Home Depot bucket wet vac

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rcrabb22

rcrabb22

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HD has a $20 wet/dry vac head that fits on a Homer bucket (not included :) ) or maybe other 5 gal buckets that may fit the bill for mash tun cleaning. I do 10 gal batches and dragging my rectangular cooler filled with 30+ lbs of wet grain out to the compost pile is a real PIA. This may fit the bill to make life a little easier.

usual disclaimer - I have no interest in HD
 
It will work, but then you must deal with cleaning the vac hose so the advantage is debatable. IMO, it's easier to just scoop the spent grain into a bucket or two for transport to the compost heap. Once you get a substantial amount of the grain out of the cooler to lighten it up you can move it more easily if desired. A big plastic scoop can make the task much easier. I have a big 2 qt SS measuring cup that works well for this task.
 
Is a $20 vacuum going to be powerful enough to suck up spent grains, doubtful.
You're probably better off dumping grains into a couple of homer buckets, it's a lot faster.
 
I opted for a cooler with wheels, when it's full I just have to move it ~3ft down to the ground then roll it the rest of the way. Vacuum could be handy in general though.
 
Catt22 said:
It will work, but then you must deal with cleaning the vac hose so the advantage is debatable. IMO, it's easier to just scoop the spent grain into a bucket or two for transport to the compost heap. Once you get a substantial amount of the grain out of the cooler to lighten it up you can move it more easily if desired. A big plastic scoop can make the task much easier. I have a big 2 qt SS measuring cup that works well for this task.
Click to expand...

+1
Good point. Most shop vacs have a corrugated hose... would be a real pain to clean. I have 2 shop vacs and have not used either for cleaning up spent grain... after considering this point kinda glad I didn't.
 
I appreciate all the input. Maybe scooping would be a viable alternative. Dumping when full is complicated by the hinged lids. Maneuvering the heavy cooler while trying to keep it tipped the right way so the split lids stay open is dang near impossible (at my age anyway :) )
 
I remove the hinges from my rectangular cooler mash tuns. I see no real advantage to having them, and it sure makes it easier to clean it out.
 
rcrabb22 said:
I appreciate all the input. Maybe scooping would be a viable alternative. Dumping when full is complicated by the hinged lids. Maneuvering the heavy cooler while trying to keep it tipped the right way so the split lids stay open is dang near impossible (at my age anyway :) )
Click to expand...

Ya know, the cooler would be considerably lighter if you drained all the juice into a couple of buckets after you have collected what you need for for the boil. IOW, drain the grain well before scooping or trying to move it. You can do this while you are waiting on the boil etc. Might take awhile to gravity drain, but most of it should come out within a half hour or so. Toss the weak juice on the compost pile too. The worms love it. The empty husks themselves weigh almost nothing once you drain the liquid. Even when they are still very wet they don't weigh all that much. I use this procedure every time I brew.
 
I've used my shopvac about 5 times now to remove spent grain from the tun. It works.

I don't really like dragging my keg based vessels off the stand to clean them if I don't have to. I don't ever have to clean out the hose because I also suck out the cleanup water after scrubbing the inside of the BK and MLT. All that water cleans the hose.

The downside is that you still have to move the vac basin to the compost heap. If you don't care about compost, making an adapter to put the shop vac motor on top of a wheeled garbage can would be my choice.
 
I do carry my cooler out to dump the grains, but I use the shop vac for my boil kettle to remove all of the leaf hops (my drains don't like them) I used to lug gallons of water upstiars and outside but I just realized on my last brew that I can just go dump it down the toilet that is in the basement. (Don't do this with grains)
 
Out of curiosity (I looked at their ad earlier today.), why would you buy a 4.5HP, "bucket shop vac" for $20 when you could pick up the rigid 5.5HP 16gal shop vac for $20? Sounds like a silly thing to do IMHO... ...get the Shop Vac instead of the Bucket version, it's more powerful.
 
wyzazz said:
Out of curiosity (I looked at their ad earlier today.), why would you buy a 4.5HP, "bucket shop vac" for $20 when you could pick up the rigid 5.5HP 16gal shop vac for $20? Sounds like a silly thing to do IMHO... ...get the Shop Vac instead of the Bucket version, it's more powerful.
Click to expand...

What drew my attention was the fact it fit on a bucket which would be easy to empty. My current shop vac is similar to a keggle in that the motor comes off the top and there is a 2" lip that would trap the grain when trying to empty it.
 
Catt22 said:
Ya know, the cooler would be considerably lighter if you drained all the juice into a couple of buckets after you have collected what you need for for the boil. IOW, drain the grain well before scooping or trying to move it. You can do this while you are waiting on the boil etc. Might take awhile to gravity drain, but most of it should come out within a half hour or so. Toss the weak juice on the compost pile too. The worms love it. The empty husks themselves weigh almost nothing once you drain the liquid. Even when they are still very wet they don't weigh all that much. I use this procedure every time I brew.
Click to expand...

I batch sparge so I drain the mash tun before trying to move it. My average grain bill is ~22lbs and with typical water absorption it's still dang heavy. I'll scoop on next brew day. Seems like a simple solution.
 

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