Cleaned it......eh.

Cleaned my liner with the Sooteater. External chimney, cape cod. Got about 4 cups of coffee grounds. Not thrilled, but I don't remember if I swept after last Spring's shoulder season.

Some of the wood I am burning isn't perfect, so I'll have at it again in another month or so.

Gabe

Sounds like a plan

4 cups is nothing. Even if you did or didn't sweep it last year.

Good day to do it . Checking ours tomorrow.

Less slippery after the sun comes out

Cleaned mine too and got more than I wanted. Didn't measure but it was more than 4 cups. Stuff I'm burning is all 1+ year seasoned but isn't perfect. Next year everything will be 2+ years. So should continue to get better.

The stuff I got out was light and flaky

cleaned mine the other day....not real good, but then i run it on the low side and accept that i'll clean the chimney a couple times a year at least. its easy to do, i just pop the pipe of the top of the stove....slip pipe makes that easy.....and do it from inside with a small hole poked through a plastic bag for the brush to go through and a little painters tape to hold the bag to the thimble. i take the two sections of pipe that were on the stove outside and brush them down real good and back together it goes....all total 20-30 minutes tops.

cass

When I last did my sweep it wasn't flaky at all - just dusty and very lightweight although dark in color. Made it quite the mess to contain as it seemed to want to go airborne and then stick to any/everything it could (i.e. side of house, my drill, the bag I was collecting it in (the outside is where it wanted to stick) and of course, me. I wondered if perhaps the sooteater broke up any flakes into this dust or if I just didn't have flakes...

It looks like I'm not the orphaned step-child of Hearth.com after all.
We're not heroes either, but I guess we're burning ok

BTW - the draft was so strong, I didn't bother to hook up the vac this time.

Gabe

I would love to get zero ash out of the chimney, but I always get some ash and a little shiny creosote too. It is an affront to my perfection as a woodburner, but as long as I'm aware of the buildup and cleaning the chimney regularly it is not a danger.

Don't forget to clean the stove pipe inside the house too. After seeing pics of somebody's stove pipe on this forum, I cleaned mine for the first time in a long time last week. It was a lot dirtier than the chimney was. I figured I wouldn't get much buildup in the indoor pipe because it is lose to the stove and should be pretty hot most of the time. Apparently that isn't true.

I got more out of my pipe than I thought too, mostly in the horizontal run into the wall. I think I may change it from an elbow to two 45 bends so I can eliminate as much of the horizontal run as possible

At the slip of the adjustable stovepipe is the only place I ever get any ash/soot. Rest of the chimney and cap are clean.