PICS! Cleaned Chimney For First Time This Season ('07-'08) - Needed It Bad!

[kolbyTheDog]

Well, I wanted to clean my chimney last week, but Lowes only carries steel brushes, Home Depot doesn't carry any chimney stuff at all, and my local Menards was out of stock on the poly brush. I had to go to another Menards in another town to find a poly brush. One 6" poly brush was $7.69 and I got two 48" fiberglass rods for $3.89 ea so materials total was $15.47. So now I was able to get on the roof today and do some cleaning!

This is my first season burning wood. I was up on the roof only one other time this season and I didn't take the cap off, just whacked the wire mesh with a small steel brush to clean off the creosote that had built up. Well, I guess I should have gone up there a couple of times this season to clean things up. No wonder the last few weeks the house has been smoky every time I open the stove up to load it and it was so hard to get a fire started. Now that it's clean the stove is running like a top tonight!

The first picture shows the cap BEFORE cleaning.

Second Picture is of the inside of the cap laying on the roof upside down. Big chucks of stuff stuck in here and laying loose. I can't believe air could pass out through this!

Third picture is looking down into the chimney before cleaning.

Fourth picture is looking down into the chimney into the stove (I put a trouble light in the stove to light up the inside of the chimney).

Fifth pic is of the cap all cleaned up!

Sixth is a pic of all the junk I cleaned out of the cap in a box I took up on the roof with me.

Final pic is all the creosote that I brushed down into the stove out of the chimney with the brush.

 

[berlin]

It's always the last foot or two and the spark screen where the creosote/soot builds up the most due to cooling/slowing of the exhaust gasses. looks about right for a season for many people.

 

[RonB]

Hi kolby, Thanks for the pictures (really good). These are good illustrations for newbies of what creosote is and the possible issues related to it building up as it did in yours. The down the chimney shot looks like there is tons of it built up. How much did you actually sweep out? Estimate it for us.

 

[kolbyTheDog]

I would say there was probably at least 1/4 a pound of crud stuck in the cap and another half pound of powder that I brushed out of the the chimney which is 6 feet of SS and another 6 feet of stove pipe in the room with the stove. I plan to add another 3 feet to the SS chimney before next winter, but I will need to add a roof brace to the stack.

The creosote wasn't really all that bad in the chimney just below where the cap connected. I took this picture zooming down past the top level of crud.

 

[eernest4]

Dear Colby,

Thanks for thr pic's. I appreciated them. Gonna do my chimney in april or may because of your pics, but some how, I don't expect it to be as bad as yours was.

 

[Ken45]

Good photos. Thanks!

 

[savageactor7]

Excellent documentary Kolby...looks like we'll be calling for the sweep soon. btw Curious to learn what kind of stove are you using?

 

[Corie]

Good pictures!

I think I'll take some myself when I get up on the roof for the end of year cleaning. I'm pretty sure I'll still be lighting a fire or two, so I'm not going up here yet. I cleaned it on New Years Eve at about 10PM anyway.

 

[moondoggy]

nice way to celebrate new years corie... alone w/your flue, sitting on the roof w/champange?

that seems like a lot, esp on that cap.
strange i'm almost looking forward to doing this though, like i'd never sweep my garage and say "hey all, look at my dirt!" but I we're all
oh ah wow at each others flue crud... I love this place.

eernest- your probably gonna find a seat cushion or hummel figure from a china cabinet up there. (just ribbing ya man, i know your good burner now)

 

[billb3]

Nice pics.
All my years of burning wood I've never seen more than grey dust.

 

[Jags]

Holy Crap! Am I the only one that looks at those pics and shudders? I would be really concerned if my stack had that kind of build up. I go 2 years between sweeps (pro sweeps) and it doesn't look anything like that.

KolbyTheDog - what kind of stack temps do you run? Do you have an EPA stove or Pre-EPA? How much wood do you burn in a season? I ask these as a concerned fellow wood burner. I am not trying to dog you out, but by the looks of that pipe, I would have serious concerns for safety and stack fires.

