Successful Chimney Clean... Hip Hip Hooray!

[Mr. Kelly]

Hi All,

I just completed my first FULL cleaning of my chimney and flue. Whew... it is a relief, considering that I put it off all summer!

Good news: Almost all that came out of there was soot. No real build up of crud anywhere, after almost 2 years of burning. I had cleaned the main outside pipe in the spring, but not any of the interior pipes.


Here are some details for the folks that are considering doing it for the first time:

- my stove sits along an outside wall, with the double pipe extending up a couple of feet with a twist and a 90 degree elbow headed about 18" straight through the wall and up about 15' outside the house. Not an ideal situation, but it's all we could do with our floor plan.

I pretty much had to clean the outside from the bottom up, from the "T".

Mistakes:

- took apart the interior of the pipes first and pushed the soot out into the T. Not a big deal, but when I went to take the cap off the bottom of the T... cough, cough... I got a nice face full of soot!

Recommendation: WEAR A BLOODY DUST MASK! It's a very messy job. Also, take the cap off the outside BEFORE you sweep the inside!

- Also, I would recommend doing the outside first, then the inside, because when I did the outside, it ended up pushing a bunch of soot into the "just cleaned" inside channel. So, I had to re clean the inside again before closing up.

- I took most of the pipes on the inside of the house apart. I won't likely do that again. I'll buy the much-more-flexible cleaning rod next time and scrub the twisty pipes through the thimble from the outside. Should be much easier. It was a pain in the arse to reassemble all the pipes and get the screw holes all lined up.

Plus, the bottom pipe that fits over the main flue of the stove was really not installed well. The pipe just sits over the 6" exit mount on the top of the stove with no real fastening, because the screws that the installers put in there really didn't catch anything. I assessed that this should be fine, although not great. No evidence of smoke ever escaping through that joint.

I didn't disassemble my baffle. I kinda chickened out on doing that one this time. I may have had that thing out earlier last season. I could see it down through the top of the flue, and all that seemed to in there was soot, so I vacuumed that out.


So, that's my report. One happy and clean burner... ready for a full season that has yet to be embarked upon....!

Happy cleaning!

 

[ScotO]

IMHO you should clean your chimney at LEAST once a year....you never know what it is going to look like from year to year (wood condition, relative humidity in the changing seasons, flue temps, etc.)...and I usually take all my interior single wall pipe off TWICE a year to clean it....some say overkill, I say preventative maintenance.....yes it is a PITA but I know for a fact it is clean because I take it apart.....keep safe!

 

[joetal17]

I have a simiilar set up where I have a thimble going through an exterior wall to a metal chimney outside the house about five feet off the floor. Is the only way to clean the interior double wall stove pipe connected to the thimble to diassemble it?

 

[ScotO]

I have a simiilar set up where I have a thimble going through an exterior wall to a metal chimney outside the house about five feet off the floor. Is the only way to clean the interior double wall stove pipe connected to the thimble to diassemble it?

they make a flexible style rod but it would be very hard to get it around tight elbows....here, try this.....feed a small diameter rope through your single or double wall chimney.....tie your cleaning brush onto one end of the rope (there should be an eyelet on one end of that brush....then tie a rope onto the tailend of that brush.....pull the brush through your pipe, back and forth, using the ropes....it can be tricky but it can be done.....give 'er hell and see if it works in your situation....

 

[joetal17]

Good idea, I'll try that. I bought the flexible rods but I don't see how they can turn a right angle with the brush on the end.

 

[Mr. Kelly]

How about "Sooteater"? It has a spinning head that is not nearly as dense and hard as the "regular" chimney brush. Not sure about the Sooteater rod, though. There are rods that may be more flexible, like their "Linteater" rod set. Maybe a combination? Haven't done a ton of research on it here, but will when next time comes along!

 

[firefighterjake]

It's good to hear from you again Mr. Kelly . . .

I would still recommend checking your chimney at least once to twice a year . . . especially if you have the cleaning equipment. Me . . . I check every month and clean every month simply because cleaning from the bottom up from the outside with the T is wicked easy . . . plus it gives me peace of mind.

Inside pipe . . . for the past few years I've taken the double wall pipe apart and like you said . . . it's a royal pain sometimes getting it back together with the lined up screw holes . . . I'm skipping next year due to the aggravation factor . . . and due to the fact there was very little of anything in the stove pipe . . .