Its time for a mid-season brushing. Tomorrow its supposed to get up around 60* so after lunch Ill get the brush out and run it up the chimney I'm curious as to how much stuff is up there. Ive looked up the tee with a mirror about a month or so ago and it didn't seem like there was anything but that's right at the bottom so well see what I get out of it tomorrow hopefully not much. I'm not really looking forward to this as its a major pain my rods wont bend enough for me to run them up from inside so I have to go outside and stick the rod through the old clean out of the existing fireplace then go inside put the brush on stick it in the liner then go back outside and push it up the liner its a pain but it works. I foresee a soot-eater in my future.
I cleaned mine a few weeks a go and had less than a cup of flaky stuff. Took a pic up the pipe and looked pretty good. Post some pics if you can.
Alright heres some pics and an update as to what all happened. I cleaned out the rest of the hot coals in the stove and a little later learned that I should have waited a little longer to do this as the stove was pretty hot still but I was into it at that point so I put some gloves and kept at it. I ran the brush all the way up and back down then up to the top and slowly brought it down going up and down in short strokes making sure to overlap every stroke I did that three times (overkill? maybe but it didnt hurt) Anyway when I was done I went back inside to see what came out. I got probably about 3/4 cup of stuff all light grey and fine like sand. I tried to take a picture of it but it didnt turn out good and I could get a broom behind the stove to sweep it out so I just vacuumed it up. Im guessing that this is pretty good for burning pretty much 24/7 since Oct. give or take a couple days here and there that warmed up enough to let the stove go out. Ill brush it again sometime this spring when Im done burning. Im pretty happy with the results and Im thinking I probably could have let it go until the end of burning season but I wanted to make sure it was ok. Heres some pics of how I have to brush the chimney bottom up from the outside the pics are little blurry because I have a new phone and forgot to take the little sticker off that was protecting the camera.
Yeah Dave to be honest I was pretty surprised my wood is better this year than last year but its not primo. Im hoping next year will be even better than this year. Speaking of cold its coming tomorrow is going to be nice but overnight and Tuesday is going to be downright miserable. Im not looking forward to Tuesday but Ill have the house nice and warm with no worries. Also while I was cleaning the chimney I went ahead and gave the stove a good cleaning too except for the glass I always forget the glass for some reason but oh well the cat got vacuumed and all the seals got fluffed.
Sounds like you are getting ahead . Good BTU hardwoods too, I bet. Took me a few years to get ahead. Burning the best stuff I had getting there, was all at least 1 & 2 year stuff. This is the 1st year I have all 3 year wood. (good stuff) & as long as I can CSS 7 -8 cords/year, Ill be burning 3 year wood in the future. Took a while to get ahead , but getting there was fun & sure feels good.
You did fine Matt. You cleaned pretty much the same as we do except I usually never go more than twice. That second trip with the brush is just to make sure but usually don't get anything.
