So now there are toxic logs you can burn to clean you chimney.

Why clean your chimney? I understand there can be a chimney fire, but is that something to really be worried about?

I have a metal roof and I'm pretty sure that my stove pipe is insulated. A neighbor was telling me that the guy that used to live in my house had seven chimney fires a year.

Should I be concerned?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), December 20, 2001

Answers

Yes, you should probably be concerned. A chimney fire can be extremely dangerous and destructive. A fast burning one can actually be explosive. They look like this:

If you are burning only dry hardwoods, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Burning pine or spruce, etc, however, can be asking for it. In some parts of the country that's all there is to burn. The guy that had chimney fires all the time was probably burning pine.

You can find out more about chimney fires here.

Chuck

-- chuck in md (woah@mission4me.com), December 20, 2001.

Yes! Creosote builds up and burns, particularly if you burn soft woods, or improperly cured woods or trash (gross, but people do it, especially in places where they're not supposed to be burning outside).

My chimney sweep recommended something called Anti-Creo-Soot, which is a liquid you pour over your fire every few hours. Smells a little like vinegar, and is supposed to be non-toxic. At $35 a gallon though, it is a little expensive. I heard somewhere that it is TSP, tri-sodium phosphate, which I think is a cleaning chemical, but have not found out for sure. There is no ingredient list on the bottle. Anybody know what's in it, or where else I could get it cheaper? Thanks.

Paul, you might want to have your chimney inspected, even if you do your own cleaning, just for peace of mind.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), December 20, 2001.

we have had a couple of chimmney fires years ago, because the wood was to green and creosote built up faster. The fires did clean the chimmney out but it is frightenting and I don't want anymore. We only burn hard wood that is well aged. We check the chimmney out each year before using and have it cleaned out. I have read the potato peelings a great to put in a fire and it helps get rid of the creosote so I throw them in. We occassionally get a hot fire going and leave the damper open for awhile to burn off any build up. So far we have not had any more problems. I feel it was using wood that wasn't aged long enough that caused our problems. Another thing I would never do with an air tight stove is close it up completly you are asking for a lot of creosote buildup then.

-- Irene Burt (renienorm@aol.com), December 20, 2001.

"you might want to have your chimney inspected" - who do you call for that sort of inspection?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), December 20, 2001.

You might want to be concerned. If it's just a short run of pipe not touching wood then I'd worry less. When I was teenager we had a chimney fire. Brick chimney in the center of the house with a woodstove fitted to the fireplace. The fire sounded like a frieght train running through the house. It burned so hot that the walls on the second floor around the chimney were smoking. Luckily we were right there when it happened and had enough fire extinguishers to spray up there after we pulled the hot woodstove away from the fireplace insert. Another 10 minutes and I'm sure we would have had a house fire.

After that we had a tub of some kind of salt-like chemical you throw on the fire a few times a week. A few years later we switched to a bucket a day coal stove which was so much better, less hassle tending a fire and no more cutting and splitting wood.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), December 20, 2001.

A licensed and bonded (insured)chimney sweep is what you want. There is some accrediting organization (Chimney Safety Institute of America) as well that you want to look for. Don't go with someone who calls you out of the blue 'cause it's wintertime. This link has some good information that you might find useful.

http://www.homesafe.com/fen/fen003.htm

I know there are people who use chains and clean their own chimneys, but if you did and then had a fire, your insurance company might ask for proof of when you had it inspected last, and if you couldn't show that proof, you might be out of luck on your claim. Hope this helps.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), December 20, 2001.

In addition to fire extinguishers, you may want to have on hand a product called Chimfex. It's a chemical tube which you place in your fireplace or wood stove in the event of a chimney fire. It suppresses the fire by creating gases which rob the fire of oxygen. I found it at our local hardware store for $10. Hope we never need to use it but it's worth having it around, just in case.

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), December 20, 2001.

In 1976, when I was new to wood heat, and dumber than a chimney block, I burned whatever wood I could get, and not particularly dry, either.

I eventually had a chimney fire (like, after about a month or two, I think).

I had a "box" stove--cast iron. Flue came out of the top rear, rose five feet or so, then turned horizantal for about 18-24 inches, and ran into a concrete block chimney, with a good flue liner of fire clay.

Here's what happened: it sounded like a jet plane taking off in the room. The entire cast iron stove turned red hot, but more like white hot near the flue. The flue turned white hot all the way to where it went into the concrete block chimney. You may not believe this, but you could actually SEE the damper inside the flue!

Now comes the interesting part. The second pipe above the stove split along the joint where it snaps together. This allowed it to slide down over the bottom piece of pipe, which resulted in the flue pulling out of the concrete chimney, causing a 6" diameter "blow torch" from the end of the flue to the chimney, through mid air!

So here's dumb-dumb me, trying to lift the flue and stick it back into the concrete chimney. My ex (smart girl) kept handing me fresh hot pads, towels, whatever she could get, to replace the ones which were almost instantly catching fire in my hands. I'd throw them on the floor, where she'd stomp the fires out.

Finally, I got the flue stuck back into the concrete chimney, and we let the flue fire go out. I don't remember, but it must not have burned like that too long.

No damage was done to the concrete chimney blocks or the flue liner, nor was there enough heat passing through the chimney to overheat any framing, because this was a brand new, very well made chimney.

