Ok, so i know i had creosote on fire in my stack this morning.

for the back story on this, see my previous thread first.

This morning, on an "ok" bed of coals...(took a little bit, but it finally caught fire ok), i reloaded 4 good splits, opened the bypass, opened the air to 100%.

immediately upon opening the stove door, i heard the flakes coming down the pipe, like i have been lately since burning the fires hotter at good temps.

I have the door cracked because of the amount of coals i had, just to give them a bit more air to generate enough heat to ignite. After ignition, the temps get up around 400F, and i start to hear a constant tinkling. i shut the door, the tinkling stops.

I open the door again, the tinkling immediately starts again. I shut the door, i shut the bypass. waited about 5 minutes. flue temp hadnt changed up or down, staying at a steady 400. Single wall duravent telescopic piece, first ~30 degree elbow, another 2 foot section of single wall, 2nd ~30 degree elbow thats attached to the support box. see photo below.





While waiting the 5 minutes with the bypass shut, with the door shut, I walk outside and there is zero smoke coming out of the chimney, past few weeks been really cold and really windy. i walk back inside, crack the door and IMMEDIATELY i can hear the tinkling, sounds like flakes falling down. well with the door open, i put my head close to the stack, and listen....i start to hear sizzling!! so i run outside, and now i see a little bit of black smoke....and every once in a while, a flake of black would spit out and fall down on the roof. Ran inside, shut the door, tinkling stopped, went back outside, back to no smoke...

so this tells me its for sure its on fire right? as soon as i shut the door, the sizzling stops, the flakes/tinkling stops. bumping the stack would make more flakes fall down but with diminishing returns. i dont get it, ive been getting good clean burns at night, yet these flakes happen in the morning, and when i get home in the evenings.

i know i started off with bad burning practices on this stove, but since them i thought i had a good handle on the fires buring nice and clean. like i said, i can get zero smoke now with each fire. so i dont understand this at all, unless its just flaking off what has built up while burning dirty.

all this was installed by me, the week before Christmas. i will scrub everything out good saturday morning, but i guess im going to let the fire die out before i do. gonna disconnect the stack take it outside and inspect, and scrub it from the top down. all i have is a wire brush and sticks.

i just wish i knew what the inside of the pipes looked like when this was happening.

BurnIt13 said:

When I'm starting or reloading a fire I keep the door cracked a minute or so until it starts to get going. After I close the door the fire starts to build stronger and stronger. The temperature in the flue is rising very quickly at this point. This rise in temperature causes thermal expansion and sounds like ticking noises in the stove and pipe.

I hear this every time I start or reload a fire. I wonder if this is what you are hearing? I imagine creosote flakes wouldn't make much of a noise as they are pretty small and light. If they are big enough and have enough weight so that they can make noise when landing then you are very gummed up and need some professional assistance to clean that mess out.

If stuff was raining down your chimney I imagine you would have quite a pile of soot above your baffle boards. It will take 2 seconds to take the front two burn tubes out so that you can lower the baffle boards and take a look. Maybe it is worth a shot.

I don't think I've ever experienced a chimney fire but I would think it would sound more like a freight train than what you describe. Either way.....its time to take a look.

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i know what expanding metal sounds like, and the noises wouldnt travel down the pipe. this is not pinging, but like something is being poured down the flue. plus i could hear the sizzling lower in the stack as opposed to higher up near the first elbow.

the baffles in my stove are welded in i think. im gonna check.

its a Drolet Myriad.

BurnIt13 said:

EDIT.
Nevermind what I said. Just read through your last thread and its not an Englander 30. They look close though! Yours looks like an Englander 30 in dress clothes.

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but the sizzling along with the black smoke outside means fire right?

oh, and i forgot to mention, i purposely walked down wind, and what i smelled is not the sweet smell of dried hickory that i should have been smelling. instead it was a sour smell, like a burning barrel maybe.

Lumber-Jack said:

There is a difference between a chimney fire and creosote burning off the inside of your flue.
A chimney fire is a self sustaining thing, where burning creosote off the inside of your flue only happens while you are sustaining a hot fire in your stove.
Usually when the creosote burns off your flue like that it only happens in the lower portion of the flue and it doesn't have enough heat energy to burn off all the way to the top, so likely you still have more creosote deposits near the top of your chimney.
The fact that you are hearing, and alert to, that "tinkling " noise is a sign that it's time to clean your chimney, and possibly try and change your burning practices. Perhaps burn hotter, or maybe burn drier wood.
Think of that "tinkling" sound as a warning sign that something needs to be done.

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and what of the tinkling noise when i open the door after i just have a small amount of coals? i can bump the flue and get more of the same sounds until you dont hear it anymore. thats probably what is catching fire, a pile of flakes on top of the baffle.

Lumber-Jack said:

Could be just loose flakes I guess. In any case it's probably a good sign it's time to give the chimney a sweep.
Do you have your on brush and rods?

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yep i went up there last weekend to sweep it, but the cap wouldnt come off, im going to have to remove the screws from the 3 brackets that hold the top cap down to the screen. i couldnt jar it loose enough to pop it off.

bholler said:

I am sorry but anything burning inside the chimney or pipe is a chimney fire it sounds like you had a very minor one and it probably did no damage at all but you need to clean it now. and after it is clean inspect it well. like I said I really doubt from what you described that you did any damage but it needs checked out.

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yes i agree, the black smoke and the smell was a little unnerving.

any tips for cleaning the cap? i heard gasoline and a match, ect... is there a better, less eye brow risky way that does just as good of a job? lol

downwind it smelled close to a burning tire. but more acrid. i am going to take pictures when i do pull the stack off, and sweep the chimney so anyone reading this thread, and who is new like me, might benefit from what i seen and heard and smelled (haha), and connect the dots to the pictures.

realstihl said:

If you had a chimney fire most likely the black stove pipe in the picture would be white and chaulky. The single wall pipe will glow red.

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the single wall directly off the stove is a telescopic section that is hardly extended, so its really two layers of single wall pipe, the inside section may be discolored i dont know i'll check when i pull it off.

Nick Mystic said:

From what you've written it sounds to me like you have significant creosote buildup in your flue. I used to have a pre-epa stove would get a lot of creosote in the flue pipe due to bad burning practices. I had to burn a lot of wet wood at the time due to circumstances. As the creosote built up I could bang on my single wall inside section of flue pipe and listen to the crusty creosote flake off the pipe and drop down into the elbow at the bottom of the flue. When the stove was cold I would actually vacuum out this pile of creosote, so I knew exactly what was taking place. I would recommend you figure out how to inspect the top of your baffle, or whatever is directly below your stove pipe where it enters your stove so you can monitor this build up. A pile of this crusty/flaky creosote is a perfect storm for a chimney fire. Think about it: A flue full of creosote (so heavy it's gluing your rain cap on to the top of your stack) and a pile of flaky creosote sitting on the hottest part of your stove.

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yep im pretty sure i can detach the telescopic pipe and raise it up enough and vacuum it out down there. but when i take it completely off this weekend, i will be able to look around down in there pretty good.