As we usually do, in the fall we check the chimney. We also check it a few times during the winter. But what did we find in the chimney this year? Some spider webs and a clean chimney! So we have now burned wood in our new stove for 5 complete winters and wood heat is our only source of heat. We have cleaned our chimney one time and then got about a cup of soot. Of course when we remove the cap on the tee, we do get a little bit of junk but not enough to amount to anything.
Why, when we find people (we used to) cleaning their chimneys several times per winter, can we get by so long? We attribute this to burning good dry fuel in a clean burning cat stove. This Fireview is our first stove with a catalyst and although we were hesitant on buying it, we now find our fears were rather silly.
The biggest factor in clean burning is having good wood. We dry our wood usually for a minimum of 3 years (sometimes 2 years and sometimes many, many more). This past 5 years we have burned white ash because our woods was infected by the emerald ash borer. But in addition to the ash we also burn some elm, soft maple, cherry and oak (mainly red and pin oak). Occasionally we'll have some other wood, like blue beech, popple, thorn apple, etc., but our main wood is ash. When that is gone we will probably burn mainly elm, soft maple and oak.
Why, when we find people (we used to) cleaning their chimneys several times per winter, can we get by so long? We attribute this to burning good dry fuel in a clean burning cat stove. This Fireview is our first stove with a catalyst and although we were hesitant on buying it, we now find our fears were rather silly.
The biggest factor in clean burning is having good wood. We dry our wood usually for a minimum of 3 years (sometimes 2 years and sometimes many, many more). This past 5 years we have burned white ash because our woods was infected by the emerald ash borer. But in addition to the ash we also burn some elm, soft maple, cherry and oak (mainly red and pin oak). Occasionally we'll have some other wood, like blue beech, popple, thorn apple, etc., but our main wood is ash. When that is gone we will probably burn mainly elm, soft maple and oak.