How NOT to clean your chimney...

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precaud

Minister of Fire
Jan 20, 2006
2,307
Sunny New Mexico
www.linearz.com
There's a guy at the health club who is a fellow Tile Fire owner, and we chat from time to time about wood burning. He burns a couple cords a year in his Kent, which came along with the house he bought four years ago (yeah, bad time to buy...). By experimenting, he's arrived at pretty much the same techniques of burning the local species in it as I have, though his stove is unmodified.

Winter is intensifying here this weekend, so out of curiosity, I asked him about his chimney (6" Class A) and when and how he last brushed it. After a short "deer in the headlights" moment, he said he'd never brushed it. His cleaning technique, passed on to him by the previous owners, is to burn a load in the stove REALLY hot, until the magnetic thermometer a foot above the stove top on the connecting pipe falls off, indicating that the creosote inside has been burned off too.

My jaw literally dropped. I couldn't believe what I heard. I asked him, please, do not do this again, you are literally playing with fire, your chimney needs to be cleaned and inspected at least annually. And I offered at the next warm spell to come out with my rods and brush and show him how to do it.

It is amazing some of the things folks do...
 
That's scary.


KC
 
I guess it could be worse, at least he did not say "heat it up until you start to see sparks and flames shoot from the chimney - then you are good to go!"
 
Yeah, and hook your blower up to the air intake, that will get things going!
 
That does blow my mind, might just as well teach a class on how to burn your house down.
 
When I was a kid, I remember my dad taking the Christmas tree sometime in Jan and tying a weight to the bottom and a rope to the top. This was his chimney brush. He'd work it up and down for a long time from top to bottom. We had a big interior chimney and I guess it worked for him because we never had a chimney fire and the house is still there.
 
I don't know how much heat it takes for a magnet to lose its strength but I do run frequent hot fires to clean out the pipes. Mind you, I went with the ICC class A chimney that's rated to a much higher standard than minimum US standards.

I do run a chimney brush through the pipes every 5 years or so but don't really get anything out of it except peace of mind.
 
I know a couple guys like that. 1 guy with just a reagular fireplace would have a chimney fire bout once a year. He would just stuff the firebox as full of cardboard boxes as he could and flames would shoot out the chimney 3 feet in the air. As soon as the fire went out he would go on about his business like nothin ever happened. And he was on the volunteer fire dept.!!!
 
"And he was on the volunteer fire dept.!!! " Those guys are whacked.
:cheese:
 
The fact of the matter is if everything is right you will never have a chimney fire, I told my BIL that and I dont think he believed me, some people do not understand that they are from something that is not right.
 
i know a guy that uses "bricks in a burlap bag" to clean the chimney in the spring... and "occasionally on a rainy day will fill thee stove with cardboard to get it really hot and burn out stuff" of course its only done on a rainy day incase "burning stuff leaves the top" its an old smoke dragon they have used since the 70's....

its cheap and safe to do it right!
 
My 6" poly chimney brush (Rutland) cost me $8. Fiberglass rods (4' sections threaded on the ends) cost me $5 each. So I've invested $28 plus tax. These will last me a very long time. And I shouldn't damage my class A chimney using them. Doesn't take but a few minutes to run the brush through the chimney. A little more time to get out the ladder, set-up, and take down. So, 1 hour each month or two goes a long way to at least having peace of mind.
 
LLigetfa said:
I don't know how much heat it takes for a magnet to lose its strength

More relevant is when the steel pipe loses its magnetic properties (the Curie Point), which is about 1400F for mild steel. It loses magnetism gradually as it approaches that temp. The pipe is glowing red long before it reaches it.

but I do run frequent hot fires to clean out the pipes.

So do I, but this is extreme...
 
maverick06 said:
i know a guy that uses "bricks in a burlap bag"...
I'd worry that the burlap would rip and spill out the bricks.

My father made a ball out of chicken wire and bits of scrap metal for weight and ran that through his clay tile chimney for the cookstove but only on my mother's insistence. Too bad he never cleaned the class A SS chimney cuz that was what burned his house to the ground.
 
precaud said:
LLigetfa said:
I don't know how much heat it takes for a magnet to lose its strength

More relevant is when the steel pipe loses its magnetic properties (the Curie Point), which is about 1400F for mild steel. It loses magnetism gradually as it approaches that temp. The pipe is glowing red long before it reaches it.

but I do run frequent hot fires to clean out the pipes.

