It's been a couple years since I posted, but I had to share this with folks who would appreciate.
Our pellet stove replaced an old smoke dragon wood stove on a hearth. Our vent goes up, then horizontal into a tee adapter inside an old masonry chimney, then up through flex vent with insulation to the roof. It's a good install, but the vent is a major chore to disassemble, which I've always avoided. It took two guys much bigger than me to put it together, no way I could pry it apart.
I had pneumonia a few weeks ago, still run out of steam by mid-day. I friend came over to brush the vent for me this morning, but lost the brush in the vent. It went down and stuck at the bottom of the tee adapter.
My friend left, said it shouldn't be a problem because it was lower than the intake, but I wasn't real comfortable.
My next-door neighbor has lots of chimney tools, so I went over to see if had a solution. He didn't, but he made one that worked like a champ.
Edit -- a few details that helped this succeed:
I also had to block the inlet to the tee with my linteater brush. The first time he grap the brush, it spun into the horizontal section of vent. I pushed it back the the linteater, and he watched from above while I backed off with my brush until it was just inside the horizontal section.
Still, a major victory!
![[Hearth.com] Vent brush lost in vent - neighbor saves the day with home-made tool](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/img_20181021_134511-webp.231443/ "[Hearth.com] Vent brush lost in vent - neighbor saves the day with home-made tool")
Our pellet stove replaced an old smoke dragon wood stove on a hearth. Our vent goes up, then horizontal into a tee adapter inside an old masonry chimney, then up through flex vent with insulation to the roof. It's a good install, but the vent is a major chore to disassemble, which I've always avoided. It took two guys much bigger than me to put it together, no way I could pry it apart.
I had pneumonia a few weeks ago, still run out of steam by mid-day. I friend came over to brush the vent for me this morning, but lost the brush in the vent. It went down and stuck at the bottom of the tee adapter.
My friend left, said it shouldn't be a problem because it was lower than the intake, but I wasn't real comfortable.
My next-door neighbor has lots of chimney tools, so I went over to see if had a solution. He didn't, but he made one that worked like a champ.
Edit -- a few details that helped this succeed:
- That's a stiff chimney shaft made for wood stoves. I don't think this would have worked with flex shaft.
- He sliced section of hose and put it over the shaft. The hose clamps compressed the wire tool into the hose and kept it from spinning.
- You can't see it in the photo, but he put a sharp hook-bend at the top of the wire tool to keep it from possibly becoming the second object lost down the vent.
I also had to block the inlet to the tee with my linteater brush. The first time he grap the brush, it spun into the horizontal section of vent. I pushed it back the the linteater, and he watched from above while I backed off with my brush until it was just inside the horizontal section.
Still, a major victory!
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