PSA/FYI for Wood burner owners

Excellent £45 quid spent. 6 rods and a brush. About the same price as getting a chimney sweep in.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120523065688
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120523062249

Had them for a while, only just got round to sweeping my two flues today for their first clean since last season. Only takes 10 minutes or so each flue of actual brushing, but you spend a fair bit longer getting access, setting up and hoovering up and trying not to spill soot everywhere. Doddle though.

But I imagine only easy if you have a new flue or liner. WOuldnt wnat to have to do an old un-lined chimney.

Surely there must be some poor children left in the countryside?

coincidentally i saw these in the screwfix catalogue yesterday:

Chimney brush
Rod set

£39.98

Dave

Surely there must be some poor children left in the countryside

eaten them all. there’s a recession on you know.

alfabus – dont forget the brush is for chimneys – larger than flues. The nylon one I link to is the right diameter for a 5″ flue bore.

ah yes… sorry, my chimneys are unlined 🙂

Just lit the stove for the first time this season.

R6Music, Pinot Noir, fire.
Primordial bliss 😉

Are the rods the same as drain rods? I fitted a soot door to the outside of our stove chimney so I should be able to clean it myself – will give it a go if the rods I’ve already got are useable.

no idea. Theyre flexible plastic/nylon.
The rod is about 15mm in diameter and the brass threads about the same male diameter. Its not a fine thread.

Toolstation: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hand+Tools/Drain+Rods/d10/sd2916

How about one of these I got one a few years ago (when it was cheaper) for our chimney and it’s certainly up to the job for us.

Stoner are them the *really* flexible ones that’ll do 90 degree bends?
I keep meaning to get a set. Last time I looked they were £80 ish.

it’ll do 90 degree with a 400mmish radius.

you shouldnt really have any 90deg 5″ radius bends in your flue geoff….

you shouldnt really have any 90deg 5″ radius bends in your flue geoff….

The flue comes out of the back of the stove – 150mm straight and then 90 degree up.

I just disconnected the adaptor from the back of my stove and dropped off the lowest unsupported flue pipe to make it really easy.

couple of bolts.

Mines recessed and plumbed in. Bit of a bugger to pull out to do that.
It’ll be worth ordering 1 of the rods to try anyway.

Stoner

nice work with the internal woodpile!

Did ours yesterday. Ended up swearing I’ll pay someone next year. I never do though.

Think I might try one of those nylon brushes – mine’s a hard steel brush and it’s a right pain to use and I suspect is a bit tough on the flue liner.

you still need to push the nylon brush through to the end before inverting. You can invert it mid flue, but its a bit of a heave.

Mmm, tempted to try on ours at home.
I’ve got some drain rods so just need a flue head….

….what could possibly go wrong.

(any tips Stoner???)

really, it was so stupidly easy I cant understand why I didnt do it earlier.

Getting access can be a head scratcher (see geoff’s problem), but it’s not a “sooty” job in the sense of clouds of dust, more a gritty, gravelly, falling dirt. It hits the deck and stays there, doesnt spill around the room. Doesnt stain stone tiles or skirting or painted walls.

Push through until youre nearly there before just inching the last part until the brush clears the end of the flue, because you dont want to knock off the rain cap.

And turn anti clockwise so I’m told to stop it undoing and getting wedged in the flue????

turn CLOCKwise! the thread direction. If you turn anticlockwise, you’ll leave your brush and half your rods up the chimney 🙂

You can get sweeping sets for £26 on Amazon. I got some in B&Q years ago but I generally pay the chimney sweep £15 once a year. The house stays clean when they do it, I generally drop something trying to get out of the front door.

Brushing is for wimps – a good roaring soot fire every few years will sort your flue out 😯

Did some adjustments to my own stove a few days ago as it was drawing way too hard. It’s working much more nicely now. Getting some lovely secondary burning which is quite addictive to watch.

niceeeeee.

secondary burn is the hypnoflame isnt it 😉

how did you:

Did some adjustments to my own stove a few days ago as it was drawing way too hard

Mine drew hard tonight but he wind wasn’t form the normal direction.

love the moka pot on the stove.

I:

Stuffed up the bottom vents with fire rope as I burn only wood and they never shut tight due to crappy design/tolerances.

Put a new fire rope round the glass, much thicker and softer than the original. Again, due to fairly poor build quality the door is not quite straight and always leaked a bit round the glass seal with the thinner rope in place.

Partially blocked the top air .

All simple stuff but has totally transformed the operation of the stove. Don’t know why I didn’t do it ages ago tbh.
It is now much more controllable.

cheers bedmaker – Ill keep an eye out for overventing then.

nice work with the internal woodpile!

Do you mean the spider hotel?

to keep the kids occupied last xmas I gave them some pens and said I wanted faces drawn on each & every log end 🙂

It’s important to keep the spiders in there to eat all the other little horrors which come in on the logs 🙂

Bedmaker

I assume thats your stove on the youtube clip

Is the ecofan worth the £90 cost?, I have been wavering over one for a while

Ta

The fan isn’t worth it on my sstove as it is a convector with a double skinned top so doesn’t get really hot. I thought I’d try it out anyway as I got it trade and can punt it on easily enough.

If you have a radiant stove though, I hear nothing but good things about them and everyone I know who has got one would recommend it.

punt it on easily enough

Cough – fancy punting it my way? I’m sure we can do a deal! 🙂

Although I only have a Hunter Hawk 4 so would need to check it fits on top OK

Often wondered about those fans myself.
Silly amount od cash though IMHO, however if a friendly STW’er can get a good deal :O)
Tim

This is only a tenner more than I paid for it trade so by the time I posted it out there wouldn’t be much point, sorry.
FAN

Thanks maybe i’ll ask Santa for one