How often to clean chimney?
 

Hi there,

I have a wood burning fireplace in my house, it is roughly 4 years old now. How often is it necessary to clean it out? I understand there are a lot of factors at play. We do burn a lot of popular wood.

Appreciate any insight.

Thank you

At least once per year, but it will depend on the type of stove you have, the type of wood burned and how the stove is operated.

Maybe fireplace is different, I thought it said stove

Curious if anyone has used those Chimney Sweeping Logs that bind the creosote in the chimney to make it brittle and safe?

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/c...-0642723p.html

X2
I wouldn't trust the logs.

You’ll clean a lot less if you familiarize yourself with then”gasification” method of burning wood.

Our airtight wood stove runs pretty constant all winter, I clean our piping about every 6-8 weeks. As said, different factors contribute to how often you need to clean it. Our stove is in the basement and the piping goes all the way to our roof so build up happens a bit more as the wood byproducts cool heading up the piping. I always air on the side of caution and clean regularly....

My wood stove i clean the chimney twice a year, usally only the top couple feet have build up in it, but it does not take very long, and is great insurance.

Once or twice yearly, but I make a point of burning a hot fire when I first start it, to reduce creosote build up . I have a burn indicator on the chimney to give me temperatures, so I know what's going on up there. Also mix wood to give me the best combustion.

Grizz

I usually burn one of those logs just before I clean the pipe, it's supposed to loosen the build up, but to be honest, I don't know how effective it is

chimney clean
 

I clean our chimney each fall before we use it. We burn about cord of birch each winter. The amount of soot coming out of chimney when you clean it will tell you how often to clean. I only get about liter of soot each annual cleaning.

X3, The best thing you can do is burn well seasoned (dry) wood and run your unit at a higher temperature.

In other words, don't choke it down so much that it just smokes along in an effort to extend your wood supply and burn times.

Burning poplar is fine, as long as it's not green. Poplar seems to contain a lot of moisture and needs to be split and well seasoned before burning.

I run a wood stove, burn almost two cords/year and am down to cleaning every two years as I do it myself. I get about enough ash/deposits to fill a 500ml yogurt container, no more.

Now that being said, since you use a fireplace and not a stove, you may need to clean more often even if you're doing everything right. I believe a fireplace lacks the equipment that a wood stove has that contributes to very efficient burns. By equipment I mean either a catalytic or secondary burners to aid in more complete combustion.

Chim chimney chim chim cheree
 

We burn mostly Pine, Spruce, and some Poplar in our wood stove. I clean it about three times a year. In the cold dead of winter, its burning most nights.

I bought a SS brush and those fiberglass rods and it makes quick work of the job. I would say I brush down 2-3 liters of dry brown crispy material each time.

I had a friend lose his house due to a chimney fire once.

I burn at least 3 cords a year and after 2 years I checked and there wasn’t even enough build up to warrant a cleaning.

That being said, is your stove of modern design and does it meet current specifications and codes?

I know in Calgary you can't get a permit to install stoves that don't meet current certifications. It's illegal to install a chimney dampener on those units and modern stoves don't allow you to close down combustion air beyond a certain point, in order to ensure efficient burns.

Also, how do you run your stove with respect to burn temperatures and burning properly seasoned wood?

Many factors can effect chimney build up. Proper design, operation and fuel, as well as periodic cleanings to evaluate build up, go a long way to greatly reducing the risk of chimney fires,

Cleaning as often as you are and getting as much product removed as you do, something seems amiss.

Cleaning
 

It really comes down to your chimney and the wood. I was once a year with my fireplace insert that was a straight up 7 inch chimney. It was not the most economical stove and had good draft so it didn't soot up much wver.

Last year was my first full season burn with my new Equinox woodstoves plumbed into the old 7 inch chimney. It's terrible. The Equinox is an 8 inch so as soon as you choke it down it slows the draft cools the flue and is a great spot to build up creosote. We will be replacing it in a few weeks. With this set up we are having to clean once per month and it's filthy at the joints and bends.

The bigger and hotter the fires the less trouble I have at months end. Small colder fires lead to more build up.

Those logs are a waste of money look at the ingredients. Just chuck an aluminum can in the coals once a week it does the same thing you get a drier flaking creosote rather than a softer tar build up.

After all is said and done how dry your wood is is the most important thing and the type of wood. I think poplar is a pretty wet wood so worse than others and takes longer to dry. We don't have it here in BC I burn western alder, and some pine. We don't have hardwoood.

I probably clean my chimney out 3 times a year maybe 4. I burn constantly during the winter. Will do it once before the season starts once or twice during if i get up to shovel the snow off the roof and then once again at the end of the winter.

Great feedback so far. So does everyone recommend just buying a brush and cleaning it myself? I got a quote and it was $350 to clean my chimney. Seems a bit much...

Thank you

I try to do mine twice a year. Once at the start of the season and one in January/February depending on how much use it sees.

I purchased a Sooteater cleaning kit as opposed to using one of the stiff bristled ones.
It's flexible enough that I can put it through the bottom of the stove and push it up the chimney as opposed to having to go up on the roof and work down.
It has been well worth the price and does a great job with no chance of me falling off the roof.

I would if your comfortable getting on the roof. I think my brush and rods cost less than 80$. I would also consider an ash vacuum like a shop vac only for cleaning wood stoves etc... my parents didn’t have one and used a regular vacuum... ended up having to repaint the entire basement after the bag blew up in them.

for maximum cleaning efficiency with one of those cleaning logs you need to remove the rain cap , thrown the log down the chimney and then go fishing so your wife has to clean up the mess .

Simple if it's accessible. Remove the chimney cap and have at er. Brush and rods aren't hard to come by.

Grizz

It is a very good idea to have a very skinny wife. Tie a rope securely around her ankles and lower her down slowly as she brushes on the way down. Make sure she showers as soon as she comes out the bottom before she continues on with other house hold duties. :)

Wow! $350! I do mine about every three weeks. Kind of a crappy set up on the stove, I have to cool it down, brush then take the pipe apart and use a shop vac to clean it out of the stove. There isn't a port to dump it out of.

Smokey, you are in danger of sitting by a warm fire by yourself. Even if she only hears about your response you will be sleeping in the cold guest bedroom. However interesting approach to cleaning the chimney.

In the bad old days, they had small boys do that. Hard to believe.

Grizz

I ran my fireplace with 1.5-2 cords per year of dried birch and had the cleaned after about 5 years when we first moved in. I used this Kathite stuff that used to be used in industrial coal fired plants from Canadian Tire where you throw 2 scoops into the fire. The guys came out to clean the chimney and said it had next to no buildup. I do the cleaning every year late summer just to get the receipt for insurance purposes and piece of mind.

http://www.kathite.ca/

The product is dry brown/black crumbles, not flammable. maybe 2 liters each clean.

Wow, that still sounds like a lot based on my experience and others in this thread. It is what it is I guess.

Do you have any type of temperature device on your stove to tell you what heat range you're running it in?

Do you run it choked right down to the minimum air inlet often?

1x per year is lots if your burning hot, and properly seasoned wood.

In shoulder seasons if your burning more smouldering lower temp fires clean more often.

I find a smaller really hot fire in morning has best result for keeping chimney clean.


Damp wood or smouldering fires , poor draft will create alot of creosote.