Periodic cleaning of the chimney is important point in service heating equipment. It is needed even when using high-quality expensive firewood and modern furnace installations. Small particles of combustion products gradually accumulate on the walls of the smokers and impair the operation of the system. Even a person who does not have special skills and experience in such a matter can clean the chimney.
The main tool to help will be a cleaning brush, which you can make yourself. This tool helps to keep the smoke exhaust system clean, and therefore maintain draft for rapid removal of gases, and ensure effective work furnace device.
Application solid fuel For stove heating has a lot of advantages, such as efficiency, autonomy, heat dissipation.
However, if used incorrectly, the efficiency of the heating system can significantly deteriorate. It is recommended to clean chimneys at least once every six months. But first you need to identify the main causes of clogging and try to reduce them to a minimum.
Interesting! When wood burns, gas and smoke are produced. The smoke produced may be white or black. The first is a consequence of water vapor evaporating from wood or coal, and black comes from coal and soot. It is the second type of smoke that leads to the settling of the smallest soot particles and contamination of the chimney.
In addition to this natural process, the following can lead to pipe clogging:
- Burning in a firebox various waste containing a large amount of hydrocarbons (plastic, polyethylene, polystyrene foam, rigid paper, cardboard).
- Use of wet and resin-containing firewood or briquettes.
- Incorrect placement of firewood in the firebox.
- Rare cleaning of pipes from ash.
- Malfunction of the heating boiler.
The accumulation of soot and ash inside the outlet pipe leads to the following consequences:
- The passage for smoke narrows, which can cause reverse thrust, When carbon monoxide will go to the apartment.
- Large soot particles fly out of the chimney, creating a fire hazard.
Chimney cleaning
Regular cleaning of the chimney is necessary even for expensive and modern modules. Soot tends to accumulate, this happens even when the furnace is the most the best firewood. Combustion products are so small that they can accumulate even on a perfectly smooth surface.
The chimney can be easily cleaned with your own hands using a brush. To clean a chimney, it is not necessary to have special education or have outstanding knowledge in this field. The only thing you have to work on is the process of creating a brush for cleaning.
It is known that without understanding the causes, it is quite difficult to solve a problem. So, in the process of burning wood, two types of waste are released: gas and smoke. There are two types of smoke: white and black. White smoke comes from water vapor in wood, while black smoke comes from coal, soot and creosote. Black smoke causes soot to form inside the chimney. Practice has shown that chimneys built by yourself accumulate soot better than those built by professionals.
What happens if you refuse to clean the chimney? First, soot will begin to accumulate. The accumulation process will continue until it becomes difficult for the smoke (gaseous substance) to squeeze through the pipe into the atmosphere. In this condition, the draft in the chimney and, accordingly, the quality of heating the house are disrupted. If the pipe is severely clogged, there are two types of events: the metal pipe will deteriorate (at best) or the soot residue will catch fire (at worst).
Chimney contamination
Over the long period of operation of fireplaces and stoves, humanity has accumulated enough experience to combat soot in pipes. Most devices are no different complex design and they can be done with your own hands.
- The brush is the most proven, and, oddly enough, one of the most effective ways clean the pipe.
- Peeling potato peels ( old-fashioned method). This method is quite simple: you need to pour half a bucket of potato peels into the chimney and turn on heating device. When heated, the potatoes will begin to release starch, which decomposes the soot.
- Aspen firewood is a simple and dangerous method. For cleansing metal pipe you will need aspen logs. Place them in the stove and light the logs. After a while you will hear a strange hum, this means that the soot in the chimney has caught fire and after a while the metal pipe will clean itself. When using this cleaning method, you endanger the roof and neighboring buildings - hot particles can accidentally fly onto the insulating layer and lead to a fire.
- Aluminum cans. Simply burn aluminum cans while firing the stove. Aluminum particles have the same charge as soot. As a result, black smoke will not settle on the protected metal pipe.
- Dry cleaning is the most unpopular and unpleasant process. After dry cleaning the soot peels off partially. This process is accompanied unpleasant smell and the formation of soot, which settles on interior items.
Making a chimney brush yourself
A budget brush for cleaning a chimney can be easily made with your own hands. To make it, follow the instructions below:
- Go to the market and buy a synthetic round broom, a metal cable the same length as the chimney, two clamps, a pin (8 mm thread) and a few washers.
