have questions about sweeping chimney - Hearthstone Phoenix

[Mikeyvon]

I would really like to clean my chimney and stove pipe. My stove is a Hearthstone Phoenix with about 16 feet of double wall and then 12' of triple wall. There are 2 45's with a short length of strait right before the transition to triple wall. If cleaning from the top, which I plan on doing, I would need to pull the top 8' + cap off (might be able to get away with top 4', but do not see much benefit). My roof pitch is steep at 10/12 and I am high off the ground. I wear proper climbing equipment.

I have never done this before. I did do the install myself (plus built the whole house). I am curious what happens to the creosote on the bottom end. I would assume you usually let it fall into the stove and then clean it out. The Phoenix has some sort of ceramic blanket right below the flue. I am guessing it would not be wise to just let the creosote fall and build up on that. Do I need to take the stove pipe off the stove? That seems like a pain, but if that is what needs to be done. What kind of cleaning equipment should I purchase.

Any advice is appreciated.

thanks,

michael

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Michael, I am not familiar with your stove but if you can just let the stuff drop in the stove it will save much work. But do make sure you check with someone who knows this stove.
Good luck.

 

[Highbeam]

I can answer a couple of your questions. I swept my 14' chimney from the roof over this weekend. I removed the baffle plate from inside the Hearthstone and then swept all the junk down into the stove. It's a good idea to shut the doors on the stove! primary air too. I used a rutland brand poly brush made for the SS flue and 4-4 foot extension rods. Don't just push it down and then pull it back up, do a lot of sweeping to be sure and get it all down.

When the sweeping is done and the brush is out I come off the roof with the cap in hand. I spend extra time cleaning the cap with brake cleaner to make it nice and pretty. If you don't do this the cap gets all brown and nasty looking. When I go back up top I bring the leaf blower to blow all of the little creosote flakes off the roof and also some paper towels and windex glass cleaner to clean the outside of the chimney pipe. Seems that the smoke sort of sets up some scum on the nice shiny pipe.

Now inside the house get the shopvac and suck out all of the creosote and any other fly ash that has accumulated in that large area above the baffle. There will be lots of stuff growing on the walls and the bottom of the stove top.

Reassemble.

This time I took some furnace cement and filled a couple of dents in the ceramic baffle. Use it like body filler in a car. Seems to be holding up.

 

[Highbeam]

Oh, on the bends, not sure if the brush can push through bends as I don't have any.

THe Heritage's baffle plate just comes right out by weaving it through the tubes. You also need to remove the little SS baffle support bracket from the front of the baffle. If you can't get the baffle out of the stove then you need to take the pipe off of the stove and collect the creosote there, this is way more work. Don't jsut let it accumulate on top of the baffle.

 

[Mikeyvon]

thank you for the responses. Below is what the manual says about the ceramic blanket. This is the part that concerns me during cleaning. Removing the baffles looks like it may be the answer. Anyone else have any advice or share how they clean their Hearthstone with the Thermo-Ceramic Baffle System?

The manual does have a section on creosote build-up and removal, but it is written in a very general sense. It offers no specific information to my stove or any stove for that matter.

"Hearthstone’s Thermo-Ceramic
Baffle System
To enhance the combustion efficiency and
reduce the emissions of the fire in your stove
Hearthstone QHHP, Inc. has developed an
advanced THERMO-CERAMIC baffle system.
This system uses a lightweight, durable
ceramic material above the burner tubes to
maintain the high temperatures in the
secondary combustion area and maintain the
low emission – high efficiency combustion you
desire. This new technology will not corrode,
rust dissolve or lose its strength, however it is
vulnerable to puncture or cracking due to
rough handling.
PLEASE EXERCISE CARE WHEN
LOADING WOOD OR CLEANING YOUR
STOVE, NOT TO DAMAGE THE
Thermo-Ceramic BAFFLE
Located directly above the burner tubes in the
firebox, this white sheet of material will break if
wood or cleaning brushes impact it. Be careful
when loading and cleaning your stove to not
break this material. If this piece has been
fractured or a hole is punctured, it will cause
the stove to function improperly. You must
replace the board through a qualified
Hearthstone dealer."

 

[Mikeyvon]

So, after doing some searches it looks like a will attempt to carefully remove the ceramic blanket. Do I need to remove the secondary burn tubes?

Should I get a poly brush? I read a thread about using a brush with rope attached to both sides, pulling the brush down then back up. This seems like it would work good for my situation. Any comments on cleaning a chimney and stove pipe using the rope-brush-rope method?

 

[Highbeam]

I have removed my baffle a few times now and the baffle easily weaves out through the tubes. Leave them in place. The baffle piece is not as fragile as you might think. It is nearly 1/2" thick and fairly robust. I'm sure I could break it over my knee if I tried but we're not talking about the mantle in a coleman lantern here.

There is a chance that the phoenix is unique so take Hearthstone owners' advice with that warning unless they actually own a phoenix which is rare.

You have to remove that baffle in order to clean all the junk out of the secondary burn chamber.