Cleaning The Chimney Cap

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BigV

Member
Hearth Supporter
Oct 1, 2006
139
Akron, OH
Warm today in Akron, OH, high 60 degrees, so I decided to give my chimney a good "freshen up" check and clean for creosote build-up since I have been running now 24/7 for about 2 mounts. Took the chimney cap off and the inside was coated in wet creosote, maybe 1/32" to 1/16" thick. I set it aside and cleaned the chimney got maybe 1/2 to 1 cup of dried creosote out. Then tried to get the cap cleaned up with little luck using a wire brush. I pulled out the trusty soldering tank loaded with Map Gas and went to work heating up the cap. In about 10 minutes all the wet creosote dried up and some even ignited. After that, a few strokes with the wire brush and it was like new. Anyone else use map gas (or propane) to clean their chimney cap of wet creosote??
 
No, but I was thinking about trying it. I have been afraid that it might catch fire and do a lot of damage.
If it catches fire and gets too hot, it might warp it if I try to put out the fire.
You said that some of yours caught fire, how fast/hot did it burn?
 
treeman08 said:
No, but I was thinking about trying it. I have been afraid that it might catch fire and do a lot of damage.
If it catches fire and gets too hot, it might warp it if I try to put out the fire.
You said that some of yours caught fire, how fast/hot did it burn?
I used Map Gas which burns hotter than propane. It only caught fire for 10 to 15 seconds. I got some areas red hot and no warping occurred. The creosote bubbles up quickly and cools very fast. All that’s left is flakes of dried creosote that comes off very easy.
 
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