Good morning!!!!

[chad22]

45F out and Cloudy. Feels colder with the high wind we're having.

Thankfully there's no snow in my area of Kansas yet.

Other parts of Kansas are under a Blizzard warning. I'm so not ready for snow yet.

I'm already ready sick of winter and it's just now making it's way here. lol

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Seriously, a brush size to fit your chimney (I have two: 6" round and 11" x 7" rectangular I think) and some 4' sections of screw-together fiberglass rod shouldn't be all that expensive ... probably less than $50.

You can save some additional cash by substituting 1/2" PVC pipe for the fiberglass wands. Just glue the appropriate threaded adapter for whatever brush you end up to one end, and a M/F pair to the ends of additional pipes you may need to reach all the way through the flue.

 

[Depmandog]

Back in my bachelor days, I worked for a dealer of wood burning stoves. Good sized operation with two Denver locations. The main showroom location had six air tight wood burners as the main source of heat. The smaller location had two. Quite a chore every morning building the fires and getting the store ready for clients.

I asked the owner one day during my training, "chimney cleaning must really keep you busy?". He replied "I never clean the chimneys". I asked - "what about the creosote buildup"? He relied and then demonstrated - "I purposely start a chimney fire just about every morning. Then as soon as it catches, I cut the air and the fire goes out. I am burning out yesterday's creosote - these chimneys are clean".

I put a brand new chimney in at the shop 10 years ago, never been cleaned. I build a hot fire, leave the fan powered air intake on high. You can tell when the chimney catches, you can hear and feel it. As soon as it starts, I shut the fan off and shut the intake damper off and it only takes a few seconds to die out. A few minutes later, I set the intake where I need it rub and go about my business.

I wouldn't try this with a creosote caked flue and for sure not with a Ben Franklin or other non air tight unit. Likewise, your chimney needs to be in excellent shape, and that includes your black stovepipe. Don't go off and start a project while waiting for it to catch.

 

[wngsprd]

I use 2 brushes and fiberglass rods I purchased back in 1980 to clean mine, usually once a year, sometimes twice. We had a chimney fire once, would never want that experience again, but it did do a real nice clean job .

 

[daugen]

just be careful on old houses...having grown up in one with a 250 year old chimney.
Old stone mortar may have fallen out and a superhot planned or not chimney fire can go through cracks and potentially cause a fire.
I went out on at least six fire calls on chimney fires that had put smoke in the attics or even caught something on fire.
so the statement about chimneys in good condition is super important.
Burning creosote reaches temps much higher than normal fire temps so it puts quite a stress on the system.
All the more reason to not let it get on fire by keeping the worst of it cleaned out.
Lot has to do with what kind of wood is burned. I think I remember RS saying something about burning pretty green wood last year, and
no surprise he has very heavy creosote buildups.

Didn't they use to pull christmas trees up the chimney to clean them? What a mess that would make...
though maybe they just use artificial trees now. This of course would not work with a modern smaller round flue but some of the old stuff was much bigger.
I'm happy to pay a hundred bucks every two years and have them come out and do mine with their HEPA vac running. I had all three cleaned when I bought the home, but only really use one, in the den, so that's all I'll get cleaned next year. I looked up the flu with a bright light and it had just a very light coating. Fine for this year. I used a really bright flashlight and looked up as far as I could see, and got pretty dirty in the process, but wanted to make sure no critters had gotten through the chimney screen on top and made a home in there before I lit it up. Clean as a whistle, though why would a whistle be particularly clean?

 

[txdon]

Depmandog - oh that is what that tornado sound is when the WBS door is wide open with a good fire - like a self cleaning stove.

Farmer 2009 - you are right, a heck of a way for my niece to jump start her full time endeavor. However when she fist told me about quitting her job and going gator catching full time I wanted to advise her not to quite her day job, as I'm sure everyone here was also thinking and still may be thinking (Hey they do hibernate in the winter!). . . but if Hollywood is also involved maybe a break in her day job is in order.

 

[300UGUY]

Depmandog - oh that is what that tornado sound is when the WBS door is wide open with a good fire - like a self cleaning stove.

Farmer 2009 - you are right, a heck of a way for my niece to jump start her full time endeavor. However when she fist told me about quitting her job and going gator catching full time I wanted to advise her not to quite her day job, as I'm sure everyone here was also thinking and still may be thinking (Hey they do hibernate in the winter!). . . but if Hollywood is also involved maybe a break in her day job is in order.

I saw the vid. Brave girl. The only way I want to see a gator that big is when he is luggage....

 

[rswyan]

... RS, Gold Fish got to be the easiest fish to keep. Have about 2 dozen in our garden pond. Low maintenance and add good color.

Is the pond deep enough that they can winter over in it ?

Our doctor office has some in a 50 gallon aquarium. Big Fantails. ...

Seems like some of the more exotic koi could be a real money making opportunity ... :laughing:

 

[rswyan]

... RS, customer service is a dying art in this country. Besides, who needs to be nice to people when everyone knows that the world owes you a living?:banghead:

Yupper ... the "me" generation ...

I've had good luck buying used appliances off Craig's List, but I always make sure that replacement parts are still available before dragging any particular one home. If they're of fairly recent manufacture, it's also easy to find reviews on line, too.

Makes sense ...

And as far as LEDs go, no way I'd drop to anything near 60W equivalent. As my eyes age they need more light to see anything clearly,

Yup ... same here (on the eyes) ... that's why the garage and the back basement utility room both have a pair of 200w incandescents. I was running 300w clear incandescents out in the garage, but they're getting harder to find these days.

so I've held off replacing anything until the 100W equivalents start dropping in price.

There are some places where 60w equivs work here ... for instance the big bathroom - it has a total of 4 fixtures, pair of hanging light in front of the mirror. Pulled a 60w and 100w incandescent out of there the other night and stuck in a pair of those cool white 60w equiv LEDs.

It looks at least as bright as before - if not brighter.

I ended up throwing another lamp in the living room as part of the reconfig, with a 100w incandescent in it ... made a huge difference.

Once I get the tanks set up that will add even more light.

And even then I'll be comparing lumens. But even that isn't always accurate as demonstrated by the 4' florescents I just replaced. The rating on the LEDs was actually lower than that of the florescents, but in practice the LEDs appear much, much brighter.

Yup, as above ...

 

[rswyan]

Rswyan - at least you made progress on 3. Before I could start the repair the Farmall the weed eater quite running and so did the golf cart. I fixed the weed eater and start on the golf cart tomorrow - the farmall just gets pushed back more and more. . .

Oh, I'm counting my blessings ... I realize it could have gone far worse ...

Hope ya can find the time to give the Farmall the TLC it no doubt deserves.

Eric haggis sounds pretty disgusting - heart, liver, lung, served in a stomach, ugg.

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