I just had to include this job in my weekly blog after sweeping this Aga Little Wenlock multi-fuel stove at an address in Nosterfield End recently. This is actually an address that I have been sweeping annually for a number of years now and usually I don’t see anything like the quantity of combustion deposits coming out of the chimney as I did on this occasion. As you can see from the photograph the material swept out of the chimney nearly filled the firebox. These combustion deposits were as you can see largely comprised of crunchy, smelly tar/creosote. I questioned the customer about his current burning practices, and it transpired that he had switched from burning smokeless fuel to exclusively just burning wood. I suspect that some of this wood was probably not completely seasoned, and the stove has been burnt with not enough oxygen going into it. It just shows how such changes can radically alter what builds up in the chimney. In this instance these deposits would have presented a real risk of a chimney fire if they had not been swept out of the chimney. The customer is now going to start burning some smokeless fuel again, and switch to biannual sweeping – A very sensible move I think.