Previously, when stove heating was in all houses, there were no problems with cleaning the chimney. The head of the family knew exactly how, with what and when to clean it, and the profession of a chimney sweep was at a premium.

Over time, boilers replaced stoves, and today only a few can guess why the fire stops igniting, and when kindling, the smoke does not come out. But the most a big problem not even in this - but in the fact that carbon monoxide, without passing through a contaminated pipe, begins to concentrate in the room, which creates a direct threat to the life and health of households. In order for you to avoid such problems, we will tell you how to clean the chimney from soot at home and why it gets dirty at all.

Why is the chimney clogged

First you need to understand that during long-term operation, any chimney is clogged, even made according to technology and from the right materials. In any case, it is necessary to clean the chimney at least once every 1-3 years, depending on the intensity of operation.

Much more often, soot accumulates in the depths of the chimney pipe due to a violation of the design or manufacturing technology. So, for example, the following main reasons can be distinguished:

• improper laying of pipes and remains of masonry mortar on inside;
• violation of the operation of the stove or fireplace;
• the chimney is made of low-quality material;
• the absence of a protective umbrella on the chimney, in connection with which birds fly into it, debris, leaves, etc. get into it;
• violation of the size of the lumen of the chimney pipe.

Improper operation of the stove or fireplace means using wood with a high concentration of tar as fuel or burning "chemical" garbage - polyethylene, plastic, rubber.

• Often the reason for the rapid clogging of the chimney is poor-quality material that was used during masonry - both brick and masonry mortar. This leads to chips, falling off parts that get stuck in the chimney and so on.
• The narrowing of the lumen of the chimney, caused by one of the reasons, or several in combination, violates the draft during ignition, does not allow smoke to come out, and increases the time for warming up the walls of the chimney.

If you notice such signs, it's time to clean the chimney. In addition to the fact that, as mentioned earlier, carbon monoxide accumulates in the room, with an increase in soot deposits, at some point they light up and a fire starts.

How to remove soot

Of course, there are narrow specialists on the labor market who clean pipes using various chemical and mechanical methods, but the price of their services is quite high. On average, the tariff depends on the type of heating device (stove, sauna stove, fireplace or barbecue) and ranges from 9 to 12 thousand rubles for a one-time service. It is clear that it is much cheaper to independently figure out how to clean the chimney from soot at home, and not deal a crushing blow to the family budget.

The easiest household chimney cleaning methods

Potato peelings

Oddly enough, but this excellent tool in the fight against small (!!!) soot deposits.

By itself, the potato does not remove soot from the pipe, but softens it, which makes it possible to quickly and easily clean it off mechanically.

For this method, prepare in advance 0.5 buckets of dry potato peelings or finely chopped potatoes, also pre-dried. When the firewood burns out and the coals remain smoldering, throw potato peels on them. When burned, they release starch vapor, which softens the soot to an acceptable state.

Salt

It is rather preventive way, which is recommended to be used every time a fireplace or stove is lit. Salt is poured onto burning firewood and the released chemical elements prevent soot from settling on the walls of the chimney. Of course, over time, it still settles, but not in such quantity and not so viscous.

Chimney Sweep Logs

You can buy a special log in a stove store or use birch firewood. If possible, you can buy aspen logs, they have the same effect.

It is necessary to remove the bark from birch logs.

This firewood in a short time increases the temperature in the firebox to a maximum, after which the soot is torn simply to shreds. This good way but requires constant human presence. If enough soot has accumulated, such a powerful fire from an aspen or birch is quite capable of setting it on fire. Don't be lazy and stay close to the fireplace all the time until the wood burns out.

Chemical methods for cleaning soot

These are much more effective ways to deal with even significant soot deposits.

There are the following proven effective drugs:

• saltpeter mixture, blue vitriol and coke in equal parts. The composition is poured onto smoldering coals, during combustion, a number of chemical elements are released that provoke the shedding of a significant amount of soot.

The maximum dosage is 200 grams of the finished composition.

• PCC (anti-scaling chemical composition) is a very effective soot control compound that must be burned directly in the package.

Be sure to read the instructions - the effect of the drug is so strong that it can even provoke cracking of the chimney pipe. It is strictly forbidden to violate the dosage.

• Kominichek is a Czech preparation for combating a small layer of soot deposits (2-3 mm). One package is enough to clean a standard chimney for 2-3 months. With regular operation of the stove or fireplace, it is recommended to use the composition at least 3 times a year.

The active substance is copper chloride CuCl2, so during use it is necessary to arrange a very good draft in the room and, if possible, not be present in it.

• Log-chimney sweep - natural birch or aspen log, additionally impregnated with CuCl2. Burning, it releases a number of chemical elements that provoke the exfoliation of creosote sediments - tar deposits.

Given that these drugs are also an expensive pleasure, they should be used no more than once a year or two. It is much easier and cheaper to take a number of preventive measures and clean the pipe mechanically.

Methods for mechanical cleaning of the chimney

You get the tools necessary for such work only once, so in the future this method will not be costly.

So, you will need:

• special different-sized ruffs

• kettlebell on a strong rope

• hard brushes

• gaff (with hard hook)

In addition to the basic tools, you will need a respirator, thick cloth gloves and goggles.

