Cleaned the chimney & Summit today (no no beers today).

[Hogwildz]

Well, I finally cleaned the chimney & beast out today.
A bit easier & cleaner than I expected.
I am posting this in a few serious of posts. Bare with me.

Cruddy cap, cleaned it once mid season, looks like I'll be cleaning it a lil more often.
I didn't get to shoot the crud in pipe before cleaning, but here is the after............

 

[Hogwildz]

Here are photos of the baffle side brackets with their insulation & the top of the baffle.
The plate on top of the baffle had a decent bow to it, so I pulled it off and straightened by hand as best as I could.

 

[Hogwildz]

The baffle gasket were the baffle meets air tube in back fell apart very easily. Good thing I ordered 3 from Tom at Chimney sweep online. THANKS TOM
I did notice the factory had 2 gaskets doubled up? So I did same when reinstalling.

I got alot less than I expected as far as debris from cleaning chimney. Most of you know I didn't have optimal wood last season as far as dryness, but I did make sure to get her hot at least once every day or so to clean her out. The pencil is to give an idea of the size of the mound of crud to some sort of scale.
It was about 1-3/4" deep at the top peak & 7"-8" long, not bad for first year with semi wet wood.

 

[Hogwildz]

one final shot of the pile of crud and the clean Summit ready for action!

 

[Hogwildz]

I originally wanted to shoot a load of photos, and do a step by step with photos for the Wiki, but my impatience got the better of me, lots to do around here, and just wanted to get it done. The baffle is not super heavy, its just awkward reaching in, lifting it and trying to wrestle it over , down & out with just your arms extended into the box.
I did rest my arms on the bottom of the opening lip to get leverage, and dirty arms .
Had to make sure the side insulation was seated down as it should be after reinstalling the side brackets with insulation at same time. (This was before top baffle re-install). She should be ready and able to burn when the time comes.

One last note. when I opened the door and looked up and the baffle, there was a wasp hanging on bottom of the baffle, killed it and figured there would be more.
Tapped on the baffle with my ash shovel, nothing , so proceeded. Whe up on roof, tapped on pipe & cap.....BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. OK knew there was a nest somewhere.
Just was not sure if in pipe of under storm collar. Looked up under storm collar and AHAH, grabbed can of bee spray that I had brought with me, sprayed the underside. A few yellow jackets came flying out, and in a few seconds dropped to the roof one by one. Tapped again, nothing, all clear. Still proceeded with caution & removed cap for cleaning. All clear. I'll be sure to check for bees ever year now. Maybe also make cap off top of chimney with a plate after each season to avoid bees down in chimney or to stove insides.

 

[BrotherBart]

Lookin good brudder. Ready to do, season two.

Gentlemen. Start your Summits!

 

[kwburn]

thats a heat beast alright ready to go. dual thermometers no less!
what, no tachometer?

 

[MrGriz]

Lookin' good Hog! I'll admit you're a step ahead of me on the cleaning; hopefully this week.

 

[karl]

I took the baffle out of my brand new Summit when I first got it, just to see how things went together before I used it. I didn't realize how fragile those gaskets are. It makes me think twice about removing it when I clean the thing. It looks as though you could leave it in and then run a shop vac hose up there and clean it out or I might take the surround off and disconnect the vent pipe and tape a trash bag on the vent and then clean it that way. What do you think after cleaning yours this year.

 

[budman]

I took the baffle out of my brand new Summit when I first got it, just to see how things went together before I used it. I didn't realize how fragile those gaskets are. It makes me think twice about removing it when I clean the thing. It looks as though you could leave it in and then run a shop vac hose up there and clean it out or I might take the surround off and disconnect the vent pipe and tape a trash bag on the vent and then clean it that way. What do you think after cleaning yours this year.

