Went to put our coal effect gas fire on last night for the first time since perhaps the beginning of April. No problems, sat there nice and comfy. Did the same at teatime tonight and immediately noticed a different smell, a bit like real coal burning. I also noticed a lot more heat coming off the fire than usual, indicating that very little was going up the flue. I even went up on the roof and there was no hint of any warm air coming out of the pot.
Next thing the red alarm light on our CO detector started flashing like crazy, and eventually it began to shriek like a banshee.
Off went the fire, out came the head scratching fingers and eventually I concluded, not unreasonably, that there must be a blockage. Presumably a bees' or wasps' nest because we have one of those slotted metal caps on the top of the chimney pot, so no chance of a bird getting in. However, I hadn't heard any buzzing within the flue during the summer nor seen insects hanging around the top of the stack.
Its a modernish house so I didn't think there had been any kind of collapse, nor could I see any blockage when I used a mirror and head torch to look up the flue.
Long story short: got my drain rods out, put the small drain brush on the end, inserted carefully into the chimney, hit what felt like the bottom of the metal cap, went on the roof to check and yes, the brush was up against the underside of the cap, back down to the lounge and wiggled the brush, resulting in bits of what looked like dirty granular loft insulation coming down into the fire, removed rods and relit the fire. All was clear, there was no 'orrible smell and the CO alarm was happy.
Thing is, hardly anything came down--no obvious nest, only a small quantity of this granular material. Is it possible that a spider's web might have been spun inside the flue during the summer months, and that dust and dirt had settled on it resulting in the chimney being blocked? Seems unlikely to me.
Cheers for reading if you got this far. Any other possibilities come to anyone's mind?
Next thing the red alarm light on our CO detector started flashing like crazy, and eventually it began to shriek like a banshee.
Off went the fire, out came the head scratching fingers and eventually I concluded, not unreasonably, that there must be a blockage. Presumably a bees' or wasps' nest because we have one of those slotted metal caps on the top of the chimney pot, so no chance of a bird getting in. However, I hadn't heard any buzzing within the flue during the summer nor seen insects hanging around the top of the stack.
Its a modernish house so I didn't think there had been any kind of collapse, nor could I see any blockage when I used a mirror and head torch to look up the flue.
Long story short: got my drain rods out, put the small drain brush on the end, inserted carefully into the chimney, hit what felt like the bottom of the metal cap, went on the roof to check and yes, the brush was up against the underside of the cap, back down to the lounge and wiggled the brush, resulting in bits of what looked like dirty granular loft insulation coming down into the fire, removed rods and relit the fire. All was clear, there was no 'orrible smell and the CO alarm was happy.
Thing is, hardly anything came down--no obvious nest, only a small quantity of this granular material. Is it possible that a spider's web might have been spun inside the flue during the summer months, and that dust and dirt had settled on it resulting in the chimney being blocked? Seems unlikely to me.
Cheers for reading if you got this far. Any other possibilities come to anyone's mind?