I was just sweeping out the fire this afternoon, and spreading ash around the house, and generally making a mess, and wondered if it is worth getting one of those ash vacuum thingies? Seems like a good idea, but some perusal of reviews suggests that they are a pain and clog easily, and that the HEPA filters are not available. Any recommendations?

Had a woodburner for 30 years. Never felt a need for an ash vac, we just sweep it out carefully every few weeks and very occasionally use the house vac to get into the corners.

Cordless Dyson every few months here (with more regular careful sweeping in between)

Reminds me that I need to make a little retainer to go at the front of our Parkray.

Shovel the ash into bucket carefully as required- generally weekly when burning daily.

Use the workshop vac to do a deep clean when servicing the stove and sweeping the flue.

Henry or Henrieta. KISS.

Shovel and a bucket

Wot he says. Shovel and a bucket every few months

Had a woodburner for 30 years. Never felt a need for an ash vac, we just sweep it out carefully every few weeks and very occasionally use the house vac to get into the corners.

This – had log burners for some 20 yrs myself and just do the same as everyone else above.

I’ve been sweeping our flue for a few years using a chimney typhoon. I bought a Ferrex ash vacuum from Aldi last year and it is crap. Sends out a fine mist of chimney smut which sticks tenaciously. We had to strip our living room down and clean everything. This year I used my trusty Titan screw fix wet/dry vacuum and like previous years it worked flawlessly.

So I don’t see the point in a dedicated ash vacuum unless you’re a pro chimney sweep using it a lot and then you wouldn’t buy a cheapy from Aldi.

I’m seeing a strong consensus on “no” for this gadget 🙂 🙂

I’ve got a crap one. It’s crap. I usually empty the ash tray manually into a bucket and finish off with the vacuum. Bit pointless really.

I’ll replace it with a decent one this autumn, local DIY place has some decent workshop vacuums (which i need one of anyway) on at 50% off at the moment…

Following with interest. I use a really old Vax bagless cyclone Dyson ripoff that would have otherwise gone in the bin. The design of my wood burner means ash falls down the back of the ash pan and isn’t easy to sweep out due to the base not being flat.