Soot cleaning — how to clean with your own hands at home? Instructions + photos!

Stoves and fireplaces are an integral attribute of the interior in many country and country houses. Thanks to this device, you can quickly and efficiently heat the premises. It is also an important element of decor, giving the atmosphere a touch of comfort and romance.

But to get this effect, you need to constantly monitor the condition of the furnaces, prevent clogging, and, if necessary, clean the chimney properly in a timely manner.

Summary of the article:

During the operation of furnaces, there are cases when the fire is not lit in them, and during the kindling process, the smoke is not discharged through the pipe to the outside. The danger is that carbon monoxide is not removed to the street, concentrating in huge quantities in the premises. This is a direct threat to the health and even the lives of all residents. In this case, urgent cleaning of the chimney is required.

Of course, preventive treatment of the furnace and chimney is important. This should be done 1-2 times a year. Many people forget about it or do not want to spend money. If the smoke passes easily, it has a white color, then there are no blockages.

The situation worsens when his movement is difficult, you see his black color or feel a pungent smell. Then you need to think about attracting specialists.

Pay attention to the flame – under normal conditions it is orange, has no bright colors. When the furnace is clogged, it becomes bright, too saturated.

Why is the chimney clogged

Ordinary stove smoke is not homogeneous. It contains both combustion products in the form of gas and various particles of a harder consistency. The latter naturally settle on the walls of the smoke channel. Water vapor makes the soot more durable, the plaque is compacted. Bottlenecks in the pipe, turns, and a more rough surface suffer the most.

The reasons for the appearance of a dense substance in the chimney may lie in violations of the technology of work during the construction of the fireplace:

incorrect masonry and excess mortar inside;
insufficient quality material;
the absence or breakdown of the protective coating of the pipe, as a result of which foliage gets into the chimney, birds and animals can penetrate;
the wrong choice of the lumen in the chimney.

In this case, soot cleaning in a country house will be required soon after the commissioning of the facility. However, most often the reason is improper operation:

Wet firewood, which is thrown into the fireplace, begins to dry in the fire. At the same time, the combustion energy is spent on this process, and the temperature regime drops sharply.Gorenje The appearance of black smoke leads to soot deposits in the pipes.
Incineration of objects and garbage not intended for this purpose. It is impossible to destroy polyethylene film, plastic, chipboard, plywood in this way. For example, the glue from chipboard is released during gorenje and eventually firmly clogs the smoke passage.
The lack of traction is not only the result of clogging, but also leads to the settling of soot itself. This is our own fault – we save on the size of the pipe or use the smoldering mode to create, for example, a romantic setting.
Do not skimp on the quality of firewood. Often the owners of cottages buy resin-rich pine or spruce. And some even collect such trees after the holidays. But this is fraught with a very fast clogging of the smoke channel. It is better to spend money on oak or other deciduous logs.

Folk methods of household cleaning

The most effective way to combat clogging of the chimney is to comply with the rules of operation and regular maintenance. But if cleaning the oven is still necessary, it is better to involve specialists. However, the cost of services is rather big. In such cases, time-tested folk methods come to the rescue.

Cleansing with table salt

Such methods are more recommended as an effective way of regular prevention. The pipe should not be completely blocked with soot. A handful of salt is thrown into the oven on the burning wood.

This should be done constantly, with each ignition of the stove or fireplace. A chemical reaction begins in the furnace, thanks to which the soot will not settle heavily on the inner walls of the pipe.

If you cannot apply salt every day, then it is advisable to use this method 3-4 times a month. You can throw up to 0.5 kg of the substance into the fire. The volume of the raid will be much smaller.

Burning potato peelings

It is necessary to prepare from half to a whole bucket of potato peelings beforehand. They should be dried well and added to the burning fire of the fireplace. The starch released rises up the chimney, settles on the surface of the soot, penetrates it and softens it.

Soot flakes will gradually fall off or fly out with the smoke. To speed up the process, you can tap on the pipe with a stick. This folk remedy can be an effective addition to mechanical methods of freeing the chimney from plaque.

Cleaning by incineration

Cleaning with your own hands can be carried out by burning logs of alder, aspen or birch. They burn with the formation of a flame under extremely high temperature.

The walls of the chimney together with the stuck soot begin to heat up. The plaque loosens, burns out. The remains of soot are thrown out in flakes. At the same time, you need to follow several rules:

check that there is no debris, foliage, bird nests in the chimney;
heat until the oven "buzzes";
control the temperature in the pipe, as its high level can lead to a rupture of the chimney or a fire from the flying flakes of neighboring houses;
gorenje do not accelerate the combustion by adding fuel to the fireplace.

Mechanical methods

For a denser coating of soot with a thickness of more than 2 mm with a high level of efficiency, improvised means are used, and cleaning is carried out mechanically. Photos of soot cleaning demonstrate the correctness of the implementation of the technology and the results.

Using a brush with a suspended load

A brush in the form of a brush with hedgehog-shaped rods is suitable for processing a round-shaped pipe. It needs to be attached to a sufficiently strong rope, and a load, for example, a core, should be secured from below. The round shape of the sinker will eliminate the appearance inside the strut. Due to the weight of the sinker, the structure will smoothly descend through the chimney. Be sure to use gloves, wear a respirator.

The presence of metal rods on the brush head helps to effectively clean soot from the walls. The structure must be consistently raised and lowered with rotational movements, removing blockages and traffic jams.

Application of a brush with a long handle

The design provides for the possibility of expanding the handle by adding sections. The extended brush is very convenient when manipulating while cleaning fireplaces. This is not done from above through the pipe from the roof side, but from the bottom of the furnace. The brush is not rotated along the axis, but is moved up and down.

During the cleaning process, it is necessary to exclude the ingress of soot, dust and dirt into the room. To do this, the holes in the lower part are closed. The stove should also be covered with a wet blanket or a large rag.

Treatment of the chimney with a scraper

Such a tool helps to deal with large deposits of soot. It is advisable to use scrapers with a large handle, since it is necessary to get as far as possible along the pipe, to process the corners.

When working, you need to press on the tool. Repeat the procedure if necessary. As soon as the plaque begins to peel off, you need to take a brush and remove it. Remember, flakes of garbage fall down into the furnace. Therefore, this part needs to be cleaned last. For these purposes, the use of a vacuum cleaner is effective.

Chemical methods of smoke channel treatment

Sufficiently high efficiency is demonstrated by cleaning methods using a variety of chemical reagents. Such preparations should be burned in the furnace together with firewood or separately. Soot softens and decomposes. For work , you can use the following compositions:

"Kominichek" is a drug sold in bags. The briquette should be thrown into the furnace. The soot is split and converted into oxide. Gorenje of the latter occurs at low temperatures. The drug copes with a layer of plaque in 1-2 mm. Since the composition contains copper chloride, it is necessary to ventilate the room after work.
Special log "Chimney Sweep". A separate briquette, resembling an ordinary log, should be thrown into the furnace and closed. During gorenje substance gas is released, which affects the soot, causing it to peel off. It is recommended to carry out prevention 1-2 times a year. It is useful to leave the briquette on smoldering coals, as a result of which the effect will last for almost 2 weeks. The fallen soot must be swept away with a brush.
The powder "PCC" is burned in a closed fireplace to ashes. The substance can burn with or without firewood. As a rule, they take 0.2 kg per 1 ton of fuel burned.

It is necessary to clean chimneys in calm weather, having taken care of insurance beforehand. Regular prevention will help to avoid many problems. But if the smoke duct is clogged, then these methods will contribute to high-quality cleaning of pipes.