Small stove, burned down coals in morning,....cresote or not?

[Intheswamp]

I'm just trying to prepare for burning...still roadblocks to my stove burning, but we're getting there!

I want to be sure I have this sorted out in the little bit of working gray matter that I have. Here's the scenario...

After building the last fire for the night in my F3CB with good seasoned wood, letting the wood get charred good, secondaries kicking in, and gradually cutting back the primary air control handle all the way (which still allows about 25% air supply) I go to bed.

In the morning the fire has burned down to ash and coal (if things work out really well I might have some live coals left).

I'm curious about the time period when the fire/coals are beginning to use up the existing fuel and the stove temp and flue temp are beginning to fall. My curiosity here is concerning creating creosote in the flue/stove.

My thought is that the volatile gases and oils from the wood are burned off during the initial flaming period of the fire, secondary combustion, and early coaling stages. Is it safe to say that once the flames have diminished and the burn goes into the coaling(?) stage and sufficient air is still present then this is a clean burn and creosote formation is happening no more than when the fire was actively flaming? And that as the fire dies down and eventually dies out due to lack of fuel (not oxygen) that it is/was a clean burn?

In my newbie mind I can understand a smoldering fire (wet wood, low oxygen, etc.) as being an incomplete combustion of fuel/gases. Also, in my newbie mind, I want to think that a fire that is dieing from lack of fuel but with sufficient oxygen is a clean fire. In other words, a good burning but dieing fire is a clean burning fire...not smoldering.

I'm just trying to get things sorted in my mind. So...am I half way in the ballpark with my thinking? ...should the guys in the white jackets come get me (again)?

Well, I've probably got everyone scratching there heads over another bumbling, rambling Intheswamp post but hopefully I haven't expressed too much brain-damaged (one cell at a time) thinking. :red:

Ed

 

[logger]

You are correct. If there was a creasote issue, you'd be experiencing black glass and buildup inside the stove, but the coaling stage alone does not produce that with well seasoned wood. Im still trying to figure out how you get an overnight burn in that size firebox? Cheers to you if you're able to.

 

[Intheswamp]

You are correct. If there was a creasote issue, you'd be experiencing black glass and buildup inside the stove, but the coaling stage alone does not produce that with well seasoned wood. Im still trying to figure out how you get an overnight burn in that size firebox? Cheers to you if you're able to.

<chuckle> I'm dreaming right now about the overnight burn...stove's still sitting on it's pallet as I wait impatiently for an apparently alien abducted mason. ;-( But who knows??...maybe my local hybrid water oaks have magical powers in them!

Thanks for confirming my thought process...sometimes, er..., most of the time I wonder about myself!

Ed

 

[firefighterjake]

Your thinking is correct.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree. But remember the biggest key is with the fuel you are going to burn. Poor fuel = poor results. Good fuel = happy people.

 

[fbelec]

i need to throw in the wrench.
for the first time, and i am a new englander. everybody around here is saying to me if your house is still there in one piece in may then and only then will thay say that i'am not crazy. i'm burning pine. burns great. a little less burn time but good. hot and not much smoke. alot less then i am used to seeing coming from the chimney. most of the time almost none. every once and a while when the fire is done i open the loading door for a new fire and the whole inside of the stove is black. so i checked it often thru some fires and came up with why. when the pine gets to the coal stage and there is no fire the smoldering coals blacken everything up. yet before that coaling stage everything is either light tan or white. and also this doesn't happen with hardwood. so to say that everything might be ok at the end of a burn cycle, i would not always.

just my opinion and experience so far.
yes there is a shiney coat on the chimney but it is as thin or thinner than a piece of paper and that happened in the beginning of the season when i didn't have a handle on the burn, and has not got any worse. ran a brush and it did nothing.