So do I, but this is extreme...
Yes, understood and I should have made the distinction to be clear that I don't endorse such a practice.
 
LLigetfa said:
precaud said:
LLigetfa said:
I don't know how much heat it takes for a magnet to lose its strength

More relevant is when the steel pipe loses its magnetic properties (the Curie Point), which is about 1400F for mild steel. It loses magnetism gradually as it approaches that temp. The pipe is glowing red long before it reaches it.

but I do run frequent hot fires to clean out the pipes.

So do I, but this is extreme...
Yes, understood and I should have made the distinction to be clear that I don't endorse such a practice.
I see nothing wrong with that IF you know what you are doing (for some that is a big if), what temp is your stack when you do this, I can run my flue up to 800 degrees but a few feet up the pipe its only 600 or so, if you were to exceed the limits of the class pipe you either have a fire or a glowing flue pipe.
 
My father has done it this way for close to 20 years.... Had an old Fisher stove, never cleaned he chimney. Connected straight into he flue with about 4 feet or so of pipe connection. He just bought a new pacific summit or whatever their largest is. Still going strong. Not saying its right but he hasnt cleaned it ever. He only burned dry wood and I can attest to the quality... Huge chimney too.
 
maverick06 said:
i know a guy that uses "bricks in a burlap bag" to clean the chimney in the spring... and "occasionally on a rainy day will fill thee stove with cardboard to get it really hot and burn out stuff" of course its only done on a rainy day incase "burning stuff leaves the top" its an old smoke dragon they have used since the 70's....

its cheap and safe to do it right!

I swear on a stack of bibles, my dad uses a bowling ball wrapped in a towel.
 
I've used a burlap bag w/ old tire chains in it before.

The bowling ball method Dakota's Dad describes still beats the "burn it out" method hands down IMO (that is hilarious!)

pen
 
WoodpileOCD said:
When I was a kid, I remember my dad taking the Christmas tree sometime in Jan and tying a weight to the bottom and a rope to the top. This was his chimney brush. He'd work it up and down for a long time from top to bottom. We had a big interior chimney and I guess it worked for him because we never had a chimney fire and the house is still there.

I remember a few folks doing that exact thing. Seemed to work for them...
 
Did he mention the step: "Go up on the roof with the garden hose & put out the chimney fire" ?
I'd laugh, but I did that a few times, no thermometer to fall off, but the sheets of creo fell straight down into the stove when it cooled, cracked & broke loose , about a 3/4 of a bucket full. Looked like coal.
Originally, the stove was in living room, straight up chimney from the stove.
Old 1982 BK King with "seasoned wood" cut in Aug & Sept, burned in Oct thru March. :red:
Oh yea, after the chimney fire, I bought a brush & rods & I cleaned it monthly & alway got allot.
I am sooo glad I had a good chimney. Whew! (Still think about it)
I worked week on / week off remote. Chimney fire was on the week I was home. DA luck.
 
My neighbor cleans her chimney with a pile of cardboard a squirt of lighter fluid then she waits till the roar stops to build a wood fire. Only one time has somebody stopped and knocked on her door telling her she had a chimney fire.
 
WoodNStuff said:
My 6" poly chimney brush (Rutland) cost me $8. Fiberglass rods (4' sections threaded on the ends) cost me $5 each. So I've invested $28 plus tax. These will last me a very long time. And I shouldn't damage my class A chimney using them. Doesn't take but a few minutes to run the brush through the chimney. A little more time to get out the ladder, set-up, and take down. So, 1 hour each month or two goes a long way to at least having peace of mind.
Agreed 100%......my wife, two sons, one daughter, jack russell terrier and everything I have worked for all my life are worth that $28.00 investment and that one hour every other month.....some people just amaze me.....
 
A co-worker said he is going to use a log chain to clean his chimney. That's what the fire department used to clean it after they came out because of a chimney fire, told him it was ok to use it.
I tried to tell him to use a brush but I don't think he is going to.
 
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