This is my first year with the stove. I have 6' of double walled pipe leading into a masonry chimney. Checked the pipe once and got a very small amount of grey powder from it (1/2 cup, tops). Will be interested to see what the guy finds when he comes out and sweeps it for me. They charge $200, but he spends over an hour inspecting everything, including the stove ( he does my neighbor too, so I watched him. Very thorough).
I'm afraid of heights, so I'm gonna let someone else monkey up on my roof. It sounds like $200 is alot, from what I've seen on this post. But, he's reputable, been in business for many years, and sold me the stove too. I like the inspection idea too. Probably being overly cautious, but we had a chimney fire down the road from me that took out a good section of the house and killed their dog too, so I'm gonna pay the exta $$. I drive by the house every day and get to look at it. Scared the heck out of my wife.