Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I use a charcoal grill/smoker at least 3 times a week and have done so for years. Part of the routine maintenance is getting the spent ash out of the grill. Until recently, I used a wet/dry vac, but this had a couple of drawbacks. First, the charcoal dust would blow out of the vacuum's exhaust port and get all over. All over me. All over the patio...everywhere. Second, unless the ash was cold there was a chance of ruining the vacuum. Third, the noise. Although since I'm running it outside for brief periods it was never a big deal. A few years back I ran across an ad for a fireplace vac and thought "THIS IS IT!" It had a metal canister and a metal wand and tube. Then I saw the price. Over $400. "Oh well" I thought. "I'll just stick with what I have." After my old standby quit I was in the market for a new one and ran across this "Ash Vacuum." The first thing I looked for was the price. "Not bad" I thought. I looked at the features and it had the metal canister, wand and tube like the other one I had seen years before. It even boasted a fine ash filter and quiet operation. I dug around for some reviews and didn't find much, but I decided to go for it. Upon start-up I did notice that is was quieter than I expected, but I wasn't all that interested in the noise. I wanted to see how it was going to handle the ash. I proceeded to vacuum the old ash, and to my amazement, no ash flew out of the exhaust! I have used this about 20 times and so far so good. I have used it during a slow smoking on ash that wasn't red hot. The canister got warm but nothing melted. Be warned if you attempt to suck up red hot coals, I suspect you will ruin the vacuum. The vacuum comes with some accessories to do other types of vacuuming. A couple of extension tubes and a wide flat head that you could used on a hard smooth surface (a garage floor I presume) but I haven't used it for that yet, but I will. Since the unit doesn't throw out debris from the exhaust and runs fairly quiet I could use it indoors too. Finally!