Hey guys, so we had our new woodstove (hearthstone homestead) and new SS 6" (I think) liner installed in March of 2022, since then we've burned probably 2 to 2 1/2 cords of seasoned hardwood, mostly red oak and I'm wondering if it's necessary to have it swept so soon before winter arrives. A local chimney sweep wants $275-300 and I just can't afford it at the moment. Thanks for the advice in advance!
Without knowing for sure how dry the red oak was, I'd prefer to give it a quick sweep myself. If you have no aversion to climbing up there and doing it yourself, a chimney brush can be bought very cheaply. If that's out of the question, then you're *probably* okay to burn as-is, provided what you burned last season wasn't boiling water out of the ends and smoking like an old locomotive.
All of what I burned last season was what I consider to be well seasoned, most of what I checked with my moisture meter was below 20%, obviously didn't check every single piece of wood but yeah. Unfortunately my roof is 30 feet up with a steep pitch and I have a problem with heights lol.
If your setup allows, I would take a look at what the buildup looks like just for peace of mind. I clean my own from the bottom up with a soot eater I got a Menards, I think it was under $50. If you were burning dry wood you are probably o.k. I clean my stove pipe every year and it really doesn't need it but I can sleep better knowing it is clean and in good working order.
No shame in admitting it's outside of your wheelhouse. If you're confident what you burned was dry, and you didn't have a lot of low-burning smoldering fires with the air choked way down, then I wouldn't worry too much about it if you need to hang on to the extra cash.
A lot of times getting used to just how low you can go burning a new stove you end up with a bit of black goop just past where the chimney attaches to the stove. I'm not familiar with howhard it is to disconnect a liner from a homestead just to look at that end rather than the chimney top. Some stoves are easy to look up from inside the fire box, others are not. That's where I would want to look most of all. Right there where the smoke exits into the chimney. With a thirty foot chimney and fairly certain of nice dry wood your cap is probably free of goop. An inspection of some sort the first year or two of getting used to a new stove is a pretty good idea.
I swept mine at about the 4 year mark. There was hardly anything in there. If you are burning good, seasoned wood, you shouldn't have to sweep it all the time. About every 3-5 years depending on many variables
I run a brush down mine twice a year and get nothing out of it but I like the piece of mind. Being a new stove and new install myself I would want to clean it to know how it did then if it was good put off the cleaning some other time based on findings now. Ultimately you have to make the call but there is no way I am going to assure you that you'll be fine. That being said I do understand when money is tight but what is the price of safety.
I was lucky enough to find a 6 inch chimney brush about 15 ft long at an auction. I sweep from the bottom and the top, that way I get the whole thing, but I'm able to borrow a scissor-lift for the top down
With a new stove I think a "checkup" after 2-2.5 cords is a good idea...see if everything is doing well, if so then you know that you can probably go longer next time...
I would recommend getting sweeped, you need to know where you're at soot wise to be safe for this winter and then you'll know if you can skip a sweep or not. Is sending a camera up or down the liner less expensive?
My opinion Pay the man.. watch him clean it Then if your like me; you will Buy $75 dollars worth of stuff and clean it yourself for 20 years
The keys here are, "...what I consider to be well seasoned...," and the use of the moisture meter. One reason I don't advise folks to use a MM is it has to be used right in order to be a good guideline. Re-split the wood and check immediately and around room temperature. Also I don't understand how you could burn 2 to 2 1/2 cords starting in March! Many folks burn that much but it take all season to burn that much.