All stoves are cleaned from above, and fireplaces - from below.

The cleaning of the oven, including the bathhouse, is carried out in the same way as before the milk container was washed with a brush. With gentle circular movements, scrape off the soot that falls to the bottom of the well. Choose a tool depending on the thickness of the canal. Initially, you can burn the wood with pure salt or potato peels to soften the soot and make it easier to work. Then use ruffs or brushes and, as necessary, a ramrod or gaff.

For cleaning activities, choose a sunny, calm day. Be sure to secure yourself near the pipe to eliminate the risk of injury.

The fireplace is cleaned mainly with hard brushes with long handles from below.

Be sure to clean the bottom of the well after the pipe has been cleaned - all the soot that has fallen off the walls, rake it out with a poker and a shovel and discard it.

Self-cleaning the chimney from soot and soot is not such a difficult task as it might seem at first. Yes, this is a lengthy process, especially if you have not encountered this before. The most important thing is to take a number of preventive measures in time, and alternately use the previously mentioned methods. The optimal time for cleaning is early autumn, when there are still fine days.

Heating devices that run on wood or other solid fuels require periodic cleaning. Deposits on the walls of the chimney are dangerous not only by narrowing the channels, collapses and clogging of passages, but also by ignition of plaque, which can lead to a fire in the house. The danger should be eliminated in a timely manner. Do you agree?

We will tell you how to maintain the smoke channel so that it does not pose a threat to you and property. The article presented for review describes in detail how the chimney is cleaned of soot, how often and when it needs to be done. For prudent owners, effective preventive measures are given.

Carrying out mechanical cleaning is a rather complicated and time-consuming process. Therefore, as a rule, it is carried out no more than 1-2 times a year. But with intensive use of heating devices, this is often not enough.

In addition, the more deposits are formed on the walls of the channels, the more the efficiency decreases - the fuel efficiency decreases.

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This is due to the fact that at low temperatures an excess of carbon particles is formed, which settles in the form of soot and soot. This phenomenon is especially characteristic for the initial combustion, when the firewood is just flaring up.

Therefore, when kindling a stove or fireplace, one should strive to increase the temperature in the firebox as quickly as possible - heat the stove with dry wood, use more thin and dry chips.

In addition, after the fire is extinguished, it is necessary to keep warm. To do this, as soon as all the fuel burns out in the stove, close the gate. And then, during the next kindling, the temperature inside the stove will be much higher than if it had not been closed.

Video #3 How to make a ruff from a plastic bottle and use it to clean the chimney:

You can check how you managed to clean the chimney from soot with the help of a newspaper. It is set on fire and brought to the firebox and to the cleaning doors.

If there is no draft in any section, then, most likely, in the channels located above, the blockage could not be eliminated. In this case, it is better to invite a chimney sweep, who will help to pinpoint the cause and cope with poor draft.

Tell us about how you cleaned your chimney own dacha or in country house. Please write comments in the block under the text of the article. Ask questions, share useful information for site visitors, leave photos on the topic.

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How to clean a chimney pipe on your own and at no extra cost

In the old days, cleaning the chimney pipe was a common, ordinary thing for any owner. After all, a wood-burning stove was in every home and the subtleties of this process were passed down from generation to generation. Now these skills are known only to a narrow circle of professionals, whose services are quite expensive. However, there is nothing particularly difficult in this lesson. In this article, I will talk about how to clean up the chimney with my own hands using traditional tools, as well as available old-fashioned cleaning recipes.

Indirect signs of chimney blockage

You should not be negligent about cleaning the chimney, because a soot-covered or even clogged pipe can lead to the fact that at some point carbon monoxide, which has neither color nor smell, will go into the room. And this is no longer just a mild poisoning with a headache, but a real mortal danger for you and your family.

• The first thing to look at is traction.. Any person who regularly had to heat a stove or kindle a fireplace knows that in addition to the firebox itself, the stoves have a blower that provides air flow and a damper on the pipe. This damper is needed to adjust the cross section of the chimney; without it, the lion's share of the heat will literally fly out into the chimney.
  The position of the damper is usually determined by eye, empirically. So, if you need to open the damper more than usual to ignite the stove, it means that the pipe section has become smaller and needs to be cleaned;

• Another indirect sign the need for such cleaning may be the color of the smoke. When wood is burning, the smoke is usually light, almost white, and at a high burning intensity it can even be transparent. If dark smoke poured out of your chimney, and patches of soot appeared on the roof and in the yard, then it's time to get down to business;
• You can also determine the blockage of the system by the color of the flame. Under normal conditions, the fire will be light yellow color. If the burning intensity has dropped, and the flame has become bright orange, it means that the fuel does not burn out completely, therefore, the stove needs to be cleaned.

Chimney cleaning methods

For thousands of years of existence furnace heating in the treasury of folk wisdom gathered a lot various ways. Modern science has not stood aside either, at the moment a number of formulations are being produced designed to solve this problem.

What does the modern market offer us?

