Cleaning your own chimney?

[thebugguy]

Howdy again, folks-

I was wondering how many of you clean your own chimneys, versus hiring someone to do it for you. I've been told (and read) that it should be done at least a couple times a season if you're using wood as a primary heat source. That's going to start getting expensive if I have someone else do it!

Apart from climbing up a 1.5 storey, slippery, 7/12 pitched metal roof in the dead of winter with a bunch of tools, how hard can it be? I've got a straight, internal insulated metal chimney about 20 feet long from cap to chimney connector, and then about 6 feet of single-walled stove pipe to the stove. I figure there can't be much more to it than brushing it out well, then vacuuming the soot out of the back of the stove (through the unused horizontal pipe orifice). Right?

What kind of brush do you recommend? Can I just tie it on the end of a weighted rope and pull the rope up and down, or do you recommend buying an armful of brush handle sections for better control? Anything I should be aware of?

Any thoughts/opinions on the process would be appreciated...

cheers,

thebugguy

[farmergirl]

I'd like to hear some responses on this topic myself! I know the chimney needs cleaned again, but I've been putting it off because it's been so warm this fall.

[comfortablynumb]

buy a chiminy brush and pole kit.... its as easy as shoving it in, and puling it out a few times.

a flashlight and a vacuum cleaner... your done.

[wyld thang]

We clean our own stove pipe too, with the brush and pole kit. Be sure to buy the right size brush for your pipe. First I cover the surrounding area with sheets. We take the stove pipe off the top of the stove and to the ceiling and take it outside(it unscrews into pieces). We insert the brush and the first pole, then poke the pole through a small hole in the side of a garbage bag we then tape around the stove pipe hole. Then keep adding poles till the brush is at the top. I have to watch from outside because if you push too much the china hat looking cap thing on the top of the roof will come off and we don't relish putting it back on (we have an a-frame). Just shove the brush up and down and the stuff falls into the bag. Vacuum out the top of the stove, brush the rest of the pipe we took outside and reassemble. No big deal. And with the garbage bag, not much to vacuum up.

The way the brush fits I don't think you could use a weighted rope. And you don't have to get on your roof either. WE do have a stovepipe that goes straight up from the stove, no bends.

Hope this helps.

[freeinalaska]

I use a brush and handle as well. I clean it from the roof though. I cant get the first brush handle the pipe to have a go from inside. My stove has the outlet on the back so that is my only bend in the pipe. I have a T for the 90 degree angle so the junk from the chimney will fall into the bag below it intead of into the stove. Our roof is a 12/12 pitch and is, of course, always icy so I have a 2x4 ladder assembly that goes up the roof on one side and extends over the other side about eight feet. I leave this in place all the time so when it's cleaning time I just climb up the roof kicking the snow from between the rungs and go for it.

[Alex]

Just like others wrote, get a brush and clean it.


Alex cleaning 'Katie-the-cookstove' 's flue.

Enjoy,

Alex

[Alice In TX/MO]

We do ours. We have two kinds of brushes. A nylon one, and a metal one. They have rings at the top.

Hubby goes up on the roof with a rope with a snap hook. I'm at the wood burner with the brush. He takes off the chimney cap, drops the rope in. I hook the brush on, and he pulls it up. Repeat as necessary.

Clean creosote crumbs out of stove.

[dagwood]

We do ours the old fashioned way.....lots of elbow grease and a burlap bag half-filled with about 25 pounds of old chain.

Oh yeah..... at least an annual chimney inspection to check the tile for cracks,damage etc......

[The Paw]

If you burn seasoned hardwood, and burn it hot, you will only need to clean the chimney once per year. There are about a million threads you can look for on types of firewood, how hot to burn it, when it is seasoned, creosote, chimney fires, and just about everything you can think of relating to wood heat.

[Deb862]

I agree with the above. We have always cleaned our own from the roof every fall just before we begin to burn and then always burn hot and burn only good cured wood. Most of the time when we have cleaned it in the fall, we have found not very much creosote buildup at all thankfully.

[anniew]

My chimney has two 90 degree bends in it. The first is about three feet after it comes out of the stove...the chimney then goes through the wall and when outside another 90 degree bend and up to the top. Because of the two 90 degree bends, and because most of the chimney is outside exposed to the cold I get a lot of creosote and clean the chimney every 3 weeks. However, outside it is high enough that I can force the brushes up from the ground, using four extensions. I put it up three times, adding the extensions, then taking them off as I lower the brush. The chimney part that is inside I take outside to clean, and only get soot inside when cleaning the part that goes through the wall.
For newbies...remember when taking extensions off to hold the one that will remain steady while unscrewing the other section or you will lose it when it unscrews up inside the chimney...not a pretty sight!!!
Ann

[GrannyG]

DH took a metal wire brush (goes on a grinder) and attached it to a pole and used a mirror to look down inside and brushed it till he got it clean.

[Jolly]

I use a metal brush and a set of fiberglass poles.

Since I burn hardwood, about once a year does it...

