasoline fumes!

Already thought of that problem CapeCoaler but have overcome it thru the installation of a furthing bearing to reduce the chance of sinasoidal depleneration.

This video will make my point clear:

Yes, I studied the video and I believe you will be overloading the flux capacitor unless you load balance with two devices!

CapeCoaler wrote:Yes, I studied the video and I believe you will be overloading the flux capacitor unless you load balance with two devices!

Not wanting to start an argument here but I believe you are failing to take into account the malleability of the sprach inhibitors which effectively eliminate the chance of the phase detractors failing under applied tension....Sorry.

Sinasoidal depleneration is key to the operation of a Star Trek Transporter unit, with which I move my ashes directly to the town transfer station. If it's not adjusted right, however, it sends half a cubic foot of burning coal and sets that whole compacted trailer load of non-recyclables on fire. They get really p*ssed, except for the volunteer fire department guys who just live for that sort of thing.

rberq wrote:Sinasoidal depleneration is key to the operation of a Star Trek Transporter unit, with which I move my ashes directly to the town transfer station. If it's not adjusted right,

I hear you....Hate when that happens!!

I use the shop vac to get my coal from the basement. I used a foam filter for an air intake around the sucktion tube. I got sick of cleaning it and was still getting coal dust in the house. Now when I remove the boards to get the coal. I have the old hose there , going through the board covering the window. I put it into the outside air flow of the vac. Works great and no more cleaning the filter. When theres fresh snow you can see the dust. Works great for cleaning the ash build up in the stove too. No more dust in the house.