TIL a shop vac with a HEPA filter is a game changer for fine ash cleanup

3 comments

3 Comments

Honestly, I was skeptical about the HEPA filter at first. But last winter I cleaned out my fireplace for the first time and made a huge dusty mess everywhere. Regular shop vac just blew the fine ash right back into the room. I grabbed a HEPA rated vacuum bag for my shop vac and it made a night and day difference, no more cloud of dust every time I moved the hose.

tylerj2228d ago

Learned that one the hard way too, just without the HEPA filter. Spent an hour vacuuming and the room looked like a chimney exploded.

blair_webb28d ago

miles_young59 nailed it with the "night and day difference" part. I tried the same thing with a regular bag and it was brutal, ash just puffed right back out. What really worked for me was using a HEPA-rated bag plus putting a thin cloth over the intake hose before I started. That caught most of the fine stuff before it even hit the filter, and I didn't have to stop and clean the filter every five minutes.