Proper cleaning? Stove doesn't seem to be getting up to temp.

[Planeweird]

Hey Nokoni. I just hooked up my F3 a couple of days ago. You're in Cinci right? I know it's not too cold but I can't help but burn these past couple of days. I'm learning the stove right now and love it.

Who are you using for your sweep?

 

['bert]

i know that I have seen Elkimeg over the arborist site, but for some reason he has not posted here in a long time. Something about someone sending him a PM that PO'ed him, I don't think the real story ever came out. Too bad he had some good posts back in the day.

 

[Nokoni]

Well I had my stove cleaned in August. Normally two guys come to move my stove out from the wall since there is not a clean out accessible. It has to be unscrewed from the pipe into wall and cleaned and then rescrewed into the pipe. This has never been a problem in the past, had stove about five years. But, this time only one guy came and I helped him move the stove out. He didn't get on the roof, just hooked up the vac. I asked him about not getting on the roof and he said he was using the, can't remember the name, but something like the terminator machine (or something similar) and didn't need to get on the roof. I thought okay whatever.
But, now I've noticed that my stove doesn't seem to be getting up to temp. It gets fired up when I open up the ash drawer to let a blast of air in, but once i close it it kind of dies down and won't get roaring.
So, my questions are:
Is it okay to clean the pipe without getting on the roof?
Could this be the reason I seem to not be getting a good temp?

I have a Jotul F3 and I usually run it between 400-500 degrees.
Thanks!

 

[Nokoni]

p.s. the thing that the guy used on my stove is called the "viper". I put a call into my stove place and will talk with someone tomorrow, but would LOVE to have input and advice before then if you all have any ideas.

 

[BrotherBart]

Good to see ya again Nokoni. You know that stove well and have burned in it for a long time. If it changed after the sweep then he messed up something. Impress that on the guy when you talk to him. Personally I would never go with a bottom up sweep because a major part of the sweeping process is inspection of the chimney top to bottom. It is entirely possible to push a pile of soot up around the top of a liner around the top inside of a small chimney cap and kill draft. The Viper is a slick tool. From the top down.

Also, something to look at with the F3 is to put a glove on and reach up over the top of the baffle and scoop whatever piled up on top of it when the pipe was disconnected out the front of it.

 

[Nokoni]

Hey Brotherbart, great to see you too! It has been a while. I thought it was funky not to clean from the top down but I figured he is the stove guy not me. Sometimes you gotta go with your gut. Hopefully the will just redo the sweep and no problems. They have cleaned it every year so far and no problems at all. I'll let you know how it turns out. What ever happened to Elkimeg?

 

[Linesider]

I have the 3 cb also, love the stove, it should burn 400-500 no problem at all. Wood dry? I recently used a pool hose attached to the shop vac which was left outside to clean up over the baffle, it's tough to get up there unless you take the pipe off.

 

[Nokoni]

So they chimney cleaner came out and redid the sweep. This time from the top down. They left, I fired up my stove and it got up to temp with no problem. Obviously something to do with the first sweep was keeping the stove from getting up to temp. What do you think it could have been?

 

[Todd]

I bet the cap was plugged up some and he made it worse by sweeping from bottom up.

 

[Nokoni]

planeweird, yes I am in Cincinnati and use Chimney Works. They put in the stove and sweep it.

 

[jtp10181]

I would guess the cap was partially plugged, you will never get that clean enough from the bottom.

Question, why does your insert need to come out? Do you have a direct connect install without a full liner?

Most stoves you just take out the top baffles and sweep all the crap right into the firebox, leaving the insert in its place.

 

[Nokoni]

it is a freestanding stove not an insert. The reason they have to move it out is that the cleanout trap is behind the wall inside the old fireplace. The pipe goes right into the micore wall and up the chimney. Kind of confusing that way, but it works for us.