Ounce of prevention

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.

Max W

Feeling the Heat
Feb 4, 2021
345
Maine
Yesterday morning I was cleaning our class A chimney from the roof of our story and half house. It was going just fine until the brush came off of the rod 3/4 of the way down. The brush had been stored on a rod and before I started and I neglected to make sure it was well threaded. After that Oh _ _ _ _ moment and feeling of dread it was ‘Ok, what now?’ Fortunately I could get a little space at the bottom from the telescoping stove pipe so the thought was to send rod all the way down and attach something to snag or catch the brush coming back up.

I didn’t want anything that would scratch up the pipe. First thing I did was walk around the barn work space looking for something that might pull up through the flue without scratching it up while capturing the brush. A length of schedule 40 4 inch pvc caught my eye. and the pic is what came of it. Lack of a suitable fine threaded nut led me to cut the female end off one of the spare spare rods and with a couple of washers it worked. My other fear proved groundless as I still caught the start of the Patriots game

E10B8A23-DCB3-4295-A79A-0EEE894233BD.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: thewoodlands
I found myself in the same predicament last year when I was cleaning my stovepipe. I have to go from the bottom up inside the house. The brush unthreaded and was lodged. I attached a hook to the end of the rod segments and after a number of passes was able to pull it down . I will be wrapping the connectors in duct tape in the future to minimize unthreading again.