I would sweep it to be on the safe side. You don't know if something made it their home over the summer. I just use a kit I got from Amazon works good just take the black pipe off and send it up about 25 FT with my drill and its clean. last winter was my first year with a wood stove in the house and my wood was not well seasoned. it was a life saver last winter draft would get week and I would seep it and it would draft well again had to do that four times last winter. Her is the kit I got. Amazon.com : Bluesea 30 Feet Chimney Sweep Kit,
Very good point! Couple years ago I lit up 1st time for the season and smoke rolled out of the stove. Good thing it's in my basement but... starlings had made a nest in my SS chimney, completely blocking it. What a mess that was. From that point on, my 1st light up is a small smokey couple sticks to make sure draft is working properly.
If your unable to perform a cleaning yourself plan on paying for it. Soooo much easier to remove bird nest (or other) residue now than after a failed startup on a chilly day. 2+ cord could leave a startling amount of buildup depending on venting setup, fuel quality and stove operation. Not to mention a close inspection of your rather new install may catch an unseen issue that has developed. My 2 cents, good luck.
I cleaned my triple wall stainless chimney this week and got around a quart of soot and no glaze. I switched to August because the weather is better than November and I do not need to cool+relight the furnace. I use fiber glass rods and go all the way up and down twice. I have an outside clean out "T" and go up with rods and snake a rope down to pull a brush through the black pipe into the furnace. Glaze is easier to ignite so checking once a year is very worthwhile. I had a little glaze last year and drier wood and/or more draft cured the glaze. My old cement block chimney needed cleaning each winter month with lots of glaze. Note: my triple wall is "all fuel" not the mobile home triple wall which has an internal cooling draft design.
Clean it or have it cleaned. There's other factors besides moisture content that contribute to a dirty pipe. If it's an uninsulated liner in an exterior chimney, it'll get dirty faster. If you start a lot of fires from a cold stove, it'll get dirty faster. Both of those apply to my setup and I clean my flue twice a year, from the bottom with a sooteater. If you can get a sooteater in at the stove end, it's a very easy 15-minute job. For your flue length you would need an extra set of rods.
Also not one for heights, so I feel for you on that end. Can you call around to a couple other people to get a couple other prices? If it were my house, I'd have it swept so it was done and taken care of.
Can you get a guy to just drop a light and camera to do a visual inspection? I sweep my chimney twice a year. I usually get less than 5 gallons of dry flaky soot and loose creosote. No glasses or oily residue . I have a block and red tile chimney right now. It takes a while to get it heated up, especially early and late in the burning season when I just need one fire to take the morning chill off. Cold chimneys will cause un-combusted gases to solidify and coat cold surfaces. I'm looking at relining the chimney with a single wall stainless system. I don't have room to go double or triple wall without breaking the red tile out. The tiles in pretty good shape but I worry about what I can't see from both end during the sweeping. Now, when I was growing up I don't recall anyone sweeping there chimneys. I remember several chimney fires too. I know I saw a few looking out the windows of the farm truck and getting dad's attention. Then he would stop and run to the door to help get the fire out. A lot of old houses probably burned down because of a chimney fire but without seeing it you wouldn't know if the stove cracked open or if the wood pile caught fire.
No need for double or triple wall, single with insulation wrap works great. I did mine years ago, no regrets! Agree, that's a lot
I can tell you the house I am finishing fixing up was built in 1880's-ish and they had two chimneys in the house that was just a standard brick and mortar. However, surrounding the chimney on the inside of the house they used wood shavings for insulation. When I ripped apart the chimneys and walls everything was black surrounding it. The wood shavings smelled burnt and was black. I have no idea how the house didn't burn to the ground years ago. Just crazy.
I agree with the idea of cleaning every year till you are comfortable with your burning style, wood quality, etc. Way less expensive to have it looked at than oopsies. I'm not fond of heights either, but i'm absolutely not paying someone to go up there till I'm unable to myself. Last season was our third season burning..our first season included some less-than-perfectly-dry wood. I may well graduate to cleaning every other or every 3rd year, but for now, every year...looking to establish a baseline normal. Maybe you could install some permanent fall protection? I looped a rope around my chimney, with a length of hose where it chafes on concrete.....(pic). It helps with ascent and decent. And I can nip up there to clean, seal cracks, whatever. Shop around for sweeps. Or find a friend who knows a little bit about chimney conditions. Did mine today. If I'd had any repairs to make, I'd be really short on time to fix. We'll be burning on a couple weeks.
Yes, it's a lot. I talked to my boy, he stands down below and vacuums it up while I'm on the roof sweeping. He said it's less than an ice cream box, so less than half gallon. I must have been remembering the first year I got the house from the previous owner. He burned green wood with no chimney cap. The single wall pipe from wood stove to chimney had a half inch of built up crap. I just threw that pipe out and installed a new one.
