Best strategy for cleaning my chimney liner?...

[WestVirginian]

Hi all. I got some great feedback here about a draft problem I’m having with my Oslo 500, and I’m pretty sure that it’s due to my chimney liner needing to be cleaned. I just shook the liner from the bottom, and approximately 5 cups of what looked like black, crystallized charcoal (is that creosote?) fell down. I’m going to attempt to clean it myself (due to the cost of paying someone, and that I’d have to wait a month for an appointment). But I need some “coaching” on the best strategy for cleaning it.

Some relevant info: The chimney is a flexible stainless steel 6-inch liner, about 30 feet long, and not straight. From the top of the chimney it goes straight down about 10 feet, then takes a 45 degree turn that goes at an angle about 5 feet, then drops straight down 5 feet, then takes another 45 degree turn, continuing at that angle about another 10-15 feet until it comes into the firebox (and attaches to my Oslo 500, which is resting on the hearth).


My concern is that with all the turns, will it be difficult/impossible for me to push down a brush from above, using flexible poles? Would it make more sense to push down from above as far as I can go (maybe half way?), then pull it out and push up from the bottom? (i.e., clean the bottom half from below and the top half from above?). Or would that just leave all the junk in the middle?

Also, how careful do I need to be about not damaging the liner? If I remember correctly, the liner is 316ti, whatever that means. And it’s not insulated.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I’m feeling kind of clueless.

Thanks in advance. Ian

 

[BrotherBart]

I own a complete set of rods and have only used them twice. In my straight flue and the one with a 90 degree turn both I use a six inch chimney brush with a rope attached to both ends of it. I take the baffles out of the stoves, go up on the roof pass the the end of one of the ropes down into the fire box and insert the brush in the top of the liner. I then go down and pull the brush down into the stove. Then I re-insert the brush in the liner, go up on the roof and pull the brush back up. Take out the brush, put the cap back on and go down and clean the crap out of the stove.

I used the rods a couple of times and found them to be a major pain in the butt for me. Standing on the roof putting them together a section at a time, scrubbing the chimney and then pulling them out and taking them off one at a time just ain't no fun.

 

[WestVirginian]

Great idea. Any tips on how to get the rope from the top of the chimney down to the bottom? I worry that because of the turns the rope will just collect in the middle, and that gravity alone won't be enough to get it down. I got a rope all the way down before installing the liner, so I could pull it through. But that took some real effort.

Also, I wonder if there is enough junk, creosote, etc. in the liner now which would make it extra difficult to get a rope down?

Thanks, and looking forward to hearing more ideas. Ian

 

[BrotherBart]

Put a small weight on the end of the rope. If it stops on the way down just "dance" it by jerking it up a few inches and dropping it down. It'll go on down. Gravity is real handy sometimes.

Just not so handy when your foot slips up on the roof. Be careful up there and never get so focused on the chimney cleaning that you forget to do the most important job. Staying on the roof.

 

[wg_bent]

BB does exactly what I did this year. I dropped a rope down using a large socket as a weight. I removed the baffle, actually just sort of pushed it to one side, Tied the poly 6" brush to the rope using a zip tie and a screw eye, and pulled it down the chimney. Once down, I pulled it back up from the roof. The total time to sweep...1 minute. I then dropped a work light down the chimney to see if I was satisfied with the sweep. My liner is a Duravent flex liner, so is not smooth on the inside, and I felt that most of the ash that was stuck in all the little bumps was gone. I decided not to get too hug up on getting all the little peices of ash out, just that the liner was basically clean and there was no impedement to the draft.

Much of what came out was grey and some small amount of black ash. A local dealer said that my burn habits must be good since that is exactly what you'd expect in a perfectly operating stove/chimney combination.

I'd guess a total of about 3-4 cups of ash came out. Certainly a lot less than what I take out of the stove after an evening of burning.

All in all I took a lot more time to get the burn tubes out of the stove than I did sweeping. Next year I'll allocate about 1 hour for the job.

 

[wahoowad]

I would think creosote would collect in the flexible liner corrugations, and a brush isn't going to get in there.

My current chimney is a straight liner, so my bruss cleans it very, very well. The bristles make contact with every square inch of the surface. All the creosote powder (maybe a cup every few months) falls to the bottom. I am concerned it would collect in the flexible liner. It is an unsettling thought.

 

[BrotherBart]

I would think creosote would collect in the flexible liner corrugations, and a brush isn't going to get in there.

My current chimney is a straight liner, so my bruss cleans it very, very well. The bristles make contact with every square inch of the surface. All the creosote powder (maybe a cup every few months) falls to the bottom. I am concerned it would collect in the flexible liner. It is an unsettling thought.

My chimney on the big stove is double wall so the inside layer isn't corregated. Cleans just like rigid. The one to the basement office is single ply flex. And the brush does in fact get most of the crap out of the corregations. Whether that is because I used a six inch brush on a 5.5 inch liner I don't know.