Shop Vac advice sought

[banjerbill]

Hi,

Can anyone advise whether wet and dry shop vacs are harmed if used without the paper dustbag. I have a Parkside but I believe most are similar. The amount of stuff collected makes replacing the bag quite an expensive undertaking. I also run a Record extractor which just dumps the sawdust in the drum, can the vac be used the same way?

Bill

 

[Hot stuff]

I bought re-usable cloth bags for my vax cleaners, they look pretty similar to the park side bags. Around a tenner off eBay if Inremember correctly.
Doesn't have to be exactly right size and shape, as long as the inlet hole fits over the connector, spout bitty.
I'm pretty sure I've got a spare one if you want it? If you pm me your address I'll post it down to you, got to be worth a try.

 

[sunnybob]

without the dust bag, what stops the dust from just passing straight through back into the room?

 

[banjerbill]

without the dust bag, what stops the dust from just passing straight through back into the room?

There is a corrugated filter around the motor which I assumed prevented this , when used in wet mode the water is run straight into the drum

Bill

 

[sunnybob]

In that case the air cleaner will block up every day, instead of every week. No gain.

 

[LancsRick]

Either get some cheap dry only bags, or hook up a cyclone system in front of the main drum. As has been mentioned, skipping the bag is a false economy.

 

[stuartpaul]

As a fully paid up member of the tighter than a ducks arrse society I empty my bags several times before final disposal. I suppose on average I get about 5 uses before I have to bin them.

Empty before they start bulging is the key, - little and often.

With ebay type bags this isn't that bad a deal.

There was a thread on here ages ago about bag modifications to make emptying easier.

 

[Taewyn]

Either get some cheap dry only bags, or hook up a cyclone system in front of the main drum. As has been mentioned, skipping the bag is a false economy.

I second the cyclone suggestion. I have a cheap one (dust deputy or commander or whatever ) with an even cheaper shop vac, but I don't remember the last time I had to change the bag. Almost all the dust goes into the cyclone container which is very easy to clean (no bags or anything).
Also most of the fine dust seems to end up in the cyclone, which is great because i don't trust the filter on my shop vac too much.
Only downside is the extra space it takes but I've seen people build carts to stack vac and cyclone on top of each other. Haven't bothered doing that yet myself though.

 

[AES]

If it's any help, here's an idea I got somewhere off Youtube. It works well for me.

1. I got my wife to make me a cloth "cylinder", closed at one end, elasticated at the other (it's actually the sleeve off an old T shirt). It sits over the paper filter that is built into the shop vac (it's a Kaercher in my case).

Pic 1 - Inside the shop vac WITH paper bag

Pic 2 - The built-in filter cartridge PLUS old T shirt cover

2. When I'm doing something "out of the ordinary" (like picking up garden debris from the terrace - the garden vac we have is useless) I remove the paper bag as shown in Pic 1, and run the debris straight into the vac with the built in filter "protected" only by my old T shirt sleeve.

3. Otherwise, with "normal" shop debris I run the shop vac with both the paper bag AND the old T shirt/built in filter as a combo.

The only need is to clean the old T shirt every time I empty the shop vac. (I just bang it onto the edge of the garden dustbin. That clears most of the clag). Plus, "once in a blue moon", I wash the T shirt sleeve.

Along with not waiting until the paper bag is more than about half full (I agree with the previous poster about not waiting until it's really full) the old T shirt "filter cover" does seem to help prolong paper bag life.

So does using my cyclone, but I'm not yet using the cyclone regularly - that has to wait until I've made the cart to carry both the shop vac and the cyclone with it's own container.

I'm not sure, but expect to keep using the old T shirt filter cover after the cyclone is installed on the (yet to be made) cart. Though of course, the whole point of the cyclone is that most of the debris doesn't get into the shop vac itself, it goes into the cyclone's container.

Anyway, HTH

 

[Bm101]

I bought re-usable cloth bags for my vax cleaners, they look pretty similar to the park side bags. Around a tenner off eBay if Inremember correctly.
Doesn't have to be exactly right size and shape, as long as the inlet hole fits over the connector, spout bitty.
I'm pretty sure I've got a spare one if you want it? If you pm me your address I'll post it down to you, got to be worth a try.

