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North of London | Burned wood for many years in air tight stoves with stainless steel insulated chimneys.
Rented a brush after first year as advised and went up to clean chimney before next season.
Nothing in the chimney so checked after that and never found any build up.
What I learned from others is use good dry seasoned wood.
Keep fire hot enough, which is easier if you have a stove sized for the area heated, too big a stove and the fire will be banked too much and smoulder creating more creosote.
We did use a chimney thermometer for many years which helped to know when fire was hot enough to burn clean.
Get at least one good hot fire everyday to clean out anything that might have built up.
To go through the night we usually heated the house up well before final fill of wood and damping down the fire for the night then refuel and heat up again in morning.
So from your post I would suspect a change in something you did this year.
Different wood or different operation.
Good check of chimney should be minimum now and a liner in the brick chimney would seem like a good idea to me.
BTW when we got a good fire going you would hear little bits of 'ash' or debris falling back down the chimney and we did have to clean soot and ash from elbow at stove on occasion during season. | |
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i had a chimney fire yesterday
