How to clean a chimney. How to quickly clean the chimney from soot with folk remedies. Ways to clean the chimney: folk methods

To clean the chimney pipe in a private house, you need to know some of the nuances, otherwise you risk damaging the structure and wasting time by doing this time-consuming work poorly. If you are faced with a choice between chemical and mechanical cleaning, feel free to choose a mechanical one, as it is much more effective. If necessary, contact a specialist.

Clogging of the chimney occurs for a variety of reasons. Often the culprit can be a foreign object getting into the pipe. For example, birds or other animals that bring with them nesting material that completely blocks smoke exhaust. Excessive build-up of soot (a natural by-product of the combustion process) can also cause clogging. Finally, a large amount of leaves, branches and other debris can block the chimney.

Sometimes improper design during construction can cause further frequent blockages. This is the most difficult reason to eliminate, since in most cases it will not be possible to get rid of it on your own, and contacting qualified specialists can cost a lot of money. Often, to completely eliminate the problem, it is necessary to completely dismantle the stove or fireplace in order to build a new furnace and smoke exhaust system. If you do not have the relevant experience and you do not know how to clean the chimney, in no case try to do it yourself.

Why soot is dangerous

During the combustion of wood or coal, amorphous carbon (soot) is formed containing small particles of solid matter. Soot is formed when hot particles interact with cold air, resulting in condensation. Since this process takes place in the air inside your home, the soot is hardly visible until it begins to settle on walls and other surfaces as a black coating.

When interacting with indoor moisture, soot can significantly degrade water quality, damage indoor plants, and make the surrounding air unbreathable.
Long stay in a room with a high content of soot in the air can cause coronary heart disease, asthma, bronchitis and many other respiratory diseases.

Burning has the most dangerous effect on people suffering from cardiovascular diseases, increasing the risk of a heart attack.

If newborn children are in a contaminated room, this may affect their development of the upper and lower respiratory tract.

The danger of carbon monoxide poisoning is a major concern when it comes to space heating with wood or coal.

Folk methods of contactless cleaning

Please note that contactless cleaning eliminates the problem only for a while. If you have any difficulties with mechanical cleaning, use the services of professionals.

The people often use the following methods to combat soot and burning:

• Burning potato skins together with firewood;
• Placement in the pipe of a bag filled with bricks;
• Using pine wood to clean the chimney.

Please be aware that none of these methods is a reliable cleaning method and does not guarantee an adequate degree of safety. The best ways Is it mechanical or chemical cleaning. In some cases, you can combine several options, if your design allows it.

Cleaning with chemicals

Sodium chloride

Sodium chloride, also known as table salt, is a simple chemical that is easy to find. Put some salt on the fire while it burns. The salt will react with the water in the burning wood, which will create a weak acid that will travel up the chimney and dissolve a small amount of soot. Use this method with caution. Do not use sodium chloride if you have a metal chimney installed, as the acid will corrode if it comes into contact with the metal.

copper sulfate

When choosing an industrial flue gas purifier, one of the most effective ingredients is copper sulfate. This material chemically interacts with the soot and causes it to burn at a lower temperature than usual. Like table salt, copper sulfate works with water to create sulfurous or sulfuric acid, which can damage the inside of your chimney.

While chemical cleaners can prevent soot buildup, the only way to effectively get rid of a blockage is to manually clean the inside of the pipe with a special brush. Chemical cleaners should never be the only cleaning method. In addition, excessive use of chemicals can damage the chimney, especially metal-lined chimneys, greatly reducing their service life. Read the instructions carefully before using any chemical cleaner to avoid fire. If the chimney is not working properly and the smoke is coming back, do not use chemicals in any case, as this can threaten you with serious poisoning.

Mechanical cleaning of the chimney

Do-it-yourself mechanical cleaning of the chimney is a very time-consuming task that requires considerable effort and time. There are four common method cleaning. Some of them require the presence of more than one person, but all four methods involve a set of the same tools.

To clean your chimney you will need:

• Ruff for cleaning the chimney;
• Flue rods, rope and pull rings (depending on the method);
• Pipe cap;
• Fabric for flooring and furniture;
• Ribbon;
• Mirror;
• Metal bucket;
• Shovel and broom;
• Lantern;
• Protective mask/goggles;
• Ladder.

Measure the width of the chimney before buying a special brush to choose right size.

In no case do not save on the quality of consumables. This can affect both the quality of cleaning and the integrity of your design.

Basic methods of mechanical cleaning

• Top-down rod method. You must be on the roof to perform this cleaning method. Insert the brush into the hole to clean the inside walls by raising and lowering the brush a few times. The brush must be connected to flexible metal bars to increase the length of the brush as it travels further down the chimney. Use this cleaning method if you want to avoid getting soot on furniture and walls in your home. It is recommended to close the firebox in order to completely avoid soot from the walls of the chimney on things in the living room.
• Bottom-up bar method. This method is similar to the previous one, but for cleaning it is necessary to be in the house, and not on the roof, working with the rod from below. It's much safer since you don't have to climb onto the roof, but it's impossible to avoid getting soot and dust on things in your house. To greatly reduce soiling, use a tarp to protect your furniture from excessive burning.

• Cleaning with additional weight. This cleaning is recommended to follow the same algorithm as the top-down rod method, but instead of using a smoke brush, a rope, pull rings and a weight must be attached to the flexible metal rods. Add rings and any load of at least 9 kilograms to the end of the rope, then raise and lower this design into the chimney from the roof. Do not forget to close the firebox in the house so that dust does not fall on interior items.
• double line method. This method requires the participation of two people. Pass the rope through your broom (use a tension ring to hold if necessary). One person takes a broom and a rope to the roof and, holding on to one end, lowers the unit down the pipe. The person in the house grabs the other end of the rope. Everyone takes turns pulling the rope to thoroughly clean the chimney with a brush. Be prepared for a copious amount of dust in the house after the procedure. Be sure to use a tarp or any other fabric to cover the floor and furniture.

