Woodburner , chimney acces for sweeping ...... ?

[thdrb02]

Hi . Just registered , hope some-one can help , We had a firefox 5 woodburning stove installed about 2 years ago. This autumn I wanted to get the chimney swept as there's no liner, the sweep arrived but said there needs to be a small access plate in the vermiculite boarding above the stove so he can hoover out all the debris that falls down after sweeping .
Question : should this have been fitted when the stove was installed.. ? And should I get the installers back to retrofit an access plate .

Cheers.

 

[Burnerman]

Ideally, there should be an access hole in the register plate.
The scenario is when the chimney is swept, either from above or below, any soot that doesn't fall down the flue pipe collects on the register plate and therefore must constitute some sort of fire hazard....whether or not that is dangerous is anyone's guess.
Another issue if there is no flue liner is this....say the flue pipe is 5 or 6" in diameter, and it extends into a normal open flue, which would normally be cleaned using a 16" brush. You can't get a 16" brush up the pipe so essentially you are trying to sweep a wide flue with a 5" brush....this happens all the time.
Sometimes its easier to remove the wood stove - if it isn't too heavy and has no back boiler, but an access hole to get a vacuum cleaner in is an excellent idea.
I make register plates out of 3mm BDM Steel, and always put an access door in if possible.
John