Cleaning the chimney has many features, but you can handle it yourself. The cleaning sequence of chimneys and stoves is the same for all types, whether Dutch, Swedish or Russian oven. The Russian oven does not always have a furnace and a blow-down door, a hob and a smoke-turn.
First you need to examine the stove and chimney in the house:
- Check the condition of the masonry, furnace and blast doors, fire-fighting sections and indentations;
- Make sure that there are clean doors or marked bricks (they must be on each turn of the chimney).);
- Check whether there is a cleaning hatch at the base of the chimney and cleaning hatches on the horizontal sections of the chimney, and also see how the valves are placed on the furnace body and on the chimney.
Preparatory work
- Cover the floor before the fire door and before cleaning;
- Clean the firebox and the blower from everything that is there, check the condition of the grate;
- Open the cleaning doors or pull out the intended bricks, remove soot from the cleaning;
- Close all the doors, seal the perimeter with masking tape and plastic wrap; seal the holes from which the bricks were pulled with plastic wrap;
- Pull out all the latches (if possible) or fully extend them, seal all the cracks around them.
Cleaning the chimney and stove
If there is a cleaning hatch at the base of the chimney, you can clean the chimney from below. To do this, you need such a tool: a flexible shaft, brushes of the right size and a powerful drill as a drive.
From above, the chimney is cleaned with the help of the well-known pipe cleaning troika: a cable, a brush and a load.
After cleaning the chimney, it is necessary to remove soot from the oven through the cleaning doors. Clean the oven, starting with the upper cleaning.
Factory-made metal furnaces
Factory-made metal furnaces install more often in the country – for quick heating of the room. Regardless of the operating mode, the chimney and the stove must be cleaned at least twice a year-before and after the heating season. If the draft is weakened and the smell of smoke appears, it is necessary to immediately clean or stop using the furnace.
Cleaning of stoves and chimneys depends on their design. If the chimney is assembled according to the standards, then it is easy to clean it-through the cleaning hatch. If the chimney is mounted and does not have a cleaning hatch, then there will be difficulties with its maintenance. To clean it, you need to disconnect the pipe from the furnace nozzle.
Cleaning the chimney of a metal furnace
You should start with an inspection of the furnace. Then you need to make covering work in the room, completely remove everything from the furnace, vacuum remove soot from the tooth or deflector, remove all removable parts from the furnace: the lining of the furnace (refractory plates), tooth, panels, ash pan, and so on. All parts should be cleaned and set aside. Close the firebox and ash pan door tightly. Seal the door, all holes and cracks.
Cleaning of the nozzle chimney in the absence of a cleaning hatch
Carefully disconnect the connection from the pipe (if the condition of the chimney allows this), move it to the side a few centimeters, put on a strong package and secure it to the pipe. Put a rigid plate on the pipe and put the chimney on it.
Clean the top in several steps (depending on the degree of contamination of the chimney) until the soot is completely removed. After each stage, change the package on the basis of the chimney. If you can’t disconnect the furnace from the chimney, the dirt from the chimney will get into the furnace. After cleaning, they are removed with a vacuum cleaner.
Cleaning in the presence of a clean hatch at the base of the chimney
The furnace is connected to the chimney through a tee, regardless of the connection method-vertical or from the back side. The connection pipes must also be cleaned. To do this, they are disconnected from the chimney, the hole in the tee is covered with foam rubber and sealed with a film (this is necessary so that dirt does not get out). You can clean both the bottom and the top. It depends on the available tool. Dirt is removed through cleaning.
If you have doubts about your abilities, invite a professional chimney sweep. He will not just do the job, but will show and explain how to clean the chimney yourself using the tools you have, and give recommendations on how to operate the stove.
It’s interesting that cleaning the chimney can help in preventing fires. I never would have thought that this was something that you could prevent by just cleaning the chimney. It’s something that we’ll definitely get done so that we can keep our chimney in good condition and our house safe.