Step-by-step instructions for mechanical cleaning

1. Prepare a cloth to collect dust and lay it in front of the firebox (stove).
2. Put on a mask and gloves.
3. Carefully illuminate the pipe with a flashlight to accurately determine its size.
4. Make sure your brush is at least a little longer than your chimney.
5. Place a tarp or an old unwanted sheet over the fireplace. Use fireproof tape for this purpose to avoid flame incidents (especially if you use a torch or candle instead of a flashlight).
6. Push the brush up the chimney, twisting it inside if necessary.
7. Repeat this process until you reach the top of the chimney.
8. Take a look at the chimney using a flashlight. If the walls are still dirty, repeat the previous procedure again.
9. Use a hair dryer to heat the chimney. Point the heat source at the chimney for about 8 minutes.
10. Light a small piece of paper in the firebox to check the quality of the work done. If the smoke rises and does not come back, then the cleaning was successful. Otherwise, you can repeat the previous steps.
11. To make sure your pipe is intact, have someone look outside to see how the smoke is coming out. If smoke comes out of several holes, then most likely the chimney is damaged. In this case, do not try to do anything yourself, but contact qualified specialists to avoid a fire.
12. If everything went well, remove all dust and fumes from the firebox with a vacuum cleaner.
13. This procedure must be carried out at least once every one and a half months.

• During cleaning, wear clothes that you don’t mind throwing away after completion, as you will have a rather dirty and dusty job;
• Measure the width of your chimney before purchasing a custom chimney brush to determine the correct size. If the ruff is too large, it may get stuck during brushing;
• Do not use water to start a fire, as it can deform a metal chimney;
• You can make a chimney brush with your own hands using steel cables, unnecessary wire and a metal load. Make sure you use a weight of at least 8-9 kilograms.

Checking the quality of cleaning

The easiest way to check is to shine a flashlight into the chimney. If you do not find a gray, brown or black coating on its walls, then the cleaning was done with high quality. Absence bad smell during the burning of firewood also indicates that no harmful substances remain in the chimney. During cleaning, foreign objects may enter the chimney (for example, a piece of rope, fibers from a brush, etc.). expendable materials). Before lighting the firewood and the first check, carefully check that the chimney is free of foreign debris.

If you suspect that the chimney was damaged during cleaning, do not use it under any circumstances until a preliminary inspection. Perform a thorough check yourself or invite a specialist.

Remember - if the diagnosis or cleaning is done incorrectly, it is not recommended to use such a chimney in the near future.

Follow these tips to avoid soot buildup:

• Regularly check the chimney for blockages, if necessary, contact a specialist;
• Do not burn cellophane, foil and other foreign objects in the firebox;
• Make sure that the entire system from the firebox to the chimney is properly installed;
• Make sure all wood is sufficiently dry before lighting;
• Choose the right size stove or fireplace for your space;
• Make sure the fire is completely extinguished before you go to bed or leave the premises;
• If your stove is located in the country, and you do not use it for a long time, do not forget to close the pipe with a plug cover during your absence.

Prices for the services of professional chimney sweeps

If you use your fireplace more than four times a week, you will need to have your chimney cleaned on a regular basis. This is one of the most important factors in determining the cost of a chimney sweep, as the more often your fireplace or stove is used, the more blockage will form on the walls of the chimney.

In order for cleaning to be as effective as possible, it is advisable to clean both from the house and from the roof.

If you have been using the fireplace for many years and have never been cleaned, the cost of professional services can be much more expensive than any subsequent cleaning, since years of clogging is very difficult to remove.

Approximate prices for chimney sweep services

Prices may vary depending on your region. The table below shows prices for Moscow and the Moscow region.

Chemical cleaning by specialists is not carried out and is strictly not recommended for self use. For an additional fee, a specialist can advise you on how to clean the chimney pipe in a private house on your own.

Always remember that even with proper care, you cannot avoid fouling your chimney, it's just a matter of time. Clean every few months to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning and bad smell in the room. Despite the apparent effectiveness of home remedies and the use of chemicals, there is no substitute for a good mechanical cleaning.

The kindling of a stove or fireplace can be overshadowed by a lack of draft, and the most common cause of this trouble is clogging of the chimney with products of incomplete combustion of firewood, simply soot. Without proper cleaning of the chimney heater dangerous for your life, since the smoke simply will not have time to be removed through the system and will begin to accumulate in living quarters! So how to clean the chimney and is it necessary to resort to the help of professional stove-makers and chimney sweeps? Read about it in our article.

When the logs crackle cheerfully in the fireplace, it seems to us that they burn out completely, leaving behind only a handful of ash in the furnace and carrying light smoke into the chimney. But this is far from the case: the combustion conditions in the stove and fireplace do not allow the firewood to burn out completely, and soot is carried into the chimney along with the smoke. It has a gray or black color and is similar in composition to coal. Soot particles settle on the pipe walls, especially at the bends, forming a thick layer of loose deposits.

When using softwood firewood, in addition, water vapor and resin are released, which firmly bind the soot into a hard crust. The lumen of the pipe gradually narrows, the draft worsens, and the soot layer becomes thicker. Sooner or later, the draft disappears completely, and this condition requires immediate cleaning of the chimney.

There are several ways to clean the chimney:

• mechanical, using a ruff;
• chemical, using special tablets or liquids;
• preventive, with the use of folk or modern combustion catalysts.

Which of the methods is right for you will become clear upon further reading of the article.

Mechanical way to clean the chimney

Mechanical cleaning consists in removing soot using a metal ruff, which is inserted into the chimney and, making rotational and translational movements, scrape off the soot from the surface of the chimney. The method has several advantages: it is effective against blockages and hard deposits, it is cheap and quite simple, and does not require special knowledge and skills. At the same time, manually cleaning the chimney through the pipe is a rather dangerous task, because you have to climb onto the roof.

What is ersh?

This is a twisted cable with steel wire, equipped with a twisting handle on one side and a wire or plastic nozzle on the other. The length of the cable can be different and depends on the length of the chimney. The ruff is introduced into the pipe forward with a nozzle, while rotating its handle. In this case, the rotation is transferred to the nozzle, and it mechanically scrapes off the soot layer from the pipe walls.

