Chimney Cleaning Results

[leeave96]

I finally got around to cleaning my chimney this evening. I had the clay liner busted out of my chimney last November or early December - I forget and replaced it with a rigid 6 inch liner with 1/2 inch insulation.

I got exactly 1/2 gallon of very small and light flakey black creosote. About 3/4 of that was at the bottom of the chimney - the rest came out when I brushed it.

I used a poly brush and brushed top down. The brush was a good tight fit. After brushing and vacuuming the creosote out of the cleanout, I put a light at the bottom of the chimney and aside from being "dirty" from use, it looked super clean and almost new.

This stove, my Woodstock Keytone, burned 24/7 from the time the liner was installed through April of this year and a bit into the first weeks of May. I easily burned 3 cords of wood and while 95% of it was very seasoned and dry, there were a few questionable sticks mixed in from time to time. Also, this stove is a cat stove and I had to replace the cat combustor late season - so there were a few weeks that we were seeing smoke from the chimney as the cat was not working as well as it should have.

I also decided that once I got the liner in place that given I had a modern, clean burning stove, a well insulated liner, great draft and good wood - that I didn't feel the need to climb up on the roof and check the chimney every month. Maybe I should have, but I felt pretty confident that given the experiences of others on this board that with good wood, stove, chimney, etc., there wouldn't be a creosote problem and tonight I found there wasn't.

I have wrote many times reflecting my Dad's experience with woodstoves when I was growing-up, especially with the non-EPA Englander and the VC Defiant Encore cat stove that he struggled mightly with creosote build-up. Often he would clean the chimney once a month and his roof was much more difficult to get-up on than mine. I saw him scoop out more than a coal bucket of creosote sometimes when cleaning his chimney so a 1/2 gallon for me tonight was fantastic. My woodpile for this fall/winter is better conditioned than last year so I expect even better results this burning season.

Bill

 

[Danno77]

How tall is your chimney?

 

[BrotherBart]

Sounds good. Kinda wonder about the majority being at the bottom which could mean an air leak in the pipe or at the stove collar. But that much for three cord isn't bad at all.

That is guessing that it is a two story chimney in the twenty foot range.

 

[leeave96]

The flue exits the stove horizontally straight into the chimney tee. From there it is about 16 ft up and about 5 ft below the tee to the cleanout. The creosote at the bottom of the tee was loose stuff and I gather it had fell out of the chimney over the months of use. I've got great draft, but I don't think it is enough to blow loose creosote out of the chimney, so I guess it simply falls out and then settles at the bottom. There is a cap on the bottom of the liner, so even though I have a clean-out door on my chimney, I am not really relying on it to seal the bottom of the chimney.

I've read posts of folks using some kind of chemical block that "dries" out the creosote that you burn in your stove prior to cleaning the chimney. I've never used anything like that, but this creosote was extremely dry, light weight, almost like coffee grounds.

My brother was helping me - handing me stuff up the roof and holding the ladder. He was around when my Dad was burning wood and this Woodstock Keystone and of all things a stainless steel liner vs some honkin' heavy duty brick chimney were new to both of us when I installed the stove last fall. He was just as or more impressed at how clean the chimney swept and how little creosote we collected.

BTW, the house is a single story ranch with a basement beneath. Stove is on the main floor, cleanout is in the basement.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[BrotherBart]

Sounds like you are on a roll. Happiness is having any creosote five feet below where anything is getting hot. :cheese:

Yeah, the stuff fell both in the burning season and probably more after. It drys out and falls in warmer humid weather. In the clay liner days I would find a ton more down in the fireplace if I waited till fall to sweep. If I did it in Spring it would all still be up on the chimney walls.

 

[Todd]

Sounds pretty good to me. As long as it's the light powdery stuff your fine. The build up in the bottom section could be the bottom cap or clean out door leaking.

 

[leeave96]

Sounds pretty good to me. As long as it's the light powdery stuff your fine. The build up in the bottom section could be the bottom cap or clean out door leaking.

The build-up in the bottom was more like an accumulation of stuff that fell down and collected there. It wasn't stuck to anything - more like a coffee can full of grounds. I just vacuumed it up and all was clean. After that, I brushed the chimney from the top and probably got another 1/2 quart of fine flakey stuff.

My plan this burning season is to clean the pipe twice. I'll start burning around the first of October, clean it over the Christmas holiday and than again at the end of the burning season.

I'll be doing the same with the Englander 30-nch and look forward to see how clean the burn is on that stove.

I've got my wood stacked in measurable cords this year to help me keep track of what I burn. What I might do since the Englander's firebox is double that of the Keystone, is burn off of different stacks of wood for each stove. After burning one cord of wood in each, clean the chimneys and measure the build-up. Then I can start a cat vs non-cat thread and report some real-life/laboratory test results....

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Todd]

You better make that stack of wood twice as big for the Englander, it's going to turn into your primary heater and it will suck up more wood. I don't think your going to need to burn the Keystone until the dead of Winter. It will be interesting to see how this works out for you.

 

[leeave96]

You better make that stack of wood twice as big for the Englander, it's going to turn into your primary heater and it will suck up more wood. I don't think your going to need to burn the Keystone until the dead of Winter. It will be interesting to see how this works out for you.

This is a disturbing bit of info - can't burn both stoves until the dead of winter..........

I'll figure something out

Bill