Cleanest chimney yet

[grommal]

I just cleaned my chimney today, as I do once per year, every year. It's an uninsulated, exterior, masonry chimney, so it's pretty much designed to condense gunk on it. Well, after the first year of operation of the new Oslo, this is the least amount of creosote I've ever had by far. 3.5 cords of wood, and only about a cup of loose powder. As I climbed the ladder, I could see that the mesh on the chimney cap was clean and shiny. This is the most wood we've ever burned in a year (heated the house closer to 100% with wood, compared to other years), and still made the least crud in the process. Nice!

 

[begreen]

Way to go grommal. You be burning right.

 

[North of 60]

Since you said 100% with wood, I would have to say less re-lights and start-ups that obviously did not let that big old heat mass of a chimney to cool down. I bet your on the dry wood bandwagon also ;-) . Sound like a heating season of success. Good on ya grommal.

 

[Todd]

Wow, that's impressive for an outside masonry chimney. I use to get over a gallon of crusty creosote before I lined mine and now I'm down to about a quart of fine sooty powder.

 

[grommal]

Since you said 100% with wood, I would have to say less re-lights and start-ups that obviously did not let that big old heat mass of a chimney to cool down. I bet your on the dry wood bandwagon also ;-) . Sound like a heating season of success. Good on ya grommal.

Not so much a huge difference in number of relights, but more that we started burning earlier in the fall. Also, the new stove has more firebox capacity, so we could run it a bit hotter and still have great coals in the morning. The wood was mostly very dry, but there was a half cord that was on the cusp. Probably overall about as dry as most other years. But, I've really seen the light on dry wood this season because the difference in behavior is more visibly obvious with the new stove, so I'll be working harder going forward to get wood earlier. I have 4 cord of "fully seasoned" wood stacked and covered for next year already, so by the fall it will be truly dry.

I would have expected the old VC cat to have given equal, if not better, cleanliness, but it was never close.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice going grommal. A good testament to good dry wood. Good fuel = good results. Bad fuel = poor results.