How to clean a chimney with a ruff:

1. Fully open all latches and vents that block draft in your stove or fireplace. Place a container for soot under the chimney at the mouth of the stove or in the fireplace insert - there will be quite a lot of it. In order not to stain the furniture and floors in the room, an open fireplace insert can be curtained with an unnecessary cloth.
2. Observing safety precautions and using a safety belt, climb to the roof. Remove the cap from the pipe. Carefully insert the cleaning cable into the pipe and try to push it some distance. Rotate the handle on the cable at the same time. If the length of the chimney is more than 3 meters, it is more convenient to do it together - one person directs the cable into the pipe, the second rotates the handle, standing at a certain distance.
3. If the cable does not pass through the gap of the pipe in any place, it is necessary to determine where it is stuck - at a bend in the pipe or in a straight section. If the pipe in this place does not have turns, most likely, a serious blockage has formed there. It can be pierced with a weight tied to a rope, lowering it into the pipe rather sharply.
4. It is necessary to clean the chimney using this method until the moment when soot stops pouring from the chimney into the furnace. After cleaning, check the draft with a lit newspaper - it should improve significantly.

It is sometimes impossible to clean a Russian stove with a complex chimney, including several turns at an angle of 90 degrees, with a ruff through a pipe from the roof - the length of such a chimney is quite large, and the ruff stubbornly does not want to go through the turns. In this case, it is possible to combine pipe cleaning with mechanical cleaning of the chimney.

Is it possible to clean a complex winding chimney with a ruff?

Of course you can, to do this, follow these instructions clearly:

1. Inspect the oven carefully. On its side and back walls you will find doors designed for cleaning the chimney. They may be smeared or painted over, but they will need to be opened. Place a bucket or other container under each door.
2. Change the standard nozzle on the brush to a plastic bottle, cut in half and slightly notched around the circumference so that you get a "chamomile". You can fix it like this: the ends of the wire, acting as a ruff, must be collected in a bundle, passed through a cork with a hole previously made in it and bent. Screw the cork onto the bottle. A plastic ruff is much softer than a metal one and goes through turns better, and using bottles different sizes, you can gradually clear all the turns.
3. Enter the resulting device into the chimney from the side of the firebox and push it as deep as possible, rotating and from time to time extracting it along with the soot that has fallen into the bottle. Clean the chimney until the amount of soot decreases to a negligible extent. Also clean the chimney from the side of all doors.
4. Open all dampers and clean the chimney from the roof as described above. If you do this before cleaning the chimney, you can seriously clog it, as there is simply nowhere for soot to fall.
5. Once again, clean the chimney from the side of the firebox. Sweep away soot with a brush, including from latches and views. Close all doors on the rear and side walls and check the draft with a newspaper or a torch. With good draft, light the stove with a small amount of wood. If the doors for cleaning the chimney are smoking, cover them with a solution of clay and sand.

Sometimes, instead of doors for cleaning the chimney, stove-makers install removable bricks. It is not recommended to remove and install them yourself without special skills; it is better to contact specialists to clean such an oven.

Chemical method of cleaning the chimney

For regular cleaning of the chimney, it is not necessary to climb on the roof and get your hands dirty. enough to buy special means in tablets, granules, or chimney cleaner. The principle of its action is the splitting of soot-binding substances, after which it turns from a hard crust into an easily crumbling powder that burns in the lower part of the furnace.

The method of using these funds is very simple: they are placed on firewood at the next furnace fire and set on fire, carefully heating it for better burning of the fallen soot. In this case, you should follow all the recommendations indicated on the package. Chemical method can also be used for preliminary softening of the soot layer before mechanical cleaning.

Video instruction for working with a chemical soot remover

We clean the chimney from soot with folk remedies

Prevention of blockages and soot deposits in the chimney can be carried out in several ways:

1. Pipe insulation. This method is based on reducing the formation of water vapor condensate in the pipe during combustion. In the cold season, the temperature difference between the internal and outer surface pipes can lead to the deposition of moisture and resins on it, which bind the soot into a solid residue. The use of "sandwich" pipes with non-combustible insulation reduces the formation of condensate.
2. Regular use of combustion catalysts in the form of tablets or special logs of specific wood species with additives designed to clean the chimney will reduce the deposition of soot on its walls.
3. If you heat the stove with wood, add dry aspen logs to them from time to time: the aspen burns with the formation of a strong high flame that destroys the binding elements of the soot and burns it, and with the active rise of smoke, all the soot that has settled in the chimney simply flies out into the chimney. It is better to do this in winter, so that the soot falls on the snow and does not stain the roof much.

Timely cleaning of the chimney using these methods will make the furnace and fireplace a pleasant experience - just bring a match to dry firewood, and now a living fire is dancing in your fireplace, warming and giving comfort.

Video: Cleaning the chimney in the house using the old-fashioned method

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 biggest problem is 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 pipe laying and remains of masonry mortar on the 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 in 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 clearance 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 simplest household methods chimney cleaning

Potato peelings

Oddly enough, but this is an 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, a preventive method that 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:

• A mixture of saltpeter, copper sulfate and coke in equal parts. The composition is poured onto smoldering coals, when burned, a series of chemical elements, provoking 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.

• Chimney-sweep log – 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:

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 - remove all the soot that has fallen off the walls with a poker and a shovel and discard.

Conclusion, reviews, tips

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 best time for cleaning is early autumn, when there are still fine days.

Thank you for telling how to clean the chimney from soot at home, and even in detail. How do you know when cleaning is needed? I have a wood burning stove.

How to clean the chimney from soot at home folk remedies: Photo and video

The average price tag for the services of a professional chimney sweep is 9-12 thousand rubles. It is cheaper to figure out how to clean the chimney from soot at home, and do it at minimal cost.

How to clean a chimney

Heating a house, cottage or bath is rarely complete without a stove or boiler. For our winters, this equipment is optimal: it can produce the required amount of heat. But both stoves and boilers require maintenance, and one of the mandatory procedures is cleaning the chimney.

Why is the chimney overgrown with soot

The process of burning fuel is an oxidation process, and this requires oxygen and high temperature. If at least one of these conditions is not met, soot appears - this is the result of insufficient carbon oxidation. Externally, the presence of soot can be determined by the color of the smoke - if it is black, then it contains particles of soot, but most of it settles in the chimney, especially at the corners.

