Loading…
14
Why does nobody talk about using shop vacs for cleaning chimneys vs traditional rods?
I had a job last Tuesday in Austin where a customer's flue had this massive buildup that my rods kept bending on. An old timer I ran into at the supply shop swore by using a shop vac with a special adapter to pull debris down instead of pushing it up. But then my buddy says that method can miss hidden cracks or damage since you're not feeling the walls. Has anyone else tried this vac method and seen good results, or is it just a shortcut that causes problems later?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
kelly_craig1mo ago
Buddy of mine tried that vac setup and his flue caught fire three months later.
9
veraj531mo ago
Well that's one way to get a spontaneous home renovation (and not the fun kind).
2
felix_hayes641mo ago
Not to pile on but I gotta push back on @kelly_craig's story a little. From what I've seen, that kind of fire usually comes from not cleaning the chimney at all or using the vac wrong, not from the vac itself. I've used a shop vac setup with a HEPA filter and a stiff brush attachment on a few light jobs and it worked fine for loose soot and small debris. But you're dead right that you lose the tactile feel of the rod scraping against the flue walls. That feel is how I caught a hairline crack in a clay liner two winters ago that would have let sparks into the attic otherwise. So the vac method has its place for routine maintenance, but I wouldn't rely on it as the only way to check a chimney's condition.
2