Chimney swept...lotta ash

[Beer Belly]

This is my second year sweeping my own Chimney...this year I took my time and gave it a good scrubbing (usually scrub on the way down, then back up).....when I got down deep, the brush got really hard to scrub, like it was getting stuck....I went for it anyway and muscled thru it, all the while having the Wife watching because I thought maybe the brush was too far, and jammed inside the stove (it wasn't)....all of a sudden she sez 'A whole bunch just dropped down"...she wasn't kidding, I was shocked....maybe this was the drafting problem I was having toward the end of the season. All soft powder, no hard chunks.

 

[oldspark]

Wow, not sure what that is all about, cant be normal can it?
Do you have a 180 in there some where?

 

[USMC80]

holy cow, surely that was your drafting problem

 

[BobUrban]

Not sure of the cause but I would certainly want to get it figured out before going a whole season without putting a brush through there again.

 

[Jags]

That is about the biggest pile of ash from a brushing that I have ever seen. Can you guestimate about where your brush started to get stuck? If possible, I would be looking in that area for problems. Loose joints - cold air hitting it, etc.
Thatsallotta ash.

And by all means, I would be looking at a more frequent interval of brushing till it gets figured out.

 

[Nick Mystic]

Tell us more about your chimney. Oldspark must be joking about a 180 degree bend, but do you have some unusual offsets in your setup? How tall is you chimney? Are you running ina clay tile liner, or a SS flex liner? I wouldn't think that much ash could be sticking to the sides of SS liner. Since you said it got hard to brush and then gave way do recall how far down you were at that point?

 

[oldspark]

Yea the 180 is just a joke but ash can form in elbows like you said Nick.

 

[KB007]

That is a big pile. Most years we have between 1 & 2 cups of ash/creosote when we get our liner swept.

You said it was when the brush was "down deep" - must be closer to the stove - you able to take a good look in there to see what's what? Is this a liner or a masonry chimney? If a liner, did it get ovalized to get thru some part of the chimney/plate something somewhere? What have you been burning this past year? Seasoned? Hard or soft or mix?

 

[AnalogKid]

How tall is your chimney?

 

[Beer Belly]

We usually had it cleaned every other year by whoever had a coupon....the guy would come in, stick in a brush, scrub on the way in, and on the way out....total of about 5 minutes.......last year I decided to do it myself, and also did a quick 5 minute scrub (enough to fill a coffee can).....this year, I took my time....probably about 15 minutes doing a little at a time.....I guesstimate about 15 foot exterior brick chimney, clay flue, with a Flex Liner from the stove to the top. I would guess, this time I went all the way to the stove.....you can see where it goes oval...that is likely where it was giving me a tough time...used 5 out of six rods. The wood supply wasn't the best, but not the worst I've burned in the past.....mostly Maple and Ash seasoned 1 1/2 year.....did end the season with Oak that was about 25% on the MM, but didn't burn much of that.....les than a 1/4 cord. Here's the movie clip....

 

[Swedishchef]

I would say that contributed to your drafting problem indeed.

Other have provided good suggestions. Maybe you were running the stove a bit cooler than normal? Is your liner insulated?

Andrew

 

[Sprinter]

Makes me think that the previous sweeps didn't go down far enough. That looks like a long term build up.

What's causing that oval shape? Never mind. Didn't realize it was an oval shaped liner.

 

[madison]

Any chance you may have had a chimney fire? After a chimney fire, the creasote puff's up like one of those "snakes" we used to light up as kids. I've had first had experience - x2 - with chimney fires in open fireplaces, and after the fire, there was extreme puffed up burnt creasote that almost completely obstructed the lumen of a tiled chimney.

- it appears that the ridges in the oval flex liner are perfect traps for accumulated creasote.

-if it were mine, I would have it inspected with a video system prior to using.

 

[BKInsert]

From the picture of the inside of the stove it looks like the stove was burning correctly, no excess creosote buildup in the firewall, at least due to the last burn you had... Interesting to know what caused that buildup.

 

[Nick Mystic]

You said, "you can see where it goes oval", but you didn't say you had an oval liner. Do you have an oval liner? When I look close at the photo it looks like a round liner with a pinched section where you are talking about it "going oval". Did you have to force it through a damper opening that wasn't big enough? If so, you should know that compressing a flex liner in that manner can compromise the integrity of the liner. I had some left over liner from my installation and did an experiment to see what happens when people try to force the liner into an oval to fit through a too small damper opening. The liner was damaged every time!

 

[Beer Belly]

I would say that contributed to your drafting problem indeed.

Other have provided good suggestions. Maybe you were running the stove a bit cooler than normal? Is your liner insulated?

Andrew

Not insulated

Makes me think that the previous sweeps didn't go down far enough. That looks like a long term build up.

What's causing that oval shape? Never mind. Didn't realize it was an oval shaped liner.

I'm thinking the brush has gone where it hasn't gone in years

You said, "you can see where it goes oval", but you didn't say you had an oval liner. Do you have an oval liner? When I look close at the photo it looks like a round liner with a pinched section where you are talking about it "going oval". Did you have to force it through a damper opening that wasn't big enough? If so, you should know that compressing a flex liner in that manner can compromise the integrity of the liner. I had some left over liner from my installation and did an experiment to see what happens when people try to force the liner into an oval to fit through a too small damper opening. The liner was damaged every time!

Round Liner.....had a supposedly "Pro" install it, and this is the result.....do you guys really think it needs to be scoped ???

 

[Sprinter]

do you guys really think it needs to be scoped ???

Understand that I'm not a flue expert, but if it were me, I'd replace it if it's crimped like that, or at least that section if it's possible.

 

[BrotherBart]

Good grief. It was ovalized to to get through the damper frame. Done all the time. Brush the chimney and then stick an appliance brush up from inside the stove to clean the sides of the oval.

Stick a fork in it. It's done.

 

[BrotherBart]

The liner was damaged every time!

Define "damaged"? I ovalized 21 feet of liner with a two by four and a log splitter and it wasn't damaged.