Now a little about what can cause active soot formation:

• Raw firewood. If undried firewood is thrown into the fire, it dries first. This takes a lot of energy, which greatly reduces the temperature in the furnace. We get carbon underheating, a large cloud of black smoke and, after some time of using raw fuel, we will have a clogged chimney.

The use of damp firewood leads to the accumulation of soot deposits

The rate of overgrowing of the chimney with soot also depends on the type of firewood. Resinous spruce and pine in this regard - not the best choice, but not everyone has the opportunity to drown with expensive oak or other hardwoods. In any case, you can make sure that the firewood is dry. To do this, it is worth building a more spacious firewood shed so that it can hold a supply for 2-3 years. Then you can use the most seasoned and dried logs, and let the fresh ones lie, reach the standard.

How to clean the chimney from soot

There are three ways to clean the chimney:

Cleaning the chimney with a chimney sweep

• Mechanical. A ruff is thrust into the chimney, with the help of which they knock soot off the walls. The disadvantage of the method is that it is necessary to have access to the pipe, which is not always easy. Not everyone is able to climb onto the roof, and flexible rods and access are required for cleaning from below. Another unpleasant moment: all the contents are poured down, you have to collect and take it out, and then wash the stove or fireplace from soot for a long time. Therefore, before cleaning, put some kind of container into which everything will be poured.
• Chemical cleaning of the chimney - powders and briquettes (logs). When the system warms up, the powders are poured into the fire, the logs are placed at the firebox. The substances contained in them soften the soot, it gradually flies into the pipe, but can fall down and clog the passage altogether. So these funds are best used for prevention, when there is still a little soot.
• folk methods. The problem of overgrowing chimneys with soot is not new, and our ancestors were able to cope with it without chemistry. There were, of course, chimney sweeps, but they worked in cities, and their services cost a lot. Nevertheless, they coped with the problem, and very simple means- salt or potato peelings.

There is another cardinal decision - to go to the firemen and call specialists. They are no longer called chimney sweeps, but perform the same functions, however, by other means. The decision is not bad, they know their job, since soot is explosive, if only someone is not given permission. The only negative is the cost of such services.

Mechanical chimney cleaners

Cleaning the chimney with ruffs has been used for centuries, and they still exist today. A ruff brush is tied to the end of a long elastic and flexible cable. Diameter - individually for the size of the chimney. A small metal ball can be tied under the ruff - in order to make it easier for the tool to go down. This structure is lowered into the chimney, raised, lowered again and raised again. So until the passage is cleared. Everything works simply - soot is knocked off the pipe with bristles.

Chimney brush

Such cleaning of the chimney has one feature: in the presence of good traction, most of the chipped soot flies into the chimney. Therefore, firstly, you need to become attached so that you don’t fall off the roof from involuntary movement, and secondly, put on goggles and a respirator. Gloves will not interfere either, but they are needed so that the cable does not injure your hands.

If you decide to make a chimney brush yourself, hang the ball below, and centered. Weights or wrenches are not suitable - sooner or later they become at odds in the chimney. You will be lucky if the gun can be removed without dismantling the pipe.

Below you can hang a ball

Not always the chimney is such that it can be cleaned from above - a sandwich pipe can rise several meters above the roof. You can’t attach a ladder to it, you can’t get up in any other way. In this case, the chimney is cleaned from below. To do this, there are ruffs on flexible rods. Fragments of the rod are connected to each other, the ruff moves along the pipe. In this case, part of the soot is also carried away by the draft, but some of it falls down and this must also be taken into account. Professional chimney sweeps use special vacuum cleaners for collection (not household ones, since soot is explosive); if you clean it yourself, you will have to collect everything manually.

Chimney cleaning from below

If you have a fireplace, everything is simple - access is free, but if it is a boiler or a sauna stove, the matter is more complicated. If the chimney has a glass for collecting condensate, removing it, you can easily run the ruff into the pipe. If there are no revisions, you will have to try to get to the pipe through the firebox. If this is not possible, the chimney will have to be disassembled. Then it’s better to immediately redo it by putting a tee with a glass.

Means for dry cleaning of the chimney

You can clean the chimney with chemicals before it is too clogged. If the pipe is brick, these products help make mechanical cleaning less frequent. How independent remedy can be used for ceramic chimneys or made from stainless steel. All these powders or logs for removing soot from the pipe are preventive. Clear them chimney from a large amount of soot it is not always possible. There were cases when the soot that fell down after burning the powder clogged the chimney tightly. I had to take a ruff and clean it by hand.

Despite these shortcomings, the products are used and here's why: during processing, the soot that is in the boiler, sauna stove or in the smoke channels also softens. Shaking them by hand is a bit of a pleasure, but regular use does a pretty good job.

There are plenty of products for cleaning chimneys from soot in stores, but here are the most popular:

• Kominichek. This is a Czech product. The package contains paper bags with granules packaged in them. This soot remover is placed in a well-heated oven without breaking the bag. A whole paper bag is placed on firewood, it is not necessary to tear the product out. According to reviews, it works fine. It is most effective while the soot layer is not more than 2 mm - it cleans the chimney to clean walls.

Powder for cleaning chimneys "Cominichek"

Log for cleaning chimneys

After using all chemicals, the room must be ventilated, the stove or fireplace cleaned. Please note that after processing, the soot may crumble for a couple more days - the remnants fly off.

Folk chimney cleaning methods

The easiest way to prevent the formation of soot is to heat an already heated stove with aspen wood. They burn with a very hot flame, soot burns in the chimney. The action is effective, but dangerous - if a lot of soot has accumulated, when ignited, it explodes and can break the pipe.

Lay a couple of logs when heating the furnace and preventive cleaning of the chimney from soot is done

There are safer folk remedies with which chimney cleaning is both effective and safe. In a melted and well-heated oven, add half a kilogram of salt or about a bucket of potato peelings. It is better to dry the cleanings or add raw ones little by little - so as not to bring down the temperature in the furnace. The action is approximately the same as when using chemicals, only a little softer - soot flies from the pipe for another three days.

Chimney cleaning: methods, means, folk methods

What methods are used to clean the chimney, how the procedure takes place, what are the ways to clean the chimney from soot, how to use them.

