Electrical Conduit Cleaning Rods

[chris2879]

I have never sweeped my chimney on my own. I have been looking for what kind of rods to purchase, and then I came across this idea. My question is I will be sweeping from the bottom up through the insert, what size conduit do most people use. I was leaning towards 1/2" because i have to make that 90* bend to get up through the top of the stove. The liner is mostly straight, maybe a slight 20* bend on the exit of the stove. However, I almost 30' of liner. Would 1/2" have enough strength to bush all the way up or would 3/4" be better as long as i can get it to make the turn.

 

[LLigetfa]

Why can you not sweep from the top? Do you think you can do a thorough enough job from the bottom on a flex liner? I have class A pipe so it's smooth on the inside and sweeping it from the top with stiff glass rods takes effort. I cannot imagine doing it from the bottom with a long wet noodle.

Maybe the SootEater would be better suited for bottom up cleaning.

http://www.sooteater.com/

 

[chris2879]

I wish I could. The chimney is about 7 ft taller than the roof and the roof is atleast a 10 pitch.. When the liner was dropped the installer had to use pipe staging. The chminey has to be a good 32' above the ground.

 

[LLigetfa]

My roof is a 12 pitch but I can reach it with a 32 foot ladder. My former home was also 12 pitch and needed a 40 foot ladder.

Have you hired a sweep before and if so how did the sweep do it?

 

[willworkforwood]

Don't think you could ever make conduit turn 90 and also be able to brush. I gave up trying that after 10 seconds or so. Here's a thread from last year where I described using 1/2" conduit successfully going bottom-up. I don't know if you have working room to do something like this, but it did work for me. This Spring I'm going to replace with 3/4 because the 1/2 doesn't have enough strength to withstand the side-to-side of a 7x11" flue. If yours is 6" round or square then 1/2 should work fine. This is not a small amount of time and work, so the SootEater might be a better choice, if you don't minding spending the $$. Good luck.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/60122/

 

[jimbom]

You might consider solid PEX ASTM F876/877 CAN B137.5 tubing. I have a piece of 1/2 inch nominal that I have used. You can also chuck it into your drill motor if you want a little rotary action. YMMV

 

[chris2879]

This is our first year in this house. When we had the fireplace first cleaned, the sweep cleaned bottom up. Since then we have had a wood stove insert installed. My guess is he would do that from the bottom as well since you can remove the baffle on the stove and have a straight shot to the exhaust of the stove.