Spent a whole morning with a soot vacuum vs a shop vac on a job in Denver

Used my shop vac for fine soot cleanup like always and it took forever plus filled the air with dust. Switched to a proper soot vacuum my buddy lent me and the difference was night and day - no cloud of crap everywhere. Has anyone else made the switch or do you just deal with the mess?

3 comments

3 Comments

emmaking1d ago

Oh man, that first time you use a real soot vacuum is like a religious experience or something... I used to think my shop vac was fine too, just a bit messy. But then I borrowed a proper one from a friend who does fire restoration, and yeah, night and day doesn't even cover it. The fine particles don't get a chance to float around and settle on everything else you already cleaned. Once you see how clean the air stays, it's really hard to go back to the old way.

val_shah1d ago

Lmao nobody talks about how a shop vac actually makes the soot smell worse too. That fine dust gets heated up by the motor and just blasts that burnt smell back into the room. The first time I used a real soot vac I actually stopped having to rewash walls because the particles weren't settling back down mid-job. It's like the difference between painting with a brush vs a roller, once you know better you cant unsee the mess you were making before.

brooke_jones1d ago

My buddy Dave kept complaining about ghosting on his walls after every fire cleanup job he did. He finally broke down and bought a proper soot vac after I pointed him to what @emmaking was saying about particle recirculation. Now he sends me photos of his spotless first rinse and says he finally understands what we were talking about all along.