10 times per winter

[red oak]

Well winter is approaching rapidly. Can you think of things you'd like to do repeatedly this winter? Me too - but cleaning the chimney is NOT one of them. Was having a talk with a relative last week (who has been burning wood longer than I've been alive) and the conversation turned to wood burning. He told me he has to clean his chimney 10 times each winter! I've never heard of an example this bad before. He told me that he knows it's time to clean it when the smoke comes back into his basement! I told him his wood might be a bit too green but I don't think he took that seriously.

 

[smokinj]

But cleaning 10 times a year he does...Lol Should work and hes not lazy. Cleaning that chimmey and the extra wood he is buring! ;-)

 

[xman23]

My guess is he has a plugged cap and he cleans bottom up and knocks a little of the cap. Just enough to run a month and then in plugs to puff back in the startup. Green wood wet wood will plug a screen real quick. Don't ask why I know. Hard to clean a cap screen without taking it off. I haven't had a screen in the cap for years. That what I think. Talk to him so you know what not to do.

 

[Stax]

How frequently should one clean?

 

[smokinj]

How frequently should one clean?

Check once a month if possible. I have not clean mine in 5 years. I keep checking it and the botton of my stack needs dump out but that it. You can see the stack and its running.

 

[thewoodlands]

How frequently should one clean?

I clean it twice a year, at the beginning then at the end of December. This being our third year burning and having seasoned wood we could get away with one.

I'm sure it depends on how you burn.


zap

 

[red oak]

My guess is he has a plugged cap and he cleans bottom up and knocks a little of the cap. Just enough to run a month and then in plugs to puff back in the startup. Green wood wet wood will plug a screen real quick. Don't ask why I know. Hard to clean a cap screen without taking it off. I haven't had a screen in the cap for years. That what I think. Talk to him so you know what not to do.

That's what I thought at first too but he told me he gets up on the roof to clean AND takes the cap off during the winter.

 

[red oak]

How frequently should one clean?

I think if your wood is seasoned properly you would not need to clean it more than once a year. I take a day in the summer and clean the chimney, stovepipe, stove, and check the pipe and stove for cracks, etc. I don't get very much junk out of the chimney at all but cleaning it makes me feel safer.

I do check the chimney with a mirror every week or two in the winter. I know that's probably obsessive but it only takes a minute and makes me feel safer.

 

[DiscoInferno]

After getting very little soot out when I do brush I'm down to cleaning once every two or three years.

Back in the late 70's (I was 5) my parents bought a house that had a central wood furnace (and no other means for heat or hot water). They got all into it, got a splitter, chainsaw, and had logs delivered. This was a pre-EPA smoke dragon, of course, but it also had multiple 90 degree pipe/chimney bends - a completely messed up install. After several chimney fires they had to start disassembling (because of the 90's) and sweeping every week or two. This was in the UP of Michigan, so they were heating from september till may. They did that for 3 years and then moved and never heated with wood again.

 

[Nater]

I cleaned mine about 4 or 5 times last year. Took the cap off and cleaned that too. I was burning less than ideal wood, as it was my first year. I prefer it clogging up my cap as it makes me clean it and not wait too long. The cap would always get plugged before there was serious build up inside the liner.

 

[pen]

I clean mine sometime in Jan, then right at the end of the season. Figure if I wind up on the other side of the sod before the next burning season, that's one less thing the wife needs to worry about.

Really, I could go with once per year but it's an easy chimney to clean.


pen

 

[firefighterjake]

And here I thought I was being anal-retentive with my monthly check and sweep . . . which I do since a) I firmly believe in at least checking monthly and since it's an easy job to sweep for me I do it at the same time and b) I would never hear the end of it from my firefighter buddies if I had a chimney fire.

10 times a winter is a bit much . . . unless of course someone is like him and either not burning seasoned wood or burning improperly.

 

[firefighterjake]

How frequently should one clean?

My own opinion . . . it's a good idea to check it monthly . . . especially for the new wood burner . . . and clean it when there is a half inch of creosote or fly ash build up . . . which is actually a little more than what some fire safety experts recommend . . . but I think a half inch is not a crazy figure.

 

[onetracker]

i check about once per year, usually about now. 3 chimneys, all pretty easy and straightforward to clean out. previous owner had 3 regency stoves professionally installed and 3 stainless liners (2 in clay fluepipe) so its a pretty sweet/safe setup.

its hard for me to get inspired to clean the chimneys cuz nothing ever comes out.
which is a good thing.
but its well worth it for peace of mind.

OT

 

[HittinSteel]

How frequently should one clean?

I clean every other year...... but this is only after becoming comfortable with my personal burning habits and the amount of creosote my burning produces.

