chimney cleaning

How To Clean Kitchen Chimney

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If you are a person who loves cooking then you would regularly need to do chimney cleaning. When you cook all the odors of food, vinegar, smoke, oils, and other vapors, grease and moisture get attached to your kitchen cabinets, walls, and ceiling and can be dangerous for your health.

Installing a chimney comes as a blessing as it eliminates food odors, smoke, and moisture and absorbs it all inside them. But in the process, they get full of dust, grease, and smoke which requires cleaning by chimney repair companies. There are many ways to do chimney cleaning yourself at home.

Why Cleaning Chimney Is Important?

Most kitchen chimneys contain a mesh filter or a baffle filter. Grease, oil, and moisture get stuck and form a film on the mesh filter. This dirt layer does not protect against further smoke, oil, and grease and hence does not protect the health. So it is important to regularly perform chimney cleaning at home. It is also recommended to call chimney repair companies or professional cleaning annually to maintain the efficient working of the kitchen chimney.

How To Clean Chimney?

  1. Detergent

You can take out the mesh and baffle filter and keep it in a bucket full of warm water and pour lots of kitchen detergent. Let the filter soak for at least 1 to 2 hours. The detergent will effectively remove all the grease and oil stains and will clean it up. You can also put the filter in boiling water so that the grease and dirt loosen up and get removed easily. After that, take out the filter and scrub thoroughly with a small brush to remove all the grime and grease.

  1. Baking Soda and Vinegar

For thorough and effective cleaning and removal of grease and stains, the baking soda and vinegar solution works best. Baking soda is highly abrasive in nature and also considered an all-purpose kitchen cleaner, hence it can remove stubborn stains and grime efficiently. Vinegar, baking soda and salt are all disinfectants in nature, hence they will help to keep your kitchen bacteria and germ-free and clean.

Pour a bucket full of water and let it come to a boiling point, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of baking soda, 2 cups of vinegar and 3 tablespoons of salt in the boiling water. Immerse the filter in the water completely and let it soak for at least 2 hours and then you can scrub with a scrubber to make it completely new. You can also boil the filter for 30 minutes to make completely grime and grease free.

  1. Paint Thinners

Paint thinners are also an effective way to clean the chimney filters easily. If you do not have a paint thinner, you can also use nail polish remover as it serves the same purpose and will also clean the filter efficiently. This is a very easy and effective way of cleaning the kitchen chimney. Soak a soft cloth in paint thinner and then use it to clean and scrub the filters, the mesh and the other parts of the whole chimney thoroughly. After the scrubbing, wash all the parts with water and keep it under the sun to dry it naturally.

  1. Caustic Soda

If your kitchen chimney is extremely dirty and full of grease then you can try the caustic soda method. You have to be very careful while using caustic soda as it is very acidic in nature and highly abrasive. Wear gloves before cleaning and do not touch the caustic soda with your bare hands and it can burn your hands. Also, it is important to wear a mask as the cleaning process will cause fumes which are dangerous if you inhale them. Put the furnace or filter on a tray and sprinkle a handful of caustic soda on the mesh filters and then pour boiling water on it. The pouring of the water will release dangerous fumes. Leave it as it for 2 to 3 hours, scrub thoroughly to clean, wash it under running water and leave it to dry.

Even if the chimney is still not clean after these methods, you should call in professional chimney repair companies bowie md.

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Understanding Chimney Sweep And Chimney Cleaning

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An improperly maintained chimney is a fire hazard. When you go for a long time without cleaning the chimney, creosote tends to build up in it. When a lot of it accumulates, it can easily catch fire thus putting your entire house at risk.

Soot has also been found to promote carbon monoxide accumulation in the house which can lead to tragic consequences.

For you to prevent fire in your house and keep yourself and your family safe from carbon monoxide poisoning, you should undertake regular chimney cleaning. You can clean the unit by yourself but for ideal results, hire a chimney sweep to help you out.

What does a chimney sweep do?

The chimney cleaning professional has two roles: to clean the chimney and inspect it for any flaws it might be having.

For the contractors to clean the chimney, they have to protect the insides of the house using tarp. This is to prevent the soot and ash from spraying into the house during the cleaning process.

After this, the contractor will go up on the roof and using brushes and long rods, get rid of all the soot that might have accumulated in the chimney. After doing this, the chimney expert should use a high-powered vacuum to suck up any soot that might have been dislodged when cleaning.

Do you have a house that makes it hard to access the roof? The contractor will have to clean the chimney from the insides of the house. While this process will give you a clean chimney, in most cases its messy and most contractors avoid it.

What should you look for when hiring the chimney sweep?

When your chimney is ripe for cleaning, you shouldn’t simply rush to the nearest chimney professional that you find. You should take your time and find the right one for your needs. For you to hire the right contractor look out for these qualities:

Certifications: Many people argue that it’s the contractor who is working, not the certifications, but it would be unprofessional to work with an uncertified chimney contractor. Working with a contractor without the right certifications is like getting treated by a quack. How does that feel? Scary, I bet.

For you to have peace of mind that your chimney is being cleaned and serviced by the right professional, you should hire someone with the right certifications.

Experience: Before you hire the contractor, find out how long he/she has been cleaning chimneys. As you might have guessed, the longer the contractor has been in the industry, the better.

Insurance: Is the contractor insured. While not mandatory, you are better off working with an insured contractor. This gives you peace of mind that in the event an accident occurs during the cleaning process, the insurance company will take care of it. The last thing you want is to be required to pay a contractor because they got injured when working in your home.

Area of expertise: As mentioned, there are some chimneys that you can easily clean from the top and others from the bottom. Depending on the nature of your chimney, you should hire the right contractor.

For you to have peace of mind, work with a contractor who specifically specializes in a given method of chimney cleaning.

How often should you clean the chimney?

It’s recommended that you clean the chimney at least once a year. You can clean it more often than this if your chimney is small or you use it more often than other people. How do you tell your chimney is ripe for cleaning? All you need to do is to measure the level of creosote in the chimney.

If the level is more than 1/8”, you should go ahead and contact the chimney cleaning professional.

Chimney cleaning services Columbia MD providers observe that there are a number of things you can do to reduce the frequency at which you clean the unit. One of the things you can do is to burn seasoned hardwood. This is wood that has been air-dried for at least six months.

The wood not only produces less soot thus you don’t need to clean the chimney more often, but it also burns hotter thus producing more heat for your home.

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