Little over a month and I cleaned my Chimney

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Fredo

Member
Nov 24, 2011
206
Mi
Oh, this is not going to go over well with my brothers here at Hearth but here goes nothing. It was a Beautiful Day in Michigan today. Temperatures were in the 50s so I decided to clean my chimney. I had my Osburn 2000 Wood Stove installed just over a month ago, 1 month and 3 days to be exact. When I began burning wood for the first time I really did not get my stove
temps up that high. I was not familiar with stove operating temperatures since this is the first wood stove that I ever had. I also purchased Ash and Oak that needs to be seasoned and that also was a problem. As a matter of fact, Dennis (BackWoodSavage) had mentioned to me that I was not operating my stove Hot enough and that was because Ash and Oak that I just purchased might not be seasoned enough. The Oak that I purchased could use a little more time drying outside and the Ash that I purchased definitely needs to be seasoned.
So, with those two issues and what I have learned from others here at Hearth, I knew that I needed to look at my chimney. With Temperatures feeling like it was Summer again, I decided to take my chimney apart from the inside of my house. I unscrewed sheet metal screws from stack, gave it a good twist and it began raining chunks of Black! My concerns were confirmed, it was Black Chunks of Creosote! From there I called Home Depot and spoke to an individual that worked Garden and Seasonal Area. I asked if they carried Fiberglass Chimney Rods and Wire Chimney Brush. They stated that they only had one set of Rutland Fiberglass Chimney Rods left. I asked if they could hold it for me and they did until I got there, THANK GOD!

After I got home, I Duct Tape a couple of Trash Bags together and taped that to the opening of my Double lined stack leading into Thimble. After I fed the first rod up into stack my wife threaded additional rods as a plowed my way upwards. During all this, I choked off end of garbage bag and it truly amazed me. None of the Creosote was getting through garbage bag! Thats because I was choking down on end of garbage bag for dear life. By time I was finished, there was enough Creosote to almost fill a small Mason Jar as you can see from picture that I downloaded.
Knowing now about operating my stove at higher temps even though my firewood needs to seasoned, I hope to burn more efficiently and not build up so much Creosote. In the mean time, I am going to be checking my chimney on a monthly bases.

Fredo
 

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BS this is not going to go over well. That is great! Great that you were wise enough to realize that you weren't burning as well as you should have so you took the best action you can in that circumstance, and cleaned the chimney.

What you removed is not bad at all for burning poor fuel.

Now that you have a baseline, I'd suggest keeping the same schedule (sweeping again after burning as much wood as you have gone through so far) and then you can make good judgements based upon what you get next time compared to your burning practices.

IMO, well done.

pen
 
pen said:
What you removed is not bad at all for burning poor fuel.

Now that you have a baseline, I'd suggest keeping the same schedule (sweeping again after burning as much wood as you have gone through so far) and then you can make good judgements based upon what you get next time compared to your burning practices.

IMO, well done.

pen

x2!
 
rdust said:
pen said:
What you removed is not bad at all for burning poor fuel.

Now that you have a baseline, I'd suggest keeping the same schedule (sweeping again after burning as much wood as you have gone through so far) and then you can make good judgements based upon what you get next time compared to your burning practices.

IMO, well done.

pen

x2!

x3
 
I have 18 feet of chimney and I am so happy/relieved that I am able to clean my chimney from inside my home. I was a little intimidated cleaning chimney for the first time though. My biggest fear was getting tar substance EVERYWHERE! My second fear was getting brush stuck at the top of my chimney! My third biggest fear was making sure that I reassembled chimney correctly. Not that reassembling chimney is rocket science, it is because I am dealing with a wood stove that produces fire within my home. My families safety is my primary goal and I would hate to have anything happen because I made a mistake reinstalling chimney incorrectly.
I thought that I was going to trash my house with all that black soot and creosote but like I mentioned, I really chocked down on garbage bag while feeding fiberglass rods and wire brush up chimney. A two dollar plastic drop tarp goes along way also.
As I was pulling chimney brush back down through chimney I had a wet rag wrapped around rods as they passed through my hands. Wet rag worked quite well cleaning any black soot that was on fiberglass rods.
All in all it was a great experience and I thank GOD chimney cleaning went well. I also want to thank all my brothers here at Hearth for all the great help, support and their friendship. I really mean that when I say that...


Fredo
 
That amount is not bad at all. Great you can do from inside, you got it down now.
 
That's not bad at all. When you consider that the contents of that little jar came from an entire 18' of chimney, it's just not much to get worked up about. Now, when you can fill a coal hod after only 2 weeks of smouldering fires with shiny, crispy creosote "wafer," then you've got something to worry about.