How and how to clean a chimney: a master class and 3 secrets from a chimney sweep

performance wood stove or a fireplace is directly related to the cleanliness of the chimney. There are situations when the lack of dry logs forces the owners of private houses to heat with wet firewood. Due to incomplete combustion of wood, soot residues are distributed along the walls of the chimney. Over time, the blockage becomes impassable to hot air. To avoid such problems, a contract is concluded with a chimney service company. However, to save money, do-it-yourself chimney cleaning is suggested.

To reduce the number of cleaning procedures during the operation of the furnace, it is enough to use the heating device correctly. It is not recommended to burn household waste and blessed logs. It is necessary to constantly clean the blower from ash, periodically clean intermediate pipe blockages with soot through special revisions of the chimney. Only high-quality products are used as other types of fuel. Subject to such elementary rules of use, the chimney will be cleaned no more than once a year. Remember, if the stove smokes, it's time to clean the chimney.

Why clean your chimney

The products of combustion used in the heating device emit residual carbon deposits, which turn over time into accumulated soot. Hot air currents push these substances out through the chimney, however, in parallel, some of them settle on the walls of the smoke duct. During the operation of the furnace, the amount of soot is multiplied and an insurmountable barrier layer is created. Such neglect leads to the following consequences:

• The outlet pipe of the chimney decreases in diameter, as a result of which the amount of draft decreases.
• Soot is the result of a chemical combustion reaction. Consequently, accumulation on the walls does not have the best effect on the wear of the chimney.
• The heat capacity of the pipe decreases, and with it the efficiency of the heater.
• As a result of blockage, the stove smokes.
• The risk of fire inside the smoke outlet is increased.

good traction

This is a primary task for any heating device. High traction rates guarantee fast heating of the furnace. The accumulation of soot on the walls of the chimney reduces the diameter of the outlet pipe, which significantly reduces the draft performance. Another negative effect - clogging of the chimney causes partial penetration of smoke through the stove back into the room.

Operational safety

The heater operates at high temperature conditions, which is reflected in the chimney with the same effect. Therefore, with an unacceptable accumulation of soot, there is a risk of fire in the chimney.

If the chimney is clogged, the combined effect of low draft and high temperatures can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.

To protect the chimney from such problems, it is necessary to regularly clean the chimney from soot. The time interval between these procedures is at least twice a year.

Ways to clean the chimney from soot in the bath, in the oven with your own hands: folk and other means

You can clean the chimney pipe yourself in three ways:

So, let's try to clean the chimney with folk remedies:

1. The most common method is rock salt. In fact, this is more likely not a chimney cleaning, but an option to deal with the accumulation of soot on its walls. Add 100-200 gr. to the furnace where the combustion of fuel products takes place. rock salt. This folk method is preventive in nature, so it is unable to completely clean the chimney of soot.
2. Potato peels are a mythological pipe cleaner. To effectively use this method, you need to prepare a bucket of potato peel. When operating a fireplace or stove, parts of the cleaning are poured onto the fire. At the combustion stage, potato starch mixes with hot air vapor, which, when passing through the chimney, softens the soot that has settled on the walls of the pipe. However, after using this method, it is still necessary to clean the chimney manually.
3. The third pipe cleaner is dried aspen wood. To clean the chimney with your own hands, you need two or three armfuls of aspen logs. This type of fuel will heat the pipe to very high temperatures.

Due to the fact that aspen firewood has a very high heat transfer, this method is not recommended for use if a thick layer of soot has formed in the pipe and the chimney is made of fragile materials. When heated, the pipe may not withstand such loads.

Chemical Fluids: The Best Options for Cleaning a Clogged Chimney

When the stove smokes with black soot, then it's time to use more effective methods to clean soot accumulations. These include industrial cleaners. Such chemical chimney cleaners are made in the form of powders, briquettes and liquids. Depending on the type of agent, a certain amount of the mixture is added to the furnace of the heater. During combustion, chemicals are released that decompose the accumulation of soot on the walls of the chimney. The disintegrated deposits crumble. You can clean the chimney with special tools.

The chemical compositions used to clean the chimney do not harm human health during combustion.

• A popular chimney cleaner is a composition against the formation of soot on the pipe walls. The chemical composition is presented in the form of a special powder, poured into heating products. Such a chimney cleaner is used in a strict proportion: up to 250 grams per 1 ton of fuel.
• Czech means for cleaning the chimney from soot "Kominichek" effectively copes with the task. When burned with firewood, this chemical composition triggers a catalytic reaction that burns off soot deposits on the walls of the chimney pipe. A distinctive feature - the burning of creosote deposits occurs when low temperatures.
• A chimney cleaner known to many is the Chimney Sweep log. By appearance such a tool resembles a bar or briquette. It is recommended to use the composition for preventive purposes to clean the chimney channel. With regular use, the degree of formation of creosote deposits is reduced to zero. The undoubted advantage is the fact that there is no risk of soot ignition when using this type of chemical composition. A log for cleaning the chimney is burned in the stove no more than twice during the entire heating season.

In order to properly use a chimney sweep log with your own hands, it is imperative to study the instructions for use.

Mechanical cleaning: how to heat the stove after pine wood

In case of unavailability of chemicals and the ineffectiveness of folk remedies, the most effective way is carried out - cleaning the chimneys with your own hands. For high-quality work, you will need to equip a brush for cleaning the chimney with your own hands. Proper cleaning of chimneys and furnaces from soot is carried out in the following order:

1. We block each cleaning hole and all revisions. Close the firebox door. Open fireplaces must be covered with a damp blanket.
2. It is recommended to clean the chimney in good weather, as the procedure is done on the roof of the building. Using safety belts, we rise to the roof.
3. We carry out a thorough inspection of the chimney for the presence of debris and foreign objects. In the presence of soot deposits with a layer of no more than 3 mm, the mechanical cleaning procedure may be postponed. Otherwise, we push the entire available layer down the pipe.
4. The visible area of ​​​​soot is cleaned with a scraper, after which you need a ruff to clean the chimney. For greater efficiency, a metal ruff is made with a brush at the end.
5. We clean the remains with a scoop from the firebox itself.

Properly cleaning the chimney from soot is easy.

