Creosote Flakes from chimney

Hi all - not much of a poster but I certainly spend a lot of time on this site.

Looking for some opinions - today I noticed a lot of very light, thin, brown Creostoe flakes exiting my chimney, they're paper thin & easliy turn to dust / ash if you rub them between your fingers. At first I wasn't too concerned but after looking up @ the roof & yard around the house there are quite a few of them - we have snow on the ground & roof now so they're very noticable.

Burning seasoned Ash in a FPX 36 elite (CAT unit), approx. 25' of insulated pipe going through center of house (in a chase), through attic then through roof. I had just run the unit charring a new load (didn't over fire but ran in Bypass mode for a bit longer than usual) engaged CAT & went outside shortly after - this is when I noticed the flakes. Chimney was swept this Fall & I always get her going good & hot before engaing CAT & wait for the CAT to get glowing before shutting down the air.

Has anyone seen this before & would you have the chimney swept now or did I just take care of that unitentionally??? LOL. Third year burning unit & never noticed this before. Obviously from the "dryness" & "light consistency" of the flakes I'm burning clean but never had a buildup that blew out the chimney before so not sure if I need to clean again or if this is not a concern. As mentioned I have it cleaned each year & I'm burning about the same amount of wood (maybe a bit more) than the previous two years.

Thanks all for your input & opinions

Thanks for your input - no wasn't burning paper except for one small piece this AM to get her started again. Anyway this was defiantly not paper & there was A LOT of it. Regardless I was thinking the same thing but wanted other opinions.

In the meantime I do have a screen on the cap but this stuff is so light & thin it passed right through it. Really strange, never saw it "rain" creosote flakes before LOL.

Girl said:

Someone posted last year that this happened to them.
I can't find the post, I'll keep trying though.

Click to expand...

Thanks in advance for your efforts Girl.

Thanks everyone for your replys - sounds like I'll be fine but I will check out the post Girl found later....company arriving soon so I better go.

Thanks again!

Well I think I'm just going to chalk it up to a thin layer of soot in the chimney and/or cap that got knocked loose from a heavy draft while charring a fresh load. I wouldn't be surprised if this has happened before & I never noticed it.....usually it's quite windy here & this stuff was so light that on a "normal" day it would be blown to Oz along with Dorthy & Todo - today was actually dead calm so it had nowhere to go but up & straight back down onto the roof & ground.

Regardless I'll be keeping an eye out for the stuff on the next calm day & in the meantime I think I'll buy a poly brush & rods and do a sweep just to be safe. I don't mind paying a chimney sweep for a yearly cleaninig & inspection (peace of mind from the inspection) but between "anuals" I'd rather do it myself. Wish I could climb up on the roof & shine a light down the pipe but the snow up there pretty much squashes that idea!