I cleaned my chimney this weekend - from the bottom.

[TheFlame]

I have a two story house with the 6" SS chimney on the side of the house where the basement wall is above grade. I borrowed my brother's fiberglass chimney rods and brush and cleaned the chimney from the bottom.

In total, I pushed over 25' worth of 3/8" rod up the chimney. After having not been cleaned for over two full seasons I MAYBE got a gallon of creosote out of it. I burn about 2.5 cords per season. I only pushed the rods up and down once.

Inspection with a mirror looks pretty good, no signs of any blockage up top. I'm sure the chimney cap has some build up on it, but I figure it'll be a long time before that would become an issue.

I'm going to pull the pipe off the stove this weekend to complete the job.

My stove is a Jotul Oslo.

 

[Hogwildz]

Near 1 gallon for 2 seasons burning, seems a bit much to me.
As far as the cap, that the first thing to clean. Once clogged, draft sucks (not in a good way), performance sucks, and not too healthy or safe.
And the cap is the first thing to get clogged.

 

[TheFlame]

Near 1 gallon for 2 seasons burning, seems a bit much to me.
As far as the cap, that the first thing to clean. Once clogged, draft sucks (not in a good way), performance sucks, and not too healthy or safe.
And the cap is the first thing to get clogged.

I can only estimate how much I actually got out since I sucked it all up out of the clean out area with my shop vac.

If you think a gallon is a lot for over two seasons, you should see what my dad scrapes out of his chimney twice yearly. He burns an old Fisher stove (dual door, Mama Bear?) with a masonry chimney on a ranch house, and he scrapes the good part of a 5 gallon bucket out twice a year.

I may have to venture up on the roof to get a visual on the chimney cap. The problem is, the chimney is not near the peak of the house and a ladder is needed once on the roof to get to the top of it. Not my idea of fun. The last time we paid to have the chimney cleaned, and I figured I'd see if cleaning it myself from the bottom would work out before we paid again.

 

[Gooserider]

I clean my chimney from the bottom, cause it takes at least THREE ladders to reach the top (one to get to the roof, one to get up the 12/12 pitch roof to the chimney, one to get up the 7' tall chimney....) and am not touching the cap.

I've decided this after looking at it from multiple angles using a pair of binoculars from the ground - there doesn't seem to be any visible accumulation on the cap (unlike what was in the chimney)

If your stack is a bear to get at, I'd use optics to look at the cap and see if it looks like a problem before trying to climb up there.

Gooserider

 

[wg_bent]

Near 1 gallon for 2 seasons burning, seems a bit much to me.
As far as the cap, that the first thing to clean. Once clogged, draft sucks (not in a good way), performance sucks, and not too healthy or safe.
And the cap is the first thing to get clogged.

I can only estimate how much I actually got out since I sucked it all up out of the clean out area with my shop vac.

If you think a gallon is a lot for over two seasons, you should see what my dad scrapes out of his chimney twice yearly. He burns an old Fisher stove (dual door, Mama Bear?) with a masonry chimney on a ranch house, and he scrapes the good part of a 5 gallon bucket out twice a year.

I may have to venture up on the roof to get a visual on the chimney cap. The problem is, the chimney is not near the peak of the house and a ladder is needed once on the roof to get to the top of it. Not my idea of fun. The last time we paid to have the chimney cleaned, and I figured I'd see if cleaning it myself from the bottom would work out before we paid again.

That's bad. He's not burning hot enough. The kind of creosote is important also. Big flakes? bad Fine ash. Good. The roughly 2 cups I pull out of my liner after 5 cords including pine seems more typical. It's good your dad is keeping up with it tough.

 

[velvetfoot]

I also cleaned out my chimney from the bottom up the other day.
Less than a gallon in my shop vac, I think, but I also sucked some ashes that were still in there.


On a positive note, man, it is easy cleaning it out from below!

 

[njtomatoguy]

I had a bird in my stove over the weekend- let him out, popped the bricks on the top of the stove, and about a cup of real fine ash came out. This OK?

Bob

 

[Hogwildz]

I had a bird in my stove over the weekend- let him out, popped the bricks on the top of the stove, and about a cup of real fine ash came out. This OK?Bob

In my limited experience so far, it has been the chimney cap & the first foot or so of the liner at top that had the most junk in it. Makes since cause they are out the top of the old masonry chimney and cool much faster, hence quicker build up. Ya might want to run a brush down the liner and check the cap. The ash at stove level is normal, and should be mostly powder, since it is close to the real heat & heat source.

 

[Todd]

Near 1 gallon for 2 seasons burning, seems a bit much to me.
As far as the cap, that the first thing to clean. Once clogged, draft sucks (not in a good way), performance sucks, and not too healthy or safe.
And the cap is the first thing to get clogged.

I can only estimate how much I actually got out since I sucked it all up out of the clean out area with my shop vac.

If you think a gallon is a lot for over two seasons, you should see what my dad scrapes out of his chimney twice yearly. He burns an old Fisher stove (dual door, Mama Bear?) with a masonry chimney on a ranch house, and he scrapes the good part of a 5 gallon bucket out twice a year.

I may have to venture up on the roof to get a visual on the chimney cap. The problem is, the chimney is not near the peak of the house and a ladder is needed once on the roof to get to the top of it. Not my idea of fun. The last time we paid to have the chimney cleaned, and I figured I'd see if cleaning it myself from the bottom would work out before we paid again.

Your going to get creosote with 2 story outside metal chimneys. Too much exposure to the cold. 1 gal for 2 seasons is not that bad. If you figure 2 stories or close to 30' that's alot of pipe. I'm sure it could be better if the chimney was in an insulated chase.

 

[Hogwildz]

Well heck I did damn good last year then, I got a small pile , but that was with lower flex to rigid insulated double wall 27' up through the existing 12" x 12" masonry , and with semi wet wood. This year should be even better with nice dry wood.