We had really nice weather today, so when I got home from work, I took the opportunity to clean the wood stove chimney. If you use a wood burning appliance, the chimney needs to be cleaned at least once a year to remove any soot and creosote build up. It is important because creosote is flammable and creosote build up is a recipe for a chimney fire, which is really dangerous. In addition to yearly cleaning, the chimney should be inspected every two weeks during heating season.

Creosote is formed when wood smoke condenses on the inside of a cool chimney. This can happen if the wood stove is running too cold, or the chimney is improperly installed. A modern wood burning appliance should have no visible smoke when it is running properly. This means that all the smoke is being burning in the firebox, so it cannot condense on the chimney. Every wood stove has an optimum working temperature range. Our little Jotul F-100 works best at between 400 to 600 degrees F (204 to 316 degrees C). We purchased Condar Chimgard magnetic thermometer and placed it on top of the stove to check its temperature.

In addition, a properly installed chimney is the engine that drives the stove. A chimney that is the wrong diameter will never heat up and will not draft properly. Similarly, a chimney that is too short will also not draft properly. Both of these conditions will cause the wood stove not to work properly. For our stove, Jotul specifies a 6-inch inside diameter chimney at least 14 feet tall.

It is inevitable that some creosote will form on a chimney when the stove is first starting. That is why it needs to be cleaned every year. When the wood stove was installed, I replaced the old chimney with Simpson DuraTech Class A chimney. The stove connector pipe (goes between the chimney and the stove) is double wall Simpson DVL. The double wall connector pipe allows closer clearances than single wall pipe. I like both products.

To clean the chimney requires a little planning. First, there is a cast iron baffle in the top of the Jotul F-100 stove that needs to be removed and cleaned. I don’t know why, but there always seems to be some ash accumulated on top of this baffle. It is a pain to get out, but somehow is harder to get back in.

Once the baffle is removed, I cleaned the stove thoroughly to remove all of the ash from the previous heating season. Then I placed a medium sized fan in front of the stove to create a strong updraft in the chimney.

On the roof I removed the chimney cap by turning it counter clockwise and lifting up. Then with a six inch chimney brush I purchased at the local hardware store, I brushed up and down inside the chimney. The updraft created by the fan blows all the small soot particles up and out of the chimney. Anything larger will fall down against the updraft and end up in the back of the stove. I spent about 15 to 20 minutes on the chimney until brushing did not produce a cloud of soot from top of the chimney. I did not see any creosote build up on my chimney, only some blackish brown soot.

Next I removed the stove connector pipe and took it outside to clean it out using the same 6-inch brush.

Then, when I am all done with cleaning the connector pipe, I put it all back together again. The baffle is a real pain in the rear end to get back into the top of the Jotul stove. It only fits in there one-way, and it is heavy. The rest goes together easily. When everything is all together, I cleaned out the stove one more time and declare the project done!

When you are cleaning the stove, it is a good time to check all the gaskets and seals to make sure the appliance is still functioning properly.

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