Review on 🧹 EATC608S Vacmaster Ash Vacuum - 1 Gallon by Jermaine Shuster

Wood ash will quickly destroy a typical vacuum cleaner, so a special piece of equipment specifically designed for this purpose is required. I have used this vacuum once before each heating season for the last three years to clean the flues in our wood fired brick oven. Regular ash is removed every few days as it falls into the ash pan, so vacuum is only used to remove residual ash from the tangled chimney, which flows through the heater banks before exiting the chimney. These passages accumulate very little ash, vacuuming less than 2 gallons each year, so I expected this vacuum to do the job. Firstly, do not use this vacuum indoors for more than 5 minutes as the exhaust will fill your house with fine fly ash. It uses a filter plate that does not trap smaller particles. It takes me about 30-40 minutes of vacuum time to reach all the recesses and I was horrified the first year after I was done to find that every horizontal surface up to the ceiling in our downstairs house was covered with a thin layer is made of thin grey-black dust. It took many hours to clean up this mess and in hindsight I should have made an insurance claim to clean up this colossal mess. In my sophomore year I bought a very long hose extension to put the vacuum outside and that solved the problem. Second, although the vacuum only lasts about half an hour, the unit only runs for about 10 minutes before overheating and shutting down, requiring me to wait another 30 minutes to start it again, adding to the time allotted for this horrible task to get into a few hours. Thirdly, the suction starts normally, but after just a few minutes it gets so bad that the vacuum hose is not completely free either. I've found that emptying the tank and shaking out the filter after every liter or so of ash works, but again prolongs that horrible job. Since it's only once a year, I'll keep at it, but fine chimney ash is just beyond the scope of this vacuum cleaner.