Chimney cleaning of woodburning and multifuel stoves

Although woodburning stoves are highly efficient machines nominally 70 to 80% compared with an open fire with an efficiency of 20-to25%, cleaning of the chimney or stainless steel insulated flue still remains an important issue. In theory a good woodburning stove with the correct air supply and a highly efficient burning chamber should produce little or no smoke if burning only good seasoned wood. Having said this, bear in mind there may be smoke when the fire is initially lit which causes soot deposits and this may continue until the woodburning stove chamber reaches it optimum burning temperature. Leaving the woodburning stove in slumber mode (starved of air ) for long periods will also increase sooting of the chimney. Under these conditions the flue gas temperature falls, condensation occurs and deposits on the chimney liners or steel flue lining takes place. Have your local registered chimney sweep clean your chimney prior to the installation of the woodburning stove. It is always advisable that you enquire from your chosen chimney sweep initially that he has knowledge and experience of cleaning chimneys connected to a woodburning stove.
Try the guild of master sweeps at http://www.guild-of-master-sweeps.co.uk/ to locate a registered sweep in your area. Recommendations are that you normally have the chimney cleaned again half way through the burning season, which is about 3 months if the woodburning stove has been used regularly. Check then with the chimney sweep after the first clean on the amount of deposits that where removed from the chimney. Should these deposits be negligible which can be the case if only seasoned wood was used in the woodburning stove, your chimney sweep will recommend his next date for a visit providing the seasoned wood is being continually burned in the same way. In our showroom we used lovely seasoned beech acquired from a re-forestation farm in North England. It was burnt daily in a contemporary steel convector stove approved to Din+ standards. Three months later after continual daily burning for approximately 8 hours a day we had the stainless steel attached flue cleaned. The steel liner was amazingly clean and the chimney sweep advised that another clean would not be necessary for at least another six months.

Woodburning stoves fitted with a top exit flue

Woodburning stoves can normally be cleaned through the door of the stove providing a stove exit pipe has been fitted on the top outlet of the woodburning stove. The baffle plate will need to be firstly removed to give a clear access to the stovetop exit. This is a plate which straddles the upper part of the internal stove chamber and is either freely fitted or held in place with a couple of bolts. This procedure is not normally possible if a central heating wrapround boiler has been fitted into the stove, as part of the boiler becomes the baffle plate. The woodburning stove should then be cleaned in the same way a woodburning stove fitted with a back exit flue pipe is cleaned. This is normally carried out via a soot door either mounted on the vertical exit steel flue pipe or through an internal or external soot door mounted on the chimney breast where feasible.

Woodburning stoves fitted with a rear exit flue.

Ensure, prior to the fitting of a woodburning stove where a back exit flue 90 degree bend is required that your qualified fitter also provides a soot excess door. This can be fitted on the internal or external wall of the chimney breast for easy cleaning purposes and also ensure that the rear stove exit 90 degree bend is fitted with a door for debris removal. This also applies to an external insulated stainless steel flue where sections of the flue are purchased with flue cleaning access doors. Many customers with an internal chimney breast opt for the soot door to be fitted on the chimney breast in the roof space. The chimney sweep can then clean upwards and downwards, pushing the debris into the back bend of the woodburning stove The door on the back bend is then opened and the debris sucked out, as well as being sucked out of the woodburning stove chamber. A backbend, more commonly called a 90-degree bend, can also be purchased as a 90 Degree T piece. I think these are great as the chimney sweep removes the T cap at the unused end, attaches a debris collection bag and then cleans the flue via the soot door as described above. The stove fitter will be well aware of this product.
On a final and very important note if you are using a multifuel stove it is recommended that the chimney be cleaned at the same regularity as if you where using an open fire. The reason for this is that unlike woodburning stoves, multifuel stoves are left constantly burning for days on end and are used a lot to burn fossil fuels. The result of this is a much dirtier chimney as they are left in slumber mode during the night. This results in a drop in temperature in the burning chamber and chimney leading to more pollution due to non-combusted gases. Please consult your registered chimney sweep on this issue,

11th June 2009

For more information on Multifuel wood burning stoves visit http://www.hotstovedeals.com/