Fireplace vacuum

lopisided · Jan 30, 2015

Just wondering if anyone has one and whether it's worth having.

When I shovel out my Lopi wood stove, the ash goes everywhere and settles on everything in the living room. It seems like a fireplace vacuum that can suck up hot coals along with the ash might keep the ash from spreading.

Anyone have one? Does it do a good job? What kind do you recommend?

Thanks.

Ted

BobUrban · Jan 30, 2015

never a good idea to use ANY sort of vacuum to suck up hot ash or coals no matter what the packaging says.

Essentially you are creating a forge with fuel(all the unburned stuff like bark, dog hair, unburned char) and forced air. I am rather certain if a vacuum were created that could handle such heat it would not be portable in any way and even if it were you have a CO2 machine in your home.

I do have a 1 gallon shop vac near the stove that I use to gather dust, crud and junk around the hearth but only with serious discretion.

lopisided · Jan 30, 2015

BobUrban said:
never a good idea to use ANY sort of vacuum to suck up hot ash or coals no matter what the packaging says.

Essentially you are creating a forge with fuel(all the unburned stuff like bark, dog hair, unburned char) and forced air. I am rather certain if a vacuum were created that could handle such heat it would not be portable in any way and even if it were you have a CO2 machine in your home.

I do have a 1 gallon shop vac near the stove that I use to gather dust, crud and junk around the hearth but only with serious discretion.

Thanks Bob. I just got off my duff and did a search for ash vacs and see the majority of posts warn against using any vac for even warm ash. So, I won't be using one.

I'll have to practice shoveling and dumping more carefully.

bholler · Jan 30, 2015

What we do when shoveling ash out in customers homes if to turn on the vac and hold the hose right at the edge of the bucket with one hand and shovel with the other the vac sucks up and dust that gets airborne but you don't have the risk of sucking up hot coals. And no not even wit hour professional vacume made for chimney and stove work we cannot suck up hot coals. We have had to empty out smouldering bags and filters more than once when we found a coal in a cool stove.

lopisided · Jan 30, 2015

bholler said:
What we do when shoveling ash out in customers homes if to turn on the vac and hold the hose right at the edge of the bucket with one hand and shovel with the other the vac sucks up and dust that gets airborne but you don't have the risk of sucking up hot coals. And no not even wit hour professional vacume made for chimney and stove work we cannot suck up hot coals. We have had to empty out smouldering bags and filters more than once when we found a coal in a cool stove.

Good idea, thanks!

midwestcoast · Jan 31, 2015

bholler said:
What we do when shoveling ash out in customers homes if to turn on the vac and hold the hose right at the edge of the bucket with one hand and shovel with the other the vac sucks up and dust that gets airborne but you don't have the risk of sucking up hot coals. And no not even wit hour professional vacume made for chimney and stove work we cannot suck up hot coals. We have had to empty out smouldering bags and filters more than once when we found a coal in a cool stove.

I do a similar setup using a box fan with a furnace filter taped to the intake side. It works pretty good

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