When faced with insurmountable blockages in the pipe, a core (metal ball) with a diameter corresponding to the chimney can be used, which is tied to a rope. As you can see, there are plenty of options and methods for self-cleaning the chimney. Therefore, this task is easily solved for everyone. The main thing to consider when choosing cleaning products is the amount of creosote accumulation in the chimney. Before using this or that means, it is charming to read the instructions of the manufacturer of the chemical composition.

When do you really need cleaning?

According to studies, Russian stoves that are properly maintained and operated are less likely to need a chimney cleaning process. The duration of use in this mode reaches several years. According to the rules, burning household waste, bags and plastic products in stoves does not have the most favorable effect on the cleanliness of the inner walls of the chimney. Therefore, in order to avoid the need to clean the pipe from soot, the heater should be properly operated. It is easy to identify the symptoms of the onset of contamination of the chimney. First of all, the color of the emitted smoke changes. In a chimney without soot, its color is white or transparent.

With the accumulation of soot deposits, the color gradually changes to dark shades. If these symptoms do not occur, experts recommend preventive cleaning at least twice a year. After each chimney cleaning event, a quality control is carried out. To control the performance of cleaning work in the smoke exhaust pipe, special mirrors are used, which descend from top to bottom along the chimney channel. This method allows you to find the most vulnerable points of the smoke exhaust pipe and take appropriate measures. For example, create a new revision to clean the chimney more often in its individual parts. Everyone can clean the chimney pipe.

How to properly clean the chimney from soot with folk and other means

Subject to the elementary rules of use, the chimney will be cleaned no more than once a year. Remember, if the stove smokes, it's time to clean it

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.

Pipe cleaning process.

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 flap position 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 the existence of stove heating, many different ways have gathered in the piggy bank of folk wisdom. Modern science has not stood aside either, at the moment a number of formulations are being produced designed to solve this problem.

Cleaning the firebox with an industrial vacuum cleaner.

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;

Box for cleaning pipes "Smoke".

• 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 powerful means. In addition to the 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 of the fireplace;

• 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. For cleaning conventional ovens such pellets, it is necessary to burn in the furnace for a kilogram of this chemical within 5 days;

Pellets for cleaning pipes.

• 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;

A log from the trademark "Chimney sweep".

• 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 actionable 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 and the thrust will be maximum, therefore, most of the composition will simply fly out through the pipe;

Table salt for cleaning the chimney.

• 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;

Peeling potatoes to combat soot in chimneys.

• One of the old-fashioned methods of preventing clogging of the 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;

Chopped aspen firewood.

• 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;

Copper sulfate crystals.

• 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 by chemical or old-fashioned methods is certainly 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.

Clean metal pipe.

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.

Scheme of a brush for cleaning chimneys.

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 get stuck 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 was faced with the problem of cleaning the chimney in the country, and there were no special tools at hand, I did just that, I screwed a carpenter's chisel to a long pole with a 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.

Classic brush with core.

On this segment, the gases heated in the furnace move along a broken path, in other words, like a snake. So, at all the problem points of this snake, technological windows are made 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.

A brush on a fiberglass cable for cleaning the chimney.

Here are a couple of recipes for such homemade products from my own experience. 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.

Demountable fiberglass pole.

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.

A brush made from plastic bottles.

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.

The device of a homemade brush with metal bristles.

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.

Heavily overgrown pipe.

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.

The results of the work in comparison.

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 bats can settle. In addition, old brick pipes they can crumble from the inside, and it is better to immediately notice a shifted brick and try to fix it, rather than turn it out 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.

The movement of the brush in the pipe.

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.

One type configuration smoke channel.

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 softwood. Coniferous tree varieties contain a large amount of resins.

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.

A set of factory brushes.

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 stove. 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.

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.

We clean the chimney from soot with folk remedies

The safe operation of stoves and fireplaces requires effective draft, provided by periodic cleaning of pipes. Owners of heating devices know that regular preventive maintenance is necessary.

Regardless of the design features that stoves, decorative fireplaces have, any chimneys require cleaning. In order for the heater to function, give pleasure to the owner, his family members, you need to know how to clean the chimney from soot.

The relevance of prevention: how to determine?

The clogging of the chimney is caused by various points. Knowing them, you avoid problems, you can improve traction, ensure the safety of your home. Let's talk about the reasons for the appearance of deposits, why it is necessary to clean the home chimney from accumulated soot.

Start by identifying visual cues - look for smoke. White or light gray puffs come out of a clean pipe. The appearance of dense smoke is a signal for preventive maintenance. Control the color of the flame. The change from light orange to dark orange requires work to clean up the structure.

Remember that annual maintenance is required even under ideal operating conditions.

Causes of soot deposits

The smoke, in addition to the gaseous components of decomposition, contains mechanical particles that pollute the surface of the channel. Soot accumulates in the chimney, forming a black coating. The mass of deposits is saturated with water vapor, hardens. Gradually, the pipe becomes clogged. Soot covers the bends of the channel, narrow passages, rough surfaces of brick pipes.

The volume of deposits is determined by various factors:

• improper installation of the stove or fireplace;
• violation of the technology of laying product nodes;
• low-quality building materials - cracks appear on the surface;
• clogging of the smoke exhaust system with debris;
• incorrect design - the pipe is not equipped with an umbrella.

These factors can reduce traction. The accumulated mass of soot quickly reduces the cross section of the pipe, which makes it difficult for fireplaces and stoves to work.

The rate of accumulation of deposits is determined by the design features of the heating device, the type of fuel, and humidity. Regular cleaning of your chimney from soot deposits, condition control will help to avoid negative phenomena.

Why Clean Your Chimney

Chimney cleaning is a must. Gradually, the soot layer becomes powerful, can cause serious consequences:

• reduction in the cross section of the smoke channel, causing a decrease in traction;
• decrease in the efficiency of the heating device, caused by a decrease in the heat capacity of the pipe;
• the likelihood of ignition of deposits inside the chimney;
• wear of the outlet lines.

It is problematic for smoke to move along a clogged chimney, observing the correct direction. It gradually returns, filling the room with carbon monoxide, endangering the health of others. Remember - soot is an excellent heat insulator, accumulates in a thick layer, significantly reduces the coefficient useful action ovens. The result - more fuel is needed to maintain a comfortable room temperature.

