SS MAYFLOAT
Admiral
- Joined
- May 17, 2001
- Messages
- 6,372
I came close to having a chimney fire over the weekend. Saturday morning I kept having problems getting a draft going. I would go outside and would see smoke coming out, but still getting smoke coming out of the woodburner and its stove pipe. So I dampend all the intake air and let the fire die out.<br /><br />Sunday I took off the stove pipe and run a wire brush through it. Got soot out, but it wasn't plugged. Started another fire and still the same thing.<br /><br />Started up the bucket truck and used it to look down the chimney. Oh Boy, after shinning the flash light down in it I could see that it was plugged. I couldn't believe the buildup of creosote. So I took a length of rope and my triball trailer hitch receiver (about 12 pounds) and dropped it down the chimney. It knocked out the plug with one drop of it. I did it several more times letting it scrap against the side of the chimney knocking off more gunk.<br /><br />Now I have a good draft and back in business.<br /><br />I did burn one of those chimney sweeping logs yesteday to see if it will do what they say it does. <br /><br />Is there anything else that can be burnt to help reduce the buildup on the walls of the chimney?<br /><br />Thanks