I too have about 18' of double wall stove pipe and Class A combined, and no matter seasoned the wood is, I always get some fine soot. I simply sweep when I get a good day weather-wise, and I inspect monthly because 1.) it's easy with my setup and 2.) it makes me feel better.

I'd say you are doing just fine, sir.
 
Fredo,
I think you did well to sweep the chimney so you know what's going on with your stove.. I now have my chimney swept and checked by a CSIA sweep annually for piece of mind. I expect to get good results with this new stove as I only get heat waves out of my chimney. My wood is well seasoned and I run my stack hot enough to reduce any condensing of tar vapors that may occur. I would not use a metal brush on a metal chimney I would recommend you use a poly brush to reduce wear on your metal chimney.. They are very stiff and will do a good job as well in fact Ventinox would void my warranty on my liner if I used a metal brush on it..

Ray
 
Thanks Ray and I am going to purchase a Poly Chimney Brush. Now that I know what it takes to clean my chimney my MIND can be at REST. I owe my success to GOD and thank HIM for leading me to this most AWESOME website. All of you have been so kind and patient to me, giving me the knowledge/tools needed to be successful with my Wood Stove. I thank each and everyone of you for your stories that I am able to gather important information from and apply it to my personal use with my stove.
I am so glad that I ran my chimney straight up through my ceiling. When I took stack off my stove and pointed my flashlight up into chimney, I was able to see clearly all the way up. That gave me peace in mind that I was able to see what was going on as far as Creosote. Cleaning my chimney was a breeze and now that I know what to do, I am going to clean it on a monthly bases.

I have Creosote forming on the inside of Chimney Cap which I can see from outside but I read on a post here that most of the guys said not to worry. They mentioned that top of Chimney is not effected by heat so there wouldn't be an issue concerning potential fire. Below the Chimney Cap there is a brown substance that is on and around stack. It really is kind of ugly and I am wondering what I can do about it?

Well, it's going to climb close into the 50s today in Michigan and I just had 10 cord of Ash delivered to my home. I am just waiting for my teenage son to get up from sleep so I can sit and supervise him as he moves all 10 today. :bug:
When I told my son the other day about what he was ready to embark on he didn't even roll his eyes! He knows if he wants to EAT, SLEEP and wear a SHIRT on his back at my house and ALL OF THAT PROVIDED BY DADDY-O HIMSELF, that he needs to do His share ;-P

Fredo
 
Fredo - I am also new to a stove in my home - not new to burning for heat as there was a stove in my parents home growing up and our only heat source at or hunting cabin but the first in my "own home." Like you, and most here, that made a big difference in my obsession to burn as claen as possible and be a safe as possible.

Like you I was very conserned with creasote build up in my chimney to begin with and, like you, I ran a brush through it after a month of burning. My build up was a little more than yours but not bad. I then waited 1.5 months and repeated with beter results than the first clean out. I attribute this to hotter burning as the season allowed. I then began throwing a scoop of Rutlands soot eater stuff in once a week to test how well it works. After another month I cleaned the chimney and it was even better than the first two regarding build up. Not sure if the Rutlands is the cause or if the hotter fires but for the minimal cost it provide me piece of mind and I plan to continue using it - at least for this season. I am buning an older VC Defiant and know they are more prone to creasote than a modern stove. I will be upgrading to an EPA stove(probably E-30) for next season.

My plan is to continue a 30-45 day clean schedule throughout this season as weather permits and be as safe as possible. This way I will have a benchmark to refer to going forward.

By the way - the wood I am burning, mostly ash and maple, is not perfect but about 90% of what I am hoping to burn in the future but I had to start somewhere. Most is dry buy some hiss and sizzle out of a few splits now and then. My goal this winter is to CSS at least two years ahead or more. Can't have to much wood!

Bob Urban
 
Fred, for a first year wood burner you are doing great! It is great that you have already cleaned the chimney and now know how easy it can be and you don't have to create a big mess to do this either. The amount of creosote you got is close to what I expected and so long as you continue to clean monthly this year you should be fine. In addition to that, the wood you are getting now will be oh so much better next year and you will definitely notice a big difference and that difference will be in your favor too.

It is also nice to have a young lad there to help with the stacking of the wood and I do hope the seller did a better job of splitting this wood which will help you a lot. So continue as you are doing for this year and next year will be a breeze. Congratulations.
 
Whenever someone shows a pics after a sweep it is important to say how tall the chimney is including the stove pipe. Was that 18' including the stove pipe? The taller the chimney the more creosote there will be even if all the variables are the same. Maybe more since a long run will have more room for the qases to cool off before they exit.
 
