Stuck chimney brush....

[FIshing_Fool]

So I bought a 6 inch chimney sweep brush (the smallest size they had) and shoved it into my 5 inch chimney liner. It's sort of an accordion type pipe. It went in easy to start but I started to second guess myself and thought I better try to pull this back out before I get too far... nope. One problem is when I pull up on the brush because this tube is flexible and moves I'm lifting the chimney cap and pulling the pipe up with it. This makes me uneasy because I know its just a screw or two holding the pipe on the stove at the bottom.

What now? I have a few thoughts which include in no particular order.

1 shove it down further and hope that I'm able to get a better upward pull on the thing. The bristles are all bent up - if I can get them to flip around I should be able to pull it out. However that's hundreds of steel bristles I'll be fighting with.

If 1 fails I can hope to be able to shove it all the way down and into the stove. Not incredibly likely considering the pipe has a small bend and chances are I won't be able to get the brush all the way into the stove anyways.

2. Use a crowbar or something and try to Ram those bristles into a downward position. I used a screwdriver while up there with a little bit of success but obviously not enough to free the damn thing.

3. Get my faveorite pair of wire cutters and start the painfull process of snipping as many bristles as possible. Not sure if I'll be able to cut enough of them.

4. A better idea as described below.

 

[georgepds]

Pull the big one out and use a 5 inch one from amazon

http://www.amazon.com/5-Round-Poly-...48299743&sr=8-1&keywords=chimney+brush+5+inch

 

[velvetfoot]

No expert here, but I'd try 3. You might want to throw it out anyway and get a plastic brush instead. Also,you can trim the bristles on that easier if you have to.

 

[nola mike]

How far down is it?

 

[cableman]

I did this on my boilers chimney but it was just in the depth of the brush. I twisted and pulled which reversed the bristles. Gonna be hard with a 6" brush in a smaller pipe though

 

[rwhite]

If you cab reach it I'd cut it. Is it a straight run to stove? Kinda like cleaning a rifle barrel, once you start down you almost have to go all the way out before you can pull it back. So if clipping won't work push it out and remove the brush.

 

[claydogg84]

All the way down is going to be the easiest path for the bristles.

 

[drz1050]

How close is the next pipe connector? You can just take that section off instead of pushing it all the way to the stove...

 

[Benchwrench]

Sounds like the bristles are pointed upward leaving you with one direction for the brush to travel; Down.

 

[baysideburner]

I did the same thing..cutting it is the best option followed by pushing it down all the way and retrieving it through the stove. I ended up biulding a simple cumalong over my chimney w some 2x4, rope a carabiner making a 2:1 system to pull it out without lifting the whole liner.. the problem is getting the brush to initially reverse direction

 

[fire_man]

Definitely try to clip it down so it backs out easy. That sounds like it might be hard, depending on how exposed the bristles are. You may want to PM Bholler on this one - he has some good tricks up his sleeve.

If we are talking about a light wall liner, there is no way I would want to jam a 6" steel brush down a 5" light wall liner. Too much risk of a bristle doing damage.

 

[Flame On]

I had a similar problem. I was able to twist the brush out so that is was moving with the upward grooves of the liner. If your flex liner is like mine, it should look like it is "threaded."
I bought a 6 inch poly brush to use on my 6 inch liner, but I ended up clipping off about half an inch or so from every bristle before I was able to get it down the liner. Once I did this, it worked fine.
Good luck and I feel your pain. Nothing like standing on your roof in the cold pulling on a chimney brush and hoping you don't rip out your whole liner!

 

[Nick Mystic]

I would be very surprised it you could pull hard enough on the brush to make it reverse course without some of the metal wires punching through your SS liner. If you pull too hard I would think you even run the risk of causing your liner to start to come unraveled. I have an old 6" steel brush that I used to use on a 6" double wall pipe on a different flue from the ones I have now and the brush was very stiff. Exactly how far into your flue is the brush stuck? You make it sound like you can reach it with your hand since you talked about using a pair of wire cutters to try cutting some wires bristles. If you can reach it maybe some tin snips would cut the steel bristles better than wire cutters. It would definitely be a slow process, but maybe the best option to avoid damaging your liner. Good Luck.

 

[fatjay]

I did this earlier this year. It was a challenge, but eventually what got it out was twisting while pulling up, which caused the needles to turn and reverse direction, instead of just flip over. If your chimney is in sections, you could also remove it at the closest section and pull it out there.

 

[FIshing_Fool]

Thanks for the replies. I got it out.

It was stuck at the top of the chimney where I could reach it by hand, or attach/un attach the first extender pole.

I did option #2 as described above. I took a little crowbar up there and carefully rammed al those damn bristles so they pointed down instead of up. After that I used mind over matter and out she came.

Phew... now off to amazon to find the correct sized sweep. Maybe I should just get the poly brush as linked above instead of another steel one? I'll be sweeping once per year.

 

[jrems]

Yes get a poly brush, poly is recommended for use with a stainless liner.

 

[nola mike]

I had a hard time finding a small poly brush. Bought a 6 inch and clipped the bristles to size. Took maybe 15 minutes