chimney cap screen

Leave it...

leave it. its not a problem if you burn good wood. clean it when you do your pipes.

I think the screen in the rain cap is a good safety feature since it is quick to let you know when your flue is getting dirty. As soon as you start noticing smoke coming out the door of your stove during reloads it should send up a red flag that it is time to inspect your cap and screen for creosote and if clogged up then you know you need to do some cleaning.

It's the ONLY part of our chimney that gets any buildup, but due to weird weather every now and then it does clog. But I wouldn't run the stove without it. But then again, I live in the forest.

Ours clogged this fall, we had lots of just about freezing rainy/wet weather. I went up and pulled the cap, there was a half gallon of crap on/in the screen, could see bare metal in the chimney itself. Ran a brush anyways since I was up there and had it with me, and got about 1/2 cup at most of just dust and soot out of the 25 feet of chimney/flue.

.....its also a good indicator that its time to clean......just saying.

Pull it. Clogging is no reflection on wood or burning practices. I've never had an animal come down the flue.

Pull it if you have a reason. Probably depends on what you have for a screen.
After getting a critter down my chimney last summer, I installed a screen. I used screen that may be smaller than ideal, but it was free. It showed signs of gunking up early on this fall so I took it off. I'll put it back on once the burn season is over. Luckily my chimney is super accessible.

I have one chimney cap with a screen.....one without and never had one. like highbeam, I've never had anything come down the chimney. however, I have had the one with a screen clog up with creosote to the point that it slowed down the draft. I believe it was caused by two things at the time.....wood that was not fully seasoned and my slow burning dutchwest I used at the time. I was purchasing my wood and burning it the same season and what I thought was a poorly functioning stove was more likely a less seasoned batch of wood. because of that practice, i'd have to clean multiple times during the season and each time the screen was pretty clogged......

So far it has been a good indicator of when I need to get up on the roof and throw down the own chimney brush. Never had it clog.

Plenty of my neighbors run without one and have been doing so for some time...but I feel comfy with my cap on.

Wouldn't a clogging cap screen be more of a contributor to creosote in the flue than an indicator?

tarzan said:

Wouldn't a clogging cap screen be more of a contributor to creosote in the flue than an indicator?

Click to expand...

Didn't seem to with mine. I would say my cap was 90% clogged, we normally have a very strong draft, could tell it was getting sluggish, had a warm dry day, grabbed my stuff and went and checked, like I said the cap was clogged pretty bad, interestingly, all on the inside, nothing outside the screen, I would have thought on the predominately downwind side it would be outside the screen.. but there really was no reason to brush the chimney other than I was there and had the gear.

Wood burning about 35 years with no screen and no negative consequences.

When our chimney was rebuilt the mason was adamant about NOT putting a cap for a screen on it.

Now some communities require one ...so you have to comply and that's that.