clean chimney with brush on a rope or rods?

[jbarker496]

Hi guys-
Great site you have here! I have already learned a bunch looking around on here.
I'm going to clean the chimney for my wood burning stove. I have a 7 inch square masonry/stone flue, around 25 or 30 feet tall. It's a straight shot the whole way, no turns. I plan on cleaning it from above so I can have things sealed off on the bottom end to minimize the mess I make.
I haven't read anything on here about people tying weights to a brush and lowering it down. It seems like it might be easier than screwing so many sections of fiberglass rod together? Also, it seems a lot cheaper than buying fiberglass rod. The ring adapters to tie a rope to a brush are only around 3 or 4 bucks.
But these are just observations from a novice (myself)!
What are your suggestions? Try the weights and rope, or buck up and buy the fiberglass rods? Thanks very much for any advice!
-Jay

 

[Bone1099]

I like rods. The stiffer the better. (That's what she said) But seriously the 1st problem I see with weights and ropes is keeping the brush straight in the chimney if it is not straight it will not clean effectively also you must have enough weight at the end of the rope to achieve a good back and forth scrubbing action and then it seems that would get pretty tiring after scrubbing up and down while slowly lowering the brush. the rods aren't very heavy Furthermore get a good face-mask if not a respirator. the stuff in there isn't highly toxic but it will serve you well to treat it as if it is. At least in respect to your lungs. They will thank you later.

 

[mike1234]

I don't know what way is better, but what I do is drop a rope down the stovepipe, hook it to the brush, drag it up the stovepipe, then the person at the bottom (wife of kids) pulls it back down, we do that about 5 or 6 times, and it is all clean. I can do it by myself if I go up and down the ladder, but what a pain. Also I can only do it when I can get on the roof, so if you have snow on the roof all winter, I think I would do it from the bottom up with poles.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum.

Jay, the problem I see first with your way is weight. Do you realize how much weight it will take to pull that brush down the chimney? A lot! Better with rods and you can even scrub with rods; that is, going up and down in a short area rather than going all the way down then all the way back up.

If you don't like fiberglass rods, buy some 3/4" or 1/2" galvanized pipe. You'll need a coupling on the end to screw the brush into it. Then you can also cut the pipe to whatever lengths you want.

 

[pulldownclaw]

Look at the article section on here, it shows a cheap and effective way to build your own rods, I did it and it worked well for my 6" ss liner.

 

[BrotherBart]

I have used the rope and brush method for 30 years. With a tall tile lined chimney the rods just are not stiff enough and you get the thing 2/3 of the way down the chimney and the bow in the rods stops the progress. I bought them four years ago and ended up throwing fifty bucks worth of them off the roof into the woods and going and getting the rope. Best is a rope on both ends of the brush with one person pulling down and one pulling back up. The one on the bottom has the dirty job.

Rods may work fine with a round stainless steel chimney but not with a properly sized stiff brush in a tall tile flue.

 

[WES999]

I use rods when I clean my chimney, but it's a god idea to tie a rope to the end of the brush in-case the brush gets stuck or comes unscrewed from the rod.

 

[burntime]

Shoart Chimney...15ft or so. I use the rods, I have less than 50 bucks in the poly brush and rods. Plus I can scrub with the rods. Maybe with a long chimney a rope is better? Not sure.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I have used the rope and brush method for 30 years. With a tall tile lined chimney the rods just are not stiff enough and you get the thing 2/3 of the way down the chimney and the bow in the rods stops the progress. I bought them four years ago and ended up throwing fifty bucks worth of them off the roof into the woods and going and getting the rope. Best is a rope on both ends of the brush with one person pulling down and one pulling back up. The one on the bottom has the dirty job.

Rods may work fine with a round stainless steel chimney but not with a properly sized stiff brush in a tall tile flue.

BB, the OP said he wants to do it from the top only.

Doing it from the top, I've done a 30' chimney from the top using 1/2" galvanized pipe, but was wishing I'd used 3/4" instead. We got the job done though and it was almost plugged when we started.

 

[johnn]

I too have rods and top clean a rectangular tile. No scrubbing here,for the rods arnt strong enough once you get down so far, to scrub up and down. You have too go all the way down, all the way up, long strokes. You can reverse pulling up, but not pushing down, rod just flexes. The idea of adapting galvanized, seems good, I`ll try that. If you used rods in combination with the right weight you may be able to scrub, but I bet you would get a work out,,, be careful up there.

 

[johnn]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM: JBARKER496. Looks like you asked at the right time

 

[dougand3]

I have 9' of SS Class A and 6' of single wall stove pipe. I use a 6" wire brush on 4 x 4ft rods. Stand on 4/12 roof for top-down cleaning - works like a dream. I almost didn't buy rods b/c I had a rope and a buddy. But the rods are money well spent.

 

[BrotherBart]

BB, the OP said he wants to do it from the top only.

I want to clean mine from across the street. But some things ya just gotta do. :lol:

 

[jbarker496]

Hi everyone-
Thanks so much for all the advice. Looks like I came to the right place. Lots of info to process here...
-Jay

 

[wendell]

I have 36' of 6" pipe to clean and had bought fiberglass rod to push the brush through but after reading this thread wondering if that is going to work. I tried to find the article on using galvanized pipe but could not. Can anyone provide the link?

Any thoughts on using fiberglass to clean a pipe that long?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

BB, the OP said he wants to do it from the top only.

I want to clean mine from across the street. But some things ya just gotta do. :lol:

That sounds like a good place to be when cleaning a chimney! That 30' I cleaned was really terrible. The roof pitch was about as steep as I've seen and it was also a metal roof. Needless to say it was precarious up there....and cold too. Seems it took almost 3 hours to get that thing open. That was the last time for that bull.