Would I have even had to clean my stove pipe this year?

[PA. Woodsman]

We took the inside stove pipe apart and I took it out to wire brush it as I have done many times over the years, and ran the brush up the outer stainless steel part but since I always burn well seasoned wood and burn hot there was only about 1/8" of gray/black soot that brushed off so easily, no tar like creosote and this is after not cleaning it for about 2 years because this is what I always get, it was about the size of two softballs of soot if that, but I wanted to do it for safety's sake plus also wanted to look at the elbow which had a bit of surface rust on it but nothing close to a hole so I just steel wooled it and hit it with stove polish, but would I even have had to cleaned the chimney if this is all that I got? In total it is about 20' of pipe, and I have been doing the cleaning every couple of years for years now and have had no issues, but what do you all think?

Thank you!

 

[Rickb]

I don't get much either because I don't burn a lot, but better safe then sorry. I always use this time to inspect things and verify everything is ready for another burning season.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Clean every year, no matter what. Just to be sure you have a clean chimney when the season starts. I sometimes do a mid season cleaning if my wood is doubtful.

 

[kennyp2339]

I clean mine twice a year and pull out less than 20oz of ash / soot each time, but I like inspecting my system, usually run the brush down the chimney during the January thaw (when the xmas lights come off the house) then again at the end of the season, or of spring is busy, in the fall.
I get much relief doing this, plus I like inspecting my system so I can tweak things, check and make sure my class a is tight (cap and braces) plus its something to do in a boring winter.

 

[bholler]

You are supposed to clean at 1/8" buildup so yes.

 

[maple1]

Elbows can corrode from the inside too, invisibly. And pipe. Leaving a soot or ash layer there year round might help that. So I would do every year just to also make sure it is still solid. The stove pipe T out the back of my gasifying boiler I found had a hole in it just before firing up in the fall for year 5 - kind of blew me away at the time, but I hadn't cleaned that ash out of it since mid-winter. I think that ash laying there trapped or held in some moisture or something over the summer.

 

[billb3]

Inspect and remove whatever is there if anything is there, just like you change the oil in your car with some frequency (usually mileage ).
Inspect for the different kinds of creosote and for system integrity.

I've always burned well seasoned wood, but I've found not choking the air back to slow the burn, like one might to force an overnite fire, or in the shoulder season trying not to have too warm a stove on warmer days and have short hot burns instead, leads to a much cleaner chimney at the end of the season and results in only having to empty a half a cup or less from the cleanout access on the bottom of the T and another half cup or so from the horizontal pipe that goes to the T. I'll get a very thin layer of shiny glaze in the T that looks like the non-stick coating on a pan. It brushes right out.

 

[Woody5506]

I clean mine twice a season, but every time I do I think "wow I really didn't need to do that." I think it's alright to be paranoid and sweep more than you need to though. At the very least, you get a good idea of your burning habits based on the amount of soot and color. Mine is also pretty easy to do, so I figure why not.


A buddy of mine who has a tougher setup to clean than mine (a couple 90's, then up maybe 15-18') with an old Earth stove finally had a chimney sweep come out to clean after he's burned in it for 4-5 years with no prior cleaning even to moving into the house, despite my nagging to him of needing to get it done yearly and blah blah blah. Chimney sweep apparently looked at it from the top, claimed it was clean, gave the pipe a few knocks and said he couldn't hear anything falling off the sides so it didn't need a cleaning. Maybe as a novice burner I'm wrong here, but I would think if you can hear stuff falling down the chimney after knocking on it, then you're not only due for a cleaning, but also WAY overdue. Seems irresponsible of the chimney sweep in my opinion to say it was good enough.

 

[edyit]

i clean mine 2x a year, peace of mind is priceless, especially for as easy as it is for me to clean mine

 

[jatoxico]

I use a SootEater and can tell I have zones where there is buildup so though overall I don't get all that much soot, it's localized so at least once a year for me too.

 

[kbrown]

Just finished cleaning mine tonight - Agree with the rest of the comments here; it's priceless piece of mind to know your chimney is clean and the system has an overall check. For my system, that means all bricks come out of the stove, get brushed if any heavy black spots, inspected for breaks, etc. Doing this today I found the air wash gasket needed replacement so new one is on the way. Just a good feeling to know things are where they need to be for when the season really gets going.

 

[bholler]

Just finished cleaning mine tonight - Agree with the rest of the comments here; it's priceless piece of mind to know your chimney is clean and the system has an overall check. For my system, that means all bricks come out of the stove, get brushed if any heavy black spots, inspected for breaks, etc. Doing this today I found the air wash gasket needed replacement so new one is on the way. Just a good feeling to know things are where they need to be for when the season really gets going.

Why do you pull the bricks? I never touch them unless they are cracked bad enough they no longer stay in place