The season is barely underway and I just swept my chimney. Yeh already and it was the worst I've ever seen. Easy 1/2" to 3/4" of it for a loss of an inch or more of pipe diameter. Here is the kicker, 50% of what I burn is 3yr old splits and the other half has been kiln dried cabinet lumber scraps. IMO best , driest possible fuel I could burn. It was just the dry flaky kind but jeeze, how can any stove be this bad. Never before has it built up so fast. Specs are 35' class A stainless on top of 6' of black stove pipe. I tap daily on the stove pipe with a broom handle and I knew it was bad from the dull thud it was making.
Worst Creosote I've Ever Seen
- Thread starter wkpoor
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That's a pretty long pipe. Was most of the build up near the top where the pipe would be cooler?. How about the pipe leaving the stove?. Was it bad there?. With dry wood and running hot your pipe leaving the stove should of been pretty clean. If not you may be running it to cool.
I imagine with wood that dry the only way you can control the stove is by starving it for air. Less air = less complete combustion = more creosote.
Best I can tell the coating was even from stove on up. About the same in the stove pipe as in the chimney. I run stove typically 500-600 degrees on stove top.Mad Tom said:
I can only measure pipe surface temp as I don't have a probe. But pipe surface only runs between 100-200 degrees.
I realize flue temps are probably low but I don't know how to get them higher without over temping the stove.
Yeh they have always been on the low side but this creosote is worse then ever before. I like the heat it puts off but I can't figure out the low flue temp thing. I've had the stove as high as 800 and still the pie is no hotter than 300.BrotherBart said:
That sounds exactly like what happened with my old stove when it popped a weld in the back above the baffle where I couldn't see it. Cool air was being drawn in and mixed with the flue gases right where they headed up the flue and cooling the exhaust stream and all of a sudden it was a creosote factory.
Look for an air leak low in the the flue or the stove. Those flue temps are way to cool for a fire that is holding the stove at five or six hundred.
Look for an air leak low in the the flue or the stove. Those flue temps are way to cool for a fire that is holding the stove at five or six hundred.
is this your first your with the stove ? something isnt definanlty not right i run a cat stove and my flue temps are hotter than that after 12 hours of burning on low 30 inches up. id drop the Old Nashua Smoke Dragon from Prehistoric Times and get a epa stove. cant you let more air into the stove to let it burn hotter
I have trouble imagining how it's possible to have 500-600F stovetop temps but 100-200F pipe temps at least with single-wall stovepipe--is this Double Wall pipe (from the stove to the Class-A chimney) by any chance?
Not sure what you mean by safe? First off the creosote it totally dry,(not the tacky wet stuff), next I don't have flue temps high enough to ignite it anyway.branchburner said:
wkpoor said:
Yeah. With my current stove one afternoon last year it was sitting at four hundred stove top and I went up and measured 240 at the top of the liner. 21 feet up from the flue collar.
You bet....this has puzzled me since I first got this stove 3yrs ago. I've asked alot of people how the pipe can be so cool with the stove temps I have. Only other thing is this stove has an 8"outlet that I have reduced to 6".spirilis said:
I'm not burning now so I'm going to go take a mirror and a flashlight and do an inspection for a crack. I know there are 2 on the face I've stop drilled and one is continuing on. I need to find time to uncrate the Magnolia hehehehehe.
Well not really. The stuff flakes off and piles up in the elbow coming out of the stove and I've never been able to ignite it ever when I've purposely tried by opening the door and letting the flames build up to where they have to be in the outlet pipe. If that won't ignite it what will. I don't know for sure but I've always thought the real dry creosote was pretty harmless and the wet appearing tacky stuff has the potential to ignite..branchburner said:
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