Similar/same as these Hotstuff?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/5-Blue-Fabric- ... 2254423016
Just want to check before I ring the bell.
I'm also wondering how much 20 metre square of thin fleece is, some of that iron on seam tape me mum used to turn my school trousers up with and some cable ties or some para cord..... Ten minutes with the iron on you could probably make 50 for a fiver. I'll be on dragons den in a minute probably.
'Have you finalised your figures?
'Well I keep an open mind. Hour glass ideally. But you know pear shaped, top heavy. Small and laughy. All of 'em really if I got the chance.
Why do you ask?'

 

[sunnybob]

AES... I'm confused. you have put a cotton cover over the air filter. But the dust laden air still has to pass through the paper bag before it gets to the T shirt. How can that make the bag last longer?

If it actually does, Then the only reason I can think of is that you have reduced the amount of air passing through the machine, therefore reducing the efficiency and the amount of dust picked up.

You basically have now got TWO air filters AND a paper bag. I dont see how that can make the machine efficient. Even after both have been cleaned the machine can not pull the same amount of air as if there was only one air filter.

 

[Hot stuff]

Hi Chris, different type of bag altogether I'm afraid. Maybe I'm looking at a different Parkside vac?
The ones I got were really heavy duty things, similar to the canvas filter bags on dust extractors.
That said, I got the gaffer to make me a new bag for a Record dust extractor from a big sheet of hefty cotton we got from a second hand/vintage shop near us as the old one was full of holes. Works a treat and was way cheaper than the genuine article. Can't see any reason your idea for the other ones won't work as well.

 

[sunnybob]

filter bags are made much tighter weave than cotton.
Try using cotton as a brewed coffee filter and see.
Fine dust will go straight through the cotton and clog the air filter much quicker than using the correct bag.
maybe saving a few pennies, but definitely reducing the efficiency of the machine.

 

[AES]

I must confess that I too am confused Bob. It's clear that when vacuuming without the bag then I 'm just protecting the built in filter cartridge (e.g. garden rubbish, which seems to include quite a lot of fine dust caught up on the T shirt sleeve BTW). But when using the vac with the bag, just as you say, the suck is coming into the machine THROUGH the bag. So how can that help the bag you ask? My answer is I really dunno, but what I do find is that there's still a lot of fine dust caught up on the T shirt sleeve. So clearly it's been sucked THROUGH the bag, even though the bag seems to be stiff brown paper and not at all any sort of weave as discussed above.

Just as you say, this 2nd case makes no sense to me, especially as there does not seem to be any reduction in sucking capability with the T shirt sleeve in place. Simply put, I'm at a loss to understand it, but I just accept that the bag does seem to last longer, AND the built in cartridge filter doesn't seem to get so clogged up as it did before I fitted the T shirt sleeve. "Mad" or what?

"Dunno Chief"!

 

[sunnybob]

I can only think that the brown bag is not much cop.
Is there a spec sheet for it? as in how many microns it filters?
and that as opposed to the factory supplied bag?

 

[AES]

The bag is the factory supplied item Bob (I can't say I've looked hard, but in the little time I did look I didn't find an alternative to fit). The bag looks like it's made of paper similar to what you used in the old days to wrap a parcel except that the surface finish is perhaps not quite so smooth/shiny as parcel paper.

 

[sunnybob]

very strange

 

[Beau]

I never bother with an extra filter on my Alto vacuum. Dont get any problems other than having to change the cartridge filter once in a while as it gets a bit beat up from cleaning it.

 

[Mutley Racers]

Hi all. Any updates on the best bags to use with the lidl Parkside vac and filters. I was using mine the other day and thought it was not helping much. Opened it up and there was no bag inside. Oops.

Thanks all

 

[icejohn]

i dont have the utube like but the guy on there has a material type bag for an aldi style vac. he slices the end off the bag. Gets 15mm plumber tubing and cuts a slot 1mm or 2mm . you fold the ends of the bag 1 cm over each other and slide the slotted tube on to seal the bag. Reinstall into the vac.

makes emptying out very easier and keep reusing the bag. think the chap mentions that festool dust extraction systems have this feature as standard on the more expensive machines.