Chimney cleaning: Rope and a brush?

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tiber

Feeling the Heat
Oct 4, 2009
453
Philadelphia
I'm thinking, "Man, I love my woodstove! It satisfies my deep seated needs to be warm and set things on fire at the same time!"

Now the problem. At some point I have to clean the chimney. I'm one of the people who's class A has a T and then two 30 degree elbows to run around some structural stuff, so it's a pain. Not a huge one, but enough that I'm looking at rods and wondering how much abuse they'll put up with. Reasonably I could clean the top portion before the elbow, then clean the T which immediately goes into an elbow and not stress the rods too much.

Then I had a brilliant idea: Why mess with rods - AT ALL?

Why not just buy a brush, tie a rope to it, toss the rope down the pipe and pull the whole thing through? Do it two or three times for that nice clean feeling. I admit - I got the idea from those pull a patch kits for cleaning guns since it is hunting season here. Anyone else try something similar?
 
I know a few homeowners who clean with a brush and rope. It works fine. Tie a good size weight to the other end of the rope and drop that down the chimney first. The weight should find its way down on its own. It does make a bit of a mess out the bottom though.
 
That's how I do it only I have a tall block chimney and if I used rods I would be reaching above my head with the rods so I went with the rope.

I put a few pieces of chain link on the end of the rope so it fed through the chimney easily, go to the bottom clean out and pull it through.

Down side is it takes four or five times up and down the ladder to get it clean. I've been thinking about tieing 2 brushes in line and pulling them both down at once to lessin the number of trips up the ladder.
 
Gator eye said:
That's how I do it only I have a tall block chimney and if I used rods I would be reaching above my head with the rods so I went with the rope.

I put a few pieces of chain link on the end of the rope so it fed through the chimney easily, go to the bottom clean out and pull it through.

Down side is it takes four or five times up and down the ladder to get it clean. I've been thinking about tieing 2 brushes in line and pulling them both down at once to lessin the number of trips up the ladder.

yeah that's the beauty of it. I haven't ever seen brushes you could daisy chain to expand the cleaning surface, but simply tying them together gives you at least two. Unlike a rod's "push" operation, being a "pull" operation means it doesn't have to be rigid. Anyway, I have a wife. I was thinking about making her the puller (she won't get on the ladder) and then throwing a second rope down to her. She ties or wraps the second line around the brush so I can pull it back up.
 
tiber said:
Gator eye said:
That's how I do it only I have a tall block chimney and if I used rods I would be reaching above my head with the rods so I went with the rope.

I put a few pieces of chain link on the end of the rope so it fed through the chimney easily, go to the bottom clean out and pull it through.

Down side is it takes four or five times up and down the ladder to get it clean. I've been thinking about tieing 2 brushes in line and pulling them both down at once to lessin the number of trips up the ladder.

yeah that's the beauty of it. I haven't ever seen brushes you could daisy chain to expand the cleaning surface, but simply tying them together gives you at least two. Unlike a rod's "push" operation, being a "pull" operation means it doesn't have to be rigid. Anyway, I have a wife. I was thinking about making her the puller (she won't get on the ladder) and then throwing a second rope down to her. She ties or wraps the second line around the brush so I can pull it back up.

HA...I got a buddy of mine that uses has a rope on both sides and has his wife pull it down in the basement then he pulls it back up.

Imagine the grief he's going to get when his wife figures out who has the dirty end of that job. :cheese:
 
We tie the brush to a chain (secureley) and drop the chain end down first (remove baffle from stove first), then we just pull it through/up down a few times, and everything falls right onto the bottom of the stove. Reinstall baffle & cap and wash hands .

10 minutes, tops :)
 
ACE Hardware carries the add on pull ring so you can tie a rope to both ends of the brush. I clean my liners with a rope and brush. But I don't worry about scrubbing. I just pull the brush through them one way twice a season.
 
So you've all stolen my dream of becoming the next inventor millionaire. However it's good to hear the idea is sane enough to work. ;)
 
Chain is a new one to me. Good idea. I personally use a cannon ball from a fishing down rigger. Cheap, heavy, round and already have the tie points. One rope sent down the stack with the cannon ball, another tied on top to pull back up. Swoosh-swoosh, done.
 
They had brushes and no rods when I pit stopped at HD last year. I had chain. Necessity was the mother of invention, as they cap was looking alittle putrid and we had a 2 day warm up.
 
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
I had chain.

And didn't want to get the whip all sooty. :lol:
 
BrotherBart said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
I had chain.

And didn't want to get the whip all sooty. :lol:


The whips are for special occassions, only !!!

;-P
 
I think he was talking about your horse, but I'll forward your indignation to Dr Freud. ;)
 
tiber said:
I think he was talking about your horse, but I'll forward your indignation to Dr Freud. ;)

LOL !!! I honestly haven't used a whip in a while, Dix free lunges in the round pen, so not much need :)
 
Whips, chains, ropes, Freud and indignation. My ears are starting to wiggle. Are we still talking about sweeping a chimney??
 
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