Risk factors

The main danger is the likelihood of fire, burning of the pipe walls, sparks. They, being incandescent solid particles of soot, can create a threat of ignition of neighboring buildings, pose a serious danger.

Let us briefly characterize the expediency of cleaning. Prevention provides:

• safe operation of heating devices;
• increased traction.

Knowing how to clean the chimney from soot, you can limit the likelihood of problem situations. The operation is easy to perform on your own, using folk methods.

Line of chemical compositions

Industrial enterprises produce several types of products that clean chimney systems. The products are absolutely harmless, they can be in the form of powders, liquids or briquettes. Let's dwell on the most popular cleaners:

• PCA compositions. A special anti-scale powder, similar in composition to copper sulphate, is intended for filling into the heating compartment. It is recommended to use no more than 200 g of the product per 1 ton of firewood.
• "Comedian". Cleaning agent in the form of a powder that is catalyzed by heat treatment, reducing the combustion temperature of soot.
• Briquettes "Log-chimney sweep". They are used in conjunction with liquid or solid fuels. In fireplace structures, 1 log is laid for 60 days, and in large stoves - up to 2 pieces. Using Log for the first time, inspect the chimney for debris. Burn the briquette on hot coals without removing the packaging. Active substances act for about 14 days, then the pipe is inspected and the firebox is cleaned.
• HG is a home chimney cleaner from the formed soot, capable of removing plaque with high quality. These products for stoves and fireplaces are made in the Netherlands. The manufacturer recommends using powdered components once every six months, adding 2 tbsp. l for a well-ignited solid fuel.

When using any of the above chemical products, follow the manufacturer's recommendations, carefully read the instructions. Owners of summer cottages do not always have the opportunity to use a chemical cleaning agent.

The problem is solved independently, if there is an algorithm, how easy it is to clean your own chimney from soot deposits with proven folk remedies.

Cleaning with folk methods - proven solutions

Effective cleaning of any chimney, chimney from soot can be carried out, guided by folk recipes that have been tested for centuries. Consider the most effective options suitable for cleaning the chimney:

1. A fairly popular method is the use of rock salt, which partially cleans the channel, eliminating deposits of accumulated soot. The recipe is affordable - you need to carefully add 100-200 grams of ordinary rock salt in a thin layer. This folk method is a preventive measure for cleaning chimneys.
2. High-quality cleaning of a chimney system contaminated with soot is carried out using potato peels. It's easy to get results. Prepare a bucket of potato peels. During the operation of the furnace, load it into the furnace in parts. The result is achieved by burning the contained starch, entrained in hot air (passing through the pipe, it gradually loosens the soot). The method is preventive, requiring further manual cleaning. Previously, the owners used a load tied with a strong cord to clean the inner surface of the pipe, removing layers.

• Dry aspen logs, alder, birch are a good cleaner for a clogged chimney from soot deposits. Using a couple of bunches of logs, heat the pipe, provide an elevated temperature. The soot will start to burn out. Remember - the presence of significant deposits, insufficient strength of the pipe, causes problem situations, since aspen firewood has a high heat transfer.
• Naphthalene is used to clean chimneys. Its use requires a preliminary check of the condition of the pipe surface. Destruction, cracks to be eliminated are unacceptable. Implementation of the method - throw a naphthalene tablet on burning logs. White flakes of heated soot will fly out. Remember, the use of naphthalene is an unsafe event. The substance is explosive, causes the destruction of pipes, ignition of deposits. The disadvantage of this method is the presence of a characteristic smell, obtaining a positive effect with a layer of soot - 10 mm.

When solving the problem of how to clean the stove system or how to properly clean your own chimney from deposits or soot using proven folk remedies, inspect the structure and purchase building supplies.

Tools and materials

Before starting work, take care of the tools in accordance with the type of construction. You will need:

• metal brush;
• brush - square designs are more convenient to clean with a device with stiff bristles;
• clamps made of flexible material;
• scraper;
• round bucket;
• compositions prepared independently or chemical agents;
• steel ball - should cover 2/3 of the chimney.

The core is not only used to remove blockages. It allows you to weight the brush and the brush, and cleaning the clogged chimney from deposits or soot will be effective. By connecting the elements with a metal cable and carabiners, you can adjust the length of the fixture.

Manual mechanical cleaning

The mechanical method of cleaning soot, soot, also belongs to the folk. Since ancient times, cores have been used, fixed with a strong cable, penetrating dense growths, ruffs of various shapes, scrapers. This option for removing deposits is a proven, effective method.

Chimney cleaning mechanically is carried out as follows:

1. Close all oven doors tightly to prevent soot from escaping. When working with fireplace systems, place a damp cloth over the combustion chamber.
2. Open all dampers by increasing the cross section of the channels.
3. Climb to the roof, fixing the safety belt on the body.
4. Check the flue duct. Soot, which has a layer of about 2 mm, is removed by chemical compounds. If there is debris, push it through.
5. Clean the chimney - remove the head, and using a scraper, a stiff brush, remove the deposits.
6. Keep hard-to-reach pipe sections clean with a flexible brush. It is advisable to use a cable equipped with a nozzle. Move the fixture by gently turning the handle.
7. With the help of a suspended core, the chimney is cleared of serious blockages and soot. Move the steel ball by moving.
8. Be careful, keep the integrity of the brick.
9. Remove the soot by opening the flue doors.
10. Clean the furnace and blower compartments. Open fireplaces are processed from the side of the firebox with a metal brush with a long handle.

After completing the work, melt the stove, check the effectiveness of the draft. Install the headband. Installing it is easy.

When cleaning chimneys, take the advice of professional chimney sweeps. This will help extend the life of the fireplace or stove:

• do not heat the stove or fireplace with fuel from softwood. The rock contains ethereal resins that settle on the walls of the chimney;
• do not use raw firewood - due to humidity, the degree of soot and water precipitation increases;
• do not burn garbage of plastic or synthetic origin in the oven - they settle on the chimney;
• stop for wood from deciduous trees. The fuel must be thoroughly dried. After burning the fuel, burn some aspen logs - so the soot will quickly be removed from the chimney.

