The present chimney has only been in use for about 24 years and I burn it hot and wide open at least once a week. I've never swept it and have no plans to. The chimney is a 7 inch Selkirk about 20feet long. We heat with wood exclusively and burn mostly lodgepole pine and larch. GD
Show a pic please. What kind of stove do you have? 24 years and never been swept, I have never heard of that for a wood stove.
The stove is nothing special; just a no-name unit I got in trade for a barrel job thirty years ago. I never damp the stove down to where it smolders. It's either burning or it's out. A few years ago, I bought a small pellet stove. I cut a hole in the side of the woodstove and vent the pellet stove into the wood stove. In really cold weather, I'll run the pellet stove overnight or if we are going to be gone so it is no longer accurate to say we heat exclusively with wood but it is wood product and uses the same chimney via the wood stove. GD
