Just a friendly reminder to those of you that have wood stoves or fireplaces. Tis the time of year to get your chimney/stove pipe cleaned. Did mine yesterday, top cap was full of soot and got a good amount of soot out of the pipe. One of the biggest dangers of heating with wood. Sure is cozy on those cold winter nights though.

sr

as a ex-chimney sweeper i can't emphasise enough how important that is.
if you use a wooden stove to heat your house in the winter, you should get it cleaned at least 3 times, better even 4 times a year.

if it's just your typical So-Cal fireplace, once a year is enough.

all the black soot that builds up is *unburned* carbon. if that ignites, it will swell up to 10 times the volume, closing off the top of the chimney!
and because a chimney fire will burn at some couple of 1000 deg. F, your chimney will crack inside the house and that'll be the end of it.

i have seen way too many chimney fires in my life ...
Andy

oh, and one more thing. most common reason for a lot of soot (carbon build up) is burning wood that hasn't been dried long enough and still has too much moisture.
if you use a wood stove for heating, only burn wood that has been "air dried" at least 5 years !!!

Andy

Yes non-seasoned wood is bad and the water content the wood is what creates the soot. But 5 years of seasoning, that seems like a lot, maybe it depends on the wood and where you live. I have used wood as my main source of heat on and off for the last 12 years. I try to cut most of my own firewood and I have to say that I usually only let it season for a year. I guess it would depend on how green (wet) the wood is. Everything I cut is either standing dead or down.

sr

So THAT'S how they make those little crinkly snakes that expand out of a black pellet when ya light it! (which they outlawed in CA for some strange reason)

I'd like to add that for those of us renting a house that has a fireplace, it's hugely important to get it cleaned before you use it. God know what the previous owners were burning in there! We had ours done and you should have seen the look on the sweep's face. He was kinda quiet and all he said was, "It was a REALLY good idea you called us." He looked visibly shaken.

Hey Andy, since you have experience, you wanna come out and clean ours again this year? We'd pay ya but all are money is in the Porsche.... <_<

Good point Shannon but as a renter I think it is the home owners responsibility to pay for the cleaning. I would think they would want their iinvestment protected anyway.

It wasn't a problem when we talked to our manager. Weird thing is though we had some damage to our roof from a house fire down the street. There is a hole in the roof and we told them about it. They don't seem to have any interest in fixing it. Lucky for us it's over the bathtub so when it starts leaking this winter, and it will leak, it won't be a problem for US at least!

fresh cut wood, 3 years absolute minimum, 5 years good, 5+ years much better ...

if it's already dead, you can cut those numbers down, but i still wouldn't burn anything that hasn't sit for 3 years in a dry location with lots of air-circulation ...

but hey, i'm from a chimney-sweeper dynasty. my father was a chimney-sweeper, so were his 3 brothers, my grandfather and his father and his brother and their father too ...

my father is the head of the chimney-sweeper guild in germany,
Andy

OK Andy I see you have a bit more experience in this field. I guess I have a lot of work ahead of me cutting wood this fall for use 5 years from now. Better go sharpen the chain saw, and it's a good thing gramps has a hydraulic splitter.

I also used to sweep...dirty job.

I had a really funny experience the other day...(well my wife did)

We have a jack russell terrier. these dogs are bread to hunt rodents, and kill anything that moves...
Well she has always been facinated with our built in fireplace/heating unit....its the kind that looks like a fireplace, but is a wood stove.

Anyways, for the past several weeks she has been standing very quietly in front of the stove listening for hours....she does not move, almost comical.
This usually means that the mice have decided to move in for the winter and she usually kills them off pretty quick and problem is solved.
well this time my wife came home to find our normally white dog all black, excited and jumping up and down at the door.
She was all black (for those of you chimney sweeps, picture cleaning the flue with a white dog....)
Anyways, my wife let her out and proceeded to enter the house to access the damage...well the first thing she finds is black soot, then a pile of black feathers....mmmm then in front of the mangled door handle on the fireplace was the carcass of a good sized black crow...

Apparently this crow had somehow gotten under my chimney cap and could not get out, well my dog heard this, wrecked the door to get in and climbed up to the top (43 feet) of the chimney to kill this bird, drag it into the house and shred it all over the floor etc....

Really quite a site....
but at least I know the chimney is clean.

when I swept, I had to exterminate quite a few racoons and squirrels from folks flues, but never a crow, that was a first.

Happy burning.

Rich

I only burn palm trees.

And a cold front is moving in tonight.

Going to get down into the 60's.

Brrrrrrrrrrrr

Paul

I understand that. On the rare occasion that it drops to the 50's here gives me the chills, and the fireplace sure brings comfort. I have to turn the gas fireplace on at least twice a year onto clear the cobwebs though.


(Sorry, had to do it.)