Cleaning chimney. Do you let your stove go out?

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Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
Seeing a recent post I was surprised to see that the poster let his stove go stone cold before he cleaned his chimney. I have cleaned chimneys a lot (in the past) during the winter but have never let my stove go out. I did let the wood burn down to coals (so no smoke to contend with) before starting to clean but never could see why I should let the stove go cold.

How do you do it? Cold, warm or hot.
 
Cold. Don't have a tee and I do not find sticking my hands inside a hot firebox full of coals to pull the brush through the liner on any list of things I ever plan to do. That and the idea of melting my poly brush.
 
Seeing as I clean from bottom up cold is the only way to go. I cheat a little because I only clean the T6 once a year in summer and the stove wouldn't be going anyway. Same with house cookstove but the outside fisher in winter greenhouse I clean in winter and do so hot. I can not let the temp drop to much but this stove is a top down clean and is set up to make that easy. So I do both how is that for being on the fence?
 
I'd imagine if you clean it from above, you run the risk of inhaling a lot of carbon monoxide... heck if you plug up the chimney from below while cleaning you probably run that risk too. I would let it go cold first.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Seeing a recent post I was surprised to see that the poster let his stove go stone cold before he cleaned his chimney. I have cleaned chimneys a lot (in the past) during the winter but have never let my stove go out. I did let the wood burn down to coals (so no smoke to contend with) before starting to clean but never could see why I should let the stove go cold.

How do you do it? Cold, warm or hot.
Dennis I usually do it like you; let the stove go to coals and then get on the roof and clean. I try not to be down wind and just run the brush a couple of times. Easy if you stay ahead of the creosote and burn with hot dry wood. Once a year, after burning season I'll pull all the indoor pipe along with the top of the stove and clean everything well. Never a big deal, except for the year a had only wet wood. Only made that mistake once. Be safe.
Ed
 
Dad cleaned his mom's SS flue with a poly brush one day with a decent amount of coals still in her Liberty. The brush melted into a Christmas tree shape in about 20 seconds. I clean a cold stove, personally.
 
I have a tile lined chimney and a metal brush, I let it burn down to coals (a stove top of about 200 degrees) and clean it no problems.

Now, if I had a lined chimney and poly brush, that bad boy would be stone cold.


pen
 
I have an outdoors SS chimney with a plug at the bottom. I let the stove burn down to coals, then pull the plug and run the metal brush up from the bottom.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Seeing a recent post I was surprised to see that the poster let his stove go stone cold before he cleaned his chimney. I have cleaned chimneys a lot (in the past) during the winter but have never let my stove go out. I did let the wood burn down to coals (so no smoke to contend with) before starting to clean but never could see why I should let the stove go cold.

How do you do it? Cold, warm or hot.
Same as you, sometimes hot enough yet that I have to put my gloves on. And when I take the pipe off the top of the stove, I put my ash bucket over the top of the flue collar just in case there might be a little smoke in there yet.
 
No surprise here . . . I do it the same way as Dennis . . . let the stove die down to coals . . . and then clean the chimney . . . things are still cool enough to the touch (outside T) and cool enough for the fiberglass rods and poly brush, but warm enough to keep the house (and wife) warm.
 
A couple of years ago I was going to do a mid year cleaning since it would be warm the next day. Out of habit I got up and stumbled in and turned on the coffee pot then grabbed a few splits and put them on the coals. About the time the flames started rolling I remembered. Whoops. Waited half the day for that thing to burn down, scooped out the coals and ran the blower to cool the stove as much as I could and the door open to suck cool air up the liner. A storm was coming the next day and I needed to get it done.

Now I put a note on the coffee pot. :red:
 
spirilis said:
I'd imagine if you clean it from above, you run the risk of inhaling a lot of carbon monoxide... heck if you plug up the chimney from below while cleaning you probably run that risk too. I would let it go cold first.

CO?? Not a chance.

I clean mine in the AM. Open the bypass in the stove, hop on the roof, drive the brush down and then back up. Make a few extra passes up in the top ten feet. DONE.

Never let the stove go cold...
 
Stove has to go cold. I don't have a clean out tee so I have to pull the pipe off the stove.
 
I let the stove go out. I sweep once during the winter and pick a warm day in January or February when my south-facing
roof is bare and dry. On such a day, it's easy to let the stove go out.
 
I wouldn't be able to completely clean mine hot, as I have to remove the pipe inside the house for cleaning, but I suppose I could run up from the t with coals in the stove. I clean in the summer, so it's never an issue. This question adds a wrinkle to the steel vs. poly debate, though.
 
spirilis said:
I'd imagine if you clean it from above, you run the risk of inhaling a lot of carbon monoxide... heck if you plug up the chimney from below while cleaning you probably run that risk too. I would let it go cold first.

Carbon monoxide issue would be slim to none regardless of how or when you sweep your chimney . . . the brush doesn't really plug up the chimney . . . about the only way you really would get a good dose of carbon monoxide in my opinion was if you stuck your face right over the chimney . . . which most folks would not do anyways . . . besides if you're outdoors the CO will disperse very quickly from the area . . . especially if there is even the slightest wind.

That said, I would not attempt to sweep my chimney with the stove running full bore . . . not so much because of the CO issue, but simply because it would not be pleasant with the smell of the smoke and other irritants in the smoke.
 
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