creosote

[avanderheuel]

OK here it goes..

yes the wood is dry....3 years


I have a lopi lyden with about 12 feet of single wall to the cealing then insulated the rest of the way.. But I seem to be cleaning the pipes way more then I think I should..

The only thing I can think of it a leek in the pipe? Would this introduce cool air and give me the creosote problem I seem to be having

 

[Hogwildz]

OK here it goes..

yes the wood is dry....3 years


I have a lopi lyden with about 12 feet of single wall to the cealing then insulated the rest of the way.. But I seem to be cleaning the pipes way more then I think I should..

The only thing I can think of it a leek in the pipe? Would this introduce cool air and give me the creosote problem I seem to be having

Burn hotter. That single wall is going to be hot, regardless of a small leak or not.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

12' of single wall is a lot! Much more than recommended. However, I've seen even more than that used and it got the job done.

And sorry about this but I still would question your wood. You state 3 years....but 3 years from what? Since it was cut? Since the tree was cut? Nothing matters much until the wood has been split and stacked. Then it also matters where it was stacked. If stacked indoors, that won't do it. It has to be stacked out where Mother Nature will give you the wind you need to dry that wood. It also matters what kind of wood it is.

Most every time when someone has a creosote problem it can be traced back to the wood.

 

[avanderheuel]

Yep 12 feet up to the vaulted celling.. Andy yes wood is dry! I have had this stove for a few years but we moved and took it with us and I have never had this much single wall so I am thinking that my be part of the problem?

 

[grommal]

Yep 12 feet up to the vaulted celling.. Andy yes wood is dry! I have had this stove for a few years but we moved and took it with us and I have never had this much single wall so I am thinking that my be part of the problem?

Savage is right. Wood moisture is by far the number one issue, even when people think they have dry wood. How long has it been since the wood was SPLIT, and how was it stored AFTER splitting? You state emphatically that the wood is dry, buy how do you know? Did you take moisture reading on a freshly split face using a moisture meter? If you pick up two splits and hit them together, does it make a sharp ringing sound like bowling pins being hit by the ball or like a baseball bat, or does it make a duller thud?

 

[colebrookman]

Dennis is right. Also burn hot at least once a day and beware if you fill the stove in the AM and then turn it down when you leave for work. We had a fire in a 3 year old house because the owner would turn it down to try and get an all day burn while she was at work. No firewood is kiln dry so moisture is always there just waiting ti form creosote. Be safe.
Ed

 

[Battenkiller]

Burn hotter. That single wall is going to be hot, regardless of a small leak or not.

There's always one. Wait... here's another.

Avanderheuel, I must be tough when you know your wood is dry but all you hear is that it can't be. I'll go ahead and believe you.


Here's a pic of what two year old seasoned wood can do to a flue pipe when you choke the air down too far. The pipe was brand new in October and this was from a post made in December. The pipe is almost entirely clogged up. The wood was stored in a shed for two years, and check out the pic of the guy's wood below in the thread and tell me what kind of wood it is. The guy cuts and splits his own wood, and could it be.... white ash? If ash ain't dry sitting two years covered in a shed, I don't know what is. You can practically burn the stuff green. In the thread he gives his own interpretation of what went wrong, but what would he know? He's only a fireman.


http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/creosote-in-a-stovepipe

I have a outside wood furnace the kind that sets in the yard away from the house. It has not been working properly. It would not get hot and when I opened the door the smoke would pour out in my face. I knew what was wrong so yesterday I took the stovepipe off the top and wow. It was almost completely pluged with creosote.

The wood was dried for two years in a shed it was a good hardwood. The problem was I used it when it was too warm and the burning was too incomplete because of the air shut down too much. This stovepipe was new in October. Anyway I thought I would put it on here so firefighters who may have never seen creosote can see it. It is sticky like tar and even looks like it. If you get it on your hands it will not wash off, Your hands will stay stained. (Alot worse that paint) This is the unburnt stuff not ash that you sometimes see.

I hope this helps someone gain some knowledge . Oh this is 6 inch stovepipe by the way and its a full two feet in the pipe. It weights around 20 or 30 pounds.

I gotta give this guy a lot of credit for having the guts to post this on a firefighter's website, where he might be exposed to the scorn of his peers. Getting the word out is all that matters. Just imagine what would happen to a guy burning load after load of bone-dry pallet wood and choking it down like that? Burn hot. Air is your friend. Choking a stove down too much is what makes creosote, there is %0 creosote in water.

 

[colebrookman]

Also note he said dried in a shed which does not work well. Sun and wind dry wood unless you have a kiln, not storing in indoors. Dennis makes note of this in his answer above. Be safe.
Ed

 

[Battenkiller]

Also note he said dried in a shed which does not work well. Sun and wind dry wood unless you have a kiln, not storing in indoors.

There are dozens of members on this site that dry their wood in sheds and they don't report this kind of buildup. And a shed ain't indoors. Maybe not ideal circulation, but is ain't like a basement in the summer. It is simply a matter of not burning hot enough due to not enough air.

Other firefighters agreed with this. You can just look at the stuff to see how wet it still is. Even wood that is at 0% MC, dried inside an oven, will produce more than a half a pound of water for every pound of wood that combusts. Where do you think that goes? That's way more water than you'll find in any wood that will actually keep a flame alive. Water is water, wherever it comes from. Get it up and out of the pipe, and burn hot to dry up any goo that you do make.

If the guy was burning hot like he's supposed to, that would all be dry, flaky creosote that probably would have fallen off the pipe and back into the burner. He knew what he was doing wrong and admitted it.

 

[branchburner]

Another possibility, besides your wood or air, is that your afterburner is not burning smoke correctly. As a downdraft stove, the Leyden forces the smoke into that back chamber when the bypass is closed. If it is clogged with ash you may not be getting secondary combustion. But be very careful if you try to clean the styrofoam-like refractory piece; it will be fragile enough for a vacuum to suck chunks off.

Try taking temps not just of stove top, but also of the flue and the back of the stove to see if they are all hot enough. Do you see any visible smoke outside when the bypass is closed?

 

[Battenkiller]

Another possibility, besides your wood or air, is that your afterburner is not burning smoke correctly. As a downdraft stove, the Leyden forces the smoke into that back chamber when the bypass is closed. If it is clogged with ash you may not be getting secondary combustion.

Good point, Branch. I cleaned the ash out of the back chamber of my stove this season and it really seemed to make a difference. Haven't had my mid-season flue check yet, so I can't say about the creosote, but I do know the secondary burn flue temps are about an average of 50º hotter that I was able to keep them last year, so that has to help I would think.