"Wideass" wrote in message
om...
Searching this group for the old "soot in loft" problem has turned up
a recommendation for the Earlex Combivac (seems to be about 39 quid at
Argos).

I've scooped up most of the soot by hand (slowly to stop it spreading
too much) and I would like to get rid of as much as possible of the
remainder.

Does anyone have first hand experience of this sort of job? Does much
soot get blown about by vacuuming? I assume that soot is not
considered an "explosive dust" (Earlex say not to use the Combivac
with coal dust).

I would think that soot is probably quite similar to coal dust - unburnt
carbon particles plus tar etc.

Soot certainly burns on a fire.

OTOH flour is an 'explosive dust' - most have probably seen the demo where
flour is blown into a tin which contains a lit candle, and the lid blows
off. The occasional flour mill has blown up as well.

Fine sawdust must also be flamable, if not explosive.

I would have thought that any vacuum cleaner would suck up soot in much the
same way that it dealt with anything else - about to find out as a load of
soot has fallen down the chimney and I am having difficulty opening the flap
on top of my log burner because of the soot on top.

Let us know how you get on :-)

Cheers
Dave R