Hi all, hopefully this is the right place to put my question. To start off, I've been burning wood for 12 years now and every year I climb up and check the chimney with a flash light but it just doesn't ever seem to get dirty! I decided to pick up a brush and rods and run it up and down anyways just to be safe. Here's my real question, my chimney flu is 7X11 inches so I bought the appropriate sized brush and a package of 6 36" fliber glass rods made by Rutland. The rods seem to flex so much I got to 3 rods and couldn't go any further. With three pieces screwed together I couldn't keep the brush going straight down so had to stop there. I did get within 6 or 7 feet from where the stove pipe enters the chimney but I'd like to start running that brush down the chimney every summer just to keep things clean. I thought about tying a 10 pound weight on the bottom of the brush just to try to keep it going straight down but not sure. Is there a solid rod that doesn't bend I can use or do you think the weight is a good idea? Also, is it strange that my chimney just doesn't seem to get dirty? After today's efforts there wasn't even enough to bother scooping out of the clean out in the basement. Some stats: I use the stove as my primary heat source and only use an oil furnace for hot water. My stove is a Woodstock Fireview. The wood I burn is all hardwood I cut myself, never pine or hemlock. I dry my wood all summer in the sun and then out it in an open aired wood shed so it stays dry. Thanks ahead for any input or advice.
Chimney cleaning questions
- Thread starter MJFlores
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Welcome. Maybe there are some mortar blobs that are blocking the brush? Can you shine a light down there to check?
PS: Is it code legal to have two appliances on the same flue in NH?
PPS: Pine and hemlock burn fine. A lot of the west burns it exclusively. The same rules apply. Don't burn it before it's fully seasoned.
PS: Is it code legal to have two appliances on the same flue in NH?
PPS: Pine and hemlock burn fine. A lot of the west burns it exclusively. The same rules apply. Don't burn it before it's fully seasoned.
Hi, and thanks for your response. From what I can see with a bright flash light it looks pretty smooth all the way down. It seems that the rods flex so much that it starts to collapse one side of the brush and then everything goes sideways. Does anyone make steel non-flexing rod sections? I wonder of weight on the end of the brush would help "pull" it down straight...should I need to do that though?
I'm not sure about NH codes on chimneys and stuff. My chimney is a three flu, on spare that I could use a basement stove through but probably never will, then another which the current stove is attached to, and the third is for the oil furnace.
OK, that sounds proper if each flue is dedicated to one appliance. I have heard of making cleaning rods out of 1/2" EMT electric pipe. Never tried it though. Could you work with a partner and attach some nylon rope to the brush with one person pulling the rope at the bottom and the other working the brush from the top?
I have an interior chimney in a full dormer cape so the total height is about 24' feet inside the house with about 5' outside. I have a similar size tile. I used to run my stoves hot and rarely would dampen them down. My wood boiler is a bottom grate design and it has two speeds, full bore or smoke dragon (which limited my use until I installed storage as I would run it out of wood rather than let it smoulder). I have burned wood since 1988 and I have cleaned the chimney once about 10 years ago out of general curiosity. I do inspect it every year and it doesn't need cleaning so I dont. The one time I did clean it I needed to pull the brush down with a rope through the clean out. I dont think I could have pushed it with rods. I run dry wood. I go through 2 to 4 cords per year (looks like 3.5 using my storage and using far less oil)
My neighbor had a similar height exterior chimney with a older HS Tarm with no storage and he does the smoulder routine so he doesn't need to feed it as often, he burns fairly green wood (6 months old at best). For about 10 years he would plug his chimney routinely and ended up leaving a ladder on the chimney so he could clean it out on a monthly basis. He had at least two chimney fires with the last one breaking his tiles. He switched to a SS liner and that burned up in chimney fire. He now has a OWB and a 32 foot stack and I expect he still has problems. He goes through 8 cords a year.
I have an old superefficient Jotul 606 in storage, despite if being quite popular in Europe they only sold it in the US for a few years as that model got a bad rep for plugged chimneys, Nothing wrong with the stove if operated correctly but if operated incorrectly they could crank out lots of creosote. Jotul pulled them from the market.
If you are running you stove right with dry wood, its entirely possible that you dont need to clean, but given the consequences of a chimney fire, the preferred approach is to be cautious and clean yearly or more often in hopes that it saves lives.
My neighbor had a similar height exterior chimney with a older HS Tarm with no storage and he does the smoulder routine so he doesn't need to feed it as often, he burns fairly green wood (6 months old at best). For about 10 years he would plug his chimney routinely and ended up leaving a ladder on the chimney so he could clean it out on a monthly basis. He had at least two chimney fires with the last one breaking his tiles. He switched to a SS liner and that burned up in chimney fire. He now has a OWB and a 32 foot stack and I expect he still has problems. He goes through 8 cords a year.
I have an old superefficient Jotul 606 in storage, despite if being quite popular in Europe they only sold it in the US for a few years as that model got a bad rep for plugged chimneys, Nothing wrong with the stove if operated correctly but if operated incorrectly they could crank out lots of creosote. Jotul pulled them from the market.
If you are running you stove right with dry wood, its entirely possible that you dont need to clean, but given the consequences of a chimney fire, the preferred approach is to be cautious and clean yearly or more often in hopes that it saves lives.
Thanks for the response. That makes me feel better. Yeah after 12 years I still didn't see any reason to clean it so I figured I'd better anyway just in case. Now that I have a brush I may as well try to make a pass with it every summer just to be on the safe side. I kept hearing about people having to clean their chimneys twice a year or more and here I am at 12 years I was starting to think I was missing something. Next time I do it I'll have a buddy pull an attached rope from the bottom while I'm up on the roof with rods attached to pull it back up. I'm up there anyway every summer just checking things out with a flashlight so might as well drag a brush down and back up. I do like to run my stove hot and almost never let a fire smolder in it. When it's warmer out I'll leave the stove door cracked a half inch just to get more air and good flames before closing it tight and turning on the combuster. I'd rather too much air, hot fire, and have to feed it more than have a smoldering fire, conserve wood but end up with soot on the glass and a dirty chimney. Thanks again!
USMC80
Minister of Fire
Go here:
(broken link removed to https://www.rutland.com/p/38/fiberglass-extension-rod-professional)
These will NOT flex under load...
(broken link removed to https://www.rutland.com/p/38/fiberglass-extension-rod-professional)
These will NOT flex under load...
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