Holy Cow!!! Creosote - Suggestions

adb3 said:

This morning i cleaned the chimney after using our new VC Defiant for 5 weeks; what a creosote buildup I have been burning wood for 25 yrs in a fireplace, Franklin stove and fireplace insert, and have never seen so much creosote in such a short time. I'm in FL and we have had 15 days below freezing during Dec. The wood is a yr old, so it's well seasoned. I use a thermometer on the griddle and i know that in the all night burns it gets down to 200- 300; is all this creosote from the low temp? Most of the wood is oak, primarily hard oak, but a little soft. As mentioned, most folks suggest seasoning oak two years before use . . . by "soft" I'm wondering if you mean it was a bit punky . . . in which case punky wood can sometimes suck up moisture . . . of course being on the opposite end from you there may be oaks in Florida known as hard and soft oaks vs. red oak, white oak, etc. that I am not familiar with . . . if in fact this is oak and punky oak at that, it may in fact not be as well seasoned as you believe which can create creosote. That said, cooling temps in the chimney also play a factor in creating creosote . . .
Any suggestions for getting the creosote off the inside of the stove pipe? I scraped the buildup off the chimney cap and as much as i could i brushed out the pipe.

Is there anything else that you can tell me about heavy creosote buildup? If the creosote looks like burned popcorn . . . simply brushing it should suffice. If the creosote is hard and shiny you may need to use chemicals to remove the creosote . . . available from either a chimney sweep or you can use a solution found at woodstove shops, TSP, chimney sweeping logs, etc. which will remove the hard creosote over time.
Thanks for your help!

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adb3 said:

Thanks for your inputs!! I've got several things i can checkout. The wood is pretty dry after a yr, i also have 2 yr old wood that is very dry! How do you define pretty dry . . . I mean the reason I ask is that the wood I split just this past Fall looks pretty dry . . . some even has cracks . . . but it is nowhere near ready to burn . . . sometimes there can be a difference between looking dry and actually being dry. Perhaps a better way of telling if this wood is seasoned enough -- short of buying a moisture meter, resplitting the wood and testing it -- is to take a look at the wood once you reload the stove . . . if the splits are hising or spitting or bubbling water out of the end for a few minutes your wood may not be as dry as you thought . . . if the glass is blackening up often or the fire takes forever to get going your wood may not be as dry . . . that said . . . two years of seasoning should be good. The 1 yr stuff has hard splinters and i believe it's good since that's what i usually burn in my insert and the old Franklin. Lots of wood has splinters . . . seeing splinters is not how we would define whether wood is ready to burn or not . . . also, many folks find that less than optimal wood burned OK in pre-EPA stoves . . . but not so great in EPA stoves. Some folks find this to be a drawback to the new stoves . . . others . . . once they have good wood and see how cleanly and efficiently they can burn in the EPA stoves soon find the new stoves to be quite desirable. In those 2 units i had no sticky buildup. In fact, i cleaned the chimney for the Franklin before the start of the season and it was really clean with pretty much no buildup. With the Franklin, a fire was dead 2 hrs after i closed it up for the night, we burned with only the door open or completely closed.
Good pt on the hissing, but none of that. OK, that's a good sign. I probably am not letting the wood i add before bedtime get charred enough. i usually add wood about 15-30 minutes before i go to bed and turn the air control (ac) down when i go to bed. What is your process for adding a load before bed time? I usually add wood a half hour or so before I go to bed too . . . but what I do is use my stove top and flue thermometers to wait until the temps are up enough before I start turning down the air . . . and then I turn down the air in quarter mark increments every 5-10 minutes . . . stopping long enough to make sure the fire continues to burn and doesn't suffocate . . . eventually I can get the air down to the quarter mark or less . . . which may or may not work for you or others as a lot depends on the stove itself, local conditions, wood quality and the chimney. You might try doing what you are doing . . . but just turn down the air a little at a time . . . if the fire continues to burn well . . . turn down the air a little more. I soaked the chimney cap with EasyOff oven cleaner twice yesterday and let it soak for 6 hrs and 2 hrs. the buildup was as thick as a latex coat of paint on the inside top of the cap. I finally took a putty knife and scraped the creosote off after the 2nd soaking with EasyOff. The chimney was a crusty mess inside, scraping didn't do much to remove the hard layer. I used the steel brush and a putty knife with min results on the pipe.
My stove is a non-cat. You might want to check in with a woodstove shop and see if they don't have some of the stuff that you either spray on the fire or burn in the fire to remove the hard, shiny creosote.
thanks!! i' try to implement NH Woods recommendations.

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adb3 said:

I have tried closing the damper on the VC Defiant a couple of times, but don't really have feel for how this works.

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