Clean Your Chimney !!!

[RMK SeVeN]

Have had a wood stove in my house since last winter and its awesome!!

One of my roommates works for a Fire Department that has a chimney sweep program that gives/lends out chimney sweeps. He brought it home so we could use it, I was skeptical because we barely have half a winter of fires through the stove.

Anyways, we used it and HOLY COW the creosote and carbon build up was ridiculous after only a few months of use.

Being a firefighter myself and seeing and going on ALL the chimney fires around these parts (lots of "shaddy" heating around here as it gets to 50 below), please....get your chimney swept, very cheap (sometimes free), and worth not having to worry about it.

Well, that's my rant for the day. Have a good one everyone!

 

[buck50]

no chit!!!!!!!!!!!!! depending on the wood you burn, you will have more or less cresoste build up!!!! we sweep 1X per month. it's easy and takes all of 10 mins or less, and never had a chimney fire yet(knock on wood-or at least wood venier)!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mulestar]

I clean mine twice a year, I am also a fireman (volunteer) and know the importance of keeping the chimney clean. If you are burning pine you really build up fast, I dont have access to any pine so mine stays fairly clean.

Thanks for reminding me, need to get mine done...

 

[wickman]

Beach logs also cause a lot of creosote build up. I am lazy so every so often I would leave the stove door open and get a little chimney fire. After about 10 minutes of jet engine noises I would close the door and let it go out. This is not the recommended way of doing it but I had double wall metal asbestos pipe. I was also a Captain in the fire department so I would notify the office so when the neighbors would call in the chimney fire they would check with me.

 

[Gimpster]

Have a fireplace in the corner of our living room. Been in this house for 6 years. We use it a lot. Had the chimney swept this past spring. They said it never needed to be done.
All I burn in the fireplace is crates that Honda motorcycles used to come shipped on when they were wooden. The stuff burns hot. When cutting up the crates, I will go through a dozen or so chainsaw chains. I still have a stack 10 feet high and 50 yards long that need to be cut up.

----- Gimpster-----

 

[RMK SeVeN]

Have a fireplace in the corner of our living room. Been in this house for 6 years. We use it a lot. Had the chimney swept this past spring. They said it never needed to be done.
All I burn in the fireplace is crates that Honda motorcycles used to come shipped on when they were wooden. The stuff burns hot. When cutting up the crates, I will go through a dozen or so chainsaw chains. I still have a stack 10 feet high and 50 yards long that need to be cut up.

----- Gimpster-----

Lucky guy with all that free wood!!!

Pallets and lumber have no creosote in it, therefore no build up in your stack, therefore no cleaning. Helluva deal for you.

 

[Snow Flake]

Have a fireplace in the corner of our living room. Been in this house for 6 years. We use it a lot. Had the chimney swept this past spring. They said it never needed to be done.
All I burn in the fireplace is crates that Honda motorcycles used to come shipped on when they were wooden. The stuff burns hot. When cutting up the crates, I will go through a dozen or so chainsaw chains. I still have a stack 10 feet high and 50 yards long that need to be cut up.

----- Gimpster-----

Might be oak, a lot of pallets are.

 

[Gimpster]

It's Japanese Hardwood, so Honda says anyway.
I went to cut it with a circular saw a number of years ago.
The saw must have had too much smoke in the wiring because after the 2nd crate it let all the smoke out at once. It ended up as dumpster bait
When they had nailed the boards together on these crates, they used some kind of nails with screw like threads on them. Pulling them out is a big negative, not even with a wrecking bar if you are lucky to work one out enough to get a wrecking bar under the head.
But man do they throw good heat for quite a while when burned !!
Damper down most of the time
Too bad Honda went to steel returnable crates

----- Gimpster -----

 

[WestMont]

No expert here and keeping the chimney clean would be the thing to do but if a chimney fire gets started it can sometimes quickly be extinguished by throwing a cup of water or two into the stove and closing the door. The steam from the water will put out the fire or help control it. Or maybe we were just lucky.

 

[03doo800]

I have burned alot of wood in the 10 years I have had mine, I have it cleaned and inspected every year, I normally get about 4 cups of build up out of it, If you burn a hot fire about once a week it will help keep the buildup out of it.

 

[MARCUSO]

Chimney fires are freaky,

I have noticed that it is not only the type of wood alone that causes build up.

At the lake, we had a wood burning stove, which we had a lot of spruce, and poplar, as well as a lot of veneer, and millwork cutoffs (maple, oak, walnut..etc)

Spruce was the worst, perhaps because of all the sap, I dunno.

I know the stoves created the most soot buildup, I think it is from snuffing out the flames and not letting the flames burn up freely.

One time I went out during the winter, started up the stove, made a good roaring fire to warm up the cabin, then I noticed that the chimney caught on fire, and it was a scary roar for about 3 minutes.... Luckily my father was a bricklayer and we had a ceramic flue.

Never the less it was freaky. even in a block structure.

 

[RMK SeVeN]

No expert here and keeping the chimney clean would be the thing to do but if a chimney fire gets started it can sometimes quickly be extinguished by throwing a cup of water or two into the stove and closing the door. The steam from the water will put out the fire or help control it. Or maybe we were just lucky.

The fires that are scary are the fires that start in the insulation in the ceiling, not much you can do about those, since you don't know their happening until it's too late.

Spruce burns hot and fast but leaves alot behind.

And yes burning it very hot (550-600 degrees) for a while helps quite a bit.

You obtain the most build up when you close the damper off and let the fire kill itself.