- Unfold the fibers on a synthetic round broom so that they resemble a bouquet. Keep in mind that the villi may not immediately respond to your efforts. To soften the lint, you can place it in boiling water for a few minutes.
- The straightened brush is put aside with your own hands. We take the ear and screw a hairpin onto it from both ends. Next you will need a brush for cleaning the chimney and a washer that is attached to the bottom of the brush.
- If the diameter of the brush does not suit you, you can tighten the washer more. The more it curls, the more the villi straighten to the sides. Once you have decided that the brush has required diameter– proceed to the next stage.
- Press down on the base from above and slowly screw on the second fastener.
- The brush turns over. At the bottom you will see the mounting ear. You need to tighten it exactly as much as you want to increase or decrease the diameter of the brush.
- Look for a staple or make your own using steel wire. It is necessary to secure the cable to the brush. Before installing the cable, you need to measure the length of the chimney. After this, a part of the required length is cut off from the metal cable and attached to the workpiece. Remember that the brush also has its own length, so do not forget to take this factor into account when making brushes with your own hands.
- All that remains is to attach a metal weight to the device (2 kg will be enough).
Brush for cleaning chimneys
Chimney cleaning rules
It's time to try out your homemade contraption. Before cleaning the chimney from the stove, it is necessary to remove any remaining firewood and other flammable materials. We climb onto the roof and remove the damper from the chimney, holding the homemade device tightly in our hand.
Slowly lower the brush into the chimney. As soon as you feel that the brush has completely sunk to the very bottom, lift it towards you as high as possible. The down and up movements must be repeated for several minutes.
After cleaning the metal pipe, you need to remove fallen soot from the fireplace. This is done with a regular broom. The brush is washed warm water and set to dry. After cleaning procedures, the stove must be heated for several hours. Don’t worry about the broken draft; it should stabilize after a few minutes of operation of the heating device.
Video: How to clean a chimney? the most effective way
Living in a private home means having necessary tools, which must be at hand at any time to carry out repair work. Especially when it comes to such an issue as the removal of waste gases from stove or gas heating.
Causes of clogged chimneys
The main cause of clogging is the deposition of soot and soot on the inner walls of the pipe. Soot is formed from combustion products - waste flue gases. As a result, the traction becomes weaker, exhaust ventilation starts to work poorly, combustion products are not removed outside, but remain indoors, which can lead to poisoning of the body.
Untimely maintenance of the chimney pipe can lead not only to its complete blockage, but also to failure home system smoke removal
To avoid this, it is recommended to clean the chimney pipe at least once every six months - and this applies not only to stove heating, but also country houses with a fireplace inside. You can entrust the cleaning to professionals, or you can try to remove the soot on your own. To do this, you will need a very ordinary brush for cleaning chimneys, which you can make yourself.
How is the brush used?
Its function is to scrape off soot build-up from the walls of the chimney pipe. The principle of operation of any brush is quite simple: the scraper is inserted into the chimney opening, then deposits are scraped off with its help - combustion products are swept down to the hatch to collect contaminants.
At cleaning work It is necessary to use insurance on the roof
The simplest stove brush is a structure made of a cable (or rod), brushes and a suspension (or weight). A suspension is required only in cases where vertical pipe cleaning is intended - to adjust the gravity of the cleaning element. For work in a horizontal position, the sinker suspension may not be used.
A long rod with bristles at the end is simplest design brush
The technology for using a brush in general terms is as follows:
As weights, you can use ordinary weights that are compact in size and have sufficient weight for cleaning.
Materials for the brush
Cleaning brushes can be made of steel or plastic, and you can make both with your own hands.
Table: advantages and disadvantages of metal and plastic brushes
Neither material can be used simultaneously for vertical and horizontal method cleaning deposits. Therefore, experts recommend using both metal and plastic brushes for both methods, respectively.
Making your own brush for cleaning the chimney
Two options are being considered: metal ( metal rod) and plastic, each of which has its own nuances.
Made of plastic
The set of necessary tools and materials includes:
- steel cable (the length of which must be greater than the length of the chimney);
- pair plastic bottles with lids with a volume of 1 to 2 l;
- steel wire with a cross section of 1–2 mm;
- load - it is recommended to select a load of such mass that it would easily pass into the chimney opening when suspended from a cable.
Manufacturing technology
- Remove the bottom of plastic bottles.
- Cut the walls of the bottles vertically up to the neck from the bottom into strips like Chinese lanterns. The width of one strip is 3–5 mm.
