How do you clean above the chimney shelf?

[DeanBrown3D]

I have a VC Winterwarm fireplace in a brick chimney. Above the fireplace damper is a shelf which I think is common to most chimneys, but I was wondering if and how I could clean above the shelf. Does creosote build up there or what? I can sweep down ash easily enough, and I can pass down a vacuum cleaner pipe to suck up as much as I can reach directly downwards. Do I need to do anything else?

Thanks

DeanB

 

[hardwood715]

I pull my older insert out , which vents directly into fireplace out of a damperslide opening equivelent to the size of the fireplace damper. I actually climb into the fireplace and run a chimney brush up through the damper opening of the fireplace and clean the smoke chamber, this is all done after I brushed down the chimney from the roof. Next I reach up in through the damper opening with a brush and sweep off the smoke shelf, which catches all the stuff swept down , also the stuff from that side of the chamber. WEAR-safety glasses, dust mask, and coveralls, a good pull over winter cap covers your ears which also collects the fly ash etc. once thats done I sweep the metal just above the fireplace front opening, and then sweep it all down the ash door of the floor of the fireplace, Yup duuring the burning season I do this once a month due to my setup, and insert opening to venting into all the chimney!

 

[DeanBrown3D]

Tell me if you think this is getting the job done: My insert (or fireplace, not sure what the difference is really) is connected to a short section of metal pipe that sticks up into the chimney, so I can't just pull it out, and I can't get to the screws that hold it down onto the top of the insert. (I still don't see how it ever got in there!)

So what I do is climb up onto the roof with a powerful wet/dry shop vacuum cleaner with a 20' hose, sweep down the chimney, and then pass down the vac hose and suck up all the soot that got swept down. The end of the tube is bent out so I can get a good 6" out by twisting the tube around and swinging it. I get around 1/2 galon of soot this way.

I'm just not sure if there is more crap in there than I can get to, and whether its dangerous or not.

-D

 

[hardwood715]

What you describe is called a direct connection to the first flue tile, which is the way it was done, before the code changed to a full liner, I think it is still in code for a masonary chimney, anyway it would seem to me that anything else would fall back into the direct connection, or pipe then onto the baffle of your stove, which you can get to from the front doors of the stove, you may even have a block off plate surrounding the direct connection in the damper area of the chimney, as was done by code also. I should have that setup, but my stove outlet isnt oval, round, etc mine was built in 1980, and fabricated to just vent to the fireplace, chimney 29X3 opening, so for safety reasons your setup is better than mine. Plus saves your back, yanking that steel outta that fireplace, I think you should be ok, check the top of the baffle, get one of them radiator brushes with the long flexible handle, and try sweeping that down into the firebox, see if you get more crap.

 

[Shane]

You do probably need to access that shelf. Well not probably you definatley need to access that shelf. If you don't want to/cannot pull that insert then install a cleanout door on the back side of the chimney at smokeshelf level.

 

[hardwood715]

You do probably need to access that shelf. Well not probably you definatley need to access that shelf. If you don’t want to/cannot pull that insert then install a cleanout door on the back side of the chimney at smokeshelf level.

Outstanding Solution! I was wondering how they will eventually rip that stove out if he can't access the connection to the stove top, cept to keep pulling till it gives!