Hello, I have been lurking for a bit but never posted before and probably wouldn't have had to now but I just thought I would register and become part of the community. I have been burning wood my entire life, all of our neighbors burned wood growing up, we used to have wood cutting parties, basically it has been a part of my life forever.
7 year ago we moved into our current house and after getting a fire going and burning constant for 3 days and still not getting any heat from it I knew we had to do something different. We had a Clydesdale insert and new liner installed. This thing has been great, it put out a lot of heat and has really helped keep the gas bill down, we basically use it every day starting late Oct. to March. Now here comes the confession..I have never cleaned my chimney. Growing up we cleaned our chimney from our basement furnace about 1 time a month but we never cleaned the fireplace chimney so I just never thought about it. Now after doing some browsing I see that yes it should be cleaned and I will get to it once it warms up enough to not be using it and I can let it cool down and clean it out. Here comes the question....what is the preferred brush/method for these thin liners? Any special tricks to it so I don't damage anything? It has been in use for about 6 years without being cleaned so we'll see how much comes out. I typically take the screen cap off each year and clean that off, more stuff sticks to it since it is out in the cold and when I look down my chimney it doesn't look like there is much in there. I only burn 2+ year dried oak and I keep the fire hot, hot enough that the glass doesn't need to be cleaned. Thanks
7 year ago we moved into our current house and after getting a fire going and burning constant for 3 days and still not getting any heat from it I knew we had to do something different. We had a Clydesdale insert and new liner installed. This thing has been great, it put out a lot of heat and has really helped keep the gas bill down, we basically use it every day starting late Oct. to March. Now here comes the confession..I have never cleaned my chimney. Growing up we cleaned our chimney from our basement furnace about 1 time a month but we never cleaned the fireplace chimney so I just never thought about it. Now after doing some browsing I see that yes it should be cleaned and I will get to it once it warms up enough to not be using it and I can let it cool down and clean it out. Here comes the question....what is the preferred brush/method for these thin liners? Any special tricks to it so I don't damage anything? It has been in use for about 6 years without being cleaned so we'll see how much comes out. I typically take the screen cap off each year and clean that off, more stuff sticks to it since it is out in the cold and when I look down my chimney it doesn't look like there is much in there. I only burn 2+ year dried oak and I keep the fire hot, hot enough that the glass doesn't need to be cleaned. Thanks
