best fireplace practices

[rb_in_va]

The house I moved into in Summer 06 is the first with a fireplace. I was concerned about creosote, and put out some feelers for chimnney sweeps in the local area. One guy said that if you use you fireplace right and burn seasoned wood you will never have to get the chimney cleaned. What are some best practices I can put into use?

 

[046]

IMHO the most important factor is to make a hot fire.

this will allow a complete burn. Naturally seasoned wood is easier to get hot, so will burn cleaner easier.

if you see smoke coming out of your chimney, that generally indicates unburnt matter. it could mean water vapor as well.

smoke carries soot and creosote. both are unburnt wood matter. as you've heard a umpteen times can cause a chimney fire that can destroy your house. inspect/clean your chimney at least once a season and get a professional to clean.

I've always kept a hot fire in my fireplace and inspect my chimney at least twice a season. I'm now running an open burn design custom insert that I keep a HOT fire in.

I've never had to clean my chimney after 10+ years at my home. You also will not see much if any smoke coming out of my chimney except for a few minutes when fire is building up. then you only see a few wisps of smoke.

 

[livewire]

IMHO the most important factor is to make a hot fire.

this will allow a complete burn. Naturally seasoned wood is easier to get hot, so will burn cleaner easier.

if you see smoke coming out of your chimney, that generally indicates unburnt matter. it could mean water vapor as well.

smoke carries soot and creosote. both are unburnt wood matter. as you've heard a umpteen times can cause a chimney fire that can destroy your house. inspect/clean your chimney at least once a season and get a professional to clean.

I've always kept a hot fire in my fireplace and inspect my chimney at least twice a season. I'm now running an open burn design custom insert that I keep a HOT fire in.

I've never had to clean my chimney after 10+ years at my home. You also will not see much if any smoke coming out of my chimney except for a few minutes when fire is building up. then you only see a few wisps of smoke.

I agree, however, I check my chimney every month or so and I run a brush through it at the same time. I'm paranoid, though, so this can be seen as excessive. It's better safe than sorry IMO!

I burn fast and hot at startup. Then I reload, and turn it waaaaaay down. That's why I check it so often.

Dry, seasoned, firewood is key to decent burns.

If in doubt, clean it! Too much cleaning is better than too little!!!!

 

[begleytree]

a friend of mine has a nice stove in his house and swears by the chimney sweep logs from lowes. but his has 2 blowers and after he fires it up, they're all sitting around in shorts sweating at 87 deg with the doors open, and the stove closed up and the damper almost closed as well. seems to me that in itself would produce more creosote, cold smoldering fire and all.
I myself try to burn a real high hot fire for the first couple hours to burn it off, and then let it burn down to a smaller flame to maintain the heat in the house. so far with a flashlight I can't see anything building up in my chimney. it's a bit black, but clear to the top.
-Ralph

 

[PA Plumber]

I am not qualified to give you the "Best Practices" bit. I can give you what we have experienced.

We have lived here going on 12 years. My last chimney inspection (1 week ago), clean as a whistle. We have never had the fireplace chimney swept. I also burn hot fires and seasoned wood. No proplems so far.

The woodstove chimney needs a lot more maintenance, but I do close down the fire for overnight burns.