Sweeping your Flex Liner

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Stax

Minister of Fire
Dec 22, 2010
941
Southeastern PA
For those of your with a flex liner, what type of rods and or brush do you use?
 
6" medium stiffness poly brush
(6) 4' x 7/16" dia heavy duty fiberglass rods

I tried the 3/8 rods sold at lowes but they flexed too much for my long straight run, switched to the heavy duty rods and the brush went down like a hot knife through butter. I dont like cleaning from the bottom up as it created a sooty mess in the room.
 
I just installed a flex liner. I figure on going to the top and dropping a string and pulling the brush down through the liner. Is this good enough, or do I need to use the rods?
 
sebring said:
I just installed a flex liner. I figure on going to the top and dropping a string and pulling the brush down through the liner. Is this good enough, or do I need to use the rods?

That is the way I have done it for years. Works fine. You can attach a rope to both ends of the brush to pull it back up for a better cleaning. And to have a way to get the brush out if one of the ropes comes off the brush.
 
You can drop a string, but i dont do that becuase of the mess the soot makes. If you can deal with the mess or have another way to contain it, then go for it. I do drop a rope from the top before the brush and rods just in case a connection breaks.
 
I bought 2- 6' and 1-3' fiberglass rods and a 6" Mil Rose poly brush from one of my HVAC supply houses. Always do mine from the top.
 
Rutland poly brush and fiberglass rods.

pen
 
pen said:
Rutland poly brush and fiberglass rods.

pen

+1 It's what they had at the box store when I needed it. It works fine. You can trim a bit off the bristles easy enough if the fit is too tight.
 
Don't forget to slide the lines back to the length you need on one side, then just cut the long side to match the other. Doing so gave me a whole extra line set for a 6 inch flue.
 
Are steel brushes bad for flex liners in any way?
 
Soot Eater - have two actually because two kits were cheaper than the extension rods to get to 32' of chimney

xclimber - Didn't even think of adjusting the lines before I snipped them off - Great Idea
 
Aaron Pasteris said:
Soot Eater - have two actually because two kits were cheaper than the extension rods to get to 32' of chimney

xclimber - Didn't even think of adjusting the lines before I snipped them off - Great Idea
I just happened to look at what would be left and realized I could get a whole extra line set out of the lines. Was hoping enough people got to read my post to give them that extra line, before they just cut it off. Would have been nice if Soot Eater mentioned it.
 
diodeduster said:
thanks xclimber for your suggestion i read your post and trimmed mine and got and xtra set of lines.

ed
Great Ed!
Charlie
 
I actually did it both ways this year. Last week I received my two Sooteater sets and did the chimney in the basement with it. Hope the smoke coming out of my new drill isn't too bad of a sign. Today I got the to thinking about having to pull the burn tubes and sitting in front of the 30-NC in the den snapping and unsnapping those rods and just went up top and dropped the rope like always and ten minutes later I was done.

May use the SE for the mid-season on the upstairs pipe but I doubt it.
 
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