Once a year is usually sufficient either before or after the season. If you generate creasote build up then more often. Always burn dry wood with an INTERNAL moisture content under 20% to minimize this.
Once a season has always been sufficient for me. I usually do it in the spring so it sits clean all summer.
My small insert with uninsulated liner gets it twice a year. One mid-season sweep and one end of season sweep.
Once a year, either end of season or beginning of next season, then I break down the stove and do a thorough clean and vacuum. I only burn wood now but when I burned coal as soon as I shut down the stove to remove the corrosive ash.
Usually every 2-3 years. I did do a mid-season (1.5 year) clean last year but may do it before starting up again this season.
I sweep every 2-3 years. I typically can’t fill a 12oz soup can with the creosote that comes out. Burning 4-5 year seasoned wood has its benefits.
Never. I design my chimneys to go straight up from the stove. Use double wall pipe once the chimney is past the heated area of the building. Run a good hot fire at least once a day. Net result is very little buildup in the chimney and what does form is dry and brittle and just falls down the chimney back into the stove or blows out the top.
Since we’re not in the “glaciated north” and don’t run the woodstove nearly as long each year as many of you we clean out every other year and don’t get hardly enough soot to measure. Burning almost exclusively hardwood, well seasoned and fairly hot fires helps too.
