Chimney sweeping

[AOD]

I cleaned mine a few weeks ago and was amazed to see almost a 5 gal. bucket worth of crap in a 13 ft. chimney! I had been burning pretty hot too, so I was really amazed to see so much.

I think cleaning 3x a season is a good way to stay safe.

 

[Upidstay]

This is my first year with the stove. I have 6' of double walled pipe leading into a masonry chimney. Checked the pipe once and got a very small amount of grey powder from it (1/2 cup, tops). Will be interested to see what the guy finds when he comes out and sweeps it for me. They charge $200, but he spends over an hour inspecting everything, including the stove ( he does my neighbor too, so I watched him. Very thorough).

I'm afraid of heights, so I'm gonna let someone else monkey up on my roof. It sounds like $200 is alot, from what I've seen on this post. But, he's reputable, been in business for many years, and sold me the stove too. I like the inspection idea too. Probably being overly cautious, but we had a chimney fire down the road from me that took out a good section of the house and killed their dog too, so I'm gonna pay the exta $$. I drive by the house every day and get to look at it. Scared the heck out of my wife.

 

[wkpoor]

Last year I had a close neighbors house burn down due to a fire that started from the chimney. The guy had heated his house for 20-30years on a stove. Well I thought it was from his masonry chimney but it turned out when the house was built a portion of the chimney brick was laid up around a roof truss......yeh you read it right, a roof truss. Unbelievable as it might seem somebody actually did that and it took a long time to finally catch. I still wonder if there wasn't some flue liner degradation there also. Possibly if it had be lined maybe it would never have happened.

Anyway back to why its good to have another set of eyes once in a while.!!!

 

[Hlakegollum]

The charge around me in PA is about $125-$150, so yes, I do it myself.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I need to buy a set of poles and a brush before next burning season. Am I correct in the assumption that the wire brushes are for masonry and the poly brushes are for the stainless pipe?

Ian

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

I need to buy a set of poles and a brush before next burning season. Am I correct in the assumption that the wire brushes are for masonry and the poly brushes are for the stainless pipe?

Ian

We just had our masonry flues lined with ovalized SS flex liner. The installer said to use a polycarbonate (plastic) brush.

He said that a metal brush would poke holes in the liner. I found that odd but replacing a 40' liner isn't worth risking right now.

 

[wkpoor]

I use a wire brush on my Class "A" SS chimney. However on a SS liner I would not as they are rather thin and if its a flexible one with the ribs I can see where a wire brush could damage it. But the smooth heavier gauge double wall..well I'll let you know in 30yrs if I ever brushed through it.

 

[rngrchad]

I cleaned mine a few weeks ago and was amazed to see almost a 5 gal. bucket worth of crap in a 13 ft. chimney! I had been burning pretty hot too, so I was really amazed to see so much.

I think cleaning 3x a season is a good way to stay safe.

:agree2::agree2:

 

[indiansprings]

Just wire a log chain up in a ball an tie it on the end on a rope and drop it down (gently) and raise it up and repeat several times, it'll be clean as a whistle and free with you providing the arm.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Note to self:

Check forecast.

Been thinking about cleaning the chimney this weekend.

Spent a while this morning getting the fire going again -- it went out over night.

THEN I looked at the forecast...high of 60º today. Du'oh.

Would've been ideal day to let the chimney cool and clean it late this afternoon before building a fire for the night.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I use a wire brush on my Class "A" SS chimney. However on a SS liner I would not as they are rather thin and if its a flexible one with the ribs I can see where a wire brush could damage it. But the smooth heavier gauge double wall..well I'll let you know in 30yrs if I ever brushed through it.

I called my dealer and he said to use poly. He said that the wire brushes scratch the interior of the pipe and give a foothold for creosote to form. I'll be buying a poly brush.

Ian

 

[Joshlaugh]

I had mine swept on Wednesday for $110. The guy got 2 gallons of soot and 1 gallon of cresote in 1 1/2 years of burning it. Here is an interesting observation(although I guess it makes sense) it seems that I am using a bit less wood and the stove is getting hotter, faster. I guess that was enough buildup to mess with the draft?

PS I know we all have funny comments from our spouse regarding wood etc. My best one to date: Yesterday driving home from errands, I heard a chainsaw running so I slow down to look. My wife gives me a look and says that I would rather check out the type of chainsaw over a hot babe. I said don't you prefer that? She said that she would rather me check out women than saws! Can you explain that? And the saw looked like a Stihl 250(from me driving 25mph)

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Just ordered the brush and 24' of 3/4" flex rod from Northline express for $122. Sounds like I'll make that back the first time I run the brush up the flue.

Ian

 

[mtngun]

I cleaned my chimneys last week, after I was smoked out of the shop during a windy spell.

They hadn't been cleaned since summer. There was 1/2" - 3/4" fluffy black cinder stuff lining the 6" tri-stack. To clean it, I lowered a logging chain down and gently swirled it around for 30 seconds. That worked fine.

The biggest problem was the perforated metal spark arrestor/caps. One was about 50% plugged up and the other 75% plugged up. No wonder the stove hadn't been working right !!!!!

 

[wkpoor]

I called my dealer and he said to use poly. He said that the wire brushes scratch the interior of the pipe and give a foothold for creosote to form. I'll be buying a poly brush.

Let me know how will it cleans after you use it. Since I've been wire brushing for 8yrs now I suspect there is no sense in changing now.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Will do... You're right about too late to change now... you could get a big polishing swab with some rubbing compound and polish the scratches out... :greenchainsaw: Anyone with integrity would definitely do that. LOL

Ian

 

[Nuzzy]

Finally got to cleaning our chimney today. Wow. Simply wow.












Draft is back to normal though

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I swept the 21' of vertical pipe outside the house this evening. After about a month of burning half-green wood, I got about a quart of shiny black flakes out. The 3/4" flexible rod went around the two 30 deg elbows a lot easier than I thought it would. I got the Pro-Sweep Poly Heavy Duty brush and 8 of the 3/4"x3' Pro-Flex rods. Turns out I only need 7 of them. That leaves the 5' of inside pipe and one 90 deg elbow that didn't get cleaned. The rods will do the 30 deg bends but won't do 90s. The inside pipe right off the stove will probably stay hot enough to minimize creosote buildup shouldn't it?

Oh, I liked the poly brush, worked like a champ.

Ian

 

[wkpoor]

On my stove the black steel pipe gets real bad. Easy to tell though, just take a broom stick and tap on it. If it rings nicely its clean. As it gets more and more buildup it will slowly turn to a thud. With experience this can be a good indicator of when its time to sweep the chimney.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Hmm... I have double wall on the inside.. tappin on it will just mess the paint up. Guess I'm gonna have to figure something out.

Ian