The simplest, although not very cheap way cleaning fireplaces and stoves is the use of a variety of chemical mixtures that can, to one degree or another, actively destroy soot deposits in chimneys and furnaces:

• The domestic company "Smoke" produces whole line similar devices. A cleaning box is considered a serious preventive measure against soot. This is the usual cardboard box, with a flammable chemical inside, which must be put in a firebox and set on fire.
  The whole process takes about one and a half hours. After that, within 2 weeks, soot will actively fall off and fall into the furnace or burn inside the channel, poured through the chimney;

• If the cardboard box did not help, there is a more radical remedy, the so-called "Smoke" log. This is a briquette of compressed chemicals, decorated to look like a regular log. The developers claim that this is one of the most strong means. In addition to practical benefits, the burning of such a log is accompanied by interesting visual effects, it gives an original flame with a pronounced turquoise hue, children will simply be delighted with such cleaning;

• The product line of this well-known manufacturer also includes special cleaning pellets designed to prevent clogging of pellet heating boilers and stoves. To maintain the normal operation of the boiler, the instruction prescribes to mix a ten-kilogram bag of the product with a ton of ordinary pellets. To clean ordinary stoves with such pellets, it is necessary to burn a kilogram of this chemical in the furnace for 5 days;

• Approximately the same line of products is offered by the concern, which operates under the common brand "Chimney sweep". This brand is the result of cooperation between our manufacturers and the well-known German company Hansa. If you believe the advertisement, then their products are able to destroy not only soot layers, but also react with creosote, which is the basis of a dense and viscous substrate under a layer of this very soot;

• Among Russians, the products of the Czech company Kominichek have gained popularity quite a long time ago. One package contains 5 sachets of the mixture, 14g each. It is used at the rate of 1 bag per 1 kg of firewood.

The advantage of such a mixture is considered to be an acceptable price, as well as the ability to decompose soot even at relatively low temperatures. But the product has a pungent odor, which is why it can only be used in tightly closed fireboxes; it is not suitable for open fireplaces;

• In addition, one of the most affordable means is the anti-scale chemical composition or PCA. The compound is effective, but rather aggressive, no more than 150 g of powder is used per 1 ton of fuel. It is sold and used in the same way as Kominichek, in paper bags that are burned without opening.

All this powerful arsenal of modern chemistry, according to the manufacturers themselves, is more designed to prevent the overgrowth of the chimney. If the thickness of the soot in your pipe does not exceed 20 mm, then the chemistry will cope with it. Large congestion can only be removed mechanically, that is, with your own hands.

Folk ways to clean pipes

Fortunately, not all grandfather's recipes were irretrievably lost, and in the treasury of folk wisdom, there are still many effective recommendations. Personally, I trust folk methods more than aggressive chemistry:

• The simplest remedy is ordinary table salt. It is poured on burning coals and during evaporation, it gradually destroys the soot layer. There are two opinions when exactly you need to pour salt. I was taught that salt should be sprinkled on embers in a dying furnace.
  At the same time, I met masters who, on the contrary, argue that salt should be poured over high heat. Apparently the truth, as always, lies in the middle. After all, no matter what you pour, at the moment of maximum combustion, the thrust will be maximum, therefore, most of the composition will simply fly out through the pipe;

• In parallel with salt, I use the softening and destruction of the soot layer with potatoes, more precisely potato peels. They are thrown closer to the end of the firebox and, according to the rules, must completely burn out. Destruction occurs due to the absorption of starch into a loose layer of soot. The method is quite safe and does not require practically any costs;

• One of the old-fashioned ways to prevent a chimney that was common in the past was to periodically heat it with dry firewood from aspen, alder or birch, and this firewood must be cleaned of bark. During such a firebox, the dampers must be periodically gradually covered and opened completely.
  As a result, when you close the valve, the temperature rises, and when you open it completely, you get maximum traction. Such "swings" lead to the complete burnout of layers. But for old stoves, this is dangerous, as the walls of the chimney may crack;

• Light soot deposits can be destroyed by naphthalene fumes. According to experienced cleaners, supposedly it is enough to burn one tablet in the firebox for 3-4 days in a row and within two weeks after that all the soot will burn out and the channel will become clean.
  But I have doubts about the safety of this method. Firstly, naphthalene is a rather harmful and smelly compound, and no matter how hard you try, some of the vapors will get into the room anyway. And secondly, at high concentrations, naphthalene vapors are considered explosive;

• There is another radical method, this is cleaning the chimney with boiling water. As a rule, it is used for serious blockages, as a temporary measure, until the hands reach mechanical cleaning. It's simple, three liters of boiling water is poured into the pipe of a melted furnace, from a steam shock, the cork is simply knocked out, plus the structure of the entire layer is broken and part of the soot burns out;
• If we talk exclusively about cleaning furnaces, then here you can use a mixture of copper sulfate crystals (5 parts) with saltpeter (7 parts) and coal or coke powder (2 parts).
  Such a tool is burned at the moment of the highest temperature in the furnace. For 100 kg of fuel, 20 g of powder is enough. But keep in mind that this tool is not suitable for fireplaces;

• I don’t know how true this is, but I was assured that the periodic burning of aluminum cans in the furnace, for example from beer, perfectly cleans the chimney. Only thin aluminum should not melt, but burn. You can achieve this effect only if you heat the stove with good coal or coke, with the help of firewood you will not get such a temperature.

