I finally cleaned my chimney for the first time this season...

[burntime]

I insulated the liner and can tell you that even in an interior chimney it made a big difference. I have 3 cords thru it and maybe had a coffee cup to two of flacky ash. No shiney stuff here! Also the only accumulation I could see was the top 2 inchs. It really did not need cleaning but I figured I was there with the brushes, what the hey. ;-) Wisconsin has some real frigid weather, like 2 weeks of -10 plus degree temp nights so if there was going to be a lot of accumulation it would have happened.

 

[lazeedan]

I removed the my cap today and was amazed how clean my liner was. I Just tapped the cap a couple times to knock a very little off.Then put it back on. Most of the wood I burned this year was split in April and May. I think I've got half of my wood for next year. Now that all the snow has melted it's time to get in the woods. Maybe I will get a year ahead. That's my goal this year.

 

[Highbeam]

I did it too this last weekend. It was not worth my efforts for the measly half cup of coffee grounds that I got but no harm was done by over cleaning and the peace of mind is worth it.

I actually find that the colder it is and the harder I burn the stove that the cleaner the whole system gets. It is the warm weather with low fire rates and lots of restarts that leads to gunk accumulation.

 

[RonB]

I actually find that the colder it is and the harder I burn the stove that the cleaner the whole system gets. It is the warm weather with low fire rates and lots of restarts that leads to gunk accumulation.

Ditto to that Highbeam.

 

[forby]

I too cleaned my chimney for the first time a few weeks ago. I got a half cup of brownish-white dust (mostly settled in the cleanout). There was a few black flakes from the top of the chimney near the cap, I clean bottom-up. I assume the black flakes were from the 5 or 6 times that I foolishly used newspaper to start a fire.

 

[Gark]

Our SS liner (singlewall) was bad with creosote. Mostly at the top 6' where the cold kept the pipe from heating enough. Got about 5 cups of the shiny black stuff out. Three things to blame it on. The wood was only gathered, split and stacked early summer. We can't burn 24/7 very much, startup fires with damper open are frequent. The liner needs to be insulated. Have enough wood for next winter and I need to confirm that vermiculite is safe to use for filling the space between the SS liner and the clay liner flue it runs through. Has anyone done vermiculite? Is there a product made for insulating around SS rigid?