If you have a wood burning fireplace then you probably already know that you need do fireplace maintenance at least once a year to clean the flue and remove creosote build up.It is important to remove the creosote because if you don’t remove it there is a chance it can catch fire and cause a chimney fire.
While a lot of folks pay someone to come and do their chimney sweeping ( and this can cost a nice chunk of money every year) Taylor Made Ranch shares a tutorial on how they clean their own flue pipe and save a nice bundle. It isn’t a hard job but it can be a messy one. Usually it is done by feeding a stiff wire brush down through the chimney pipe with lengths of rod that you keep adding until you get all the way through to the bottom. All the creosote will fall into the grate and they you can either clean it up or let it burn . You can buy your own chimney cleaning kit and they provide a link for it. The wire brush can be purchased as round or square depending on the shape of your flue.
There is also a product that you can use once a week when you are burning full time called Creosote Remover, that will turn that sticky, tarry creosote into an ash that will brush off easier and make much less of a mess when you do the flue cleaning. It is very simple to use because all you need to do is add a prescribed amount to a fire and it does the work. So instead of paying someone to sweep your chimney and flues you can use the creosote remover to turn the creosote into an ash and then a chimney cleaning kit to brush the ash out. Then you will be a little more self sufficient and saving money by cleaning your own flue.