Dennis, I owe part of my success to you my friend. Remember it was you that told me about my firewood.
It was you that told me about proper length of Chimney and I thank you for all your help.
I have learned so much from you and my brothers at Hearth and I thank all of you.
My only source of firewood is the Oak and Ash that I picked up this year but now I know how to get my stove burning HOT.
This will help keep Creosote from forming
and keep my family warm at the same time.

As for my son, He worked His his butt off today stacking splits. He should sleep sound tonight... ;-)



Fredo
 
That's not horrible. You did fine !!

There's a sense of accomplishment when cleaning your chimney !!

And I also agree with cleaning it again after you've gone through the same amount of wood. With it seasoning alittle more, you should see an improvement !
 
wkpoor,

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, I have 18 feet of Chimney and it just peaks over the highest part of my roof. It's a blessing being able to clean my chimney from inside my house. There is NO WAY I am going to attempt to climb up on my roof and clean chimney! :grrr:


Fredo
 
Eileen,

You are correct, it is an AWESOME sense of accomplishment cleaning my own chimney for the first time. If one takes their time, they can clean with no mess at all! As for my firewood, I am looking forward to the West Winds where I live to start seasoning it. It gets VERY windy where I live, SWEET!


Fredo
 
Very good Fredo see and recognize the issues is the first step to proper burning you did that very well. I think that you are right on on the monthly checks until you get used to burning proper it is better safe than sorry for sure. That is not a bad amount of creosote for the first year and with the wood being wet still my first stove had three times that the first year I burned. It is good to know you are doing well with the stove all things considered good job my friend keep it up.

Pete
 
Pete1983,

Hope all is well my friend and good to hear from you Pete. Yes, its been a pretty interesting end of year Wood Stove project that is paying off. I am glad that I can clean my Chimney from the inside.
I think the biggest part of cleaning Chimney was prepping my stove area so I wouldn't TRASH my house. That Creosote is some NASTY stuff if one is not careful. I am going to clean
Chimney on a monthly bases. For what I have learned here at Hearth, I think that Chimney Cleaning is THEE MOST IMPORTANT THING to keep up on besides SEASONED WOOD!

Take care Pete...


Fredo
 
I remember well my first few months of burning. The first month or so I didn't have easy access to my secondary story roof. My dad was kind enough to donate me his old TV antenna tower - one of the "triangle" shaped ones that you often see used for H.A.M. radio setups. Once it was set in concrete with rebar and a eye loop with a lag bolt, access to the roof was easy. I had more creosote than you did, but it was still the "coffee ground" type stuff. I was used to seeing big flakes of the crispy black stuff, so I was relieved after my first sweep.

I still monitor my system regularly, but I don't have the stress factor that I had before I learned what was normal for my stove and chimney. I'm now fortunate enough to be about 4 years ahead on my fuel supply as well. But when the weather is good, I still check the flue and run a brush down it. Peace of mind: priceless.
 
Nice job . . . on both the burning technique and doing the sweep.
 
Fredo said:
Dennis, I owe part of my success to you my friend. Remember it was you that told me about my firewood.
It was you that told me about proper length of Chimney and I thank you for all your help.
I have learned so much from you and my brothers at Hearth and I thank all of you.
My only source of firewood is the Oak and Ash that I picked up this year but now I know how to get my stove burning HOT.
This will help keep Creosote from forming
and keep my family warm at the same time.

As for my son, He worked His his butt off today stacking splits. He should sleep sound tonight... ;-)

Fredo

Thank you Fred. I just want to point out that burning hot will not keep the creosote away totally but will help. However, next year you will be pleasantly surprised at the difference as then you will have good dry wood.
 
Fredo,
That Dennis knows his stuff.....as do a lot of these regulars on the hearth.....and yes this site is a Godsend. As far as what you cleaned out of your chimney, considering you are using poorly seasoned wood, that wasn't bad at all....my first couple years I cleaned my flue on a monthly basis just to get a feel for how it was burning, etc. Now I do it on a two to three month schedule, and it's been pretty good thus far. There's nothing wrong with a little "overkill" when it comes to knowing you and your family are safe and the fireplace is good and clean, not to mention you sleep better at night! :cheese: Keep up the good work.
 
Jake,

Those words coming from you mean a lot to me. After all, you have been in the Fighting Fire Business for years and know what you are talking about!

Preventative Matinance is so very important when it comes down to owning and operating a Wood Stove. I have heard from a few individuals outside of Hearth that burning HOT will take care of Creosote so don't worry about cleaning chimney. No way, not at my house! I have seen that NASTY STUFF and handled that NASTY STUFF and let me tell you, if one does not keep that in CHECK it WILL
spell DISASTER!

Sorry if I sound emmotinal but this is a serious topic and people need to be Concious of the matter. Other than that my friend, have an AWESOME day. It is sunny in Michigan, I am grilling barbecue chicken and loving life, thank GOD :lol:
 
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