Any flexi poles go around a 8" 90?

[DeanBrown3D]

Hello all,

Suppose I want to clean my 8" SS flex liner from inside my basement. If I reach through the opening in my brick chimney, there's a T-piece back about 20" with the middle opening pointing directly at me. Do you think I could get a flexible chimney rod system to poke up around there and up 27 feet to the top or is that just plain dumb? (I'm just wondering how to clean the thing if my roof is snow covered).

-D

 

[Gooserider]

I don't know if it's available to a "civilian" or not, but our chimney sweep has a coiled rod that is VERY flexible, I think he was going around a 6" 90 with it when he was doing our basement flue. It was also stiff enough for him to push the brush all the way to the top of the chimney, which I haven't measured but is probably well over 20 feet. (we need to clean from the bottom because the roof pitch and chimney height make the chimey top basically inaccessible) I think it might be part of an "August West" franchise setup.

This rod is a one piece unit that comes in a roll about 2' in diameter, and looks like an oversize plumbers snake. I wouldn't mind getting one myself, but haven't seen one listed in any of the hearth shops that I've looked in. (but I haven't looked very hard)

Any of our "pro's" know what I'm talking about? Can you point at a source?

Gooserider

 

[DeanBrown3D]

Ok I'll do a search, I never knew there was such a thing.

Cheers,

Dean

 

[Shane]

A local hearth shop should be able to order one for you. Copperfield chimney supply is the wholesale outfit that sells them.

 

[Gooserider]

Ok I'll do a search, I never knew there was such a thing.

Keep us posted on what you find. I think it would be the best, and possibly only, solution for my setup.

I counted today, it looked like the our chimney is about 7' from the high side of the roof to the top. The roof is a 12/12 (45*) pitch, and the chimney sticks out about half way up. This is NOT something that you can get to easily to clean from the top :gulp:

From the bottom it's not a whole lot better. We call our setup the "brick rocket" because it looks like one! ;-) In the living room it is a section of a circle, I'm guessing about a third, that fits into one corner and comes down to about 30" off the floor. There are two triangular brick "fins" that come off the chimney about 6' up, and extend down each wall at about a 45* angle to the floor. The hearth across the corner between the fins. The bottom of the round part of the chimney is supported by a couple of buttresses that come out from the wall. It is an impressive structure to say the least, the mason that built it did a nice job. The liner comes straight down to the bottom of the main chimney section, and sticks out a few inches, then goes into the crosspiece of a "T" fitting. The other end of the crosspiece is capped, and is maybe 18" off the floor. The base of the "T" connects to the flue of the stove via a 6" -> 8" adapter.

The sweep pulls the cap off and shoots up from the bottom with the flexible rod I described, I'm not sure there would be enough room to get a sectional rod around the bend, and it surely would be a bear to get the sections connected.

I also tried to get a rough measurement for overall height - doing the "tape measure extension" game, I got to within about a foot of the trim board at 17', holding the bottom of the tape at what I estimated the height of the first floor flue would be. Allowing for the space I couldn't get the tape up to, and general fudge factor, I'm getting between 25 and 30 feet for the first floor flue.

Our backup stove is in the basement, and is a bit easier, perhaps. It has a similar layout to the upstairs hearth, except the wall between the "fins" is a flat diagonal across the corner. There is a thimble about 5' up, that feeds into a second liner in the same chimney structure, although this second liner is quite far into the chimney because it runs "behind" the first floor liner. There is also a cleanout for this flue inside at the hearth level.

However adding another 8' for the extra floor means I need about 35 to 40 feet of rod... I'm guessing the sweep's rod was probably about 50' on that coil - at least it looked like it might be.

Gooserider

 

[Andre B.]

Maybe this one.
http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Chimney/Viper-Cleaning-System
___________
Andre' B.

 

[DeanBrown3D]

Maybe this one.
http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Chimney/Viper-Cleaning-System
___________
Andre' B.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ wow. Looks nice though.

 

[Gooserider]

Maybe this one.
http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Chimney/Viper-Cleaning-System

Yes, that looks like the item, and I agree with Dean B. it does seem awfully expen$ive, but it still would pay for itself fairly quickly. FWIW I think our sweep was using the 50' model - at least the one he had didn't show the stand and the curved guide pipe.

I don't know how useful the stand would be, but the guide pipe doesn't seem like a bad idea - stick the pipe into the chimney and plug the rest of the hole, do the brush, and then pull out the plug with all the crap at one time seems like a good way to minimize the mess...

Gooserider

 

[Andre B.]

Yes, that looks like the item, and I agree with Dean B. it does seem awfully expen$ive, but it still would pay for itself fairly quickly. FWIW I think our sweep was using the 50' model - at least the one he had didn't show the stand and the curved guide pipe.

I don't know how useful the stand would be, but the guide pipe doesn't seem like a bad idea - stick the pipe into the chimney and plug the rest of the hole, do the brush, and then pull out the plug with all the crap at one time seems like a good way to minimize the mess...
Gooserider

I am only seeing round brushes.

I wonder if some of that poly tubing, the stiffer stuff with say 50 or 100 psi of air pressure in it to help keep it from kinking, would work to push a brush up.

Stick the guide pipe and a shop/ash vac into the chimney and plug the rest of the hole.
_______________
Andre' B.

 

[velvetfoot]

I bought some Poly Pro rods, for about 15 bucks a section. It really seems to just be sprinkler pipe, which one could use if one could figure out how to put in a fitting for the brush. In retrospect, I saw some skinny (not the fat ones which they sold too) fiberglass units in the local hardware store for a lot less that seem to be just as flexible. I'm not sure either of them would go 90 after a horizontal run. I brushed my liner from below, but could get a pretty good radius in the insert. I was prepared to stick some rags to prevent stuff from falling into the stove, but the shop vac line stuck in the flue did a good enough job by itself.

 

[Gooserider]

I just had a wierd thought on a possible cheap alternative to that Viper system mentioned earlier. While the Viper setup seems nice, it seems like cost overkill for a DIY person with just one or two flues.

What about looking at that other pipe using profession - the plumbers for a tool? Specifically would a plumbers drain snake be stiff enough to push a brush up a flue? (I still have to clean from the bottom remember) They still wouldn't be cheap, but far less expensive than a $400+ Viper setup. As one example, Harbor Freight has This drain cleaner for $200 - still not cheap, but much less than the Viper! It might also be possible to get smaller items (I think I've seen ones that look like an electric drill with a Thompson drum magazine...) or manual ones that would be cheaper yet....

The question is how difficult would it be to attach a chimney brush to something like this, and whether it would be able to get up and down the flue. I would think that it wouldn't be that hard to make an adapter for attaching the brush.

The HF description says 4" max diameter, but that's plumbing with a possibly tougher clog to deal with. The turning probably wouldn't be the best option for a square flue, but I would think it might not be bad for a round liner. Might even be really great as the liner pictures I've seen appear like the stuff has a spiral 'thread' to it, which might work great to make the brush "screw" it's way up the pipe and then back down....

Has anybody ever tried this? Are there any plumbers in the house with more familiarity with these machines to say how they might work?

Gooserider