- Punch a hole in the covers, the size is the same as the diameter of the cable.
- String the resulting caps with holes onto a cable, and screw the bottles cut into slices onto them. The cut bottles are inserted into one another with the caps in one direction and open in the manner of a hedgehog. To securely attach the homemade brush, the lid is fixed to the bottom with a self-tapping screw.
- The free end of the cable can be attached to a large handle - one that will be convenient to operate in the chimney.
Step-by-step images will help you make your own light brush for cleaning the chimney; the brush is attached not to the lids, but with a wire
The tool is ready, now you can begin the cleaning procedure.
Made of metal
Some owners of private houses use disc brushes for grinders as cleaning tools. This method is much simpler - you don’t need to make the brush itself, you just need to secure the load well to the cable.
However, this option is not suitable for those who use an angle grinder constantly. In this case, you can try to make a metal brush yourself.
For it you will need:
- a coil of steel wire;
- a large bolt for the rod and a washer for fixing the brush;
- pliers.
Manufacturing technology
Making a metal brush is even simpler than a plastic one, and consists of the following:
- First, a coil of wire is taken and unwound (or uncoiled) into individual threads.
The rolled wire is cut into equal pieces
- Steel threads are cut into equal lengths. The length of one segment should be such that the future brush fits into the chimney hole.
For good cleaning, it is required that the brush occupies at least 80% of the internal volume of the chimney
- The wire is wound onto the bolt and secured with washers. The wire pieces are wound along almost the entire length of the bolt.
The open end of the bolt is designed to attach a cable of the required length to it
During manufacturing, it is advisable to take into account the following points:
- It will be better if several brushes are used to clean the chimney. So, the average diameter should be 80–120% of the internal diameter of the chimney pipe. In the first case, it will be convenient to use a brush to break through thick layers of growths and deposits, in the second - to scrape off small dirt.
- The size of the load can be within 0.3 - 0.35 of the chimney diameter. This value is average; loads with this diameter are well suited for both punching and cleaning work.
- The length of the cable should be 10–15% greater than the length of the chimney. This is necessary so that if solid deposits break through the walls of the pipe, the cable passes to the hatch, collecting all contaminants along its path.
Video: how to quickly make a brush for cleaning a chimney with your own hands
A chimney brush is a tool needed in every home. With its help, the condition of the walls of the chimney pipe is significantly improved, and this automatically increases the draft for removing exhaust gases. Self-made brushes are in no way inferior to store-bought counterparts - in manufacturing technology it is important to follow the recommendations in order to obtain high-quality material that will last for many years.
Good day to you, readers and DIYers.
The author of the following homemade product very often clogs the chimney in his garage stove. That's why he decided to make a homemade brush for cleaning the chimney. Of course, such brushes can be purchased at a hardware store or bought online, but why buy something that you can relatively easily make with your own hands. And the price tag of such a homemade product will be tens of times less than a device purchased in a store.
After using his homemade product for some time, identifying all the pros and cons, he came up with a device for more convenient chimney cleaning.
I suggest you read about production in this article.
Necessary materials and tools.
-Dumbbell
-Cable - length 0.5-0.6 meters (diameter 5mm)
-Cable length depends on the height of the air duct (diameter 2mm)
-Nuts M10 2pcs
-Cable clamps 3 pcs.
-Profile pipe 20x20mm
-welding electrode 3mm
-Welding machine
-Bulgarian
-Hammer
-Vise
Manufacturing process part one.
The brush device itself will be based on an old rusty dumbbell, which was purchased at the nearest scrap metal collection point at a very reasonable price. The author uses a dumbbell with a total weight of 5 kg; the diameter of the dumbbell balls should be less than the diameter of the pipe being cleaned. For the device, you only need one half of a dumbbell, so you can make two brushes at once from one dumbbell.
First of all, clamp the dumbbell in a vice and cut off one ball of the dumbbell with a grinder.
An M10 nut is welded to the cut part of the dumbbell, and the brush load is ready, isn’t it easy?
Now you should start making the brush itself.
To do this, he will use a piece of cable with a diameter of 5mm. The cable can also be used with large diameter, since the thicker the cable, the thicker and stronger the veins in it.
The author cuts the cable into 10cm pieces. The length of the sections must match the diameter of the chimney pipe.
Now the chopped pieces need to be dissolved into individual fibers. It is better to carry out this procedure with gloves, as the likelihood of injuring your hands is very high.
