Minor chimney sweeping related incident

[BlueStringPudding]

Enjoying the delights of Wheaton Aston on the Shroppie as I am today, I couldn't resist popping into the brilliant little petrol station-cum-garage-cum-chandlery to fill up with red diesel and purchase a much needed flue brush. My old one was squashed flat by the vicious dealings of the evil boarding plank and has never been the same since. So before heading to the pub I leaped majestically (hmm, yeah) onto the roof to sweep out the chimney and flue pipe. Alas when the brush came back up, attached to it was a ring of fire rope!!!!!!!! That never happened with the old flue brush. ("All is forgiven, two dimensional flue brush!)

 

So now I don't know where to reattach this circle of fire rope, if indeed that would be possible without dismantling the entire stove. And I'm gonna need a fire tonight as it's my only form of heating! Can I assume, with sturdy new batteries in my CO alarm, that I can go ahead and light the fire and hope the Plumbaflue on the outside of all the fluepipe seals is enough to keep me safe and toasty and smoke free and fume free? I'm suspecting that if the ring of firerope came out so easily it probably wasn't doing much in the way of sealing things anyway. Perhaps that's just wishful thinking.

 

Your advice would be much appreciated.

[Matthew Knowles]

Enjoying the delights of Wheaton Aston on the Shroppie as I am today, I couldn't resist popping into the brilliant little petrol station-cum-garage-cum-chandlery to fill up with red diesel and purchase a much needed flue brush. My old one was squashed flat by the vicious dealings of the evil boarding plank and has never been the same since. So before heading to the pub I leaped majestically (hmm, yeah) onto the roof to sweep out the chimney and flue pipe. Alas when the brush came back up, attached to it was a ring of fire rope!!!!!!!! That never happened with the old flue brush. ("All is forgiven, two dimensional flue brush!)

 

So now I don't know where to reattach this circle of fire rope, if indeed that would be possible without dismantling the entire stove. And I'm gonna need a fire tonight as it's my only form of heating! Can I assume, with sturdy new batteries in my CO alarm, that I can go ahead and light the fire and hope the Plumbaflue on the outside of all the fluepipe seals is enough to keep me safe and toasty and smoke free and fume free? I'm suspecting that if the ring of firerope came out so easily it probably wasn't doing much in the way of sealing things anyway. Perhaps that's just wishful thinking.

 

Your advice would be much appreciated.

You won't need heating tonight, it's still only September you know.

[RLWP]

You won't need heating tonight, it's still only September you know.

 

Winter draws on. That's the answer

 

Richard

[RobinJ]

... Alas when the brush came back up, attached to it was a ring of fire rope!!!!!!!! That never happened with the old flue brush. ("All is forgiven, two dimensional flue brush!)

Only two places it can come from?

Joint of chimney to fire - possible leak of noxious and nasty CO?

Joint of chimney to collar - not so much of a worry.

Wait until it rains !

[BlueStringPudding]

Aw, cr*p. Both sound bad.

 

I think it came from the joint of the stove itself with the flue. I could be wrong but it was the only part of the chim-chimeneeee-sweeping process where I felt any resistance. Probably when the brush popped into the stove from the flue then went back up again.

 

And yes I do need a fire in September! How else am i gonna dry my clothes and bake my camembert!?!?

[Keeping Up]

I'm not sure that the rope itself would actually seal in the noxious gases. It would surely be very difficult to make it gas-tight, especially at the ends.

 

If the fire cement or heatproof sealant around the stove collar is in good condition, I would expect that to provide the gas-tight seal. So as long as the flue doesn't wobble around inside the collar I'd say light the stove and wave the CO detector around near it to check that all is OK (and only after that can you toast the Camembert. A good Camembert probably generates enough CO on its own to set off the alarm so would make the test useless!)

[Mac of Cygnet]

Can you feel inside the stove/flue junction to find out whether there is a groove where the rope fitted? If so, it may be possible to re-insert it if it's in reasonable condition - just stuff it in. Strictly speaking, any groove where fire rope has come out should be cleaned out with a wire brush and new rope fixed using special high temperature stove rope adhesive, but as Allan says, as long as the flue isn't loose and there's sealant there it'll be OK until you can replace it.

 

I don't see that it can be from the top of the flue - surely the flue comes up through the roof collar, and any seal is between it and the collar, i.e. on the outside of the flue.

 

Mac

[BlueStringPudding]

The Plumbflue is in good nick, but I'll give the flue pipe a good wobble when I get home to see if there's any movement in it. if there's a place for the firerope to wedge back in, I'll do that too.

[Machpoint005]

I'd have thought that if rope seal came out with a flue brush, it wasn't gas tight. You have gained thereby, because now you know it isn't!

[sociable_hermit]

Light the stove, but only a small fire, and allow yourself enough time to deal with the consequences if the CO alarm does go off (which is basically open all the doors and windows, and then bale the fire out into a bucket and thence into the canal).

 

I suspect the sealant will hold until you next move the boat, when the vibration might cause some issues. Even then it might be fine. But for now the only way to know for sure is to try it.

[PhilR]

I'd have thought that if rope seal came out with a flue brush, it wasn't gas tight. You have gained thereby, because now you know it isn't!

 

My thoughts exactly

[alan_fincher]

I think it came from the joint of the stove itself with the flue. I could be wrong but it was the only part of the chim-chimeneeee-sweeping process where I felt any resistance. Probably when the brush popped into the stove from the flue then went back up again.

In fact, if a flue brush is bigger than the flue, it is still often easy to ram it down, as the bristles just angle backwards until it fits.

 

The resistance you feel is often not it popping out the bottom, (baffle plates and or back boilers will often prevent that), but the considerable force that is needed to drag the brush against the bristles whilst they re-arrange themselves from pointing in one direction, to pointing the other way.

 

The resistance is often felt as you change direction, rather than at any particular point in the pipe. Push it down only half way, and you may still need a mighty tug to get it going in the other direction, but after that it would pull out much more easily.

 

But I think thiswill be from where stove joins to flue.