 

[Chettt]

Great photo's and post for this time of the year. Do you think a bigger cap that allows more flow would have less build up?

 

[burntime]

I thought the same thing Jags, I sweep mine mid season and end, and it is no where near that. I get about a coffee cup at most and its in the top 4 feet like someone said. I could make it easily thru-out the season but its like patting yourself on the back to confirm its burning well

 

[Rich M]

That's a chimney fire waiting to happen, the liquid creosote dripping from the cap should have been your first clue you have serious problems. Wet wood, smoldering fires, not burning hot enough could all be contributing factors. A full season of proper 24/7 burning should only produce a few cups of powdery soot at most. If you can't correct the cause you should sweep a lot more often.

 

[backpack09]

By the looks of the opening/firebricks I am going to GUESS its a Englander nc13 or something very similar.

 

[bbc557ci]

That would scare the chitt out'a me.


edit;;; I just went outside with my binoculars and took a look at the cap. Nothing stuck to it, looks clear. But after seeing these pictures, 1st decent day I'll be up there with a ladder peeling the cap off to look down the chimney.

 

[BrotherBart]

By the looks of the opening/firebricks I am going to GUESS its a Englander nc13 or something very similar.

Regency.

 

[eba1225]

Holy Cr*&,

That is really thick. Mine was bad but not that bad. Great pics. I have placed it into memory that the first warm spell after Christmas I will clean the chimney to insure a good burn through the whole season.

Were you experiencing any degradation in the operation of your stove? Mine wasn't as bad and I did experience a degradation.

Erik

 

[keyman923]

Thats alot of cresote and I think adding another section will just make more cresote, hope I'm wrong, looks like you need to sweep twice a year or ever time you clean the cap run at least 1 section of rod and brush to clean up the last 4 ft.

 

[bbc557ci]

I'm a newb, but seems to me hotter start ups and longer hot burn time is in order. Dry wood too.

 

[granpajohn]

I cleaned it on New Years Eve at about 10PM anyway.

There's gotta be a story here that Corie's not telling us.
How about this:
"Honey, I promised to clean the chimney this year and I definitely will. I still have 2 whole hours; now please stop nagging."
(Hope you don't mind the joking....)

 

[woodconvert]

"Cleaned Chimney For First Time This Season (’07-’08) - Needed It Bad!"

Holy cripes man. Playin' with fire there. Consider yourself lucky.

 

[kolbyTheDog]

Stove is a Regency R6 "large" free standing stove. It is a 1991 model and is EPA cert.

I think my problem was wet wood. I need to get a moisture meter to be for sure, but my gut and the weight of some of my splits makes me think it could have been drier.

YES I totally noticed a degradation in performance over the past few weeks. I have had a really hard time getting a East West fire going. It would just sit and smolder. I could only get North / South log fires to work. I also had to leave the stove door cracked for quite awhile to get the stove temp up enough to then be able to close the flue (500+ degrees on the stove top). I would also have to reopen the flue and even the door sometimes mid load in order to re-light the fire.... I guess with a clogged cap too much CO2 was building up in the firebox and opening the door a bit added oxygen to the fire and helped with the draft.

The biggest sign that there were problems was the progressively worse smoke problem in the room where the stove is every time I would open the stove door to reload. I only had about 10 seconds to throw splits in before the smoke alarm would go off in the room. The whole house would quickly have a smoke oder.

I was amazed at the fire I had going last night. I actually saw sustained secondary burn again! I thought my stove had forgotten how to do that! Also, the stove got hot and stayed hot for a long time. It used to be that I could get the stove up to to temp but it would drop down into the mid 300s for the whole burn, that probably didn't help my creosote problem.

From now on, if I can't see daylight through my cap from the ground, I know I need to get on the roof and do some cleaning!

 

[colebrookman]

Man I hope you live close to a fire dept. Keep a roof ladder ready if you're going to run your chimney full of flammable creosote. You do have Co & smoke alarms?!!

 

[michaelthomas]

What type of chimney pipe are you using?