After chatting to a few people at work I decided to sweep my own flue instead of paying someone else £60. Bought the rods and brush for around £30. The flue is 6in dia so I bought a 6in brush. When trying yesterday the drain of the woodburner means that a 6in brush won’t fit (at 12, 4 and 8 o’clock there are metal plates blocking it). The brush I have is as below:

Bailey 150mm brush

I guess there are two options? First is sweep from roof (it’s a bungalow but will still need ladders etc) or secondly find a brush that fits. Tried trimming the brush but won’t go in! Tried a 100mm which worked to a small extent but not enough for me to think it’s 100% safe.

Other option is to give up and pay the sweep…!

I’d pay the sweep. There will be less dust for a start. Soot is carcinogenic and a decent sweep will have an industrial hoover with the correct filters and mask the heath, vacuuming as he sweeps. The filters aren’t cheap. Do you want that in your Dyson or Henry? Also, the power brushes (on a drill) remove much more than manual brushes. And he can smoke test the flue if they have to dismantle it and put it back together to gain access.

They are a pain, those stoves should be fitted with a access door on the flue pipe. Then there would be none of these problems.

Also, you shouldn’t really be sweeping a liner with them rods, as it *could* get caught on the liner and shred it. Also you should have a ball on the top of the brush to stop it getting caught and shredding the liner also.

Your options are:
A- fit a flue pipe with access door, and sweep with your rods and risk damaging the liner.

B- get a sweep out, but check they have either power sweeping (with a 6 inch whip, without the ball on top, they’ll know what you mean) or a viper & star/ brush which will have no problem getting past the lugs that block the flue.

The flue is a twin wall type. Frustrating as it’s a relatively straight run up to the top!

Ignore RE: shredding the liner then!!….

Without seeing the size of the gap, there are brush out there that should fit through the gap. They have the bristles held in place by crimped & twisted metal. (Infact all my brushes are), instead of the wooden block.

I’ve had this problem before and without a liner, even power sweeping wouldn’t work as the whips have the guide balls holding it together for normal chimneys.

So either have a look online for the brush (maybe Wakefield brush???) Or you’ll need a sweep with a viper & star/brush or power sweeping.

I do have a picture but don’t know how to post!

Cyclone power sweep rotary brush kit is £44 on eBay. You’ll find it cheaper, but think they are Chinese copies and not sure on quality.

I did my own flue liner last year with the same brush, but to get it to fit I had to cut the bristles down to size making the brush very very stiff ,there are softer flue liner brushes available to fit twin wall/flue liners

Sweep where we are is £25, but probably because he does us and all our neighbours on the same day.

Managed to get to the cowl at the weekend (very slippery!) and couldn’t get the cowl off. If anyone has a link to alternative brush options it would be appreciated.