Saw a guy at a job site in Denver use a shop vac backwards on a stubborn flue

He taped the hose to the exhaust port and blew air up into the chimney. Cleared out a pile of creosote chunks in about 10 minutes that I'd been scraping at for an hour. Anyone else try this trick on a really clogged liner?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jake6d ago

Bet you could apply that same backwards thinking to a bunch of other stuff. Like sometimes the obvious way just ain't the way.

eva_moore5d ago

Honestly, I read this tip in some old chimney sweep forum back in the day. They called it reverse vacuuming or blowing it out, and a few guys swore it saved them from having to pull the liner. Tbh, it makes sense if you've got a straight shot up and a decent seal on the blower hose.

stella_scott965d ago

Oh man, that's a clever hack right there. I mean, you'd think blowing air up would just push the mess further, but if it's loose chunks it probably dislodges them fast. Maybe it's just me but I feel like half the job is finding the weird workaround that nobody talks about. Props to that guy for thinking outside the box on the job site.