When choosing folk methods for removing precipitation that violates the functionality of the stove, home fireplace or chimneys, test the hood.

A decrease in draft causes a return of smoke and in this case it is advisable to apply a folk cleansing method using mechanical means.

How to clean the chimney from soot with folk remedies

Causes of pollution of chimneys and methods for cleaning them with folk remedies, as well as with the help of industrial products. Tips for avoiding pollution

If you heat your house with coal, firewood or all kinds of briquettes, you probably wondered how you can clean the chimney in a private house? In this article, we will analyze everything possible ways, as well as the reasons why clogging occurs?

There are several reasons why the draft in the stove at home may disappear and it will stop functioning properly.

1. Before the heating season, the owner of the house did not clean the stove from soot and dust accumulated during the warm season.
2. The vortex “fracture” has not been cleared.
3. The pipe itself in the house is not airtight; it drags in a cold stream along with street dirt.
4. There is no "umbrella" on the house.
5. Birds or wind-blown debris.

Do not forget that the most ordinary firewood on the walls of the chimney leaves soot many times greater than from coal. That is why it is recommended to periodically “throw” a chimney sweep log into the light, which allows you to slightly, but clean the pipe in the house. After the firewood, a significant layer of soot can collect, so do not be too zealous with the firewood.

How do you know if your chimney needs to be cleaned?

It is easy to understand that cleaning the chimneys of stoves and fireplaces from soot is about to be required if you notice that the draft has disappeared or combustible gases enter the house. It will also clearly make it clear that enough burning has accumulated on the walls of the chimney channel after the burning of the fuel that particles of debris brought by the wind appeared on the walls inside the house and in the bathrooms adjacent to the channel. This is due to the blockage of the output channel.

How to properly clean a chimney?

In the old days, people cleaned stoves with sodium chloride or common salt - these are the so-called folk remedies. Now you rarely see that in the village, thus, someone was cleaning the "wells".
To know how to properly clean and which method will be most effective, you need to determine the cause of the blockage, the density and size of the soot layer (or the presence of an object). It will depend on this, which of the methods will be correct and expedient to clean it?

Manual mechanical cleaning

Of the advantages of this particular cleaning method, it is worth noting completely environmental safety. Various chemistry is not used, and the whole lack of work comes down only to the fact that there is a danger of falling from a height during work.

Chimney cleaning tool - rope with a core and a brush

Cleaning the chimney with your own hands will require you to have a certain tool. So, mechanical cleaning of chimneys can be performed using the following devices:

1. Giri. Due to the large weight, it breaks through large layers of soot. It is recommended to additionally attach some scratching devices to it in order to increase the efficiency of pipe cleaning.
2. Hard brushes. Additionally, take care of the long handle so that you can penetrate into remote corners.
3. Ruff. By the way, you can make it yourself. Sold special stainless fixtures with weighting compound and chain. Of course, it will not replace a professional “adapt” from a plastic bottle, but it will be possible to achieve even an insignificant result.
   When using a ruff or brush, do not forget about protective equipment. Get:
   • Respirator.
   • Glasses.
   • Gloves.
   • Safety rope.

Folk chimney cleaning methods

Potato peelings - a folk way to clean the chimney

They learned to clean the chimney with their own hands in ancient times, using various folk methods. You can clean the "well" yourself using:

1. Aspen firewood. Peculiarities:
   • a lot of energy is released;
   • temperature perfectly cleans brick and stainless chimneys.
2. Potato peels.
   Prepare about one bucket of cleanings, dry them thoroughly. Flood the stove with a high-calorie agent, put dried cleanings on top. Subsequently, hot steam containing starch will soften the soot, heavy briquettes will fall, and light ones will fly away.
3. Salt.
   Pour a couple of glasses of salt on the fire, when interconnected with air, an environment is formed in which soot will not accumulate.
4. Chainsaws.
   This method of cleaning with a chainsaw is not recommended due to its danger. You need to climb onto the roof and insert the intake valve into the chimney and start the saw motor. It is better to attach a special outlet pipe to stay clean and direct the soot to a specific area.

How to clean the chimney using chemicals?

First on the list, consider the drug PCA, a fairly strong remedy.

NOTE: It is not necessary to unpack the packaging, it is burned entirely.
Second remedy folk application. Includes the composition of copper sulfate, saltpeter and crushed coal. This powder must be sprinkled on red coals, in the process a reaction is formed, due to which soot will “slide” from the walls of the chimney.

It closes the top three chemical reagents capable of exfoliating soot from the walls. As in the first case, it is not necessary to unpack the package. It is necessary to put it in the fire in this form, during combustion, active substances are released that perfectly fight soot growths.

Chimney blockage prevention

Pipes, chimney wells must be periodically cleaned, despite good traction. After winter season it is advised to do a complete revision of the stove using any of the listed methods. The presented chemicals will allow you to exfoliate the soot, after which its large fractions can be easily removed during preventive cleaning.
Salt solutions can also be used for prevention, especially if you have a solid fuel stove. It also allows you to easily get rid of a small layer of soot, which is divided into small and large particles that settle at the bottom of the chimney.

Owners of stoves and fireplaces are well aware of the need for regular maintenance of their heating boilers. No matter how perfect the design is, cleaning the chimney will definitely be required. The rate of clogging is affected different factors: 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 placed 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 terms of technology, mechanical cleaning chimneys, just like hundreds of years ago, remains the simplest, most reliable and effective way to remove 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. An open fireplace should be curtained with a 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 premises. 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 work, including mechanical cleaning, can be carried out independently. 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 soot and soot-causing substances. Among other things, this is facilitated by a higher combustion temperature, which affects the course of pyrolysis processes. As for raw firewood, when they are used in excess, water vapor is released, 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 hard wood. 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 oven significantly more often. As, however, with birch logs, which are distinguished by a high tar content. By the way, fuel briquettes or pellet granules that are fashionable today 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 the high content of resins and oily substances.
4. Make sure that the firewood 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, warm up the combustion chamber, 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 a flame indicator on the chimney. With it, you can more accurately monitor the temperature of the smoke and keep the heat release process 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 better to choose for heating a wooden house, which option is more economical and profitable, you will find out in our next 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.