Well this morning I'll see if I knocked my cap off when cleaning the flue for the first time.....I thought I could feel the top and avoided putting pressure.....TBD. I tried the glow stick on the end to find the top in advance and that was just a comedy act, so i just went for it.
The SootEater was easy enough to work up the thirty feet of blanketed continuous flue. A few areas must have some slight bends as it was a tad tough in spots. I kept moving it back and forth......kept losing the little key that disconnects the sections...Took me way longer than I thought, but it was the first time.
The result is 10 ounces at most of mostly gray soot and a thin brown layer of soot from the very top.
I burned mostly very dry wood, 4 years of seasoning, and maybe a half chord of recently split ash.
I also noticed that the edges of my fire brick at the top of the fire box were a bit brittle and a couple of 1/2" pieces flaked off.
Two questions. Does the amount of ash seem consistent with burning 24 7 for most of the winter? Do you think the brittleness of the firebrick was from an overfiring as I did over fire at least once last year when she reached 900?
The SootEater was easy enough to work up the thirty feet of blanketed continuous flue. A few areas must have some slight bends as it was a tad tough in spots. I kept moving it back and forth......kept losing the little key that disconnects the sections...Took me way longer than I thought, but it was the first time.
The result is 10 ounces at most of mostly gray soot and a thin brown layer of soot from the very top.
I burned mostly very dry wood, 4 years of seasoning, and maybe a half chord of recently split ash.
I also noticed that the edges of my fire brick at the top of the fire box were a bit brittle and a couple of 1/2" pieces flaked off.
Two questions. Does the amount of ash seem consistent with burning 24 7 for most of the winter? Do you think the brittleness of the firebrick was from an overfiring as I did over fire at least once last year when she reached 900?
