happy new year!

i'm using a refurbished vermont castings defiant (not catalytic) 24 hours a day. burning primarily ash, most of the time at a slow burn with stove damper closed. i've added a clean-out T to the bottom of the chimney. the chimney is 8 feet tall, triple wall insulated. there is 3 feet of single wall black pipe from the stove to the T with a rise of 8 inches over the 3 feet. stove pipe and chimney are 8". i have the chimney brush for cleaning.

how often do i want to open the cleanout and clean the chimney interior?

should i clean the interior of the single wall pipe between the stove and chimney?

should i burn at high heat for a certain period of time on a regular basis to reduce creosote buildup?

if so, what temperature; for how long; how often?

thanks

-- dave (nesleinevad@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001

Answers

Dave: We also use a Vermont Casting with almost identical chimney setup and we clean the whole thing once a month. We tend to burn at about 700 degree gridle temp. during most of the time when someone is tending the fire, but still get some creosote buildup in the single wall pipe between the stove and the chimney. It doesn't take that long to do (we have the T also) and in the 12 years we have been using it we have never had a flue fire. We have had a flue fire in a previous place and it blew a hole in the triple-walled stainless steel chimney we had. Sounded like a rocket launch and I never want to experience that sort of fright again. diane in michigan (oh, we burn mostly well aged elm and oak)

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001.

Dave - I also have a Vermont Casting Defiant. I only can use it when it is 20 or below - it makes the house too warm. But when I do run it for weeks, I clean only the pipe going to the chimney. Mine is like an s and the creosote builds up in the pipe only. My chimney stays clean as a whistle. But I have caught the creosote in the pipe on fire and that was really scary. I can't tell you what temp to burn it at cause I don't use a gauge. But my understanding is that if you burn it hot hot every now and again, it does help prevent the creosote buildup.

-- Dianne (willow@config.com), January 05, 2001.

I was once told that if you stick a dish of household ammonia in your clean out it will help prevent creosote build up (by the way, the fire depts drop "ammonia bombs" down a chimney to put out a chimney fire - if they get there in time). My husband is fanatical about the chimney. He insists we run the temp at around 300 to 400. You can buy magnetic thermometers to tell the pipe temp. You can get one that's color coded to show you optimum ranges so you can glance at them from a distance.

What I do know is that fires that burn too low deposit creosote, especially if you are using green wood or pine. We burn wood most of the winter and about every ten days Bill will go out and bang on the chimney (we are using a 28 ft commercial boiler pipe for our chimney) to knock the creosote out.

-- Anne Tower (bbill@wtvl.net), January 05, 2001.

I tried the aluminum can each day for the last 2 weeks, but last night the thing was still dirty. I don't see that it helped. Clean it out often, it dosen't take very long, and you can push the brush up through the pipe from inside the house. We put a 5 gallon bucket underneath it, and then use the shop vac. It's better than getting on a icy roof for sure. We take the smaller pipes outside and clean really good with a wire brush.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 06, 2001.

I have a set up similar to yours, an older Squire stove (non-catalytic) with single wall black pipe running from the stove to the wall, than triple-wall pipe through the wall with a tee cleanout at the bottom. I clean once a month, and I'm burning about 1 cord per month. Most of the cresote buildup is in the single wall black pipe. I have a brush that connects to fiberglass rods to clean with and I hate it, I always seem to get the black dust and ash all over myself, and then the two hounds decide I need help and run under the chimmey and through the dust or get under foot as I'm trying to carry the ash bucket outside. Chasing soot covered basset hounds through the house is great fun. Just another joy of country living.

Stay warm

Bob

-- Robert (STBARB@usa.net), January 06, 2001.

I'm just full of questions tonight! We have an old Andes Parlour Stove. It's not airtight and not efficent but it's what we have for now. We only heat with wood, and it was bitter in Upstate NY for much of December. We've checked the chimney and it looks clean. We need to check the stove pipe. Does the powder stuff that you add to the fire really work to clean creosote out of the chimney and stove pipe?

Thanks for your help.

Stacy Rohan

-- Stacy Rohan (KincoraFarm@aol.com), January 08, 2001.