Cleaning my pipes?

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crausch

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Aug 26, 2008
747
Littlestown, PA
This is my first year burning so my question is for the end of the burning season. After reading some posts and seeing some various photos of stove exhausts, I might be a little confused about what to expect in my vent pipe at the end of the year when I go to clean it? I have seen pictures with some heavy ash soot and heard mention of creosote. When I bought my stove, my ignorance led me to believe that pellet stove emissions would be very clean.

When I got my pellet stove, I gave my son all my wood stove tools (shovel, poker, tongs, etc.) and my 6 and 8" chimney brush along with thirty foot of rod. I have to laugh because I now have on order a cute little 3" round brush x 20' cable that all coils up into a small pack. My thought was I would just run this through the vent pipe a couple times. Hopefully requiring very little effort.

Is this all I need to do or will the cleaning be more intense?
 
Going into year #4 and over 10 tons later I've never seen
a drop of creosote in the pipes. I run the brush all the way
up (15+ ft) and down a few times until no more ash falls,
then I vac it up and I"m done.
 
That is what I was expecting. I guess some of these pictures I've seen are just from some gross neglect.
 
Fly ash is the biggest problem. Just keep an eye on it.

Eric
 
Ok, thanks for the responses. I feel much better about what to expect come cleaning time. I just checked FedEx and my cleaning brush is being delivered today from NorthlineExpress.com, so I should be all set to go at cleaning time.
 
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