Did a clean out today.

[SKIN052]

Been wanting to clean the chimney but an injury had me put it off a little longer than I liked. Results were not too bad. A thin layer if black ash all the way up with a fair bit more at the top as is to be expected. Nothing shiny and it all came off with very little effort.

Before


After


Since I was at it I decided to pop open the cover on the pedestal, never had it off before and just wanted to take a look.

Found this, the instruction sheet on how to install the pedestal. I used to re-lite the fire.



Also took a look at the air control, interesting how much air is still allowed in the firebox even at the closed position. I would imagine anyone with a really strong draft could easily modify this to close down the air even more.

Full Open


Full Closed


I had noticed that the blower was not cutting it lately, wonder why? Fair waring to anyone with cats and dogs, this thing was plugged!! I stick a shop vac at it on occasion but the cage around it makes it hard to really get at it. Took the sucker off in less than a minute. Took the air compressor to it and all is good.

Before


After


All done for another couple months.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

Sounds like you are on top of it. Not that big a difference between before and after pics on cleaning so that's a good sign. Good post. I need to do more preventative maintenance.

 

[mepellet]

Many people have modified the site intake to make it smaller. I have experimented with a magnet to block some of the secondary air intake with great results.

 

[SKIN052]

Getting at the secondary air on my stove seems a bit difficult to do, not sure it really possible. I am likely wrong though, lol.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I noticed some smoke starting to come out of the stove when I opened the door to reload the past few days, so I knew it was time to check out my cap. I recently looked at it twice with binoculars and it didn't look bad from the ground. However, once I got up on the roof I could see it was really clogged with sooty ash. No hard creosote, just soft black soot. I took it down and scrubbed it down with a wire brush and got it nice and clean. I was a bit surprised to see about a quarter inch or so of this same fluffy ash lining my SS flue liner. I didn't sweep the chimney today due to the cold weather, but I plan to keep an eye on it. I don't think this fluffy soot poses much of a problem inside the flue. I've been burning very dry wood this year, so I didn't expect so much soot in the pipe or cap.

 

[SKIN052]

Same here Nick, more soot than I expected but no real sign of creosote thankfully.