How to Use a Shop Vac As a Blower?

If you are one of the many who own a wet and dry shop vac, you know how powerful this vacuum is. You may also be aware that these tools are extremely versatile. They can be used for a variety of different cleaning tasks around the house, garage, in a workshop, and more. 

They are appliances that are designed specifically for the heavy-duty type of cleaning jobs. They vacuum up items such as nails, sawdust, and debris that are too large for a standard vacuum. These vacuums clean up anything from dust, dirt, and debris to sucking up water spills and leaks.

However, did you know that most shop vacs could also be converted into a shop vac leaf blower?

This would be a blower to blow away the loose leaves and other debris from driveways, sidewalks, garage, and even grass on lawns.

We discuss briefly, how to use a shop vac as a blower and answer some general concerns and questions commonly asked. 

Although most brands of shop vacs have the option available of a shop vac blower port. It is always best to check the manual of the one you have purchased that it specifically says shop vac with blower. 

It is also easy to do a quick check of the appliance itself for two ports. The one for vacuuming that is located on the front of the cleaner and if there is another port at the back of the cleaner for the blower.

To make the vac even easier to use as a blower, you can buy a shop vac blower attachment for the end of your hose. They are nozzles that fit most hoses or wands and will help reduce the airstream. Thus increasing the velocity and improving the blowing force.

How to switch shop vac from blow to vacuum again is just as easy. Simply remove the hose again from the blower port and connect to the inlet on the front of the vacuum. Turn it on and you will feel the air sucking instead of blowing.

When vacuuming you will feel air blowing out the blower port and wonder if there shouldn’t be some sort of shop vac blower port cover. But, no there isn’t a cover or a shop vac blower port cap. This is because the way vacuums work is they will suck air in, filter the dirt, and then blow clean air out the exhaust.

If you find that there’s too much air being pushed out around your shop vac, there is a way that you can reduce it as well as the air noise these machines make.  You can purchase a muffler/diffuser, which looks like a round plastic tube with a sponge at the opening. When inserted in the exhaust port it will control the exhausting airflow from a shop vac and reduce the noise. This will also help to reduce the intensity of your shop vac blowing dust out while you are vacuuming. 

A note of caution: If your shop vac blows dust out the back, it could also be a sign of a filter problem that needs your attention. When this happens, the dust is too fine for the filter to stop it from being exhausted out; the filter either is loose or is clogged and dirty. The best way to solve this problem is to either clean or replace the filter.

A tip for future reference: Preventing your shop vac blowing dust out the exhaust port, you should make it a habit to dust off the dirt from the filter every time you empty the bin or bag.

Using a shop vac gives you the freedom of only needing to deal with one appliance that will do many different types of cleaning tasks.  Although they were not typically designed for your everyday type of household vacuuming, they do have bigger and stronger hoses for them to handle difficult tasks of blowing or picking up bigger and chunkier pieces of debris.

Debris such as sucking up small pieces of metal and wood, screws, nails that you would generally find in a woodworking workshop or construction site. 

Shop vacs are also handy around the house not only for vacuuming but for also blowing leaves and debris into a pile for easy pickup. Some other uses for a shop vac are:

• Wet/ dry shop vacs can suck up large amounts of water
• Clean your gutters
• Clean a grill or fireplace
• Retrieve items from the sink
• Unclog your drains
• Clean the dryer
• Broken glass
• Inflating a mattress or toys