All folk cleaning methods are good only as a preventive measure or preparation for general mechanical cleaning with your own hands. So don't have high hopes for them.

We clean the pipe ourselves

Cleaning pipes and chimneys with chemicals or old-fashioned methods, of course, a good thing, but as I already mentioned, with large blockages, you can only clean up manually. And the first thing to take care of is the tool.

What you need for self-cleaning the pipe

The most common, one might say classic chimney sweep tool is a wide brush. To be honest, despite the development of scientific and technological progress, as they cleaned chimneys in private houses with brushes and Serbs 100 years ago, they are cleaned to this day.

Of course, in fairness, it should be noted that in addition to metal brushes, their plastic counterparts are now actively used. By the way, chimneys made of stainless steel can be cleaned only with plastic brushes, metal bristles, you completely ruin the structure, and such pipes cost serious money.

The design of this device is extremely simple. A round core weighing from 2 to 5 kg is fastened to the brush with horizontally oriented bristles from below with a carabiner, and from above all this miracle of design thought is hung on a cable or rope. Such brushes can be round or square, but in any case, they must be at least 20% wider than the chimney in size.

The lower core does not have to be round, it can be cone-shaped, oval, in general, anything, the main thing is that the weighting is well centered, otherwise it may jam in the channel. That is why you can not hang sports weights or dumbbells here.

Another useful device this is a scraper, in itself it resembles an ordinary chisel screwed to a long stick. To be honest, when I faced the problem of cleaning the chimney in the country, and there were no special tools at hand, I did just that, I screwed the carpenter's chisel to a long pole with wire, in my case to a bamboo rod.

A complete set for high-quality cleaning of the chimney consists of three main devices. I have already told about the brush with the core. In addition to it, you will need about the same brush, only fixed on an elastic metal or fiberglass cable. With the same device, only with a different nozzle, sewer pipes break through.

The fact is that a straight chimney, that is, going vertically upwards from the combustion chamber, is rare. Usually, between the chamber and the vertical pipe in stoves and fireplaces, the so-called “coarse” is arranged, it is needed to increase heat transfer.

On this segment, the gases heated in the furnace move along a broken path, in other words, like a snake. So, in all the problematic points of this snake, technological windows through which the chimney channel is cleaned. A flexible, but elastic cable with a brush is just what you need in order to clean hard-to-reach places chimney, from below through technological windows.

In modern low-rise private houses, the chimney or chimney is quite long and severe blockage one brush on a cable may not be enough. In order for you to be able to clean the entire length of the chimney with a scraper, it will not be superfluous to purchase a set of stackable fiberglass meter rods.

Of course, a factory specialized tool is a convenient thing. And although the price of this set is relatively affordable, our person allocates funds for such purchases last, and before that he will definitely try to make something with his own hands.

Here's to you from own experience a couple of recipes for such homemade products. At first I tried to make a brush with a pile of millimeter steel wire. I cut pieces of wire, a little wider than the chimney and in the middle wrapped them around a stud with an 8 mm thread in one ring. Then, through the washers, it was pulled together with nuts.

Of course, such a device scrapes soot well. But a 1 mm steel wire is a rather tough thing and not every brick pipe can withstand such a test. At home on a new chimney, this number still passed, but old pipe at the dacha almost crumbled from steel bristles. Therefore, I do not advise you to step on this rake, it is better to use the following recipe.

Plastic brooms are on sale now. So I decided to make a second brush from such a broom. Most of all, I had to tinker with disassembly, because those who did it, apparently did not expect that they would disassemble it.

Then everything is simple. The broom's whisk turned out to be a soldered monolith. In the center of this monolith, I drilled a hole along the diameter of a metal stud, after which I put wide washers on both sides and tightened them with nuts. Under the pressure of the pucks, the durable synthetic pile parted and took a horizontal position.

Cargo smelted from lead. I made a clay mold, inserted a hairpin with a ring at the end into the center and filled the mold with lead. On a homemade brush, I also screwed rings on both sides. And he connected all these segments with carbines.

One of my friends "fished out" from the network a scheme for making a brush from plastic bottles. There, at two bottles, you need to cut off the bottom and, not reaching the neck, along, cut the walls of the bottles into petals. Then, towards each other, so that the necks “look” in different directions, these two segments are mounted on a hairpin and pulled together with bolts.

All this was beautiful, cheap and attractive while this brush was being made, but when they tried to clean the thick soot with it, it turned out that there was not much sense from this device. Such a "brush" is too weak to scrape off old soot.

There is another scheme for assembling a homemade brush. It will work well, but you will have to tinker with its creation. As a bristle, a thick steel rope disassembled into wires is used there.

The hardest thing to disassemble is the rope itself. Such things are knitted with special machines and it can take a lot of time to disassemble. You need to work slowly, in thick mittens, otherwise you will prick your fingers. The threads are tightly connected there, so that it is unlikely to be able to disassemble with bare hands, it is better to use pliers.

When the rope is disassembled, a nut is screwed onto a threaded steel stud, a wide metal washer is put on it, over which the same washer is put only from thick, dense rubber.

The wire is laid out from the center in a circle, after which, another rubber gasket with a wide iron washer is put on top. The production is completed by tightening these two washers on both sides.

