Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Woodstove Ash Vacuum

Usually, a wet-dry vac will have a plate or baffle inside the tank directing the flow downwards. Flll the bottom of the tank with about 2" of water and install the foam filter for wet use. Shouldn't have any problem.

Phil

Hey, check out the Oneida Dust Deputy, think they still go for about $50. Make a homemade collector on top of a oil drum and use a cheap shop-vac for the vaccumm source. I madee a double unit on top of two 15-gallon plastic food drums. Works great.

Link

Phil

I built my own Wood Stove for my property in Arizona
I made a tapered bottom in it and welded a 4" sch. 40 pipe at an angle to run outside of my room that it sits in.
I have a cap on the outside over the end of the pipe.
When I need to clean my stove I just take the cap off and run a #2 wire up and down in the pipe to drag the ash out of the stove out side of the room.
No ash dust in the room from cleaning.

I have a Couple neighbors that have seen the stove and they say that it is Very Interesting.
I take that as a I am being polite but I do not like it.

Maybe a Vacuum would suck the ash out with out the wire I may try that some day.
The wire works for me and I like cleaning the Stove with no ash dust in the room.

That set-up sounds very interesting.

My biggest "need" for the vac is the ash drawer. My Brunch has shaker grates and the ash drawer under the firebox. A lever moves the firebox floor 90º and dumps the ash under. It caches MOST of the ash, but is still a mess behind, under, and especially beside the drawer (mostly along the sliders)

All that in conjunction of less dust (possibly/hopefully) in my living room seems to be a plus.

I've been pretty pleased with one of these.

https://www.sylvane.com/nilfisk-attix-19-gallon-xtreme-clean-wet-dry-vacuum.html

I have a friend up in my area that has a conventional wood stove in his Garage/Home.
His wife was the 1st one to call my stove Very Interesting.

They have ash all over their Garage and it travels threw their living quarters as well
They have the old shovel to clean their stove.
I like your trap door into a drawer idea the next stove I build I may try that idea.
I built a small wood stove for heating a Teepee that I had and put a Drawer in the bottom of it but I did not put the trap door and that stove burns wood real quick because there is no real air flow adjustment.

Thanks for the Idea.

Yep, we shoveled the stove all the time growing up, and no matter how careful, the ash gets everywhere. That fine stuff seems nearly weightless.

This is a really good idea... when you run a shop vac in the house, no matter how good your filter is, you will get real fine ash in the house... when you run the power unit outside it can blow all the bypass particulate you want with no problem...

I have been serious thinking of a central vac unit that gets vented to the outside. So no matter how cheap the filter is, it dosn't matter because it would be vented outside.

I also use this method to vacuum my 2 Cats, keeps the hair down, they love it.

Had an aunt who’s house burned down after vacuuming ashes off the wood stove and putting it back in the closet. We went over there and another uncle was there already. I remember the cops and firefighters were everywhere, we were standing in front of her car and my dad said “Jesus Christ she could’ve at least hid the damn car!” And my uncle busted out laughing. Looked back and it was full of personal belongings and valuables.

I think that was the 2nd time she’d had a fire and collected insurance. LOL. Her husband at the time was a cop of all things.

My concern would be "Are the ashes cold enough?"

I recently discovered shop vac liner bags. They claim to be tight enough to catch wood ash, and other ultra fine dust. Specifically recommended to protect the motor on the vac from fine dust.

I use them at work on a 12 gallon shop vac. They do work well on my problem ultra fine dust. I can not speak to wood ash.

Home Depot sells them in Ridgid brand. Our local Ace Hardware also stocks them.

I was planning on doing something like that but with a piece of flighting with a detachable crank. I would think as long as it was airtight it would work.

I just use my little stanley shop vac for the fines inside the stove, once a year, and to clean up the residue after shoveling out the ash. I might change the filter once a year.

Check out the little Rigid 4 gallon, 5 HP portable vac. It has an optional exterior exhaust, its the one I use for a vaccum source wth those 2 Dust Deputy Cyclone seperators mounted to 2-15 gallon drums, all on a small 4 whell cart. And use the optional $17 Rigid VT2525 2-1/2" Diffuser on the vaccums exhaust end. The diffuser makes a big difference.

Link: Rigid 4 gallon, 5 HP vac

Link: Diffuser

A better quality hose makes a big difference to, one thats much longer and more flexible.

Link: Hose

Phil

I did not get the angle I needed in the clean out pipe so that the ash flowed out of it when cleaning,
That is where the wire came into play but I kinda like the Vacuum idea I would not need the wire just open the Damper and away the ash would go.

I too used a cheap shop vac set outside. Found extra hose at the convenience center (dump) and duct taped it to the hose I already had. Run the hose through an open window close to the stove and have at it. Setting the vac outside also solves the problem of ash that gets exhausted out of the vac; it's outside instead of in the room.

My stove has an ash catcher tray under the grate. I give the gates a small shake every day then empty the tray into a metal bucket outside. I don't let much buildup of ashes happen.

Yup, that's why I bought an Ash Vac made of metal with a metal lined hose.