[jross]

I use a metal flue brush and 15 feet of fiberglas rod once a year. We burn amixture of seasoned and not so seasoned wood, mostly swamp maple. We keep the flue gas remp beteween 240 and 500 degrees except at night when the fire is banked. Each morning we do a hot burn near the 500 degree level for an hour or so to gasify any deposits formed overnight. We never choke off the inlet air while our Avalon stove is in use, but control the gas temp with the outlet damper. One can tell just how well the stove had been operated by the granular deposits that are present after the yearly brushing. If the deposits are not piled up at the bottm cleanout door and over the fireshelf after brushing, then they are stuck to the chimney as the glasslike creosote, waiting for the right temp to liquify and ignite.

[Shepherd]

I clean our chimney from the roof with a brush and pole kit that screws together in sections. I went to Menard's lumber store and purchased the brush and I guessed at how much pole length I'd need... that wasn't very costly.

However, the first brush I purchased wasn't quite large enough so it took a lot more work to clean the chimney. The next year I got the right sized brush (for ours it was 8 inches, round - on sale for $7) - figured it was well worth buying another, LOL. ALSO... while cleaning the first time, I "lost" the brush after it came unscrewed from the rod and fell all the way down. What a nightmare... I ended up having to fish it out with a long strand of barbed wire, twisted/slightly coiled at the bottom. If you don't want to buy the rod extensions, you could tie a rope to both ends of the brush, but that would require a second person to assist from inside the house and I usually do this job when DH is at work.

I removed the doors to our fireplace last year and replaced the gasket/roping but since then the doors don't close tight like they used to. I figured I'd call a professional out to check the doors and also have them clean the chimney while they were here. Meanwhile I asked questions and the only thing they did that I hadn't done was after cleaning the chimney, they unscrewed the brush and used it to reach up inside the fireplace from the fireplace opening, to get the creasote off the heat chambers. Then they took a shop vac and vacuumed everything out after the cleaning process.

For me the job is easy - we have a berm home so I can step up onto the roof from the ground level on the north side, walking up to where the chimney is. I had read where someone built a sort of level platform to place next to their chimney to make the job easier and safer.

I only clean our chimney once a year, and about every week or two I throw in some "Creasote Remover" which is for air-tight woodstoves and fireplace inserts. I also get that at Menard's Lumber Store. Our chimney stays pretty clean by using that. We have a furnace for back-up (if the fire were to die out during the night or we're not home and the temperature in the house drops too much) but our fireplace is our main heat source. It's ducted through the house like the furnace, and has a blower system on it.

I hope that helps.

*I forgot to add I take the cap off the top of the chimney and clean it first.

[omnicat]

I just cleaned our chimney for the first time yesterday. I have a poly brush (because I was told a metal one would score the insides of my stovepipe). I had to snip the bristles to get a good fit - it was too tight the firt time we attempted it. (ugly story).

I cleaned from the rooftop - because the bottom doesn't have enough clearance to get a three-foot extension pole into it. Just took the bottom cap off after we were done uptop, ad carefully emptied it. Easy. no mess. love it. There was roughly a quart of creosote stuff in there after brushing. 17' foot chinmey. 6 months of heavy use last winter. I think once a year is fine.

[PinkBat]

We use a chain and sling it round and round at the top of the chimney first then go lower and lower with the chain until we reach the heater. We do this once a year and keep a hot fire all winter long.

[arbutus]

I do mine - once a season is fine for me - I don't have much creosote build up at all.

I have a stiff plastic brush with fiberglass handles and would recommend it over a weighted brush on a rope for one reason:

You can TURN the brush as you are brushing up and down. I found this to be more effective than just going straight up and down. Just remember to turn it clockwise so it doesn't unscrew a section on you or you will have a long task in getting the section of rod and brush out of the chimney.

[tamsam]

I have no idea how old the chimeny is on our house. It is a 6 in steel pipe tht stands about 3 feet from the house and is prob 30 ft high. It has a bonnet welded on top to keep water out and has prob never been brushed. It has a clean out door anout 3 feet off the ground. About every week or so depending on how cold it is we get a good hot fire going and the wife hits it with her trusty hatchet and runs for cover as soot goes flying. We burn coal when the temp is 30 or below and it does build up in the chimney. We have about 6 ft of triple wall pipe going out to the chimney from the heater plus the reg stove pipe to get to the insulated pipe. So my guess is there is no way to get the chimney hot enough to burn out the build up. As far as I know there has never been a chimney fire with this chimney. Another perso who has the same type chimney in this ares takes a sprayer and sprays fuel oil as far up as he can through the clean out door lets it sit for a while and lights it and lets it burn out. he has a tin roof so not much danger od a spray setting it on fire. With a hot fire all day on a cold day our chimney never gets to hot to lay your hand on. Just hope we never have it on fire. Tamsam

[Herb]

I bought a chimney brush at Ace Hardware and use that with two 10' sections of 1/2" PVC. I have a tile lined masonry chimney. I tie a garbage bag on the outlet in the basement and sweep the chimney down from the roof. The gunk goes into the bag and what doesn't I sweep out of the bottom of the chimney.