Just swept the flue for first time

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Squiner

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Hearth Supporter
Aug 22, 2008
201
Maryland
I have put about a face cord thru the Nap 1402 so far this year. This is my first year burning. I got about three cups of creosote and it was real crispy and shiny. I have been using the sweeping granule sticks once a week which I guess made it easier to remove. I have about 12 feet of uninsulated SS liner in my masonry chimney (I know its short). I have been burning 90% pine which is well seasoned, it's almost like fatwood.

Based on this, how often do you think I should sweep throughout the burning season? I will be switching to locust/cherry once I get through the rest of the soft wood (2/3 cord).

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At what temps have you been burning? Could be that the stove needs to be run a bit hotter.
 
What temps are ya runnin your stove at?? 3 cups of creosote in that small of a chimney is a little more than I would like to see. Do ya get the stove nice and hot around 600-650 once in a while to keep your chimney nice and clean?? Does your door glass stay nice and clear after an overnight burn??? I would hit that chimney after another month and see how much creosote ya get out of it, just for a reference point.
 
Joey said:
What temps are ya runnin your stove at?? 3 cups of creosote in that small of a chimney is a little more than I would like to see. Do ya get the stove nice and hot around 600-650 once in a while to keep your chimney nice and clean?? Does your door glass stay nice and clear after an overnight burn??? I would hit that chimney after another month and see how much creosote ya get out of it, just for a reference point.
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I get it to 550-600 almost ever time I start it from cold. I do end up damping it down to get long burns overnight. Gets a bit cooler once i damp it down for the night obviously. Most of the time the glass is clean in the morning, sometimes its got some soot on it. I did burn some kiln dried dimensional lumber and with draft full open it still had smoke in the firebox, serious amount of fuel not being burned. Same thing happens with the pine occasionally.
 
Forgive in advance for stupid ? - But, why does it have that shape - is it a plug you dug out or what.

Never mind - optical illusion - thank goodness I have advance forgiveness.
 
I agree with Mellow on this one. Might be a drafting problem. If ya put some dim. lumber in and open it up all the way,,,you shouldnt have any smoke in the box, that stuff burns like paper,,hot and fast, that would raise your stove temps to a place you dont wanna be. After an all night burn,,what does your firebox look like??? Do you have coals? unburnt fuel??? or do ya have just ashes,,,like fluffy paper?? What color are the bricks in your firebox?? Are they blackened with soot or nice and white?
 
Joey said:
I agree with Mellow on this one. Might be a drafting problem. If ya put some dim. lumber in and open it up all the way,,,you shouldnt have any smoke in the box, that stuff burns like paper,,hot and fast, that would raise your stove temps to a place you dont wanna be. After an all night burn,,what does your firebox look like??? Do you have coals? unburnt fuel??? or do ya have just ashes,,,like fluffy paper?? What color are the bricks in your firebox?? Are they blackened with soot or nice and white?
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Usually the brick are bright white, clean glass with little coals and the rest of the ash is fluffy white.

Back to the dim lumber. Has anyone else had it where it is off gassing so much that all the gas cannot be burned? It's running real rich. The leads to real dark smoke rolling out the chimney? I think this is where I got all the creosote buildup. This also happened a few days ago when I added a piece of pine that came from the base of the tree. I released real dark smoke in the firebox that couldn't be burned quick enough even though the secondaries were really going hard.

As I said in my original post, I know I have issues with my chimney, primarily total height. I will correct that next year; this year I will be diligent about sweeping often. So, what I wanted to know is should I be sweeping more often so I don't build to three cups worth of creosote? I would say I had about 3/32" worth of buildup.
 
To answer your question on how often to clean the chimney; monthly all winter long. That is good advice for all new wood burners.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
To answer your question on how often to clean the chimney; monthly all winter long. That is good advice for all new wood burners.
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+1 . . . and not bad advice for all wood burners to follow . . . or at the very least they should be checking once a month just to be sure everything is working as it should.
 
Every time I see creosote pictures I go (in the Geico Gecko voice) "Oh, brownies. I LOVE BROWNIES."

Just to add to the chimney sweeping thread, these guys love the soot eater. It makes chimney sweeping fun! Plus it looks goofy.
 
I agree with "Sweep Often" until you learn what your stove will behave like.


Let me ask a question: Where was this creosote in your chimney? Was it in the singlewall going to the chimney? Top of the chimney? or all the way up it? Can you describe the path the smoke travels from stove to cap? (Up ___ feet, right 90* then horizontal __ feet, 90 up into chimney for ___ feet.... etc. )
 
Squiner said:
Back to the dim lumber. Has anyone else had it where it is off gassing so much that all the gas cannot be burned? It's running real rich. The leads to real dark smoke rolling out the chimney? I think this is where I got all the creosote buildup. This also happened a few days ago when I added a piece of pine that came from the base of the tree. I released real dark smoke in the firebox that couldn't be burned quick enough even though the secondaries were really going hard.
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I get that black smoke sometimes from pine with a lot of pitch in it, usually from branch wood or stump wood but it can show up anywhere. It boils out of the wood and burns about like oily rags or an old tire... dirty yellow-orange flame and lots of thread-like black soot. I'm fairly convinced that stuff won't burn no matter how much air you give it... you'd have to borrow some LOX from NASA or something.

I see different stuff in the chimney after burning pine, though... fluffy loose black deposits, not crusty shiny ones. After sweeping the chimney once I aimed a blowtorch at the fluffy black stuff and it wouldn't burn... just glowed red and slowly oxidized away.

To me, crusty shiny deposits say "water condensation". I agree with the comment above that you might consider insulating your pipe (insulation blanket wrap). If your stove's drafting enough to burn hot, and not rolling smoke into the room, I don't think your height is a big deal... I deal with 'California Bungalow Syndrome" but have had good results with 12' of pipe, and even less. Instead, do what you can to make the flue run hotter.

Try burning some of that hardwood (IF IT's DRY) and see what things look like after another month.

Eddy
 
EatenByLimestone said:
Let me ask a question: Where was this creosote in your chimney? Was it in the singlewall going to the chimney? Top of the chimney? or all the way up it? Can you describe the path the smoke travels from stove to cap? (Up ___ feet, right 90* then horizontal __ feet, 90 up into chimney for ___ feet.... etc. )
Click to expand...

Sure. I have an insert with an offset adapter (about 6" of offset). From the offset adapter I have 12' of vertical SS flex liner to the cap, not much to it. I had to reach into the offset adapter from inside the stove. I did this before and after sweeping. When I reached in before I swept, there was fluffy feeling deposits about a 1/8"-1/4" thick. From what I could see at the top of the liner, the creosote was shiny and crispy and from the sound of it, it was shiny and crispy from top to bottom near the offset adapter.
 
EddyKilowatt said:
I get that black smoke sometimes from pine with a lot of pitch in it, usually from branch wood or stump wood but it can show up anywhere. It boils out of the wood and burns about like oily rags or an old tire... dirty yellow-orange flame and lots of thread-like black soot. I'm fairly convinced that stuff won't burn no matter how much air you give it... you'd have to borrow some LOX from NASA or something.

Eddy
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone else has seen this. I would have to imagine this is a creosote factory. The thread-like black soot is a good description.
 
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