Chimney cleaning technique

First of all, remember that all work at height is dangerous. Believe me, it only seems from below that there is nothing wrong on the roof two-story house no, in fact, a fall can lead to serious consequences, even death.

The first thing you need to take care of is insurance, the more reliable it is, the better. In addition, it is customary to clean pipes in calm, dry weather. Whether you wear tight overalls and gloves, decide for yourself, but a respirator and goggles will not be superfluous for sure.

Before starting work, clean the firebox first. In general, before climbing onto the roof, I “steam” the pipe using folk methods for a week. Usually potato peels and table salt are enough.

Immediately, before starting active cleaning, the doors, blowers and technological windows of the oven must be closed and preferably hung with a damp cloth. The fireplace opening is simply hung with a dense, damp cloth.

Before you run a brush with a weight or a scraper into the pipe, make sure that there is nothing but soot there. If the stove has not been heated for more than two weeks, then birds can make nests in the chimney or settle the bats. In addition, old brick pipes can crumble from the inside, and it is better to immediately notice a shifted brick and try to fix it, rather than twist it with a brush and drop it down.

I warn you right away, cleaning the chimney is hard work and you will have to sweat a lot. First, lower one core on a rope to the entire depth of the pipe, without a brush. Make sure it runs freely and doesn't snag on anything. After that, you can fasten the brush and with reciprocating movements, from top to bottom, slowly clean the chimney.

If the core does not pass, then you need to act with a scraper. In general, it is considered that the diameter of the core should be at least 2/3 of the dimensions of the pipe in the cross section.

Of course, the brush can also be screwed to a type-setting long rod. But if with the core you expend effort only on lifting it up, it will go down by itself, under the weight of the core, then in the case of a barbell, energy will have to be spent 2 times more.

All the soot you clean off will naturally fall to the bottom. Therefore, do not wait until the pipe is filled with debris. Periodically, you need to get off the roof and clean out the soot through the technological window.

When you are done with the pipe, start cleaning with a flexible cable with a brush at the end, “rough”. The furnace and blower are cleaned last, despite the fact that you already cleaned them at the beginning, by this time they will be dirty again.

Blockage Prevention

Chimney pipes will need to be cleaned much less frequently if you follow the basic rules for operating stoves and fireplaces. First of all, forget about burning raw wood, especially conifers. IN coniferous varieties tree contains a large number of pitches.

These resins, dissolved in water vapor, are heavy compounds, so they will immediately settle on the walls of the chimney, forming a dense, hard-to-clean coating. At the same time, dry wood, even conifers, does not pose a great danger to stoves and fireplaces.

Another problem modern ovens is the disposal of waste in the furnace. Old rags and paper, of course, do not pose a great danger, but synthetics and plastic bottles, sooner or later, can lead to the fact that you will have to completely shift your oven. And I'm not talking about those harmful carcinogens that will literally irrigate you and your family in the yard.

The table below contains some standards for the operation of furnace equipment.

Naturally, the above standards are valid for regular operation of stoves, boilers and fireplaces. During periodic operation, let's say in the country, bird nests and plugs from fallen leaves are a great danger to the chimney.

Conclusion

As you can see though self cleaning chimney pipes are physically and rather difficult, but technically it is not particularly difficult. True, do not forget that regular prevention can significantly reduce the frequency of do-it-yourself cleaning.

Everyone who has a stove, fireplace or boiler inevitably faces the problem of cleaning chimneys. Over time, the passage of any chimney becomes narrower due to the accumulation of soot in it.

In addition to narrowing the cross section of flue and ventilation ducts, deposits do not allow the chimney to warm up. And most importantly, a blockage of soot and dust significantly reduces traction and contributes to the accumulation carbon monoxide in room. The most unfavorable option is the ignition of the sediment, which contributes to the destruction of the structure. Sparks from burning deposits can also cause a serious fire.

If nothing is done, the stove or gas boiler will become unusable over time. The cleaning of chimneys in private and apartment buildings is usually carried out by a chimney sweeper from an appropriate company authorized to service chimneys. He has special equipment for removing cleanings, mainly using a special brush or a metal brush. You can call a specialist by calling the service company.

Even if there is an agreement with the relevant organization, every owner of a house or apartment must know how to check and clean the smoke and ventilation pipe from soot and other more difficult blockages. Often it is necessary to clean these structures not only from soot, but also from large debris, cobwebs or bird nests.

When to clean your chimney

Regardless of the quality of the stove, the chimney will still need to be cleaned someday. It is the matter of time. With proper laying of a stove or fireplace, you can do without this procedure for many years, especially if you use dry firewood and refrain from burning household waste. Firewood before consumption should lie for at least a year and a half. The type of wood is also important. When using pine or spruce wood, cleaning will be required faster (due to the presence of resin).

The first signal of clogging of the stove (chimney) chimney is dark smoke from combustion products. If wood firewood is used hardwood wood or pellets, the smoke is transparent, sometimes white. Its darkening indicates the accumulation of soot, soot and dirt. The second sign is that the firewood does not make noise during burning, the flame becomes dark orange. When these signs appear, it's time to think about calling a chimney sweep or prepare yourself for cleaning.

But, before you clean the chimney yourself, it is still better to examine the pipe first.

