Shut stove down for season - your routine?

First issue I have is, when is the stove shutdown. We might do a fire in June. But when I do say it's over, I don't do much, clean out ash, pledge the outside and the wife puts a few candles inside and flowers on top. I always plan on getting a head start for next season, brushing the chimney. But never have. Always a reason why it doesn't get done. I won't go on the roof when it's hot in the sun and the shingles get soft.

The question i have to all. Any opinion about cleaning chimney at the end of the season or before the next? Is it a easier / better cleaning one time or another?

First thing is burn some hot fires before shut down to burn off and dry out any tar or any other black stuff from the system. That stuff is corrosive. You don’t want your last fires to be the cool and dirty kind.

begreen said:

That's good advice for a cat stove. I normally just stop burning and get to the cleaning when convenient. Ideally no fire should be the cool and dirty kind, but with a cat stove this is a greater risk.

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Same here, I clean sometime in the summer when I have spare time. I'm not ready to shut down yet, we have cold spells into May.

Not much to do really. This year I have some repairs so when burning is finished late May early June, vacuum out, remove pipe from stove top to ceiling so I can access what needs to be done. Ream that out, put a baggy over ceiling support and ream out pipe to cap from the roof. That's it

Generally, when my heating season ends I quit putting wood in the stoves and setting fire to it.

I have two stoves in separate buildings, so I have twice as much not to do as most people.

jotul8e2 said:

Generally, when my heating season ends I quit putting wood in the stoves and setting fire to it.

I have two stoves in separate buildings, so I have twice as much not to do as most people.

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Ditto. Sometime before July 4, I usually close the doors on the two fireplaces. Cleaning usually happens at end of summer, I just have too many better things to do in spring and summer, than to worry about cleaning out two stoves.

The last stove cleaning here happens sometime in june. The chimney, some time in September or October. Once we wrap it up, the stove is clean, and ready to tolerate the summer humidity. The stove sits empty. Corrosion at that point from humidity hasn't been an issue. The stainless chimney, not so worried about, and can be brushed anytime. We brush from the bottom, and would want cooler temps outside to ensure some draft to carry the fine dust out. Fly ash is generally the extent of what we get there, and a small amount of creosote near the cap. So overall, it's kind of a juggling act - warm enough in june to call it quits and clean the stove, yet cool enough to get the chimney brushed and have the ash draft out.

I've done a couple of different things over the years.

Some years I've done a thorough cleaning after the last fire . . . cleaned out the fly ash, cleaned the glass, checked the gaskets, etc.

Some years I've either been too lazy or was thinking I was not done burning . . . and ended up cleaning the whole shebang before the start of the burning season.

In either case I never really had any issues with creosote smell, humidity, etc. and never plugged the chimney . . . actually I take that back . . . there was one year that I smelled a bit of a creosote-like smell. Burned a candle in the firebox for a bit and that seemed to take care of it. Only happened once or twice though.

Leave it as it is, waiting to light that last fire of the season, determined to clean it out right after. The temp never gets cold enough to light another fire. Then clean it out on the day of the first fire of the next season.

First year I did nothing and noticed rust on the inside. Second year, after cleaning at the end of the season, I sprayed the inside metal with Pam and wiped it down. Worked great, no rust and no problems when i lit it back up for the burning season.

Around memorial day I'll do a fully chimney cleaning, cleaning out the black pipe and the inside of the stove real well, I'll then test my gaskets and adjust the door if needed, I'll also cleanup the wood rack in the basement and put all that wood burning stuff away for the Summer.

i wait until I am dirty from doing some yard project, then i clean the chimney, vacuum out the stove. I wait until the day before the house cleaner comes and then tell them its really dusty

I vacuum mine out, clean the glass if necessary, sprinkle some unscented kitty litter in there. My basement is very humid in the summer, I run a dehumidifier down there in the warm months 24/7 but it's still damp, and I got no additional rust last year after doing this for the first time. I sweep up all around the hearth, sweep and mop the floor in the basement where the stove is located, then get ready to enjoy the cool of the basement in the coming hot weather (we installed a bar and small TV down there a couple years back). Always a sad time of year though.