Bottom up cleaning

I think bottom up cleaning works great! ...if you have a nice straight shot to the cap. Usually if you can bang the brush and spin it a bit at the top, you should be able to get most of the stuff off the cap.

fallsfire36 said:

I think bottom up cleaning works great! ...if you have a nice straight shot to the cap. Usually if you can bang the brush and spin it a bit at the top, you should be able to get most of the stuff off the cap.

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+1 . . . I do the spin and tap routine as well . . . spin and tap . . . spin and tap . . . dip . . . spin and tap . . . dip . . . spin and tab . . . and take a bow . . . we're all done with our chimney brushing routine . . . stated while little bits of creosote confetti rein down on my head.

This is certainly not the most thorough method of cleaning . . . but it gets the job done. I will do a more thorough cleaning in the Spring.

I always clean from below. Mainly because i have a 12/12 roof and the pipe is not on the peak so it sticks to far up to clean unless I take it apart or build a scaffold which doesn't work here with our snow loads. One thing I did is put some extra screws on the cap so I can give it a good thump without its coming off.

I stick a shop vac hose up the stack while cleaning from below and put an exhaust hose out the window in case something gets past the filter.
On reflection, though, the filter is pretty good and I probably get as much dust in the house when I empty the ashes.

Hi - newbie here and time for my first cleaning. by the shape of my roof line and the way that the fluepipe goes up, i think for myself cleaning should be bottom up. I removed the port on the cleanout tee and very dry brown ash - no signs of creosote to my untrained eye. (just going by what i have read on here for the past 2.5 mos) My question is that i have two 30 deg bends on my pipe that go around a soffit, the piece between the bends is about 3.5' and there is about 8' before and 8-10' of straight pipe after, is the grey electical conduit cool to use to navigate the bends or should i just get the flexible rods to work the brush thru. I would drill the connection of the conduit and place a 1/4" bolt thru it - but i don't know what kind of force that will be needed to push the brush through. will it flex the conduit to a point where it will crack and leave the brush in my pipe? Am I thinking about this too much??? should i just go get the stuff and do it?? thanks

Just get the flexible and be done with it. Cost if minimal over conduit plus then you already have the threaded ends. Quick and easy.

Hello, the spin and tap works great. Just be sure that you spin the correct way. My cap goes on just backwards from the way the rods go together. The first time I did mine the cap flew off. Got lucky as the snow was off the roof. The cap now has a band around it so it is going to stay on.
Don

just got done with the bottom up cleaning. not bad - just an estimate as it was windy but maybe a total of 4-5 cups of ash. even with a bandana around my face still ate some of the stuff. yea i know - not worse than the stuff exposed to at a power plant. i just broke down and bought the threaded rods - the ones 6' long and about as thick as my pinky finger. went well - had a little bit of trouble navigating the 30 deg bends but once i realized i wasn't gonna break anything it went off without a hitch. I think the fire screen on top was plugged by using paper and cardboard to get fires going. It came right out of the screen by just banging the brush up into it and spinning it. (I spoke to the installer and confirmed before starting that the cap was screwed on). I used a garbage bag and puched a small hoe into it and taped it to the bottom of the cleanout tee to try to collect the ash and it worked ok - but does anyone have a different way to do this?? Thanks - I would have never tried this if i didn't see how simple it was after reading the threads on here. thanks again.

Could I do this on a clean out door on a block chimney? the clean out door is outside and about 1.5ft up from the ground, but there is a big terrain drop after a few feet that I might be able to bend the rods to get it snaked up there. I would not mind just running the brush through once to clean out anything heavy. I have way too much snow on my roof currently and its a bit of a pitch so I would rather wait till spring or fall for a proper cleaning.

i wouldn't see any problem to cleaning a block chimney i used a brush with bristles made of black poly from rutland. a block chimney is just that block only no liner up thru there right? i would use a brush made of metal bristles.

f3cbboy said:

I used a garbage bag and puched a small hoe into it and taped it to the bottom of the cleanout tee to try to collect the ash and it worked ok - but does anyone have a different way to do this??

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I use a small plastic bucket/pail with a hole punched through to fit the rod. The open end of the pail fits over the opening in the tee out perfectly. Only a small amount of debris gets by the hole.

I plan on cleaning from the bottom up as well, I'll save the $135 that I spent watching the chimney sweep. He shoved a shop vac in the chimney and avoided any mess.

I spin the brush and tap the top also . I have a 17/12 pitch and its like standing on a wall . I do have a good cleaning tip . I drop my brush into a hefty bag and duck tape it to the flue . Then i can run the rods thru the bag and the dust drops to the bottom of the bag . John

This guy goes to his doctor for his physical, "I feel fine doc, but everybody tells me I stink terribly." The doctor examines him, and then says, "Tell me about how you shower."

The guy says, "I get in, wet my cloth and soap it up. I begin with my face and wash down to there. Then I go to my feet and wash up to there."

The doctor says, "Go home, and wash there."

I prefer to clean from the bottom up... if I fall down it's just a matter of getting up off the floor and finding another beer.