Good Evening All, I’am looking for a Shop Vac, that I’am able to use right next to the Firebox, indoors, after I’am through scrubbing the Flu. I would sure like to get away from my usual way, which is, and has been , for too long, is to use my regular shop vac, set outside, with a bed sheet thrown over it, sometimes with 25 feet of hose attached to it. I Thank You All for your Time, Jim Jensen
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If you're wanting to keep things tidy around a stove or fireplace, (I get that impression), there is a vacuum cleaner just for the purpose. It's mfd. by the Love-Less Ashes Co. in Price, Utah (I'm not joking). Very well designed with a very clever filter system that you can clean without opening it up.
AND, you can suck up even hot embers with it. Looks like about a 5 gal. shop vac with a very heavy duty hose. DW found ours new in the box at a garage sale, but I've since seen them in some mail order catalogs. I sometimes use it to vacuum drywall dust because the filter is so easy to clean.
Cheetah II, Model MU305. They run about $200, I believe. Sorry I don't have more contact info.
Have you tried a fine-dust replacement filter for the Shopvac ?
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Notchman , Naw, not so much to be tidy, it is so I can stick my head in the Firebox/Fireplace and vaccuum out the Smoke shelf, and around the damper. My first Post was more clear, but got lost, I'am a guessing my fault. Thanks for the lead , I plan on calling them in the AM. Phill, today, while I was picking up supplies at True Value, I noticed their Shop Vac display. Sure enough there is and was a finer filter. Do you know if they will work on soot, ie , not blow soot all over the renter's living room? I manage 12 rentals, and they, the homes all have fireplaces, and all the tenants burn wood. I'am just trying to make a little better use of my time. Take care, Jim Jensen
I can't speak for the ShopVac, I've used the Cleanstream filter in my Sears and it seems to stop about everything - I still put a clump of cheesecloth in the exhaust port and turn the machine so I can see it when I vacuum the copier and the laser printer just in case..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Two things for your consideration if you want to retrofit your ShopVac for cleaner exhaust.
1. Use their pre-filter bags. They have two types - one is for drywall.
2. ShopVac now offers their own HEPA rated pleated cartridge filter.
It is less expensive then the CleanStream.
CleanStream, which I own several for my ShopVac, now offers a full
HEPA model at considerably higher cost.
ShopVac's pleated filters also come in regular and HEPA.
3. With the combination of prefilter bag and pleated cartridge filters,
you'll be better off with the 2" hose model if you don't already
have one. And they are quieter.
I use my setup for all sorts of fine particle pickup around the house and projects using six 6' extension hoses in varying combination.
Even with the filters I still prefer to keep the canister in a different room or near an open door.
Maybe someone can comment on the amount of carbon dust that is exhausted from the vaccuum motor.
Alan
Another option is to run an exhaust hose to a 1 gal can filled with cotton balls - that's what we used to do before we got the good filters for the vacs. You can put the used balls in a barbeque basket and shake them out now and then INSIDE a SEALED plastic bag to get the fine dust out of them and then reuse them.
re: motors and oil mist/carbon from brushes - back in my near-cleanroom days we used to put dust masks over the motor ports on the vacs. .
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Thanks for the tip, Phill -
I don't know why they did this, but my ShopVac (16-gal 5-hp QSP) does not have an exhaust port that can accomodate a hose.
Instead, they are two horizontal slots at the base of the motor housing.
Kinda dumb to eliminate the option of making use of the blower port and I knew this when I bought the vac.
The dust mask idea sounds good.
Alan
I think that is done on purpose. That forms part of the noise reduction of the QSP.
BTW, I don't have a meter and the appropriate audio filters, but my QSP sounds as loud at my old crapsman, but it does not have the high pitch screem.
Yes, the noise level seems lower because the screaming pitch is reduced. More like a loud hum, which is what I would prefer anyway.
But I think the 2.5" hose diameter helps lower the noise level as well.
The smaller hose QSP models are still screamers - gave one to my parents with the filters for using around the house.
I think equipped with the filters, the 2.5" ShopVac (or Craftsman) are a good bargain.
I use a ShopVac QSP with a paper bag (I use the ShopVac brand name bags). Works like a champ, no mess.
Pete
Take it to the next step and install their pleated HEPA.
(Make sure the ping-pong ball cage is clean).
Then you can also safely use it as a very powerful household vac.
That's actually why we got ours after deciding to hold off on a central vac and didn't want to use an upright with hardly any carpeting in the house.
Not to steal this thread, but what about noise reduction. Has anyone tried the mufflers that attach to the exhaust port. I got one at sears for about $15 and I will sell it you for $1 plus postage. In a catalogue recently (forgot which one) I saw a muffler that was about 2' long and 8" in dia. Does it work?
I've tried a muffler designed for a built-in on my '89 Craftsman and the whine died down a little, but the sound of the motor and impeller still requires hearing protection..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
I think that the main reason that Crapsman and Shop-vacs are so loud is that the motors they use are rejects from Fire and Air-raid sirens.
the motors are tested for noise levels and the ones that drown out the sirens are rejected and sold to vac manufacturers.
Get a Fien
TDo not try this at home!
I am a trained professional!
Rejected air raid sirens. Now it makes sense.
The only thing I've ever seen done that dramatically reduced shop vac noise was to build a cabinet that the entire vacumn is placed in. The cabinet is lined w/ sound insulation. The exaust goes through a filter to I think.
One I saw was on casters w/ a hinged top you could open and pull the entire vac out to dump it. Huge noise reduction. Lot of work to get it though.