Baker's note: in any chimney, there must be a cleaning pocket at the bottom through which dirt and debris are removed.

A cleaning weight with a diameter corresponding to the size of the chimney should be in every home. If it easily passes into the pipe, then the reason for the poor performance of the stove is something else. If the weight stops in one place, then the pipe is clogged and the duties of a chimney sweep cannot be avoided.

However, there are folk remedies that allow you to delay this work. The most ancient folk way is to put raw potato peelings (or chopped raw potatoes) into the heated oven.

When they burn, starch is released, which softens the soot deposits. One part of the deposits flies out through the pipe, the other falls into the stove (fireplace). To prevent the formation of soot deposits, it is also possible to burn rock salt at the same time as firewood.

The most reliable, but also dangerous method is to put a good armful of aspen logs into a heated stove , without closing the door. The stove will begin to hum, the soot will light up, a flame will appear from the chimney. This method can be used if the chimney is really very reliable.

Devices and rules for cleaning

The stove flue (chimney) pipe is cleaned if the layer of soot and soot reaches a thickness of 2 mm. Sequence of work:

Basic fixtures:

• for a pipe with a circular cross section - a metal ruff with a diameter that is 20% larger than the size of the pipe;
• for a pipe with a square section - a brush with metal bristles;
• scraper;
• for punching blockages - a metal core.

If the soot layer is too dense, then before using the brush it must be cleaned with a scraper. Only after that you can use a ruff (or brush). The ruff should move up and down with smooth movements. The brush should be provided with holders that will connect when moving down. If a blockage (garbage or fallen off brick) is found that does not let the ruff through, you need to use a metal core with a diameter of 2/3 of the pipe section, which is fixed on the cable - throw it into the center of the structure, trying not to hit the walls so as not to destroy the structure. In addition, the core can be used to weight the brush or brush.

If the house has an open fireplace , connected to a straight pipe, it is quite possible to clean it with a long-handled brush directly from the firebox. After cleaning the pipe, it is also necessary to clean all the windows for cleaning, blowing, the door and the firebox itself.

Chemistry for soot control

To make the need for chimney sweep services less frequent, you can use chemicals to prevent the formation of soot - liquids, powders or briquettes that must be added to burning wood. All these tools contribute to the destruction of the soot layer and its shedding down the walls of the chimney.

The most popular means:

You can buy all of the above chemicals at any household supermarket.

Perhaps the most common remedy, according to consumer reviews, is Kominichek. Under the influence of Kominichek, a chemical process occurs that turns soot into oxide, which burns without a flame at a low temperature.

According to the instructions, one bag is enough to clean the stove or fireplace, two are required for a wood-burning heating boiler. The bag should be thrown onto the burning firewood without opening it, and the firebox door should be closed. The dose cannot be increased.

If the soot layer is very thick, it is better to repeat the procedure. For prevention purposes, it is advisable to burn one sachet every two weeks. In addition to removing soot, this tool increases the efficiency of wood-burning heaters and saves money when purchasing fuel.

The second most popular tool is the Chimney Sweep log - a bar (briquette), during the combustion of which substances are released that act on soot deposits and contribute to their shedding down. The main purpose of this chemical cleaner is to prevent narrowing of the chimney section due to soot and soot deposits.

"Chimney sweep" is suitable for use in any stove, in any fireplace, heater, stove, boiler. If the heater is used daily, four logs will be required for the season (six months) (one briquette for two months). For a fireplace that is used only occasionally, one briquette per season is enough.

Baker's note: in large Russian stoves, it is necessary to burn two briquettes of "Chimney sweep" at a time.

The "chimney sweep" consists of sawdust, coal wax with coal dust, ammonium sulfate, urea, zinc chloride, sodium sulfate, silica and phosphorus oxide. This tool is especially effective for brick chimneys.

Before using the Chimney Sweep for the first time, you must make sure that there are no loose bricks, debris, bottles or bird nests in the chimney. The most efficient burning of briquettes is on hot coals. Additives entering the pipe affect its inner surface up to two weeks. All this time, soot falls into the furnace from above. After two weeks, it is advisable to clean the knee and the smoke damper.

Why does the stove smoke with a clean pipe

Smoke from the stove can also occur with a clean chimney, there may be several reasons. In addition to soot deposits in the chimney, smoke obstruction can cause:

If there is too much moisture in the chimney, then you need to put thin sticks or dry alcohol into the cleaning window and set it on fire. At the same time, the stove should be flooded, and after the restoration of traction, close the window.

Prevention to avoid blockages

You can avoid mechanical cleaning of the chimney if you follow a few simple rules:

If, nevertheless, it happened that the chimney was clogged, the most the best option- call a professional chimney sweep. He will not only clean the chimney, but also identify other shortcomings and advise how to eliminate them.

Chimney cleaning is important for efficient and safe work heating unit. However, any malfunction is better to prevent than to eliminate. Sandwich chimneys made of of stainless steel. And the steel grade correctly selected for the type of heating device will ensure long-term operation of the chimney without a headache.