Karl get the dam thing in already will you. :lol:

 

[budman]

I originally wanted to shoot a load of photos, and do a step by step with photos for the Wiki, but my impatience got the better of me, lots to do around here, and just wanted to get it done. The baffle is not super heavy, its just awkward reaching in, lifting it and trying to wrestle it over , down & out with just your arms extended into the box.
I did rest my arms on the bottom of the opening lip to get leverage, and dirty arms .
Had to make sure the side insulation was seated down as it should be after reinstalling the side brackets with insulation at same time. (This was before top baffle re-install). She should be ready and able to burn when the time comes.

One last note. when I opened the door and looked up and the baffle, there was a wasp hanging on bottom of the baffle, killed it and figured there would be more.
Tapped on the baffle with my ash shovel, nothing , so proceeded. Whe up on roof, tapped on pipe & cap.....BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. OK knew there was a nest somewhere.
Just was not sure if in pipe of under storm collar. Looked up under storm collar and AHAH, grabbed can of bee spray that I had brought with me, sprayed the underside. A few yellow jackets came flying out, and in a few seconds dropped to the roof one by one. Tapped again, nothing, all clear. Still proceeded with caution & removed cap for cleaning. All clear. I'll be sure to check for bees ever year now. Maybe also make cap off top of chimney with a plate after each season to avoid bees down in chimney or to stove insides.

Hog i picked up a 6" pvc sewer pipe cap and used some flashing with 8"s/s bands to make that cap.Only take's 5 min to put on.

 

[budman]

Hog, What's with the,the chimney, had a few beers did you .

 

[BrotherBart]

Hog, What's with the,the chimney...

It's double wall pipe. :coolsmile:

 

[karl]

Budman it's almost ready to go in. I cut the cement slab on top of my chimney today, so i can feed a liner down it. I need to cut a outside air whole in the block on the bottom and then clean the chimney. I lost my debit card a few days ago and I'm waiting on a new one to arrive, so I can order the brushes. Also, I have decided on using black marble tile for the hearth pad and between the surround and the wall. I'm having a hard time finding it though.

 

[Hogwildz]

I took the baffle out of my brand new Summit when I first got it, just to see how things went together before I used it. I didn't realize how fragile those gaskets are. It makes me think twice about removing it when I clean the thing. It looks as though you could leave it in and then run a shop vac hose up there and clean it out or I might take the surround off and disconnect the vent pipe and tape a trash bag on the vent and then clean it that way. What do you think after cleaning yours this year.

As heavy as the Summit is, I ain't moving it no where again. Removing the baffle is simple enough. The gaskets are cheap. And if you run a shop vac near that gasket, I hope you have another near to replace it with, cause it will get sucked right up. Surround was a pain in the arse enough to get on. I personally will stick with the baffle removal and replace the gasket. As I said, the gaskets are cheap. Cleaning was fairly simple. After I found the bees, I pulled the baffle and fired up some kindling & a few small pine lumber scraps to smoke & heatem out. After that pulled the wood out, into a metal ash can, scooped the rest all out, ash & all. Let her sit a while and vac'd out.
Very worth the time & experience, and saved $125.00 chimney sweep fee.

 

[Hogwildz]

I originally wanted to shoot a load of photos, and do a step by step with photos for the Wiki, but my impatience got the better of me, lots to do around here, and just wanted to get it done. The baffle is not super heavy, its just awkward reaching in, lifting it and trying to wrestle it over , down & out with just your arms extended into the box.
I did rest my arms on the bottom of the opening lip to get leverage, and dirty arms .
Had to make sure the side insulation was seated down as it should be after reinstalling the side brackets with insulation at same time. (This was before top baffle re-install). She should be ready and able to burn when the time comes.