I did learn a couple of things. One, I let my (almost exclusively madrone) fire wood get really dry (like for two years). Two, I stagger the joints on my flue pipes, and put self tapping sheet metal screws into the joints in such a way to prevent the seams from splitting open. Three, I never have to clean the flue anymore, 'cause I use good wood, keep the chimney as straight as possible (I generally have flues which go straight up all the way from the stove to the sky)

You don't want a flue fire. Around here, they are one of the main causes of house fires.

-- joj (jump@off.c), December 20, 2001.

LOL Joe, I woulda paid to see that. ; )

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), December 20, 2001.

Hi,

I once had a chimney fire back in 1984, being young, dumb and stupid enough to burn nothing but pine trees for about two months. Then it happened. Sounded like the biggest jet taking off right up my chimney, flames shot out the top of the chimney above the house, the triple insulated flue pipe glowed.. and all I could do was close the dampers and pray that my house didn't catch fire. I did call the fire department who came out and scolded me about burning pine, and I might add, pine which was green as well...

Anyway, I sold this house and it was resold, and then the chimney did catch fire and the house burned to the ground. That was over 10 years after I had the first chimney fire.

We have a wood stove, which my DH regulary inspects and actually takes the piping apart and cleans it, then puts the whole thing back together every fall. We have never had a fire here, but we only burn hardwoods which are very dry.

A chimney fire can burn your house down in a matter of minutes if the walls or ceilings get hot enough..I know first hand - a lady who used to keep my son had her masonry chimney catch fire - it burned through two rooms and the entire roof in a matter of 45 minutes. She had to replace walls, roofing, ceilings, etc. to the tune of $30,000 dollars and was lucky that the entire house did not burn. It does not matter that your chimney pipe is insulated..the fires get tremendously hot and that triple insulated pipe will actually glow red hot from a fire.

If you don't clean your chimney once a year or hire a chimney sweep (I think they're grand in their outfits..but I have my own sweep (DH), you should really be careful to burn only dry wood, and then again, maybe you should invest in a heat pump. Safer and won't burn down your house.

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), December 20, 2001.

Paul are you able to inspect and clean it yourself? Your creosote will build thickest at the top, farthest from the hot fire. We checked ours from the top of the chimney, with a good flashlight. Never leave the immediate area with a fire burning.

If you only burn well seasoned hardwood, drafting thru a well maintained flue, with only enough kindling to get your logs burning good (hot coals eliminate the need for very much kindling), I don't think you will experience the "explosive" fires described above.

If you are going to clean it yourself, I (or others I am sure) will explain the process. Do check with the insurance company about cleaning it yourself. I would think it would be your right to clean it, and keep a log of the frequency of cleaning.

-- Rick (Rick_122@hotmail.com), December 20, 2001.

We went with electric heat today in order to take a look at our chimney.

I weigh about 300 pounds, so I thought it might be a good idea if I stay off the metal roof. I'm gonna send my 10yo son up there a little later today. We have a chimney brush, so we'll just run it up and down a few times.

I can't afford a licensed guy right now, but we think we should save up to have a licensed guy inspect and clean this summer.

The last owners left us some toxic gick for fighting creosote. Maybe we should use it up this winter?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), December 21, 2001.

In our area, it costs about $50 or a bit more to inspect and clean. We burn only softwood (that's what we have), so figure the expense is worth it. We also get a small discount because we have done in July, which is during their slow time.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), December 21, 2001.

The reason we have had to install stove pipe INSIDE our brick chimney is because when my mama and dad lived here several years ago they had a fireplace and then a wood stove going up the large brick chimney and had a couple of pretty severe chimney fires and they DAMAGED the brick and fire liner so there are hair line cracks that you can barely see BUT through which fire can get out to the wood!!!

Sometimes you can barter with chimney sweeps to get free or discounted rates if you don't have the money to have one cleaned or inspected...

We try to keep ours cleaned out as well. (Make sure you have battery-operated smoke detectors and change those batteries every six months! I've spent my morning this morning writing about two ste-=brothers 4, and 17, who died yesterday in a mobile home fire near here.)

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), December 21, 2001.

Paul, All good advice. But may I add a safegard. Keep a pound of salt next to the stove. (any stove) If you should have a fire, throw it on. The gas it generates will put out the fire. Even a chimney fire. Keep in mind (gas) if you do this on a greese fire in your cookstove.Lots of smoke!!!

-- william Henry Szall (billisaszall@earthlink.net), December 25, 2001.

Clean your chimney after every full cord or so that u burn of dry wood at first. Dont burn wet as most of the heat is spent boiling off the moisture. You will be able to tell how often u should do this after seeing how much stuff comes out when you clean. Buy a proper brush and rods, as if your you have a fire due to improper cleaning, chimney pipes are expensive to replace(because of cracking)much more than the $50.00 worth of brush and rods. Clean your entire system as I recently had a fire because I first cleaned the insulated chimney and found that little had dropped out the trap at the bottom of the chimney. So I never removed the double walled stuff inside the house and alot of the residue had fell into the horizontal pipe going thru the wall and presto had a nice chimney fire which I managed to put out by throwing small amounts of water on the fire making steam to put out the fire above.Hope this helps someone

-- Steve (smawle@telusplanet.net), March 22, 2002.