How do you clean a chimney?

[closedknuckle]

This is probably a stupid question but how do you clean a chimney and how often do you do it?
Thanks,
John :red:

 

[Como]

Small children, in my case grandchildren. The bigger ones might get stuck.

Depends how often they visit.

 

[rowerwet]

buy a brush in the correct size for your chimney, there are a lot of options on how to do the cleaning. I got a brush on clearance from HD this spring, on the box it listed using a screw on pole (fiberglass rod) to push it up and down the chimney (best if you have a straight shot from a clean out up to the top of the chimney), another was to tie a 10 pound weght below the brush and drop the brush down the chimney with a rope (so you can go up and down), another idea was to tie ropes onto each end of the brush and drop one end down the chimney and then use the two ropes to pull up and down (may require a helper).
go up and down until the soot stops falling, (more than one pass), if you have a masonry chimney it may take more (or a square brush) to clean the corners.
My dad had an exterior mounted steel chimney with a clean out at the bottom where the pipe from his wood stove came out. He used a brush and screw together rods (6' sections) he would get a cardboard box and cut a slot in the side then after starting the brush from the bottom, he would use the box to contain the soot falling down. (the chimney was 4 stories tall)

cleaning should take place at the end of each heating season, possibly more depending on how much soot your fire makes. due to the 4 story exterior chimney running cold my dad had to sweep twice a season.

 

[closedknuckle]

I have an wood insert , qaudrafire 5100 i, the soot will just fall ontop of it?

 

[Gooserider]

I have an wood insert , qaudrafire 5100 i, the soot will just fall ontop of it?

Shouldn't if it was installed to a full length liner. If it wasn't, you may need to pull it and the connector pipes out in order to get the soot out from around the connection pipes... This is why even though direct connects are allowed under some conditions, we always suggest using a full length liner.

If you use the search, you will find LOTS of threads on cleaning methods and techniques.... One that I've posted on a few times is that instead of buying the fancy, expensive fiberglass rods, you can make your own rods out of NMT electrical conduit for a fraction of the cost... (BTW, you can clean either top down, or bottom up depending on which works better for you...)

Gooserider

 

[closedknuckle]

Hi Gooserider,
Thanks for the reply. Do I need to pull the top bricks out? or just let the soot fall on top of them? Will it burn of in next fire?
Thanks again,
John

 

[Gooserider]

Hi Gooserider,
Thanks for the reply. Do I need to pull the top bricks out? or just let the soot fall on top of them? Will it burn of in next fire?
Thanks again,
John

Depends on the insert, but you do need to get the creosote out... This is a definite "check your manual" process as each brand does something a little different. However, typically you need to do whatever it takes to remove the baffles from the stove so that the crap just falls into the main firebox, then shovel or vacuum it out like you would regular ashes... If you are cleaning from the top, close the doors and shut the air dampers to their lowest setting, and it should keep the mess nicely contained...

If your setup feeds into a tee with a cleanout plug, you need to get to the plug, take it off, and let the crud fall into a container under the tee. There are several variations depending on just how you are setup, I would suggest taking a look at your manual, and doing a search on "chimney cleaning" for the many threads that will cover the different options and tricks that people use for different chimney configurations.

Gooserider