Watch the video in which the craftsman cleans the chimney with his own hands using a special device that combines elements of a chainsaw and a vacuum cleaner:

The owners of stoves and fireplaces are well aware of the need regular care behind their heating boilers. No matter how perfect the design is, cleaning the chimney will definitely be required. Various factors influence its clogging rate: operating conditions, device design, quality and type of fuel, etc. However, even in the most ideal conditions, at least once a year, the chimney must be cleaned. Often this operation is carried out by employees of special companies, but if you wish, you can handle it yourself.

Why is it necessary to clean the chimney at all?

When fuel burns in the heater, soot is released. Warm air lifts it up, where it settles on the walls of the chimney. Over time, soot accumulates, its layer becomes more and more powerful. This leads to unpleasant consequences:

• The channel for the removal of smoke is narrowed, which gives a reduction in traction.
• The wear of the walls of the chimney is accelerated.
• The efficiency of the heating device decreases.
• Increases the likelihood of fire inside the chimney.

Trouble can be prevented only by timely cleaning of the chimney from accumulated soot.

You may also find this article on how to make a brick chimney the right way:

Chimney cleaning methods

All options for cleaning the smoke channel can be divided into three groups.

Option # 1 - folk remedies

The most common remedy for the accumulation of soot in the chimney is rock salt. It is usually sprinkled on the fuel during combustion. However, this option can be considered, rather, as the prevention of soot formation. It will not help to radically clean the pipe.

A more effective chimney cleaner is potato peelings or just chopped potatoes. Their number is determined by the size of the heater, but on average it usually leaves about a bucket. Cleanings are poured directly into the fire. The starch released along with the steam softens the soot and it exits the pipe. After the procedure, it is necessary to clean the oven. Sometimes such an operation is carried out before mechanical cleaning, which is much easier.

Another remedy is aspen firewood. Several armfuls of such fuel are burned in a furnace. However, we must immediately make a reservation that this is a rather dangerous method. It involves heating the chimney to very high temperatures, as a result of which the soot begins to burn out. Before using this method, you should make sure that the chimney is strong. In addition, soot deposits must be small, otherwise even the most durable pipe will not withstand the loads and collapse.

Soot is deposited inside the chimney and closes the space of the outlet channel. Draft deteriorates, the efficiency of the heater decreases and the risk of fire increases

Option #2 - chemical compositions

The industry produces many products designed to clean the chimney. These are various powders, liquids and briquettes. They are added to the furnace during the combustion of fuel. They light up and emit substances harmless to humans, destroying deposits on the walls of the smoke channel, which crumble down. Among the popular means is PCA or anti-scale chemical composition. A special powder is put into the firebox along with firewood. Its quantity is strictly regulated: no more than 200 g per ton of fuel.

In search of how to clean your chimney from a small layer of soot, you should pay attention to the Czech tool Kominichek. This powder, when heated, causes a catalytic reaction, causing the soot to burn at a lower temperature. The most popular is the Chimney Sweep Log, which can be used in all types of appliances that run on liquid and solid fuels. You need to use the tool as deposits accumulate. On average, a fireplace that is lit once or twice a week will require one briquette for six months. But for a boiler that is constantly used, you will need one log every two months. In large fireplaces and stoves, two packages are burned at once.

Before using the Chimney Sweep for the first time in the heating season, you should inspect the chimney to be sure that it is not clogged with debris or foreign objects. The briquette can be burned with or without fuel. However, for maximum efficiency it is laid on hot coals. Before this, the log is taken out of the package, but the wrapper is not removed. You should wait until the briquette flares up, if this does not happen, the wrapper is set on fire from both sides. The action of the active substance lasts for two weeks. All this time, soot is possible. After this period, the pipe should be inspected and the furnace cleaned.

An effective tool for cleaning the chimney is a special log. When burning, it releases volatile substances that destroy the soot deposited in the smoke channel.

However, it is worth saying a few words about safety (more in the video):

Although, there is an opinion that all this is written with a pitchfork on the water:

Whom to believe is up to you.

Option #3 - mechanical cleaning

No matter how advanced humanity is in matters of technology, mechanical cleaning of chimneys, just like hundreds of years ago, remains the simplest, most reliable and effective way removal of soot and soot. Depending on which gas ducts need to be cleaned - vertical or horizontal, a variety of scrapers, shovels, brushes and panicles are used. You can make a tool for servicing furnace channels with your own hands or buy it in specialized departments of building markets. Most often, a ruff brush is used to remove soot in vertical gas ducts, and a poker and a brush with hard bristles are used in horizontal gas ducts. If necessary, a handle of the desired length is attached to the tool.

