Chimney Cleaning

Non-epa stoves should not run dirtier than the new epa stoves but most folks with the older stoves never seemed to consider the dryness of their wood as much which will cause more creosote. Get the wood dry and those dirty chimneys can be a thing of the past. Even back 50 years ago, the cleaning we used to so just got soot from the chimney but we also burned dry wood. Our neighbors were not burning dry wood; they would cut in the fall or winter and start burning it right away. Wrong! I thought it was strange that we never had chimney fires and never had creosote problems even back then. Today with the new stoves it is even more important to have good dry wood. We've cleaned our chimney one time in the last 4 years and got about a cup of soot. That was much less than expected.

As for cleaning, I've usually ran the brush up and down once and then do it one more time with a slight scrubbing motion the second time. I've done it this way all my life and it has seemed to work well. Not sure how I could improve as the chimney is always nice and clean when we finish.

xhcamaro, I think you posted this in the right forum as we are talking about chimney cleaning.

Slab wood dried for a year is usually pretty good so I would not expect creosote from it. Good for you for storing that for a year before burning it.

xjcamaro said:

What does bad creosote look like? So i know what to look for. Ill probably stick with my schedule of cleaning my chimney every month to month and a half. It only takes me maybe an hour to do and i can do it all from inside.

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This is what we ended up getting out of our cleaning, I do ours twice a year, at the beginning of the heating season (I was late this year) then at the beginning of January.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/83968/

We also use this when burning, I think it works great, we bought it at our local Lopi Dealer.

http://saversystems.com/chimney-products/acs-anti-creo-soot


zap

Very black. Tar like in the chimney. Stinks to high Heaven.

xjcamaro said:

Does that spray really work? Does it work even if you never used it right the beginning on a new chimney? Just curious. The only thing i noticed in my chimney is in a couple spots there are a couple streaks of a build up that my brush would not get, but it was very thin and it almost wiped off when i ran my finger over it, but it was not tar like.

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I think it will, it should turn it to ash. This is our third year burning and our third year with anti creo soot.



zap

Sounds like you have a good handle on burning & are burning dry wood.
Pays to check it monthly just to be sure.
You'll know what creosote looks like if you ever get any, looks like melted coal or hard black tar. Hope you never see it.

Backwoods Savage said:

Non-epa stoves should not run dirtier than the new epa stoves...

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I'm not sure I understand that. I should think an EPA stove, be it cat or non-cat, via burning smoke would put less creosote in the chimney - or at least the potential for it.

Thanks!
Bill

I agree with Bill. I would think a EPA stove with a CAT would not put much creosote in the chimney versus a older not EPA stove that you would think would load up your chimney.

leeave96 said:

Backwoods Savage said:

Non-epa stoves should not run dirtier than the new epa stoves...

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand that. I should think an EPA stove, be it cat or non-cat, via burning smoke would put less creosote in the chimney - or at least the potential for it.

Thanks!
Bill

Click to expand...

Bill, if the fuel is less than ideal there will be a big difference. The old smoke dragons would burn the less than ideal woods but the new stoves will produce more creosote using that type of wood. Burn dry wood and Bingo! That is the big key to any clean burning. This is why so many have problems with the new stoves. They seem to want to burn them as they did their old stoves and it won't work worth a hoot. However, in the rare instance that folks know what dry wood is and had been burning it in the old stoves, then the biggest benefit they will get is more heat from the newer stoves with less fuel, such as we enjoy after installing the Fireview. Geeze, I hope I worded this right...

Usually 4-6 times per winter with the old stove. That winter we burned green ash was many more times.

With my secondary burn stove I burned all last winter without a cleaning. I called a chimney sweep and the guy quoted me $180 if I had the stove ready for the sweeping when he got here. I got online and bought a chimney brush $34 shipped, four 6 foot fiberglass poles $133, and a six pack of beer at the local convenience store. I drank a beer when I got home today (6 min), moved the baffles and fire brick (4 min), climbed on the roof and removed the topper (1 min), I ran the brush down and up once (5 min), put the topper back on (1 min), put all the stuff away and cleaned out the firebox (10 min), drank 2 beers after putting the firebrick and baffles back in (10 min), drank 4 more beers after I had the fire going (1 hour).

So pretty much I'm money way ahead. Based on how clean the chimney liner was I won't need another cleaning til next year.

There is a pretty sizable difference between how dirty the Vigilant's liner is and how dirty the Heritage and the Intrepid/Encore liner gets. All use the same wood.