Cleaned the chimney this morning

[DonNC]

Swept the chimney this morning and had a couple surprises. One good, and one that kinda irks me

I have a new install and do not have any decent wood to burn. Been surviving on pallets and using them to ignite the not so dry wood. The pallets light easy but make the windows black. Pine?

Anyway, after reading about the way most peeps windows stay clean and how easily creasote builds up if u use bad wood I was expecting the worst.
It wasnt so bad. I got about a cup and half of coffee grounds out of the 12 feet of pipe. The cap had some signs of the sticky nasty kind but none in the pipe

The bad thing was that the brush seemed a little too small. at some locations I had to push sideways to feel like I was hitting it hard enough. For the final swipe I wrapped a Tshirt around the brush and put it through.

If you read people on here talking about their brush they say it is too large and they have to trim it.
I have the 6" heavy duty poly brush from Northline express (broken link removed to http://www.northlineexpress.com/item/5SB-34806M/6-Round-Pro-Sweep-Heavy-Duty-Poly-Chimney-Brush-34806M)

Anyway... I feel really good about the chimney now but still kinda bad on the brush. Is your brush easy to put in your chimney

-
First pick is from bottom - up

Second pic is from Top - down

 

[Battenkiller]

Yeah, that wet wood sure makes a mess out of your flue pipe, eh? :lol:

 

[trailrated]

Chimney looked good to begin with.

 

[pen]

It wouldn't look like that if it were an exterior masonry flue here in the north east.

Glad to see you were pleasantly surprised. Wait until you have adequate wood. It will be so much more enjoyable once you are not fussing with the darn thing all the time.

pen

 

[johnstra]

I bought a 6" heavy duty poly brush from Northline Express and I'm having the same problem. The brush is too small for the flue. I had to work like heck to get the brush to make good enough contact to do any good. I'm going to call them tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[Battenkiller]

It wouldn't look like that if it were an exterior masonry flue here in the north east.

Nor would it if he added another 12' to the height. Most of the creosote is leaving the shorter stack while the gases are too hot to condense onto the pipe. Which, of course, is a good thing. Even with my interior chimney, 25' of clay tile gets defeated before the gases hit the top no matter how hot I burn, so there will be deposits way up high, that's for sure.

 

[DonNC]

I bought a 6" heavy duty poly brush from Northline Express and I'm having the same problem. The brush is too small for the flue. I had to work like heck to get the brush to make good enough contact to do any good. I'm going to call them tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find out.

I emailed the manufacturer this morning and am waiting to hear back. http://www.schaeferbrush.com/
I will post the response if/when i get one.

If I had had some of the tough creo that some people had I dont think I would have gotten it with that brush.

 

[DonNC]

I bought a 6" heavy duty poly brush from Northline Express and I'm having the same problem. The brush is too small for the flue. I had to work like heck to get the brush to make good enough contact to do any good. I'm going to call them tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find out.

I emailed the manufacturer this morning and am waiting to hear back. http://www.schaeferbrush.com/
I will post the response if/when i get one.

If I had had some of the tough creo that some people had I dont think I would have gotten it with that brush.

johnstra

I recveived a phone call from schaefer brush. The rep blamed it on the pipe, saying sometimes there is slightly larger pipe then what the pipe manufacturer sized it at. He said they will ship a new one out this week (i had to leave name number address on their contact form) and for me to just keep the old one.
I dont think it has anything to do with the pipe myself.,,, Ill measure the ID next time I go up, but since the problem is solved, Im happy

All in all I put customer service very high on the scale when rating a purchase/product/company and I am very happy with all 3 because of the CS.
If northlineexpress does not do the same for you, then go to the manufacturer.... but let us know about northline.

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

Great review on Schaefer Brush and Northline Express.com . . . always good to hear the good along with the bad experiences with companies.

Very nice job on the clean burning . . . 1 1/2 cups isn't bad at all.

Cleanliness . . . hopefully things will work out . . . but just remember you don't have to get the chimney clean enough to eat off . . . just clean enough to minimize the creosote deposits . . . that said . . . only you can decide if the brush is too small or not.

Pine . . . hmmm . . . I've used pallets in the past with no negative experiences and I have used pallets before with no problems with it blacking up the glass . . . could the black be caused more by the unseasoned wood that you are using the pallets to ignite? Just a possibility.

 

[DonNC]

Some of it could be coming from the wet/green wood. But the pallets are a bit green too. I can see water bead up on the flats when I set them on the coals. They still burn like dry weeds and can put me up to 600 in a hurry.
When I consider how many pallets Ive burned and how thin the creosote was in the chimney, Im pretty happy.

 

[cptoneleg]

I used an old 8" brush on a 6" pipe and it's tight, Had to go all the way down into the stove to reverse the directon, not sure that anew one would work>

 

[DonNC]

I received the new brush today. They sent it over night UPS. Im thinking they must have envisioned a chimney fire due to an undersized brush or something....

but giving the benefit of doubt... GREAT customer service. Schaefer Brush , thanks

 

[johnstra]

I called NE yesterday and they ended up calling Schaefer and then having me call them directly to get a replacement. I just spoke to Mike from Schaefer and he's sending a replacement out today.

The explanation he gave is that they originally made true 6" brushes and many customers complained that the brushes were too tight for their 6" chimneys. So they reduced the diameter by 1/16". This smaller size works for most customers, but there are a few of us who need the orignal true 6".

He asked for my chimney manufacturer and I told him it's a Simpson double-wall class A and that my stove pipe is Simpson DVL.

-john

 

[DonNC]

same pipe as mine