One last note. when I opened the door and looked up and the baffle, there was a wasp hanging on bottom of the baffle, killed it and figured there would be more.
Tapped on the baffle with my ash shovel, nothing , so proceeded. Whe up on roof, tapped on pipe & cap.....BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. OK knew there was a nest somewhere.
Just was not sure if in pipe of under storm collar. Looked up under storm collar and AHAH, grabbed can of bee spray that I had brought with me, sprayed the underside. A few yellow jackets came flying out, and in a few seconds dropped to the roof one by one. Tapped again, nothing, all clear. Still proceeded with caution & removed cap for cleaning. All clear. I'll be sure to check for bees ever year now. Maybe also make cap off top of chimney with a plate after each season to avoid bees down in chimney or to stove insides.

Hog i picked up a 6" pvc sewer pipe cap and used some flashing with 8"s/s bands to make that cap.Only take's 5 min to put on.

Great idea Budman, I'll def be doing the same next year. No beers, just a night last night and lots a crap on my mind.

 

[Hogwildz]

Hog, What's with the,the chimney...

It's double wall pipe. :coolsmile:

As least one of us is quick thinking,

 

[Hogwildz]

Budman it's almost ready to go in. I cut the cement slab on top of my chimney today, so i can feed a liner down it. I need to cut a outside air whole in the block on the bottom and then clean the chimney. I lost my debit card a few days ago and I'm waiting on a new one to arrive, so I can order the brushes. Also, I have decided on using black marble tile for the hearth pad and between the surround and the wall. I'm having a hard time finding it though.

Saw black marble tile 12" x 12" at Home Peehole today

 

[BrotherBart]

Hog are you telling me that you can clean liners? I pulled the one I installed last year out and put in a new one last week. Damn! :red:

 

[budman]

Hog, What's with the,the chimney...

It's double wall pipe. :coolsmile:

Gota say your quick Bart. :snake:

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Budman it's almost ready to go in. I cut the cement slab on top of my chimney today, so i can feed a liner down it. I need to cut a outside air whole in the block on the bottom and then clean the chimney. I lost my debit card a few days ago and I'm waiting on a new one to arrive, so I can order the brushes. Also, I have decided on using black marble tile for the hearth pad and between the surround and the wall. I'm having a hard time finding it though.

GAWD thats gonna look slammin when you get that under the stove! chompin at the bit for pictures of the black marble pad with the unit on it

by the way Mountaineers looked pretty tough today, might be a good year to be in the couch selling buisness in WV this year

 

[elkimmeg]

Prior to the next year clean out why not do a prelim smoke out fire to solve the bee issue

 

[Gunner]

Hog are you telling me that you can clean liners? I pulled the one I installed last year out and put in a new one last week. Damn! :red:

OK BB,

I'll be the one to ask WHY?

 

[BrotherBart]

Hog are you telling me that you can clean liners? I pulled the one I installed last year out and put in a new one last week. Damn! :red:

OK BB,

I'll be the one to ask WHY?

I need to take the time to detail it in a post but the long and short of it is that it was a double wall "smooth wall" liner. The inside laminations of the thing weren't so "smooth" after uncoiling it and then when I had to ovalize it to get it up the chimney (way to stiff to be put in from up top) more de-lamination took place. Then the infamous (in this house at least) two runaway fires in the old Sierra occured last fall on the first two burns into it. I figure with stove collar temp of 1,200 both times the exhaust had to be in the 2K range and turned that pup a golden hue from collar to cap. I had to go ahead and use it for the season but didn't trust it after that.

Since the single wall in the identical adjacent flue performed so well I went ahead and pulled the mega-bucks double wall liner and replaced it with single wall for this season and hopefully all the rest of the seasons to come. The .018 "smooth" wall would have been the ultimate had 1.) The inside of the thing stayed flat and 2.) It hadn't gotten torched. It may have performed fine from here on out but I am not going to bed every night wondering about it for another season.

Replaced it from stovetop to cap with Simpson DuraFlex 316ti single wall. And I really wasn't fishing for the question. I was just really tired and needed to get to bed last night.

 

[karl]

Stoveguy, the Eers are looking good this year. Too bad I live in Herd country. They are going to kill us next week. The only good thing about it, is its easy money betting against Marshall on this game.