Chimney cleaned first time in 6 years

[mrc]

Over 42 cords of wood over six years. 10’ of double wall inside the house. 5’ of triple wall above the cathedral ceiling and 3‘ of triple wall exterior. Hearthstone Mansfield stove. Always burn hot and firewood is seasoned two years. Chimney goes straight out the peak of the
roof. No bends. Nothing in the 8 ft. of triple wall and maybe a cup and a half of light grey powder out of the 10 ft. of double wall.Chimney
Sweep said it was really clean.
Went to the garage next. 16ft of single wall and 8 ft of tipple wall. 24 ft straight thru the peak. Hearthstone Equinox stove. Been used
ten years and probably at least 25 cords of wood. First cleaning. About two cups of black creosote. Nothing in the triple wall. It was in the single wall. Are my results suprising?

 

[Todd]

Sounds great, keep doing what your doing.

 

[stoveliker]

No. Why? Because you burn dry wood and don't burn too slow.

Good wood. Good habits. Good job.

 

[PaulBunyun]

No. Why? Because you burn dry wood and don't burn too slow.

Good wood. Good habits. Good job.

What do you mean by not burning too slow?

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Sounds like you were confident and that’s why you went so long without sweeping. Your intuition was right. Good going.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

What do you mean by not burning too slow?

I’m guessing he meant with low air. The less air going in stove, the “ slower” the burn.

 

[stoveliker]

Yes, slow = smoldering. If the temperature in the firebox is not high enough, things don't burn to completion, resulting in more smoke, which produces creosote, especially when the flue is not warm enough to prevent major condensation.

 

[mrc]

I had read all the posts of people cleaning sometimes two or three times a season but I didn’t think I needed that. I happened to see the chimney sweep working on someone’s chimney the other day so I decided to see if I was doing
O.K. Cost me $240 dollars a chimney to find out. I would have done it myself but both my chimneys had to be cleaned from the inside and would have been hard by myself. 19ft to the ceiling in the garage and the slip section is near the top. It took three of us to do the garage with me helping. I was wondering if the glass on your woodstove
predicts how dirty your chimney will be. I burned all season last year and never cleaned the glass and all it had was
a light white dust on it.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

That white dust is a great indication that your burning at least hot enough to burn clean. The glass can also be a great indicator if you have any air leaks in the door or glass gasket ( you’ll start getting darker buildup in the area of the leak).

 

[ispinwool]

@mrc ...which reminds me of a question I've asked my (former) sweep a few times..."how much did you get out?"
Because I honestly wanted to know if I'm burning correctly.
He said that he "doesn't dump his Shop-Vac after each customer so can't tell me".
(I've f.i.n.a.l.l.y. convinced my hubby that we can do it ourselves...this spring will tell the tale )

 

[GrumpyDad]

It's good that there was minimal creosote, but was a dangerous game to play not having it swept sooner. I have a gas fireplace at home but at our camp we have a fireplace and stove. I just got the stove though. But, I always sweep the fireplace at least once a year. We do burn wet (sometimes frozen) wood in the fireplace. I dont calculate how much I get out because I do a top down clean, and never remember to clean the floor of the fireplace prior well enough to collect and measure my cleanings, but I would imagine I get about a cup each cleaning from what I can recall. It's always very fine black stuff. And that's again, for a weekend camp and we usually have a fire going from Friday evening until Sunday morning.

 

[mrc]

We were going straight into a bucket and had the vacuum going at the top to collect any dust that came up.
I could see everything that was falling in. I felt comfortable because I do not burn wet wood, I have smooth
pipe that goes straight up with no bends, it is inside the house to highest point in the ceiling, and I burn hot and don’t choke it done to a smolder. I don’t have smoke rolling down around my house. Most people would never know I was burning wood. All you see is heat waves coming out of the chimney. Is your camp fireplace using a masonry
chimney.The chimney sweep told me the smooth wall pipe is usually cleaner than masonry chimneys.

 

[cahaak]

I cleaned my pipe about two weeks ago for the first time after three years of burning. I got about two cups of very fine fluffy soot out. Four feet of single wall and 23' of insulated SS double wall, all straight up. We burn dry wood, nearly continuously. Outside air intake. Love our stove.