Did you brush the chimney yet?

[electrathon]

Cleaned mine Sunday. First time with a soot eater. WAY better and easier than a brush. I got little creosote, a lot of fly ash.

 

[dh1989]

Sooteater today. 2 cups flaky black creosote from 5500 lbs of hard wood burned last season. Chimney is about 14'.

 

[SusanB]

I just did mine today - After our first year burning with a Super 27 (approx 15' straight up double walled pipe) and I got about 1 cup of black powder with the odd small flake of soot / creosote. Would you guys say that I was 'burning properly' last year? - I thought 1 cup was decent - my Husband was surprised we 'had so much'

 

[Dix]

I just did mine today - After our first year burning with a Super 27 (approx 15' straight up double walled pipe) and I got about 1 cup of black powder with the odd small flake of soot / creosote. Would you guys say that I was 'burning properly' last year? - I thought 1 cup was decent - my Husband was surprised we 'had so much'

I think you did just fine.

But what do I know ??

 

[BrotherBart]

I always brush it in September. For the first time ever I am gonna go for two seasons without it. I will probably end up doing the last week of January mid-season cleaning but I hope not.

 

[Dobish]

I got to it last weekend... first fire tonight!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I just did mine today - After our first year burning with a Super 27 (approx 15' straight up double walled pipe) and I got about 1 cup of black powder with the odd small flake of soot / creosote. Would you guys say that I was 'burning properly' last year? - I thought 1 cup was decent - my Husband was surprised we 'had so much'

Yup, cup is nothing. You done good! Now if you had a paint can....

 

[NoobTube]

Did mine a few weeks ago. got maybe 2 cups. Maybe... Lots of fly ash. It takes me longer to get the tubes and bricks out of my stove than it does to actually clean it with the soot eater.

 

[Woody5506]

Thats what it takes me from start to a clean stove to do my 24' chimney. It's an involved setup. I put a ladder on the roof and remove the top section.

Question to the soot eater guys. Are you using it bottom up through the stove? How do you control the soot coming down the chimney as your cleaning?

I cleaned it from the bottom up. I don't have over 14' of chimney and I didn't get much soot, MAYBE a cup. I just let it fall into the stove and use the shop vac to clean up. Seems to be clean as a whistle. I would guess if I had much more soot coming out as I was cleaning, I would try and stick the shop vac in the stove as I'm sweeping to try and suck up whatever soot as it's falling so it's not making too much of a dust cloud.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Did chimney nr. 2 this morning. About 20 feet. Got 4+ cups soot dust. A few tiny shiny flakes (1/4" or so) but no real creosote. That chimney is on a stove (Kent) running 24/7 Dec-March. Installed a new cap while I was up there. I am ready to go.

 

[beatlefan]

My sweep was here Monday. I wasn’t home, but my son said that he used a Soot Eater and was done in 20 minutes.

He charged me $182. I think I will buy the equipment and do it myself from now on.

 

[Woody5506]

My sweep was here Monday. I wasn’t home, but my son said that he used a Soot Eater and was done in 20 minutes.

He charged me $182. I think I will buy the equipment and do it myself from now on.

I think it's a little over $50 off Amazon. Very easy to use, even for a rookie wood burner!

 

[beatlefan]

I think it's a little over $50 off Amazon. Very easy to use, even for a rookie wood burner!

I've always been concerned about knocking the cap off by accident. I have a high chimney with a steep pitch roof and wouldn't be able to get up there to put it back on, if I were to knock it off. Is it easy to tell when you reach the top when using your Soot Eater?

 

[redktmrider]

I cleaned my chimney with a soot eater for the first time a couple of days ago. I have a 6 inch flex liner inside a masonry chimney and it was very easy to know when you hit the cap. The rods feeds very easily while spinning and when you reach the top it stops feeding easily. If your cap is loose enough to be pushed off by the soot eater, I think the wind would of pulled it off. The wind regularly lifted the top plate on mine before I screwed it down and sealed it.

 

[Woody5506]

Yes as mentioned it's fairly easy to tell when you reach the top. You could also have someone outside watch for it if you really needed to. I wouldn't think the cap would get knocked off by it very easily.

 

[Sodbuster]

Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to sweep my chimney and clean out my stove in spring, so that I am ready to go in the fall. It never happens.

 

[Doc C]

I clean my stove 2 times a year. And almost always end up with about 3-4 gallons of creosote from a 30’ masonry chimney with a wood stove hooked up to it. Still trying to get the kinks worked out of my system.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

I clean my stove 2 times a year. And almost always end up with about 3-4 gallons of creosote from a 30’ masonry chimney with a wood stove hooked up to it. Still trying to get the kinks worked out of my system.

3-4 gallons looks a lot.

BTW; thank you for your service.

 

[begreen]

Yes, we usually get just a cup or two.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

If it is 3-4 gallons per sweep, it is very much and would be worried. I guess the liner is not insulated. I wonder what the cruising temp is during winter time.

 

[jetsam]

If it is 3-4 gallons per sweep, it is very much and would be worried. I guess the liner is not insulated. I wonder what the cruising temp is during winter time.

There's possibly not a liner, which is why that much creosote is there in the first place.

 

[Doc C]

If it is 3-4 gallons per sweep, it is very much and would be worried. I guess the liner is not insulated. I wonder what the cruising temp is during winter time.

There is a clay liner. Also I’m in the process of having the chimney lined with insulated pipe, thinking that will help too. I was going to replace my stove this fall because it’s oversized but after talking to the manufacturer I decided to try a few things they suggested first. But that’s for another thread.

I think after making the changes I did then I’ll probably be making less creosote. Also the chimney just would not come clean when we bought the house so I have been running some of the creosote chemicals to try to get some of the really hard stuff to loosen up and I think that’s contributing to it. I use a spot eater and brush both fwiw.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

There's possibly not a liner, which is why that much creosote is there in the first place.

Considering the OP has an NC-30 I assumed he has a liner. Maybe that was naive to thinks so.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

There is a clay liner. Also I’m in the process of having the chimney lined with insulated pipe, thinking that will help too. I was going to replace my stove this fall because it’s oversized but after talking to the manufacturer I decided to try a few things they suggested first. But that’s for another thread.

I think after making the changes I did then I’ll probably be making less creosote. Also the chimney just would not come clean when we bought the house so I have been running some of the creosote chemicals to try to get some of the really hard stuff to loosen up and I think that’s contributing to it. I use a spot eater and brush both fwiw.

Installing a insulated SS liner will solve a lot of your problems.

 

[begreen]

How long has the wood been seasoned after splitting and stacking?