Another question about creosote (with a picture)

[mbk2000]

Last week I posted a question about inspection my chimney for creosote. That day, I cleaned out the contents of my chimney access door (in the basement) figuring the stuff in there was leftover debris from the stove installation when they created a new opening in the chimney on the first floor. So today I inspected it again and found this:
(broken image removed)

(The quarter is for size reference. My chimney is, unfortunately, not producing small change.)

I'm always careful to burn hot fires with as little smoke as possible. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

 

[jtp10181]

I saw one of your other posts about unseasoned wood. Its the wood making the mess, not the chimney.

So does your stove just dump right into a masonry chimney? Or was it lined up to the top?

 

[mbk2000]

I saw one of your other posts about unseasoned wood. Its the wood making the mess, not the chimney.

So does your stove just dump right into a masonry chimney? Or was it lined up to the top?

It is a tiled lined cinder block chimney. Fire hazzard or just an unfortunate result of unseasoned wood?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

how's this for creosote?

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj307/stoveguy2esw/creosote1.jpg

guy had installed in a garage, run 12 ft of single wall pipe through his roof and capped it. then as if that wasnt enough he installed a "magic heat" reclaimer 4 ft above the furnace. needless to say the install was an unpermitted and uninspected installation.

 

[Hogwildz]

Whats the dimensions of the tile liner. Looks like if its too large, you might have poor draft, lots of cooling and quick build up of creosote. Looks thick & chunky to me. Not good. Have you looked at the cap lately? Maybe collecting on cap, falling off and down? Might be a possibility of considering a 6" s.s. liner from stove to top. Tell us the clay liner size first.

Wet wood could also be a big factor also, But in a weeks time, that much chunking? Maybe a combination of both.

 

[mbk2000]

Whats the dimensions of the tile liner. Looks like if its too large, you might have poor draft, lots of cooling and quick build up of creosote. Looks thick & chunky to me. Not good. Have you looked at the cap lately? Maybe collecting on cap, falling off and down? Might be a possibility of considering a 6" s.s. liner from stove to top. Tell us the clay liner size first.

Wet wood could also be a big factor also, But in a weeks time, that much chunking? Maybe a combination of both.

I was looking today and noticed there is no cap visible on the chimney. I'm going to go up on the roof with the sweep at the end of this month to have a better look. The diameter of the flu is about 8"x8", if I remember correctly. It is very chunky stuff. If I can confirm that this is a wood problem then I'm thinking I might locate some bio bricks and save my current wood for next year. This is my first stove so I have no basis for comparison but, so far, getting this wood to burn well has been hit or miss. Some days good some days bad.

 

[Hogwildz]

8 x 8 doesn't present that much of a cross section difference. Not enough to cause that much build up. If I am wrong, I hope someone chimes in.
I am leaning towards your wood being wet. If its hit or miss, depending on how much hot coals you have at reload. Its most likely your wood.
But that much in a week seems like an awful lot. Are you getting her hot enough? Especially before cutting the air back. Would almost have to be smoldering to cause that much build up in that short a time.

 

[Michael6268]

He says he cleaned out/inspected the contents of his clean out door/area a week ago. I dont think the chimney was cleaned a week ago. Is that correct? If not, this may be the result of burning bad or semi bad wood since Sept or Oct. In that case, it still doesnt look good and does look like a possible chimney fire waiting to happen, but would be much more understandable over that time frame as opposed to a week.

 

[mbk2000]

He says he cleaned out/inspected the contents of his clean out door/area a week ago. I dont think the chimney was cleaned a week ago. Is that correct? If not, this may be the result of burning bad or semi bad wood since Sept or Oct. In that case, it still doesnt look good and does look like a possible chimney fire waiting to happen, but would be much more understandable over that time frame as opposed to a week.

The chimney was cleaned about 4 weeks ago. I emptied the cleanout at the base of the chimney about a week ago, so what has fallen is only a week old. Was hoping not to see the words chimney fire. :gulp: So this is not normal, correct?

 

[Michael6268]

Well you say you cleaned out the cleanout area a week ago and therefore this happened since then, but in reality your chimney accumulated that over a four week time frame since the last cleaning, not a week, which is somewhat better as far as rate of accumulation. It just fell off after you last cleaned out the clean out area, it didnt accumulate since that time necessarily. Anyhow, yes chimney fire is of course a possibility with that type of creosote, depending on how much is in your chimney. You may just have a lot at the top where the chimney is cooler. Or the whole thing may be coated. If the entire chimney or most of it is that gunked up in 4 weeks, it is not normal and you need to look at your wood or your set up. I dont recall your original post, so I dont know if it detailed the chimney set up or not.

 

[begreen]

It's hard to say whether this is continued flaking off below the chimney entry from previous bad install or from above the current stove pipe entry and new stuff. The only way to know is to clean or at least check it from the top. When in doubt, sweep it out.

 

[North of 60]

At least one thing. Your being consiouse about it. Thats good. Now act on what BeGreen said. That should take away some of the worries until U pin the problem.
I think dry wood and a liner for next season will be the answere.

 

[Hogwildz]

Begreen & North gave you the best advice to be given. I have nothing more to add. What did the sweep say it looked like when he cleaned it 4 weeks ago? Did he mention anything?

 

[struggle]

For some reason I cannot see you picture but really do not need to from what you typed. I have a 8x8 clay tile lined chimeny that was giving me creosote problems something terrible. It was even to the point of dripping out of the pipe out of my stove on to the hearth under it.

I rebuilt the stove as it had multiple leaks in the refractory cement and then reinstalled it into same chimeny set. What it did was doubled the creosote problem as the stove worked even more effcient and then one day starting a Saturday morning fire it happened. It was a jet like sound from the stove and the chimney was on fire :ahhh: :bug:

So the fire went out and no damage to the house as the chimeny is completely concrete incased and is exterior design. The only course of action was to reline the chimeny with a flew liner 5.5" as I had to 45 degree turns to make. Clearly the clay liner had several cracks in it that were allowing air to mix with the hot combustion gases. I bought a new stove Mansfield soapstone after the fire and I brushed the liner after half a season of burning on the new set up and I did not get more than a half a can of fine powder out of the liner. Before I was brushing the old clay liner about ever month and a half and was darn near filling a five gallon bucket up everytime.

I am guessing you are going to be up for a reline. I was hesitant to do mine but have no regrets now. I feel it is a 1,000 times safer than before.