When should I clean my Flue?....Help please

[Brian512]

Hi everyone, I recently joined this site and have had one question answered that i was completely satisfied with. Now I have a huge question to ask. When should i clean my flue? I have had a stove for 2 years now and this is my second year burning. Some of the wood is seasoned and some is not due to poor stacking which will be fixed in the spring time. I am not a lazy person, so honest opinions are greatly appreciated and i will be cleaning my flue tomorrow if told to do so. I have burned around 2.5 cords of wood so far and i have noticed that the stove is burning at a lower temperature and the wood is taking much longer to burn than it usually does. I took some pictures to show how the flue looks on the inside around 6 feet from the actual stove itself. The stove is a heatilator ws22 with a 6" SS flue pipe. The buildup is coming out as cone shaped and not an even coating, I'm not sure if that is normal. Also, I have been reading that shiny buildup is very dangerous, and I have noticed that is starting to form as you can see in the pictures. The buildup is not 1/8" thick and i read that it should definitely be cleaned if there is 1/4" thick creosote in the pipes. Please check out the pictures and let me know if its time to clean it. I cleaned it once before from the top to the bottom and I will be cleaning from the bottom this time due to all of the snow on my roof. Thank you all in advance for the kind responses. The last thing I want to do is have an unnecessary fire in my flue and burn down my house and destroy my family's life. Thanks again for any input. View attachment 122398 View attachment 122399 View attachment 122400 View attachment 122401 View attachment 122402 View attachment 122403 View attachment 122404 View attachment 122405 View attachment 122406

 

[firefighterjake]

Pics are not working for me.

My answer would be to clean the chimney if you get 1/4 inch of creosote build up. Personally, I inspect and sweep monthly . . . but I am admittedly going overboard as I would never hear the end of it due to my line of work if I ever had a chimney fire.

Most folks here generally sweep once to twice a year. Once at the start of the burning season and once halfway through.

 

[begreen]

No pics seem to be attached. When in doubt or when the wood is suspect, clean it. If you suspect serious glaze creosote you may want to get a pro to work on it.