Chimney sweep advice needed

[shaggymatt]

So the time has come. I was up on my roof cleaning out my gutters and noticed the cap of my liner was pretty caked up with creosote. I popped it off and knocked off all the creosote very easily. Glanced down into the liner and saw it was also rather dirty.

This was my first winter in the house, and I had the Osburn 2400i(nsert) professionally installed, along with the liner. I've had some backpuffing issues, which were never really resolved. I ran into a site today that made me think about the second chimney, which is not in use from the old oil furnace.

Anyway... the real reason I'm posting is that I'm an avid DIY'er. I do pretty much everything I can on my own to save money, know it is done right, and I enjoy doing it. So I naturally want to sweep my own chimney, while the weather is reasonable! One of the reasons I always believed my stove backpuffed was that the installer had to build a (beautiful) double 90º bend to move the exhaust of the stove in line with the liner (so it does a bend from the liner, goes ~12" to another bend into the port on the stove).

The stove is a VERY tight fit into my fireplace. There might be 2" on the top of the stove to the frame of the existing masonry fireplace. I don't think that it can be moved out without one of those lifting dollies. I've seen weights anywhere from 300-500 pounds for that stove.

Is there a brush out there that will expand when I get to the bottom so that I can pull up all the creosote? Is there any sort of vacuum system so that I can extract everything from the top instead of trying to move the stove? Or is this something that really has to be done by disconnecting the stove from the bottom? In which case, I'll have to pay every year.

 

[Hogwildz]

Bottom line is this:
If there is a full s.s. reline from stove outlet to top of chimney, you can pull the baffle out of stove and let the ash, etc fall into the stove, then clean off of stove floor.
If you have a direct connect, which is a section of pipe or liner from stove outlet to the first flue tile of the original chimney, stove should be pulled. Otherwise everything you sweep will lay on the smoke shelf and fall around the outside of the piping coming from the stove.

 

[shaggymatt]

Thanks. There is a full Stainless liner to the stove, till it gets to the double elbow. I guess I'll have to take off the facing and see if this is something that I can work with or not. The 90º elbow box that was built, is just that a box, not round, so a 6" brush won't fit through it. I guess I could probably clean down to the first elbow, and vacuum out the soot from that point...

 

[Hogwildz]

Thanks. There is a full Stainless liner to the stove, till it gets to the double elbow. I guess I'll have to take off the facing and see if this is something that I can work with or not. The 90º elbow box that was built, is just that a box, not round, so a 6" brush won't fit through it. I guess I could probably clean down to the first elbow, and vacuum out the soot from that point...

Sounds to me, the "box" you describe is actually an offset, similar to this? (broken link removed to http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=64)

If so, depending on your set up, you might be able to do away with that, and replace it with a s.s. 30 degree elbow. Really depends on the room you have in there, and how/where the flex liner comes down.
If you could get rid of the offset and replace with a 30, you could clean straight down into stove.

 

[shaggymatt]

That is exactly what it is, but instead of the angled piece on top, it is a 90 degree bend. I can't tell from that picture, if the piece slides to make it deeper. I think that he had to go relatively deep before attaching to the liner.

Just need to get the time to take off the trim and see what I'm really dealing with I guess.

 

[Shane]

It takes some patience but sweep it down, then take the baffle out. From there you can take a noodle brush and clean that offset adapter out. I had an install similar to yours that I cleaned like that every year. Did not have to disassemble it and I could confirm it's cleanliness by feel and inspection mirror.

 

[Hogwildz]

Shane gives some great advice. And sounds like the easiest way to approach cleaning.
I would def, take the surround off and see exactly what your dealing with.