A chimney brush can be easily made from improvised materials

Previously, to clean the chimney, you could turn to a chimney sweep. Since today people in this profession are extremely rare, we will talk in detail about how to properly clean the stove or fireplace from soot:

1. Clean the furnace of ash and unburned solid fuel residues.
2. Close the blower, firebox and all cleaning doors tightly - remember that soot consists of microscopic particles that can penetrate into the narrowest gaps. Open fireplace should be covered thick cloth which should be moistened with plenty of water.
3. Climb to the roof following the safety rules. You should have a ruff brush tied to a long rope with you.
4. Inspect the vertical flue for debris contamination. If large third-party objects got into the chimney, or if a broken half of a brick blocked the smoke channel, then it can be released using a cable with a heavy ball-shaped weight. It is not recommended to use objects of complex shape (with a displaced center of gravity) for this purpose. Often they turn and get stuck in the furnace channels, requiring additional effort and time to remove.
5. After removing the blockage, lower a bristly brush into the chimney and clean the walls along the entire height of the pipe with translational movements up and down. If the chimney has not been cleaned for a long time, or raw wood with a high resin content was used for the firebox, then a thick layer of deposits can only be removed with a metal scraper.
6. Check the result of your work and go down. Your next target is the remaining vertical and horizontal channels. They can be accessed through the cleaning doors. Opening them one by one in the direction from the chimney to the mouth of the furnace, remove carbon deposits with scrapers and hard whisks and rake them out of the channels with a poker.
7. Furnaces with a wide firebox, as well as fireplaces, are also cleaned from the side of the firebox. Lastly, the soot is scraped off the walls of the fuel chamber and the blower, after which the soot is removed and the under and grate is cleaned.

When finished with work, close and carefully seal the cleaning doors, carry out a complete wet cleaning of the room. The cleaning procedure is usually carried out twice a year, before and at the end of the heating season.

Fireplaces with straight chimneys can be cleaned from below, through the firebox. To do this, use a special metal brush, the handle of which is extended with the help of special extensions.

The problem of cleaning the chimney is easily solved. You can choose from several cleaning options. It is only necessary to take into account the amount of deposits accumulated on the walls of the smoke channel. All works including mechanical cleaning, you can do it yourself. You should read the instructions and follow them carefully. However, those who are not confident in their abilities or do not want to do dirty work can invite a professional. In any case, a clean chimney will delight its owner with excellent draft and long term services.

How to reduce soot deposits

Soot and soot are deposited even in the pipes of gas-fired furnaces. What can we say about the combustion of solid fuel - for him it is an even more natural process. At the same time, the amount of combustion products deposited on the walls of the chimney can be significantly reduced. To do this, follow a few simple rules:

1. No trash. It is impossible to burn plastic, foam plastic, rubber and other substances with a high carbon content in the furnace of a solid fuel furnace.
2. Prepare firewood ahead of time. Remember that high-quality dry wood burns almost without residue, with minimal release of soot and carbon-causing substances. Among other things, this contributes to more heat combustion, which affects the course of pyrolysis processes. Concerning raw firewood, then when they are used, water vapor is released in excess, as well as substances such as tar, creosote, etc. - they simply do not have time to burn due to low temperature. Subsequently, all these tar-like substances fall out in the form of hard-to-remove deposits on the gas duct channels and are the reason for the rapid overgrowth of soot channels - it sticks much more readily to the sticky substance.
3. Use wood hard rock. Anyone who fires a stove on their own knows that oak, hornbeam, beech, aspen and acacia firewood are the best. In second place is the wood of walnut, apple, cherry, larch, poplar, sycamore, etc. But firewood from coniferous trees (spruce, pine, juniper, etc.) contains a lot of resin, so when using them, you will need to clean the stove significantly more often. As, however, and when burning with birch logs, which are distinguished by a high content of tar. By the way, today's fashionable fuel briquettes or pellet granules are also subject to a thorough revision at the time of purchase. If they are made from pine sawdust or sunflower husks, then it is better to bypass such fuel due to high content resins and oils.
4. Make sure the wood burns optimally. This corresponds to a flue gas temperature of 150 to 350 degrees. With reduced heat generation, the carbon of the wood does not have time to burn out in the furnace and flies away with smoke, simultaneously falling out in the vertical and horizontal channels of the furnace.

In order to achieve the most complete combustion of wood, use the advice of experienced stove-makers. Here's what they recommend:

• before laying firewood in the stove, keep it indoors for at least 2-3 days. During this time, they will dry out and warm up to room temperature, which means that they will not only burn better, but will not require additional heat for preheating;
• before laying the main batch of wood, heat the combustion chamber by burning chips, pieces of cardboard, etc. in it;
• as the firewood burns out, regulate the combustion process with a damper or blower door. Of course, the high temperature in the furnace is good because less soot is formed, however, in this case, the heat will not have time to accumulate in the body of the furnace, and will simply fly away into the atmosphere;
• install on chimney burning indicator. With it, you can more accurately monitor the temperature of the smoke and keep the process of heat generation within optimal limits.

A temperature indicator mounted on the chimney will keep combustion within optimal limits.

Symptoms of an “overgrown” chimney cannot be overlooked. First of all, the color of the smoke changes. If the flue duct is clean, it will be light, transparent or white. The accumulated soot starts to burn, which changes the color of the smoke. It becomes thicker and darker. The hue of the flame in the oven can also change. Under normal conditions, it will be light orange. If a rich shade of dark orange appears, then it's time to think about how to clean the chimney.

What is the best choice for heating wooden house which option is more economical and profitable, you will find out in our following material: .

In any case, even if there are no warning signs, experts recommend inspecting the smoke duct at least twice a year. It should be borne in mind that cleaning may be necessary not only in case of an increase in the soot layer, but also from debris, bird nests, cobwebs, etc. that accidentally got inside. There are many cleaning methods and you can choose the best one only after determining the level of pollution, revision of the state of the chimney, etc.