Shop Vac with HEPA filter--does it work?

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Has anyone used a HEPA filter on a Shop Vac? I'm looking at the Shop-Vac 90340 CleanStream Replacement Cartridge Filter to use in cleaning up a storage room in my shop. It may or may not have some nasty dust and other stuff that I would rather not breath or put in the air while cleaning. My theory is it will do little good to vacuum the place if the vac exhausts the dust to settle on other surfaces. My thought was to use this filter with a foam filter (pre-filter) around it to catch the big stuff so that it would drop off the filter when the vac is turned off. Any opinions or suggestions?

[harry strasil]

I got one not too long ago, but I use an old white shopvac 2.5 inch hose from the exhaust port to a box with half a furnace filter in it as an extra precaution, I also have a clearvue mini in front of the shop vac and only the very fine airborne stuff gets to the filter.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I use a CleanStream filter for my shop vac, and it works very well. Also, very easy to clean them out, much easier than the old paper filter.

Doc

[george wilson]

I used a very fine filter on my Fein shop vac.it got very plugged up,and I kept knocking it out. Being a Cleanstream filter,you are supposed to be able to wash it,but I felt that water would just turn the fine dust into glue. I finally put in a new Cleanstream filter,and then put in the felt cloth bucket shaped filter that came with the vac(don't discard it,it costs about $40.00 or more. Now,the cloth bucket shields the extra fine filter from most dust,and the vac sucks better. I think the fine filter will last a lot longer,too.

[Rich Tesoroni]

I have the mini dust deputy in front of the little Fein. Inside it have have one of the fein bags and the clearstream filter. I tapped the filter and nothing seemed to come out of it.

Rich

[Fred Hargis]

I use the Cleanstream with my Fein, and can't say enough good things about it. But if you are dealing with unknown hazardous stuff, you will be exposed cleaning the tanl. I think I would consider the Cleanstream and also use drywall bags in the vac....disposal besomes much easier.

[Loren Hedahl]

My experience is the Cleanstream is well worth the extra bucks.

When cleaning up a dusty area, I believe the exhaust air from the Shop Vac stirs up a lot of dust as well as just your movement around the area.

The only solutions I have for that would be to leave your Shop Vac outdoors and plumb your shop with plastic pipe like a home built-in vacuum uses.

Or use an air-cleaner to clean the airborne dust.

Or just figure on vacuuming a lot oftener.

[Matt Day]

I've got a HEPA filter on my Craftsman shop vac, Cleanstream I think, and it's excellent - I wouldn't run one without it. When I first purchased the shop-vac, I tried vacuuming up some dust and it basically shot right back out at me sinc the stock filter didn't filter down to that level. I got the HEPA filter and it's a hundred times better. So much so I use the shop vac routinely around the house - just did yesterday in fact to suck up some stuff the regular house vacuum wouldn't get.

The suction of the vacuum gets noticeable less when the filter packs up with fine dust, so I regularly remove the it and clean it by wacking the sides of it over a garbage can (usually with a dust mask since dust goes everywhere, and of course outside!) and sometimes by using the air compressor. I've probably done this 30 times with it and it still seems to filter like new.

Well worth the investment.

[Matt Uchida]

Don't mean to revive an old thread but I was at lower buying a new shop vac and better filter. I was looking for their HEPA filter which they don't stock but they did have one labeled for fine filtration. It stated 95% for particles up to 0.3 microns in size. I thought that was HEPA territory? Not sure whether I should return it and order a HEPA or clean stream or just accept the 0.3 micron size?

[Van Huskey]

Don't mean to revive an old thread but I was at lower buying a new shop vac and better filter. I was looking for their HEPA filter which they don't stock but they did have one labeled for fine filtration. It stated 95% for particles up to 0.3 microns in size. I thought that was HEPA territory? Not sure whether I should return it and order a HEPA or clean stream or just accept the 0.3 micron size?

HEPA is 99.97% down to .3 microns. So lets say 10,000 dust particles .3 microns go into a HEPA filter, 3 come out the other side, compare that to the filter you were looking at in Lowes where 500 particles come out the other side that is 167 times the amount of dust getting through compared to the HEPA filter. Your lungs, your choice. A Cleanstream is $40 or less. Note the vast majority of shop vacuums even with an added HEPA filter are not true HEPA vacuums there are plenty of vacs that are full unit HEPA certified but they have a price premium.

[Matt Uchida]

HEPA is 99.97% down to .3 microns. So lets say 10,000 dust particles .3 microns go into a HEPA filter, 3 come out the other side, compare that to the filter you were looking at in Lowes where 500 particles come out the other side that is 167 times the amount of dust getting through compared to the HEPA filter. Your lungs, your choice. A Cleanstream is $40 or less. Note the vast majority of shop vacuums even with an added HEPA filter are not true HEPA vacuums there are plenty of vacs that are full unit HEPA certified but they have a price premium.

What I was looking at in lower said it filters down to 0.3 microns. That is why I was wondering the difference between that shop-vac brand filter and the HEPA filter. I got no problem spending the extra money on a clean stream, I just wonder why if the filter said 0.3 microns it wasn't a HEPA filter and what is the difference.

[Jason Roehl]

Better yet, in addition to the filter, get the bags rated for drywall dust. Much easier to empty the shopvac then without breathing a bunch of the stuff. You could even put duct tape over the hole of the bag before you remove it from the shopvac and throw it away.

[Adam Merritt]

I would seriously consider adding a small dust deputy or something before the shopvac. I have a HEPA filter on my Craftsman XPS shop vac and it would get caked in the fine flour-like saw-dust and really reduce suction. Of course you can clean up it, and use again, but it was a pain and makes a mess. I added a dust deputy with a 5 gallon bucket and it worked better than I hoped. I get hardly any dust in the shop vac unless the 5 gallon bucket is over full. There was a noticeable difference in air quality with the HEPA installed in the shop vac. I just replaced this setup with a large 2 stage dust collector (with HEPA of course), but it worked fine for me until that point.

[James Gunning]

+1 on adding a small cyclone (Dust Deputy, Clearvue, or other) to the inlet on your shop vac. It will reduce the "suction" a bit, but will totally solve the filter plugging issue. I have a washable Cleanstream filter in mine, but I didn't really need it since a quick hit with the air hose maybe twice a year keeps it totally clean.

[Paul Wunder]

Another vote for a mini cyclone in front of shop vac. I have a ClearVue mini ahead of my Ridgid shop vac and nothing reaches the vacuum. I have used this arrangement for about three years now and the OEM shop vac filter is as clean as it was when new. I have never had to empty the shop vac because nothing reaches it