 

[Battenkiller]

I've seen photos of flues from studies designed to see under what conditions creosote forms the fastest. After only two weeks of 24/7 burning, it is quite possible to have a chimney almost completely occluded with creosote, even with good seasoned wood. That would be ten times in only 20 weeks, so I can see how some clown using a conventional air-tight stove might be able to burn it dirty enough to cause that kind of buildup, especially if his wood is no good to begin with.

Sad thing is, just a little more air might allow it to burn 20 times cleaner. Old timers seem stuck in their ways, though, and trying to squeeze the last bloody BTU out of a split of wood by choking the air all the way seems the rule rather than the exception for most of these guys. If they could only understand that they are wasting a lot more fuel up the flue as smoke than they would by running the stove hotter, they just might see the light.

 

[SKIN052]

Once a month, one month top down, next month bottom up. I have kids (14 & 11) at home alone a few hours each day and I just could not focus without KNOWING the pipe is cleaned. With my heating season, thats 7 times per year.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

How frequently should one clean?

Stax, there is no pat answer to your question. I've always advised new wood burners to check the chimney at least monthly and clean as necessary. With the last old stove we had it was not uncommon to clean the chimney 4-6 times per year and maybe more a few times. Now we've had the Fireview for 4 winters and have cleaned it once.

The factors seem to be the wood, the stove, the weather, the operator of the stove, what the chimney is like and how the stove is installed. Therefore, I've concluded it is still best to continually check the chimney, even if you think it might not need checking. My wife takes care of that chore and still does it several times per winter. I like that.

 

[bogydave]

I run a brush thru mine at the end of the season. Maybe a 1/2 a coffee can, mostly off the cap when I bang on it before I take it off.
I check it every now & then.
I get some build up on the cap, but that's about it.
I have better(drier) wood now & that may not be an issue now. But I'll still check.
Could be several reasons, wet wood, burning on "smolder mode" for long periods, uninsulated pipe on & on.
Glad to hear he cleans it but waiting until the house smokes up would bother me, I'd be trying to improve the system.
I had a chimney fire many years ago, not a good thing. Hopefully never again.
Inspect it monthly, clean if you see build up or are in doubt.
Once you get used to your system, you'll learn when to clean it & ways to improve your burning if you see creosote building up.

Good post.

 

[tfdchief]

And here I thought I was being anal-retentive with my monthly check and sweep . . . which I do since a) I firmly believe in at least checking monthly and since it's an easy job to sweep for me I do it at the same time and b) I would never hear the end of it from my firefighter buddies if I had a chimney fire.

10 times a winter is a bit much . . . unless of course someone is like him and either not burning seasoned wood or burning improperly.

Oh how true! As many of you know, I have burned an old pre-EPA stove for almost 30 years and have never had a flue fire. Sure hope I never do. Clean at least 2 times a season. Unlike some of the "old timers" BK mentions, I have always tried to burn clean......much harder in my old stove than in my new one I know BG. "break down and get rid of that old thing" and get a new one. I have tried to get myself to do that but I just can't......not yet anyway. Give me a break, the new second stove was a big step!

 

[Ken S]

I do it twice a year.My stove exhausts horizontally before it turns and goes up the chimney in a stainless steel liner about 7 feet up before it dumps into the chimney.The horizontal pipe ends up with dust build up and the stainless pipe gets creosote in it but when it dumps into the chimney itself no problem at all.I cleaned my neighbors chimney a couple days ago and where it came above the roof it was scary when I took the chimney cap off.8 inch pipe had to be 2 inches around the top of the pipe of creosote and the cap was pretty full but the rest of the pipe seemed ok.He usually burns green wood and hasn't cleaned it since he put the stove in 3 years ago,he burns green wood but bought extra last year so what he has for this year looks nice.

 

[Flatbedford]

I had mine done yearly with the old smoke dragon. I do not know how clean it was. I didn't know much about burning until we bought the Fireview and got serious about burning (and I started reading here) in 08-09. After the first season I inspected the chimney with a flashlight and it looked clean to me. I had it cleaned a few weeks ago and the sweep was amazed that I had burned 8 cords since the last cleaning. Just some dust. He said I could easily go three years they way we have been burning. A clean burning EPA cat stove and well seasoned wood is a chimney sweeps worst enemy.

 

[WES999]

I clean the chimneys twice a year, usually get about this much in the Regency, (double wall pipe up to class A chimney straight up through the roof.)

I also get about same amount from the old Fisher in the basement, single wall into an outside block chimney.

Having to clean 10 times a year seems excessive, something is not right.

 

[iskiatomic]

I swept the Thursday before heading to the "Woodstock open house" and maybe produced a cup of soot. Dry, seasoned wood, yeah, that's the ticket!


KC

 

[Backwoods Savage]

You've learned your lessons well KC. Now that means you can go skiing soon.