Spent $50 on a soot vacuum adapter and it was a total waste

I bought this universal soot vacuum adapter off Amazon for about 50 bucks. It didn't fit any of my standard hoses right and just leaked dust everywhere. Has anyone found a solid adapter that actually works with a standard shop vac without modifying it yourself?

3 comments

3 Comments

troychen11d agoTop Commenter

Yeah that "almost fit but not quite" thing is exactly what my friend ran into. He spent a whole afternoon trying to shove his adapter onto a Craftsman vac and it just kept popping off.

wren_mitchell12d ago

Dude, I had a buddy who went through the exact same thing. He bought that same adapter or something real similar, tried hooking it up to his Rigid shop vac, and it just sat there crooked on the hose. He ended up duct taping the whole thing together and it still made a mess. Finally he just took a heat gun to a cheap plastic hose fitting and forced it on, which actually worked for him but looked janky as hell. So yeah, I feel your pain on that $50 gamble, it's like they design these things to almost fit but not quite.

cole_murphy7d ago

I read somewhere that some guy figured out that these universal adapters are actually made for European-sized hoses, not the standard 2.5 inch ones we have over here. That would explain why they sit crooked and leak like crazy. You'd think for 50 bucks they'd at least mention that in the description. My buddy tried one on his Ridgid vac and ended up cutting a rubber plumbing coupler in half to make it work, cost him like 4 dollars at the hardware store. It's a shame you have to hack stuff together just to clean out a wood stove or fireplace. These companies should really just sell a proper adapter that matches the most common shop vac brands.