Folk ways to clean the chimney from soot

A stove or fireplace can be called the heart of any home. Together with warmth, coziness and comfort spread from them to every corner of the home. However, to maintain the safety and efficiency of such heating, flue ducts need periodic cleaning. You can entrust this work to professionals or use purchased chemicals, there is another method: you can also clean the chimney from soot in a folk way. Knowing the reasons for the active formation and settling of soot on the inner walls of the pipes, you can minimize this process, then you will have to resort to the work of a chimney sweep less often.

Causes of chimney clogging and the need for periodic cleaning

When the Heat-giving begins to flare up noticeably worse, and the smoke penetrates the house through the existing holes during kindling, most likely, the reason lies in the clogging of the chimney. These can be foreign objects, such as birds, nests made by them, or brick fragments from a collapsing pipe. Most often, these are flakes of soot and soot that have settled inside the chimney.

Soot deposits with regular use of stove heating are inevitable, but there are two reasons why the process is much more intense:

• The design of the chimney itself and the material from which it is made,
• Something that regularly gets into the furnace.

In the first case, inaccuracies and flaws in the masonry make it difficult for smoke to pass through, while the settling of burning on the walls increases markedly. Contributes to this:

• narrowing of smoke channels,
• excessive curvature,
• residual solution on the inner surface,
• poor thermal insulation and, as a result, the accumulation of condensate.

The most durable material is metal and asbestos is preferable for making pipes. Ceramics and bricks are subject to destruction, which means that the resulting roughness will reduce the permeability of smoke and increase deposition on the walls of combustion products. The same applies to a poorly prepared solution: when it dries, it cracks, the irregularities that appear serve as a place for the deposition of soot.

Raw firewood, especially with a high tar content, items made of polyethylene and plastic also exacerbate the situation.

As a result of the narrowing of the lumen:

• The exit of smoke is difficult, which means that part of the harmful gases enters the house, causing intoxication of the residents,
• There is a possibility of ignition of soot accumulated in the channels, and this is already a fire hazard situation.

When the degree of pollution is not critical, deposits can be dealt with by burning special preparations purchased in the trade network in the furnace or using well-known chimney cleaning products.

If the thickness of the settled soot exceeds 5 cm, then, according to the numerous experience of the owners of private houses, it is unlikely that it will be possible to do without brushes and scrapers.

Effective folk ways to clean the chimney

Not bad have proven themselves means such as «Cheerful Chimney Sweep», «Kominichek», «Sazhinet». Burning in the furnace, the resulting products bind to existing deposits, loosening them. Further, with smoke emissions, flocculent formations fly out or are deposited on the channel bottom.

Similarly, when burned, soot is bound by other «natural» products.

Potato peelings

The smell of fried potatoes is not always the result of cooking dinner. It has long been known that by throwing potato peelings into a burning oven, you can clean the chimney. So if there is no one to feed the waste, then the best use for potato peels is burning it in a firebox. The resulting starch-containing vapors bind soot layers, as a result of which it falls away from the walls of the channels. Flakes along with smoke can fly out for more than one day after the procedure.

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Salt

Salt should be sprinkled on dry firewood laid for kindling. In this case, soot settles less on the walls of the smoke exhaust channels, narrowing their clearance.

The use of this method is more suitable for prevention and in «severe» cases is not effective.

Naphthalene

One tablet of this substance is enough to reduce the precipitation of tar formations that are released during the furnace.

Due to the explosiveness of the chemical compound, use the method with caution!

logs

A special combustible mass mixed with chemical compounds is formed in the form of logs, which periodically need to be placed in the oven during kindling. The cleansing effect of this method differs depending on the manufacturer and the composition used by him.

Folk remedies can be called the use of aspen or alder logs. Having a high heat transfer, such a material causes the soot that has stuck around the pipe from the inside to burn out and is the essence of the following method.

soot burning

Not every oven will withstand such a test. It is first necessary to check the integrity of the chimney, since if it is violated, a fire may occur. Further:

• A large amount of highly combustible wood material is laid (aspen, alder, oak),
• Provides maximum oxygen supply due to open blowers.

At a temperature of about 600⁰Since the soot accumulated in the pipe ignites — a kind of self-cleaning of deposits.

walnut shell

It is not often that tenants have this material in large quantities. But burning it in a furnace makes it possible to release a large amount of heat and clean the inner surfaces of the chimney from the resin by burning it out.

mechanical cleaning

The need to clean pipes with various devices has existed since the advent of furnaces. Brushes and scrapers of various designs are still the main tools of chimney sweeps.

Mechanical and manual cleaning can be carried out without the help of professionals. This can be done either from above — through the pipe, or from below — through the base of the chimney. Both options can be used if necessary.

To avoid spilling soot on the floor during cleaning, it is better to close all openings with rags. Upon completion of the main work, it is good to use a vacuum cleaner with a fireplace cleaning function.

It is believed that the chimney needs to be cleaned at least once a year. It can be carried out, for example, before the start of the heating season or after its completion. The intensity of operation of the furnace and the time elapsed between cleanings affects the amount of «harvested». It can be a bucket, two or a whole bag.

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Traditional brushes with metal bristles can be replaced with homemade devices, the effectiveness of which is no worse:

• A plastic bottle with cuts imitating bristles, mounted on a hose,
• Spruce legs tied to a long stick
• Bath brooms, planted on a cable or other likeness of an elongated handle.

In the case when the chimney is cleaned from top to bottom, it is reasonable to mount the cleaning devices not on the handle, but tie them in a rope with a load at the end. The length of the rope should be slightly longer than the length of the channel, the weight of the load should be about 10 kg.

Rooftop Safety

Work carried out on the roof requires not only skill, but also the observance of personal safety rules. No one acquaints them with a signature, but the price of life is perhaps the best motivation to listen to them.

• Do not clean in rainy and / or windy weather,
• A rope tied at one end to a belt is the simplest fall arrest device,
• A roof ladder is used to move around the roof,
• It is unacceptable to engage in work while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs that inhibit activity.

Recommendations for preventing soot accumulation in the chimney

Just as any health problem is best prevented, excessive soot build-up, which requires a lot of time and effort to clean, is best avoided altogether.

First of all, it concerns what material is used for the firebox. It is possible to reduce the amount of soot deposited on the inner walls by eliminating combustion in the furnace:

• Raw firewood (with a moisture content of more than 20%),
• Resinous wood materials (oily products of combustion contribute to excessive deposits),
• Household waste (plastic bags, disposable tableware and other plastic

The problems of the initial poor design of the chimney are solved only by disassembly and new masonry. Only professionalism at the stage of planning and manufacturing the furnace will help to avoid problems during its further operation.

Under the bewitching crackle of firewood in the fireplace and the touch of spreading waves of heat, all the worries associated with maintaining the normal operation of this wonderful heating device are forgotten. Like any organism, albeit not a living one, it requires regular care for itself, endowing it with trouble-free work in return. By adopting folk methods for cleaning the chimney, you can save on purchased products and extend the time between mechanical cleanings.