My first Chimney Cleaning.

[jrousell]

I have been paying different chimney sweeps every fall to clean my chimney. I have always kinda questioned how well they do because I never see them pick up very much debris from the bottom. (My roof makes cleaning from the outside almost impossible)

I always suspected that maybe they were using a 6" brush for my 7" chimney by mistake...

anyway -this year I decided to buy the tools and do it myself. With some grunting and sweating I was able to do a pretty good job I think. ( I have about 29 feet of flue with a angles jog near teh bottom.. so getting past teh jog and being able to push wasn't;t easy... also it makes looking into teh chimney past the first 3 feet impossible..
I had to push p and twist and wrangle it pretty hard a couple times... so I am pretty much assuming that I was rigth that the sweeps were at least sometimes using a smaller 6" brush because they never seemed to have to push hard at all...


anyway- I came up with pretty much no debris from the cleanup myself... I guess that I am just doing a pretty good job burning cleanly. I almost never damper down to prolong burn times, and I always burn nice hot fires with dry wood...

I wish I had one of those cameras like you see in the spy movies that can be threaded up from the bottom to look at the flue....

 

[fossil]

...I wish I had one of those cameras like you see in the spy movies that can be threaded up from the bottom to look at the flue....

Oh, they're available. Git yer checkbook out! %-P (sounds like you're doin' it right). Rick

 

[CK-1]

I have been paying different chimney sweeps every fall to clean my chimney. I have always kinda questioned how well they do because I never see them pick up very much debris from the bottom. (My roof makes cleaning from the outside almost impossible)

I always suspected that maybe they were using a 6" brush for my 7" chimney by mistake...

anyway -this year I decided to buy the tools and do it myself. With some grunting and sweating I was able to do a pretty good job I think. ( I have about 29 feet of flue with a angles jog near teh bottom.. so getting past teh jog and being able to push wasn't;t easy... also it makes looking into teh chimney past the first 3 feet impossible..
I had to push p and twist and wrangle it pretty hard a couple times... so I am pretty much assuming that I was rigth that the sweeps were at least sometimes using a smaller 6" brush because they never seemed to have to push hard at all...


anyway- I came up with pretty much no debris from the cleanup myself... I guess that I am just doing a pretty good job burning cleanly. I almost never damper down to prolong burn times, and I always burn nice hot fires with dry wood...

I wish I had one of those cameras like you see in the spy movies that can be threaded up from the bottom to look at the flue....

You don't damper down?.. what are your burn times.. 15min? :grrr:

 

[jrousell]

a few hours

 

[Chappy]

This is Chappy im new here so tell me how cold is it down there where you live? I have a three level split total square footage 2000 sq ft, my Opel 3 is on the main floor. Main floor sq ft is 900sq ft, I was just wondering if this unit will heat up my house? Where the fireplace is located the bedrooms upstairs will get the free heat and I have installers that have put in a 635 cfm blower downstairs. So I get free heat down there as well. I have birch and pine and poplar in this neck of the woods. Regina Sask is where I live so our climate is usually from Nov to march They said this year it is supposed to be really cold in Jan and Feb.I had an old fireplace before this one which did quite well but the pit was wraped and the chimney was rippled so I chose to buy an Opel 3. The store said he recommends these because they have the best option for central heat. They said that they get an all night burn when turned down to about 1/4 open . My old unit which was an Old Glowboy made by Hersey Warnock Had about 30,000 btus to it I pretty couls heat my wholle house with this by turning on my summer fan.Upstairs was about 78 80 degrees while downstairs was about 74 to 76 degrees so I figure with this new unit at 70,000 btus or so I should be able to heat my whole house day and night because of central heat dump into my house.My old unit know matter what had to loaded every 1 to 1 hour and a half and it didnt matter which wood I burned...My house by the way is really insulated. When they said at the fireplace store when they put four or five 4 by 4 logs approx 17 to 19 inches long in my new unit they load it up at five in the evening and there is still hot coals at 730am just throw three more in and the way you go they use birch mixed with poplar..

 

[jrousell]

My house is a little bit bigger than yoursand I live in northern NY, It gets pretty cold. .. UNless you live in Canada or Alaska, it isn;t colder than where I live...

We have teh Opel centrally ducted into our main furnace ductwork. A variable speed blower pulls teh air form the fireplace and pushes it to all of teh rooms in the house...

It puts out a good amount of heat. When we use it, the furnace does not kick on... but I do not heat with it 24/7 and I do not attampt to damper it down to long overnight burns, but I am sure it can be done...It has a very large firebox...

 

[Chappy]

I have quite dry firewood and enough to cut for at least ten years or so out on the farm. I will put a thermostat in the fireplace room so it doesnt get to hot upstairs because it is only 800 sq ft up there. So when the wife and kids are sleeping they wont get cooked out. I work nights and Im not around then so I want it to be as easy as possible to use without getting cooked out.

 

[Chappy]

I had my old Glow boy for ten years but know I think I will be way happier with the Opel 3. I bought this unit for the looks which I will send a picture soon.I also bought it for the great heat it puts out and hopefully fairly long burntimes which I am wondering how long do you think my burntimes are going to be?

 

[jrousell]

I think another Opel owner will be better able to answer that. I as a matter of practice do not damper it down to achieve long burn times... and it loks like teh condition of my chimney supports my strategy