Chimney cleaning advice needed

[Ook]

I need to clean the chimney for my wood stove before I start using it this season. It's a Quadrafire 3100 with an all metal chimney, the pipe goes up about 6 feet through the ceiling, and in the attic area it goes through 2 45 degree bends, out the roof, and then up another 6-8 feet or so into the air. I can lift the pipe up off of the stove and clean the lower pipe, and I can get a chimney cleaner from the local fire dept. Do I need to clean it above the bend? Unless the chimney cleaner will go through the bends, I would have to dissasemble them to get access to the upper pipe. Does anyone have any practical advice to add about doing this?

Also, there is a large fir tree near the house, and the branches are growing near to the chimney. Is there any rule of thumb about how close to the chimney these branches can get before they need to be trimmed back?

[Ook]

Anyone?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If there is stuff in there, yes, it must be cleaned. Fires don't really care where they start. Not being able to see if from here, I can't tell you what to do. In my case, 90% of my buildup is in the bottom of the flue and reachable from inside te house. I still do the rest of it at least once a year though.

Keep them far enough away that they won't get burned if some sparks or ash gets out. I'd follow the same rules as a structure. I forget the exact measure, but it is at least a 10' clearance.

I also find that cranking up the stove to very hot twice a day helps keep creosote from forming.

[willshak]

on 9/21/2007 10:26 PM Ook said the following:

The first time I cleaned out my chimney I got up on the roof and dropped a rope holding a large bag of gravel down the chimney. I let it drop slowly and pulled it up and let it fall a couple of times. Worked pretty good. I've since bought a chimney sweep kit.