This is a picture taken from inside the stove looking up in the flue. In your experience/opinion, does it look "normal dirty" or not? I can't see what it looks like past that. At what point in the flue does creosote builds up, usually? We've always paid someone to sweep but considering starting to do it myself, hence the possibility dumb questions.
I would call that normal. Grey is good. What happens above I don’t think anyone can answer. Too many variables.
Can you access the top to look down? Can you see the screen at the top to see if there is buildup? Is it an interior or exterior chimney? Is the liner insulated? You will probably pay for the rods and brush by cleaning the chimney yourself once. When you clean, you can assess what’s in the liner by looking at what is coming out at the bottom as you clean.
Looks relatively decent IMO. Sweeping is easy if you have access to the top. A good brush and some fiberglass rods do the trick.
Go to your local fire department, they might ''loan'' the correct brush, and rods to you if they have them on hand. Ours does, i clean my own chimney probably more often than most people do. But, watch out, if you fall, its a long ways to the ground.
I would say that looks about right. Like has been said you need to see the top as the farther away from the heat is where the creosote will be.
Like what was already said, the top of the chimney is the coolest point. My main chimney is through the wall then up 24’. If I have any build up it where my chimney goes above the roof line. Btw I’d recommend the soot eater if your going to purchase your own stuff to clean yourself.
Indeed, the closer to the top you may run into the black crap. If you ever get the black at the bottom, you have a problem. On cleaning, you can do it the standard way or some folks really seem to like the soot eater.
Our first use of the wood stove was january of 21. The top of our chimney liner looks like your pic The Perfect Stick. Ours is insulated liner, interior masonry chimney. This is our first full burn season, and most of our wood wasn't as dry as I like. But we burn hot and 24/7. I can't wait to get up there and see what it looks like. I used the soot eater at the end of the last season, worked well. Sca
If you can get a camera view up the pipe like that, you can easily run a soot eater up there. It takes about 10 minutes, it's cheaper than hiring someone, you'll get to see how dirty it really was, and you can do it whenever you feel it's needed. You can even do it at night.