The cable is loose, now you need to make a frame for the brush.
A 3mm electrode will be used for the frame.
The coating from the electrode is beaten with a hammer.
Since the electrode core is made of fairly stiff wire, it bends and breaks poorly. To soften the wire, you need to heat it until red and let it cool, in other words, let it go. You can warm it in the coals, they sang, gas burner, but the author will warm with welding machine.
We clamp the electrode in a vice to which the mass of the welding machine is connected. We connect the clamp from the welding machine to the free end of the electrode and heat the wire until red hot. The heating procedure lasts about 15-20 seconds. Now you should let the wire cool on its own.
After cooling, the wire became soft, and now you can continue working with it. The author bends the wire in the center, at the point of bend there should be a small eyelet.
Now you need to place the previously prepared cable fibers into this bracket. You should get a similar structure, the edge of which must then be clamped in a vice, moving 2 cm away from the edge.
Then, inserting a large nail or screwdriver into the eyelet, you need to tighten this structure.
Then you need to make another ear, with opposite side brush. To do this, clamp a nail between the two ends of the wire, clamp the ends in a vice and tighten the structure with the inserted nail.
The result was a pretty decent brush with a diameter of 100mm with two rings at the ends.
Now you need to connect the brush with the load. Connects them using a small piece of cable (diameter 2mm). The ends of the cable are clamped using a screw clamp.
You also need to attach a cable to the second eye of the brush. The length of the cable should be 2-2.5 times longer than the height of the chimney pipe.
This is the kind of brush the author came up with, and he ran off to test his product to celebrate.
And here is a deposit of soot in the chimney pipe.
Now you should install a ladder, climb along it to the top of the chimney and begin this labor-intensive, inconvenient and, one might say, dangerous cleaning process. Hard? Hard.
Realizing that this method of cleaning the chimney is, to put it mildly, inconvenient, I came up with another device. This is a device for immersing a brush into a chimney.
The manufacturing process part two.
It’s very difficult to call it a manufacturing process, but still. To make the device, the author bought profile pipe 20x20mm, 3.5 m long. Of course, the length of the pipe should depend on the height and location of your chimney.
A piece of pipe bent into a half ring was welded onto the edge of the pipe; the tube has a diameter of 10 mm. A cable with a brush connected was passed inside the pipe.
At first the author wanted to make a release mechanism using rollers, but he was unable to weld them. And the design itself would be too complex and unreliable.
Even lower, a kind of hook was welded onto the pipe. The hook should be welded lower than the bottom of the brush when raised.
A chimney brush is a tool with a long handle, a working element with metal or polymer bristles and an addition in the form of a weight. Manufacturing requires a minimum of time and physical investment, resulting in a universal design for high-quality maintenance of the chimney system.
Clogging of the smoke exhaust duct is caused by a number of reasons:
- Soot accumulates due to the settling of solid particles of combustion products on the inner surface of the shaft.
- Condensation forms, the cause of which is the lack of proper thermal insulation of the chimney, which increases the effect of soot and soot sticking.
- Poor quality fuel is used. For example, prolonged burning of raw wood leads to intense clogging of the chimney system.
- Resinous fuel resources are used - firewood, lumber and briquettes from spruce, fir, and pine.
- Waste is burned in the furnace high content hydrocarbons in the form of household waste from polymers - plastic bottles, polyethylene, rubber products.
- The heat generator is operated in an incorrect mode, fuel is added in violation of the rules, and the ash pan is rarely cleaned.
One more possible reason chimney blockage is hidden in the design heating device, the essence of which is errors in the construction or installation of the heat generator, or incorrect structure of the chimney.
A clogged smoke line is fraught with negative consequences:
- the passage for discharging the gas-containing flow becomes clogged, traction deteriorates;
- The energy efficiency of the heat generator decreases, which is associated with insufficient traction force;
- the presence of significant accumulations of soot contributes to the formation of reverse draft, and carbon monoxide can leak into the room.
The most dangerous situation is when soot in the chimney duct ignites with the formation large quantity sparks, this can cause a fire in the roof or neighboring buildings. To eliminate the problem, it is necessary to promptly remove carbon deposits and soot in the gas outlet channel using chemical compositions or homemade devices for mechanical cleaning chimney.
Features of mechanical cleaning of a chimney from soot using a brush
Before starting work, the preparatory stage is performed:
- close the vent, firebox door, and cleanout hatches;
- all of the above points are equipped with an elementary filter in the form of a dense damp cloth;
- open all the valves and views of the furnace completely.
