Need advise on cleaning my chimney.

[HotCoals]

Well mopar go and get yourself a moisture meter and test your wood on a fresh split face. Allot of guys on here go over board on drying time i agree 5 months is not long enough but i disagree that you need 2+ years also. Test your wood you want to be between 15 an 20% 17% is perfect

Well if I buy my wood in the spring and don't burn it that season but next it's like a year and a half seasoned I guess when burn time comes around.
That has always seemed to work well.
There is at least one guy on here that says 3 years for oak though.I dunno...safe bet anyways.

 

[moparharn]

In a prior post I mentioned that I burned season oak,cherry, and ash. This was to indicate that I should not have creosote build up from crappy wood. As far as I what I now have stacked, I made no reference to what it is, and how long it has been dead or down. My 8.5 "face" cords (4x8x16") is a mixture of Oak (dead and down 1.5 years, split last month) Maple (cut from standing dead last month), and Beach (standing dead cut last month). By the time next winter rolls around this wood will be ready to burn. I have owned a moisture meter for twenty years now, only it has been for boat work and not wood burning. I think heating my 2650 sq/ft house (furnace would kick on from 5-7 am only) in the coldest Michigan winter in recorded history from October to May with 11.5 face cords of wood is freaking amazing. So amazing that I decided to commit to this form of heating by purchasing a new Woodstock Progress Hybrid. I want to keep us safe by properly cleaning my chimney (professional sweep failed miserably), and burning well seasoned hardwood at safe temperatures. The draft in my chimney could suck a tennis ball through a garden hose, and thus a "damper" was necessary to keep my 25 year old Fireview from overheating, and to get the extended burn times I needed. The fireview undoubtedly had air leaks, but it was an amazing stove once the air control was mastered. Now for the horrific pictures on my chimney creosote. I will load and add them in a minute. Thanks for all of the well intended advice, it is what I asked for, and it is appreciated. Bill

Well mopar go and get yourself a moisture meter and test your wood on a fresh split face. Allot of guys on here go over board on drying time i agree 5 months is not long enough but i disagree that you need 2+ years also. Test your wood you want to be between 15 an 20% 17% is perfect

 

[HotCoals]

Sounds all good Bill!
Give us a update on the PH once you get her fired up. Pretty sure you will be happy with it. Cheers!

 

[bholler]

Well hat is allot of dirt but the condition looks good so maybe clean more often but it looks like you are burning ok. And just because your have an older stove does not mean it needs to be leaky i am running a nearly 40 year old cawly lemay that i can put out if i close the air. And i have 38 feet of insulated 6" liner above it so it pulls really hard to. But you are getting a new stove so no point in working on your old one. And yes 11.5 face cords is not bad at all but when you said 11.5 cords that is a massive amount of wood. I am sorry if i offended you that was not my intention at all but your terminology was not right so i did not understand.

 

[moparharn]

No offense taken. I just felt like I had another bubble burst. I was kind of proud of how little I paid the gas man this year, and how well the Woodstock worked for us. I ran 24ft of rod up the chimney with my 6" heavy nylon brush attached to it. Got a lot of creosote out. I then ran my 25ft tape measure up but could not seem to make hard contact on the chimney cap. It felt like the brush was hitting it. There is ten feet of pipe in my great room and about 13-15 feet of chimney on the roof, and maybe 1-2 feet of roof thickness for a total of 24-26 feet total pipe. When I ran the tape measure through thin sheets of creosote fell down the pipe from up high. Smooth on the pipe side and corn flakes looking towards the inside. Maybe 1/8 inch thick. The brush was not tight in the pipe when I got up high. I am wondering if the pipe is larger towards the top? Anyway, here is an after photo. Thanks for all the help.

Well hat is allot of dirt but the condition looks good so maybe clean more often but it looks like you are burning ok. And just because your have an older stove does not mean it needs to be leaky i am running a nearly 40 year old cawly lemay that i can put out if i close the air. And i have 38 feet of insulated 6" liner above it so it pulls really hard to. But you are getting a new stove so no point in working on your old one. And yes 11.5 face cords is not bad at all but when you said 11.5 cords that is a massive amount of wood. I am sorry if i offended you that was not my intention at all but your terminology was not right so i did not understand.

 

[HotCoals]

I don't know about your pipe but my 8" is the same all the way up.

Anyways looks like you're doing a great job but still you need to know if you're getting that last few feet.
From pics you posted earlier looks like you can see the cap pretty good to know if the screen on the cap is dirty?
Do you have binoculars?

Don't laugh but I wonder if you could take a vid camera and run it up the pipe without the brush on the rods?

I know..(broken image removed) lol