Brush Chimney from inside

[jrosenboom]

I haven't posted much but have received a lot of good information from you guys!

Anywho, we live in an old 2 1/2 story farm house with a steep roof. I went up and cleaned the chimney this fall when it was nice out but it was a bear. Does anyone have any recomendations of a unit that would work from the inside of the house. I'd feel better if I could hit it every once in awhile. I'm using a wood burner that enters a square chimney through a 6" pipe and there is a larger, probably 8" cleanout door at the bottom. Not sure if there is a fiberglass rod that I could shove in there or not.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Fiberglass rods and a brush work well from the inside with a SS chimney and I don't see any reason why you couldn't use that arrangement on a clay liner, assuming you have enough room, as you noted, to get a 4-foot rod and brush into the cleanout. If you can, just keep adding rods as you push everything up the chimney, until you get to the top. Then do it all in reverse.

I always keep a can of WD-40 handy for lubing/cleaning up the threaded ends of the rods. A vice grips & pliers are also good things to have on-hand. I'm not exactly sure why, but the rods can get stuck together and it's easier to unscrew them if you dose up the threads before screwing them together.

The nice thing about cleaning your chimney from inside is that you can do it on a regular basis and sleep a lot easier knowing that you never have enough creosote in your chimney to cause a problem, even if you did have a small chimney fire. I used to do mine once a week--whether it need it or not. Sometimes I'd get a lot of creosote and sometimes very little, but knowing it was clean was worth a lot. I have a different setup now, and rarely clean the chimney, but I'd certainly recommend doing it from inside, and doing it often.

 

[babalu87]

Rods get stuck together because when you push the brush up inside the chimney it will spin even slightly and tighten them up.
I noticed this the last time I swept mine.

 

[jrosenboom]

Thanks! Any recommendations on a manufacturer?

 

[babalu87]

Thanks! Any recommendations on a manufacturer?

I bought mine from Ace hardware
Would have bought it at the store but they wanted to charge me for the shipping.
I said if your charging shipping I aint picking it up at the store and ordered it online.

 

[scfa99]

Fiberglass rods and a brush work well from the inside with a SS chimney and I don't see any reason why you couldn't use that arrangement on a clay liner, assuming you have enough room, as you noted, to get a 4-foot rod and brush into the cleanout. If you can, just keep adding rods as you push everything up the chimney, until you get to the top. Then do it all in reverse.

I always keep a can of WD-40 handy for lubing/cleaning up the threaded ends of the rods. A vice grips & pliers are also good things to have on-hand. I'm not exactly sure why, but the rods can get stuck together and it's easier to unscrew them if you dose up the threads before screwing them together.

The nice thing about cleaning your chimney from inside is that you can do it on a regular basis and sleep a lot easier knowing that you never have enough creosote in your chimney to cause a problem, even if you did have a small chimney fire. I used to do mine once a week--whether it need it or not. Sometimes I'd get a lot of creosote and sometimes very little, but knowing it was clean was worth a lot. I have a different setup now, and rarely clean the chimney, but I'd certainly recommend doing it from inside, and doing it often.

Eric if i do it from the inside will all the debris get pushed up to my cap?

Anyone know what type of filter i need for my shop vac to prevent dust blowing all over the place?

 

[Eric Johnson]

A paper filter made for drywall dust and soot is what you need. The ones I have fit right over the regular filter, so you get twice the action. Remember that they jam up pretty quick and need to be cleaned off. I bought two so that I can clean the dirty one with the new filter.

The creosote, soot and other crap works its way down through the brush so that most of what you are pushing up eventually winds up in the cleanout. If you bang it around once you get to the top, anything that didn't fall yet---will.

 

[ecfinn]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have to ask a question here. My insert, a Lopi Revere, has a damper bypass that allows me to bypass the secondary combustion tubes when I'm starting or reloading the fire.

Is it feasible for me to assume I can sweep my 20' SS liner from inside my insert? The insert connects at the back of the insert so I'd need to use flexible rods to bend at a 90 degree angle until it got into the liner. I'd love to be able to clean my chimney from inside because I don't do roofs and my chimney is in the center of my house. Also is the brush flexible enough to get past the non-round damper bypass plate? Its a squarish opening and I'd obviously be using a 6" round brush. Just don't want to order one only to find out I won't be able to use it in my situation.

Thanks,

Eric

 

[Eric Johnson]

I'm not really familiar with inserts, so I don't know. I would say, try it and see, but the 90-degree turn sounds like a problem.