OT wood stove

I read somewhere that if you throw salt in the fire the chimney won't build up with creosote. Anything to it?

i was told if you throw an aluminum soda can in and let it melt that works too but if you think about it if the fire is hot enough to melt a can its not producing creasoot anyways burn it good and hot wont have any problems get a stove pipe thermometor and pay attention to it you will be good to go

I dont think it works, neither do those logs you can buy to "clean your chimney" Nothing cleanes it like going up on the roof and sweeping the flue with a chimney brush. Fiberglass rods and a wire brush. If there is a weight on the brush, be careful not to crack your flue tile if you have a unlined chimney.j

Burn dry wood and burn it hot. Don't let it smolder.

But you probably already knew that. ;-)

One of the old wives' tales I heard was to burn potato peels. For what it's worth...

Never heard that one.

Are you thinking maybe of the one about dumping baking soda into the firebox to help smother/starve a chimney fire? Never tried it, can't vouch for it.

I have found those clean your chimney things worthwhile to use just before I sweep my chimney. Not the $15 ones, but the $2 at TSC or Lowe"s. Everything is loose & flaky and sweeps with less effort after using one than when I"ve just swept without burning one.

BTW, I made up a new set of sweeping rods last week, 27 feet of them, for the grand total of $8.04. 3/4" PVC conduit, reduced to 1/4" NPT that my brush screws right in to.

You would need at least a cubic foot of baking soda to cover the average wood fire. A 2 1/2 gallon water extinguisher will generally be enough to extinguish the average chimney fire in a MASONRY chimney. In a chimney with metal chimney pipe surrounded by framed walls, the water and steam can't read the fire once it's outside of the chimney. A pop can would not do anything for creosote build up, good fire wood and cleaning is the best bet.

Amen on the seasoned wood and keeping a clean flue.

Gotta disagree on the water.

I'm a firm believer in what one fella in the thread down below called a "friendly" chimney fire. I ran an airtight for years, and it was standard procedure to let it run full throttle for fiteen or 20 minutes anytime I opened it back up after a low burn (first thing in the morning or after getting fhome from work, for example). I'd check it once a month or at any sign of trouble (no such signs in all that time), and runa brush up and down for good measur spring and fall. Rarely could I get so much as a half-cup of fine scrapings out of it.

As far as the water to douse a chimeny fire? We had a town with a lot of lazy folks that knew that all the fire dept. did to extinguish a chimney fire was to take their chains up top and knock the burning creosote off the walls of the flue, basically a down-and-dirty chimney cleaning. So nobody cleaned their chimneys. They just waited for them to catch fire and called 911. Chief figured out what was goin' on, and started sendin' men onto the rooves with hoses instead of the chains. They didn't have to shatter but three or four ceramic liners before folks started keepin' their own chimneys clean.

It's not the fire in the stove that's the problem with a chimney fire. In fact it's a help, because it's consuming some of the oxygen that's feeding the blaze in the chimney. Dumpin' water onto the fire in a stove (as opposed to down the chimney) will kill the fire in the stove, but it isn't gonna touch a chimney fire with creosote burnin' in excess of 2000*. And unless it releases a LOT of CO2 when heated (and I DON'T know that that's the case), 2-1/2 pounds of bakin' soda ain't gonna do much either.

First step when you hear a freight train running in your house is to summon the pros or local volunteers. About the only prayer one might have is to have a CO2 type extinguisher at hand and run that in the door of the stove while waiting for help. Even at that, with the door open, it might not be enough. A good snortripper of a chimney fire will pull enough of a draft to make the curtains flap, and whatever that CO2 extinguisher can put out will be a drop in the bucket compared to the fresh air comin' in through the open door. Best bet is to close off the air as best you can and get help on the way.

I"ve heard that about salt but then I thought "salt draws moisture". Would I really want to do that to the bottom of my beautiful old Warm Morning stove.

I"ve had a Appalachian wood stove, with the catalytic elements, for about 5 or 6 years now. I haven"t tried the fire logs or anything but instead have used both the liquid spray and the crystals that are designed to put on the fire to dry out the cresote. I know when I use this stuff it drys out any buildup that may get in the firebox to the point it sometimes peels off of the walls. What doesn"t peel is usually on the cold spots and even then it comes off easy enough with a light scraping. The last time I checked my flue it looked pretty good. Granted it wasn"t as clean as it stayed burning an open fireplace but given that it had been two years since I checked it I couldn"t complain.

I've heard that too. Never tried it. Wonder what's in a potato to make a clean chimney?

Paul

The salt is tri-sodium phosphate. The main ingredient of the original nnalert-N-Span.
You can get it now at hardware stores and yuppie farm stores as TSP. Also use it as a cheap first-try paint remover. Just toss a small handful on hot coals. It loosens the flakes which fall back down the chimney.

