Ayatollah
ArboristSite Operative
We have increased our wood burns significantly this past few years, and this year have relied on wood exclusively. Last year almost totally also. An often unnoticed byproduct is ash and dust build-up on the tops of pictures on the walls, drapery tops, and other ledges throughout the house. One that has really been accumulating build-up is the bathroom exhaust vents, because they run alot, and draw particle laden air by force as opposed to mere proximity. I opened the cover plates on them yesterday because I started noticing small wads of lint accumulating on the floor of the bathroom. The fans were caked with residue, as was the inside of the louvered cover, and that is bad enough, but the inside of the exhaust tube and its' little damper was just stuffed with lint. You could tell from the smell and the consistency that it was from the ash. I snaked a home made brush up through the tube, and lint was everywhere. Kept falling out, and I used the big shop-vac to encourage that which wasn't easily reachable out too. We burn open-hearth upstairs, and fireplace insert stove downstairs. Both were equally dirty, although the upstairs one has a shorter tube obviously. I plan on hitting these tubes again from the rooftop soon, but for now I'd say I have averted a problem. The fan motors on those things are weak as hell in the first place, and already getting abuse from shower evaporation. I've changed them twice in the past twenty years, but I'd say the next twenty might have required more replacements had I not taken the time to brush them out.
