There's a guy at the health club who is a fellow Tile Fire owner, and we chat from time to time about wood burning. He burns a couple cords a year in his Kent, which came along with the house he bought four years ago (yeah, bad time to buy...). By experimenting, he's arrived at pretty much the same techniques of burning the local species in it as I have, though his stove is unmodified.
Winter is intensifying here this weekend, so out of curiosity, I asked him about his chimney (6" Class A) and when and how he last brushed it. After a short "deer in the headlights" moment, he said he'd never brushed it. His cleaning technique, passed on to him by the previous owners, is to burn a load in the stove REALLY hot, until the magnetic thermometer a foot above the stove top on the connecting pipe falls off, indicating that the creosote inside has been burned off too.
My jaw literally dropped. I couldn't believe what I heard. I asked him, please, do not do this again, you are literally playing with fire, your chimney needs to be cleaned and inspected at least annually. And I offered at the next warm spell to come out with my rods and brush and show him how to do it.
It is amazing some of the things folks do...
Winter is intensifying here this weekend, so out of curiosity, I asked him about his chimney (6" Class A) and when and how he last brushed it. After a short "deer in the headlights" moment, he said he'd never brushed it. His cleaning technique, passed on to him by the previous owners, is to burn a load in the stove REALLY hot, until the magnetic thermometer a foot above the stove top on the connecting pipe falls off, indicating that the creosote inside has been burned off too.
My jaw literally dropped. I couldn't believe what I heard. I asked him, please, do not do this again, you are literally playing with fire, your chimney needs to be cleaned and inspected at least annually. And I offered at the next warm spell to come out with my rods and brush and show him how to do it.
It is amazing some of the things folks do...