Think I should clean my chimney?

[kyguylal]

Hi everyone. Stove was installed last March. Burnt approximately 3/4 of a cord of good wood over the spring.

The chimney is a straight 6" stove pipe rising 10 feet through the ceiling to another 5 feet of class A.

Think I should get on the roof and clean it, or should I be okay to start burning? Wind chill going to hit the 20s tonight...

 

[barnaclebob]

The odds are you are fine to burn it and just clean it the next time the weather is good. It would take some pretty wet wood and smouldering fires to buildup a dangerous level of creosote in 3/4 cord.

Can you see the cap with some binoculars to tell if there is any buildup?

 

[blacktail]

Clean it from the inside. No need to go on the roof.

 

[Hogwildz]

Clean it, and you'll have an idea of how your burning went. Clean once a year

 

[firefighterjake]

My mantra is to always inspect and clean the chimney before the start of the burning season . . . a) towards the tail end of the burning season my fires tend to not be as robust as they are in middle of the burning season as I am doing a lot of smaller fires in the morning and evening so there is a little more "cooling" and b) I like to inspect the system and make sure no critters decided the chimney would make a nice home over the course of the summer.

Besides . . . it's easier to do a sweeping now vs. in middle of the winter (although in my case I sweep about every month regardless since it's a simple task for me to do from the ground.)

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I sweep every fall. After the 1 time while sweeping I had stunned yellow jackets fall to the bottom I've always worried that a big paper nest will either block my flue or catch on fire.

 

[kyguylal]

Ended up doing a quick top down sweep. Practically like the pipe was brand new.

 

[FPX Dude]

From the bottom, I've put a mirror/flashlight in the stove and shined up the chimney, just to see if I could see anything. If it's a straight shot you can probably tell, but at only 3/4 cord I can't imagine any issues. Soot-eater is pretty easy for something like this too.