I'm a rookie at wood burning, entering my 3rd season, and I'm just curious how often people clean their chimney. After talking to a few guys with wood stoves, I've heard once a year, to once every couple years. Assuming the best practices are followed, seasoned wood, good start to fires, good draft, etc.. what's a good and safe pipe cleaning regimen?
What have you done the previous 2 years? You can judge your cleaning needs by how much junk comes out when you clean. I do 2x a year with an uninsulated liner in an exterior chimney. My small insert usually get started twice a day, which increases my buildup.
Cleaning of chimneys should not be done on a regular schedule. This needs to be done when the chimney needs cleaning! Do check that chimney often though. Also, most folks find what we have. That is we used to clean our chimney more than once per year but after getting a better stove our brush gets very little use.
I've cleaned mine 5 times total so far (2 full seasons), the first time was mostly to get familiar with the soot eater system, and to see what would come out of the pipe. I've gotten about 1 - 2 cups of brown coffee consistency soot. I have the Pleasant Hearth 1800 wood stove, straight up pipe, no bends, and it's all double wall. I burn as needed, to start the season, I may have 2 fires a day. I have a stove top thermometer, and the Flue Gard thermometer, and I keep a close eye on them. I don't mind running my temps up near the red line on occasion.
Checking my chimney often is difficult to do, my rain cap is 12 feet above my roof, so I have to check it form the bottom. My secondary burns tubes aren't the easiest to take in and out, and then the baffle needs removal. Then it's difficult to inspect the chimney, I have used my phone in the past to record a video as good as I could. Maybe there's a better (easier) way?
Yeah it all depends on your stove, your fuel (dry?) and your burning habits (low n slow, or let 'er rip) and your chimney (masonry, or stainless/insulated?) If everything is right, my experience is once per year is fine...but others can't go 2 weeks without plenty of buildup...so it all depends...regular inspection is key until you establish a schedule for you and your setup. Stinks that it is not easy to check yours...
As a new wood burner, one thing I've heard most often is to burn only “well dried, seasoned wood”, and I've taken it to heart. My burning habits are to get a fire up and going as fast as I can, then let the coals do their thing. I'm constantly keeping an eye on all the thermometers, including the room. I try to run the stove and chimney temps up on occasion, right or wrong, thinking this will help keep the chimney cleaner. I found some pics from last year. The 1st pic (February 1) is from inside the stove looking up, before cleaning. The 2nd pic is after cleaning. The 3rd pic is from cleaning 2 months later (April 7), pretty much end of season last year. These pics are pretty much what I've gotten every cleaning. I've heard some very experienced burners say they may not clean their chimney for a couple years. Because they strictly burn well seasoned wood. One thing I'm wondering, if the soot isn't cleaned for a couple years, does the soot keep building up to where it will eventually choke off the pipe, or will it reach a point where the soot will blown out the chimney, or fall down onto the baffle?
Out of curiosity, can you post a pic of your stove and pipe stihl kicking? There’s some pics in a thread I think of someone removing the stove pipe and taping a trash bag to the ceiling box to catch soot, instead of disassembling the inside of the stove (if this is how your pipe exists the room)…
That doesn't look too bad, just dry soot, not really "creosote" per say...is your stove an 8" flue? It almost looks like you have an offset 8-6" adapter right out of the stove? If you can install (or have?) a section of doublewall telescoping pipe right out of the stove, that would allow for easy cleanings from bottom up...using a sooteater and the trash bag trick as Eric just mentioned...and if you want an easy way to just inspect, put a tee with a cap in there too...pop cap off, have a look around...I've heard of people taping an old phone to a sooteater to shove up the pipe for a look see too...
Was also going to suggest this. Instead of an old phone (which is a gooder idear…), a bore scope can be used, attached to either a soot eater or just a standard round brush. Bore scopes that WiFi to a cellphone or tablet/iPad are cheap as all get out anymore. I paid $30ish bucks for a 33 ft scope and it’s been used on plenty other things including machine inspection at my job.
Here's my stove, the pipe is 5 feet from top of stove to stove pipe adapter where it goes into the ceiling. It is a telescoping pipe. (the hearth is a work in progress.. )
Great looking set up! Thanks for posting Perfect candidate for the garbage bag trick- telescope the pipe out of the way, put soot eater up, poke hole in bag for soot eater shaft/pole, tape bag to ceiling box, clean away!!!
brenndatomu and Eric VW, I obviously need to be giving more consideration to removing the telescoping pipe and going straight up from the ceiling box with my soot eater. I can clean the stove pipe by itself outside, and the top of the baffle through the top of the stove. I like the idea of a bore scope, and we ordered new phones just yesterday, which means I can use the old one for inspections. I like the soot eater system, but I don't like the weed whip type brush, I would prefer a round brush that's not too stiff. I also am not a big fan of bending the soot eater poles to make the angle through the door of the stove. No matter how firm I hold the poles, they still wobble more in the pipe more than I like. Really appreciate the suggestions, that's what makes this a great place!
I let 'em bang around...just helps knock more stuff loose This past fall I was "sooteatering" using my old used n abused cordless drill and the SE got to banging around so well that my battery pack fell off...twice! Sure glad it didn't fall down the chimney (was top down cleaning) or to the ground (20'+ up)!
Stove shops and some hardware shops have these products that are burned in the stove that are suppose to clean the soot.If you come across any and use it let us know the outcome.
Maybe I'm too new to the world of wood burning, I'm still treating everything with kid gloves.. I need to put on my big boy gloves! LOL
I actually have some creosote destroyer, and honestly I don't know if it's helping or not. I try to not need it by burning only seasoned wood, and so far my cleanings have been good. There are a lot of good reviews of it on the internet, some of them had creosote build up and swear by it.
I wouldn't use that creosote remover, unless its needed...it doesn't do anything except help to turn wet creosote to dry, which is easier to remove...mainly removes cash from your wallet...and many claim that it's mildly corrosive to your stove and chimney system...also it should never be used with a cat stove! I can say for sure my sister uses it a lot ( constant wet wood issues! ) and I just had to go repair a hole in her 7 year old wood furnace...I know the creosote was the real issue (or really the wet wood) but I think that creosote destroyer contributed to the hole...
