Shoutout to the old metal coat hanger trick for clearing a stubborn bird nest in a 7 inch flue

Spent 45 minutes fighting a Blue Jay nest with my regular rods last Tuesday, then remembered my grandpa's method of bending a wire hanger into a spiral hook and pulled the whole mess out in under 3 minutes flat, has anyone else found a random household item that saved a job?

3 comments

3 Comments

milestaylor1mo ago

Bending a wire hanger into a spiral is a classic move, but that's basically a homemade drain snake you're using there. 7 inch flue sounds tight, but I've seen guys use a straightened out metal coat hanger to unclog a toilet in a pinch, not that I recommend that. Does the spiral hook mess up the flue liner at all, or is it smooth enough to not scrape the sides?

julia_miller241mo ago

Oh, you know what, that brings to mind a story a friend of mine had last fall. He tried this same trick with a coat hanger on his fireplace flue, thinking he was being clever. Well, he got the hanger stuck halfway down and had to call a chimney sweep to come fish it out. The sweep told him the sharp ends of the hanger had actually scratched up the clay tile liner a bit, leaving some rough spots. It cost him a good chunk of change to get it smoothed out and he felt pretty silly about the whole thing. So I'd be real careful with anything metal in there, even if it seems smooth.

clark.robin1mo ago

Close. It's a 7 inch flue, not a regular pipe. Chimney flues that size are usually for smaller wood stoves or inserts. Blue jays love those tight spaces though.