exsailor
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# Posted: 10 Oct 2012 09:28am
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Congratulations on your new cabin and barrel stove. If a fire has not been in it for a while and you have power, the easy way is to vacuum the ashes out. If you don't have power, an ash shovel, whisk broom and bucket to put the ashes in are the most effective ways. I am assuming you can remove the burning grate so that you can get to the ashes that fall through the grate. By the way the grate is what the wood rests on so that air can flow up into the fire from below.
Do you intend to clean the stove pipes as well? Brushes the diameter of the stove pipe is available, but you will probably have to go down from the roof to do that. If you don't have access to a cleaning brush and you don't have right angle bends in your piping system, there is a way to knock the loose creosote from the pipes. You need two ropes long enough to reach from the top of the stove pipe on the roof to the opening in the stove, a cloth sack or bag that can fit in the stove pipe. Feed one length of rope through the pipe system, and tie the roof end to the sack. Fill the sack loosely with rags to about the size of the stove pipe. Don't make it too tight a fit or you can't pull it through. The second rope is insurance to pull it back out if you can't get through the pipes all the way. This isn't as good as the cleaning brushes and you still have to get on the roof, but it will knock the loose stuff out and make it safer. This is similar to cleaning a gun barrel, and will take two people. With the brush a single person can clean the pipes.
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