Clean Your Wood Stove Chimney Without Brushes

It is pretty easy to clean the chimney on your wood stove. Our chimney is not the easiest to clean. If your chimney is a straight vertical run from your stove to the chimney cap, it's super easy. You can just remove the baffle from the stove, close the door, go up on the roof, remove the cap and brush all the ash down into the stove. Then you can shovel or vacuum it all out, replace the baffle and you are done!

Here's a video on how I clean ours without a brush. It won't get the chimney quite as clean as a brush does but, since I  burn hot fires and use good wood, it has worked for me.

 

If you discover a black, gooey, tar-like substance coating the inside of your chimney you have a problem. It is caused by burning green wood, not having a hot enough fire, or your chimney is so obstructed that you get a very poor draft. This is the stuff that burns when you have a chimney fire which is a frightening and dangerous thing. You will need to change the way you use your wood stove to prevent the formation of this stuff.

You can't clean the goo out with a brush or by using the method shown in the video. It needs to be converted to ash. There is a product called creosote remover that can crystallize the goo into something that can be cleaned out with a brush. It is available at stores that sell wood stoves.

Cleaning your chimney is really pretty easy. It only takes me about half an hour and I do it once a year. You can do it, too.

More of my blog posts on burning wood are here:

Heating With Wood - Introduction 

The Science of Efficient Heating With Wood