Very fine powdery ash tends to collect around my woodstove as a result of shoveling out ashes (or it just blows out the door when I open it). This fine ash either plugs the vacuum cleaner bag, blows thru it, or a combination of the two. What is a good way to manage this? Sweeping is certainly a bad idea, but that's mostly what I have been doing.
It will go right through a regular Shop Vac, but you can buy a HEPA filter that fits on them. That will get it.
It sure won't get through a "Clean Stream" (gore-tex) filter that fits most models of Shop-Vac. And ... since any ash that escapes captivity will fly much farther than you think, let me suggest that you have that vac sucking dust from the immediate area while you're cleaning the stove.
Takes a lot of fines to affect flow with this filter. Then you pull it out and gently smack it so as to cause the dust to depart. Outdoors of course.
J
I've tried spraying or dribbling water on ashes before picking them up. When they're wet, you can use a fireplace shovel, or a garden trowel.
IIRC it worked pretty well.
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.
Really bad for exposed metal parts, though.
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