Black Crystals

[Treemoss]

It was warm today so I decided to clean out my chimney for the first time ever after burning the last two months. So when I looked inside the pipe I found light brown dusting on the sides. so I said okay not too bad. But when I was cleaning up the pipe black crystals were coming down from the top part area. Is this because of the colder temperatures up there and my 15° offsets that this is building up. Also from not well seasoned wood. Is this something that I should be concerned about. Or I need to run hotter fires or get better seasoned wood. Will this lead into more problems.

 

[HotCoals]

I believe that is stage 2 creosote condensing on your flue.
You really need drier wood as you already know.
I doubt the offsets are killing you.
If you insist on burning suspect wood keep the temps a little higher but it may not help much way up there.
I get it on my cap with really seasoned wood even, mostly because i have a cat stove with very low stack temps.
Great that you checked it!

 

[Treemoss]

Any recommendations. Do you think I should clean my pipe out every three months just to make sure I keep this at bay.
It only takes me 20 minutes start to finish to clean the chimney not to bad.

 

[HotCoals]

Any recommendations. Do you think I should clean my pipe out every three months just to make sure I keep this at bay.
It only takes me 20 minutes start to finish to clean the chimney not to bad.

If it was me I would check it every month. It's going to just get colder and that raises up the chance of a lot of creosote.
Just don't go with the thinking that doing a hot fire once a day is going to solve anything.
You could mix in some bio bricks or some old lumber/pellets but that won't keep it all away.
Just clean it in 4 weeks again,or at least check it out.
Good to see you are on top of it!

 

[Treemoss]

Will do, easy to clean will check in another month. Thank you.

 

[HotCoals]

Will do, easy to clean will check in another month. Thank you.

No problem!
Stay warm and burn safe my friend!
Know that you can never check it too many times!
Make sure it all goes back together tight and screws won't hurt if you don't already have them.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

For sure. It doesn't take long; check it monthly. Hopefully you already have next year's wood put up. If not, time to get busy. Better yet, get yourself 3 years ahead. It might take a couple years to get there but the benefits are well worth the time and labor.

 

[Treemoss]

I will have about a cord and a half for next year that's already split stacked and waiting. I think I will send the brush up the chimney once a month. only takes me 20 minutes so better off doing that once a month then running into a problem. until the wood is better at least. Thanks for help.