There are a lot of things that can be used to clean a chimney. But some of these things can be found in your house, specifically, in your kitchen. Chimneys are best swept by chimney cleaning services, however, here’s how you can use a simple thing like potato skins to clean the chimney.

What Makes Your Chimney Dirty?

Your chimney can be very filthy and dirty after a long time of burning wood. The most common things which can be bad for your chimney are soot, creosote, and the leftover residue of burning wood. Soot is the black smoke that comes out of the wood when it is burning. The black smoke is very thick and it has a lot of particles that can latch themselves on the walls of the chimney and turn the inside of the fireplace and the chimney black.

Another thing that can really make your chimney dirty is creosote. It is a yellowish black liquid, which is emollient in texture. It is a highly produced by-product when fire reacts with wood and it can even weaken the brick foundation of the chimney. This residue can make your chimney extremely dirty and it will also lead to a lot of needs for repairs. Creosote needs to be cleaned off the chimney walls every couple of months or so, if you want your chimney to stay standing strong and if you don’t want it to collapse.

Potato Skins

This tip or home remedy has been around for years and in the olden times, when there were no chimney cleaners and other chemicals, people used things they had lying around the house to clean the chimney and soot. Potato skins are a great way to clean your chimney and getting rid of creosote and soot has never sounded this easy. So, the next time you go and peel some potatoes for cooking, make sure that you are not throwing away the skins. These skins can be used to clean the chimney to a good extent. So, save those skins and let the cleaning begin.

What Do Potato Skins Do?

Though it is not completely sure what is in the potato skins which can clean the chimney effectively, there is just something about it that stops creosote from building up too much in the walls of the chimney and you can even prevent creosote from catching fire in the chimney because remember, creosote is a highly flammable substance and one choke in the chimney can lead to a massive fire and you definitely don’t want that. Although not proven scientifically, there could be something that has to do with the burning of starch present in the potato skins.

How Many Times Can You Use Them?

The great thing about using potato skins as a chimney cleaner is that you can use them as many or as few times as you want. Potato skins are not hazardous to the environment or for you, it is a natural home remedy that will not do any harm. Try to use it consistently for a month and then when the buildup stops, you can reduce the number of potato skins used and the number of times you repeat this remedy to once every couple of months. This will really make your chimney clean.

Potatoes For The Fireplace

Here’s how you can use potato skins for cleaning the fireplace and chimney. First, you want to let the peels dry naturally for about 1 to 2 days. This will ensure that the peels work their magic properly. Next, you will need to spread the peels all over the fireplace and light the peels on fire. This will ignite the peels and here is where the potatoes take over the steering wheel and do the work for you. Let the potatoes burn until they extinguish and you will see huge chunks of creosote getting peeled off from the chimney.

Conclusion

There you have it! Sounds weird, but it does work and if you have something in your house that you can use to clean your chimney or at least try to reduce the soot, then why not? If you need efficient cleaning, look for chimney sweep services Bowie.