The need :
To clean a fireplace, built-in log-burner or wood-burning stove, using a dustpan and brush is the best way to... fill the whole room with dust. Vacuum cleaners, on their own, are equally unsuitable :
- With a sled vacuum cleaner, the bag is too small to hold all the ash, and quickly gets saturated. When it is clogged-up, the pressure drop can shift the bag back so that ashes get into the motor.
- With an upright cleaner, the pressure is too high, totally blocking the filter with all the ash. The vacuum cleaner loses power and the cartridge filter is only fit for the bin.

The solution :
You can still use your sled vacuum cleaner, by attaching it to the Ash’vac container :
The container, in which the suction effect is created by the user’s vacuum cleaner or by the motor filtration unit, sucks up the cold ashes through its flexible metal tube. The extremely fine metallic filter retains almost all the ashes and only the finest particles of dust pass through to the vacuum-cleaner ; for this reason, the vacuum cleaner should always be fitted with its usual paper bag.

How it works :
Insert the tube of your vacuum cleaner into the flexible seal in the hole on the Ash’vac lid. Turn on your vacuum cleaner, and use the metal tube with its nozzle to vacuum up the cold ash. Most of the ash is trapped inside the Ash’vac container ; only the finest dust gets as far as the bag in your vacuum cleaner. As modern vacuum cleaners are becoming more and more powerful, the power control should be turned to the lowest setting.