Agree with you on the chimney fires...
I dunno why, but we never seem to have calls for that around here. No doubt this will be the night... but generally... I'd think a bit of water will go a long way to cracking a liner to pieces. With the way people and insurance companies file lawsuits today, I'd think it plain stupid to apply a hose to a chimney fire if there was another way of putting it out.

Rod

I never heard that one. What I do know is that dry wood and a good, hot, fast fire will prevent most cresote buildup. Open the draft and let it burn.

Rod

Water on a hot chimney will crack the clay liner. I guess the only benifit of water is that it may save your house, but you will need a new chimney.

You know what? Probably better today if you lost the house than cracked the chimney. It's gotten to the point here where if you saved the house and cracked the liner, they'd condemn you for that, then file suit.
We're under orders to not use water on anything that can be extinguished with CO2 or powder... but preferably CO2. It's never enough to just save the house. You've got to minimize ANY damage.

Rod

And I thought some day I might move to Canada. LOL..... I still would thought, J

Been burning wood for 39 years.Had only one chimney fire. Found out that if you cover the flue, it will stop the burn. Now we use Creosote destroyer made by Rutland fire clay Co of rutland Vt. got a phone number 1 800 544 1307. Does a great job of turning creostote to a flake that falls down to the clean out door. Yep we even use Potato peelings.Keep the chimney clean once a month with brush, Clay liners look new after all these years. Hope this helps.
LOU

I remember when I was a kid we had a chimney fire, Dad ran to the barn and got a 25 lb bag of salt, and dumped it down the chimney and put the fire out. It was hot enough to scorch the wall paper in the upper bed room.

I have been in the fire service 32 years and there is nothing I hate more than a chimney fire. Got tired of carrying wood burners and fireplace inserts out of the house in the middle of the night.
Don't use water, you could end up with a steam burn, trust me I know.
What I came up with when I was Chief was to fill sandwich bags with dry chemical powder. When dropped down the chimney the heat melts the baggie and the powder extinguishes the fire. Sometimes it might take a couple of bags but it will do the job and it is cheap.

Burn dry wood, and get the stove hot as quick as possible. If the top of the chimney is 450'F it doesn't build soot. Best to get it hot and keep it hot. Low temperature surfaces build more soot. I clean the metal stovepipes in the basement monthly. In 30 years the only cleaning the chimney ever needed was a log chain balled up and dropped in from the top one time about 15 years ago. Every year I stick a hand mirror in the bottom and look up the chimney on a bright day. Virtually no soot accumulates.

Every couple months in the winter season I'll build a hot fire, and when it burns down and is full of hot coals I'll toss in a cup of 'creosote remover' for fun. I don't remember what it is exactly because this tub of stuff lasts a long time.

I burn wood that has been dead for at least a year, and try to keep it in the basement a week before it needs to go in the stove. Since the winter air is so dry, the wood goes in the stove dry like cardboard (only heavier.)

Best thing a person can do is get a thermometer with a magnet and place it on the metal chimney, then keep the temperature between 230 degrees and 475 degrees.
We had our chimney professionally cleaned this year for insurance purposes and they could not beleive how little that they got out of it. And that chimney has not been cleaned by anyone in 11 years! I do check it monthly during the heating season.
These thermometers are available at most stores that sell wood stoves and are one of the best things you can buy.

Well, that was my point. I'd rather have to replace a liner than the house and all the stuff that's irreplaceable. The chain method and bags of dry chemical powder are how we do it on the local fire dept. But if I were a home owner and I had a chimney fire I'd still use whatever I had until the fire dept got there. If your liner is already cracked, you may have fire venting into the walls of your house. But then again, if you clean the chimney and maintain it you shouldn't have to worry about a fire in the first place.

Alot depends on how well your chimney draws,I burn my stove hard for at least 30 minutes each day too.And as others have said don't try to burn wet or green wood.

I hear ya! Nothing like being up on the roof of an old two-story farmhouse at midnight in -20 weather! You will NEVER have a chimney fire on a 60 degree day.

We use those bags of dry chemical as well. Also, if the chimney is drawing air, it works to use dry chemical from the bottom as well. You can open those bags and just feed in as much as the chimney will draw.

Hi Rollie, Where do you get this dry chemical powder? I assume it is not the TSP mentioned for throwing on the fire for creosote. I would guess you are talking about the powder used in fire extinguishers. Thanks.

Chimney sweep told me to avoid fiber glass rods because they can break and splinter.He uses plastic rods only.Any one who has used fiber glass fence posts knows how rough they get after they have been out in the weather.You cant crack flue tile in an unlined chimney.Brushes can get stuck in flues.Brushes are oversized,flue tile are called 8 inch but are actually 6 inch ID.I used to sell brushes in my shop but got tired of customers wanting to buy an 8 inch brush for 6 inch tile.The gray high temp tiles have thicker walls.