The vertical part of the chimney is processed using a brush with a core to weight the tool. The structure is equipped with a long cable or a rope, rope or strong cord is used. It is recommended to choose a rope 2-3 m longer than the height of the pipe in order to secure the outer end to the base of the shaft, otherwise there is a risk of dropping the device into the channel due to the gravity of the core.
To clean the vertical section of the chimney, the device is lowered down the channel, pushing and rotating with a rope in different directions. After the structure with the load and the brush is at the bottom of the shaft, they lift it back, making the same movements using a rope. If the tool does not pass due to dense layers of soot in a certain area, the cable is lifted and sharply lowered into the pipe to break through the blockage.
Cleaning the horizontal channels of the flue is carried out using a brush with a rigid handle. Most often, the device is equipped with a solid or stacked rod, the length of which is selected in accordance with the parameters of the plane being processed. Since the rotary chimney units have special doors, moving along them, it is easy to clean all horizontal sections. If there are no turning openings, use a brush with a cable. Performing circular and rotational movements, the structure is pushed deep into the channel and back.
How to make a ruff yourself
Although a chimney brush is not a product in short supply in Moscow and other regions of the country, most owners of private houses prefer to make this device with their own hands.
A homemade brush for cleaning chimney pipes is made taking into account the specifics of the application. For maintenance of metal and asbestos-cement smoke channels You should make a brush with a polymer brush. To clean a brick chimney shaft clogged with years of soot, you need to make a solid device from metal raw materials.
Steel wire manufacturing options
To make a brush for cleaning a chimney with your own hands, you need following materials and tools:
- a coil of spring steel wire with a cross section of 1-2 mm or a piece steel cable diameter up to 10 mm;
- threaded pin – 60-80 mm length, 1 pc.;
- washers for bolt – d50 mm, 2 pcs.;
- nuts – 2 pcs. regular, 2 pcs. cap with ring;
- hammer;
- pliers;
- chisel;
- wrench 14.
Sequence of work:
- The wire is cut taking into account the cross-section of the chimney. In the case of a cable, blanks are made 10% shorter than the diameter of the pipe.
- At the center point of each element, the fibers are pulled apart to make a hole and placed on a pin. The wire is simply wrapped around the rod.
- The stud is equipped with steel nuts and washers, clamping the structural elements.
For greater strength, flexible elements can be secured by welding.
When deciding how to make a chimney brush with your own hands, you can choose another product option in the form of a spiral brush. In this case you will need lathe or a homemade rigid structure for tensioning the rod. To make bristles, steel wire d1-2 mm or cable is suitable, and a twisted rod is made of steel wire with a cross-section of 6 mm.
Steps for making a spiral brush:
- The required number of pieces of the required length are made from the cable.
- Steel wire d6 mm is folded in half, one end of which is welded, and a loop is twisted on the other.
- The structure is fixed in the machine. It is necessary to tighten the rod between the chuck and the tailstock well and give correct position his veins.
- Next, the blanks are placed in the gap between the cores, evenly distributing them along the entire length of the tensioned rod, and fixed with hot-melt adhesive.
When the spindle rotates, the rod twists into a spiral, firmly clamping the wire bristles between the wires.
How to make a homemade brush from a plastic broom
To do this you will need the following materials and tools:
- nylon broom, cord;
- hairpin – up to 10 mm;
- washers – d5 cm 2 pcs.;
- nuts – 2 pcs., one of them with a ring.
Remove the broom from the handle, bend the bristles to the sides, fix the position of the product, heating it with a hairdryer. Make a hole in the center of the broom holder with a drill or a hot nail, thread a pin through it, and secure it on both sides with nuts and washers.
Brush made from plastic bottles
You need to prepare:
- plastic bottles with a volume of 1.5-3 l;
- cable, metal wire d2 mm;
- knife, scissors.
Cut off the top of one bottle; this will be the base of the polymer brush. Several containers are removed bottom part, the body is cut into strips vertically to the neck. The blanks are placed on the base, and the strips are secured in several bundles using wire. The base is fixed to the cable.
The nuances of using brushes
To clean the horizontal cavities of the chimney, the brush is equipped with a long rod. A device with metal bristles is recommended to be used for removing soot and soot in vertical pipes. If you have to work on processing horizontal or inclined channels, you should use a brush with a polymer brush.
