Interior Stove Pipe Cleaning

[spendaviscpa]

Hello Hearth.com members!

I’m a long time reader of this site even though I don’t post very often. I cleaned my chimney last week with the trusty soot eater. I have a through the wall and up the side of my house type chimney. I’ve got 21 feet of Class A. I clean from the bottom up. I was very surprised that I got so little from the cleaning. I barely had a light dusting in the bag that I taped to the clean out! A few flakes did come off the screen at the top. Also, I did clean mid season last year as it was my first year with this house/stove/chimney. At that time I got about the same, not much. I try to have good burning practices and burn good wood. Now on to my question;

Is there any reason to disassemble the interior double wall stove pipe and clean it? I’ve probably got 3 feet, a 90 degree elbow, another 18 inches, and then into the Class A. It would be a mild pain to take it apart. I feel with the lack of creosote in the Class A, I’d almost be wasting my time to clean the stove pipe. I did a good inspection/cleaning of the stove and everything looks good. What does everyone think?

Thanks!

 

[Chettt]

I have a similar set up and I pull mine off to clean it mostly because in my mind a chimney fire would start where the temperatures are highest which would be nearest the stove.

 

[spendaviscpa]

Thanks for the reply Chettt. That’s not the answer I wanted to hear! It just seams reasonable with such a clean chimney, how could there be any creosote in the stove pipe. I like piece of mind too, so I better take it apart tomorrow…

Thanks again!

 

[pen]

I vote for checking it this year so that you can compare how clean it is to the chimney.

If it looks pristine, then you'll know for sure and can adjust accordingly in future years. Without checking though, you (and us) are flying blind.

pen

 

[mhrischuk]

Do they make a brush with a snake rod? I mean a rod that can easily go through a 90?

 

[jrcurto]

I cant get a 6" brush all the way down from the chimney pipe to the stove due to one 45 at the double wall just above the stove. What I did was buy a smaller pellet stove brush and run it up from inside the stove, works fine. Another advantage of the top-loading Jotul Rangely.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Depending upon the stove you could also use a shop vac and stick it into the flue to suck up anything. Usually only fly ash there but still has to be cleaned every so often. Usually you'll find the most junk at the top of the chimney but if you have a leak, then you'll get some creosote at the leak.

 

[DexterDay]

How about the Soot- Eater? I bought one and did my chimney (new install, I wanted practice for the upcoming season/ the quicker the better) Its a basement install with 4 ft vertical, 90*, 3 ft horizontal, Clean-out T, and 18 ft of Triple wall Class A. The best money I spent on a cleaning tool for the woodstove. I would buy the pellet stove model for my pellet stoves, but I have a Lint-Eater and it works great on them. Really easy and straight forward.

 

[remkel]

Hello Hearth.com members!

I’m a long time reader of this site even though I don’t post very often. I cleaned my chimney last week with the trusty soot eater. I have a through the wall and up the side of my house type chimney. I’ve got 21 feet of Class A. I clean from the bottom up. I was very surprised that I got so little from the cleaning. I barely had a light dusting in the bag that I taped to the clean out! A few flakes did come off the screen at the top. Also, I did clean mid season last year as it was my first year with this house/stove/chimney. At that time I got about the same, not much. I try to have good burning practices and burn good wood. Now on to my question;

Is there any reason to disassemble the interior double wall stove pipe and clean it? I’ve probably got 3 feet, a 90 degree elbow, another 18 inches, and then into the Class A. It would be a mild pain to take it apart. I feel with the lack of creosote in the Class A, I’d almost be wasting my time to clean the stove pipe. I did a good inspection/cleaning of the stove and everything looks good. What does everyone think?

Thanks!

The sooteater should go around the 90 degree- if you are able to snake it in there through the stove that may be an option for you.

 

[firefighterjake]

Hello Hearth.com members!

I’m a long time reader of this site even though I don’t post very often. I cleaned my chimney last week with the trusty soot eater. I have a through the wall and up the side of my house type chimney. I’ve got 21 feet of Class A. I clean from the bottom up. I was very surprised that I got so little from the cleaning. I barely had a light dusting in the bag that I taped to the clean out! A few flakes did come off the screen at the top. Also, I did clean mid season last year as it was my first year with this house/stove/chimney. At that time I got about the same, not much. I try to have good burning practices and burn good wood. Now on to my question;

Is there any reason to disassemble the interior double wall stove pipe and clean it? I’ve probably got 3 feet, a 90 degree elbow, another 18 inches, and then into the Class A. It would be a mild pain to take it apart. I feel with the lack of creosote in the Class A, I’d almost be wasting my time to clean the stove pipe. I did a good inspection/cleaning of the stove and everything looks good. What does everyone think?

Thanks!

I took my stove pipe apart last year and this year . . . and found very little accumulation inside. Based on this I think next Fall I will skip a year . . . which is saying something from a guy like me who diligently checks and cleans his chimney once a month in the winter even with very little creosote build up.

For your own peace of mind you might want to at least inspect the stove pipe this year . . . but if you are good and the chimney still stays clean it might be fine for skipping the cleaning next year.

 

[DanCorcoran]

I think (others may correct me) that the heaviest creosote accumulation is usually where the pipe is coolest, as this condenses the creosote.