Black gooey liquid oozing down my fireplace brick

[YETTE]

I have black gooey liquid running down my fireplace brick and last year ive seen it actually run out of the wood heater door. This year will make 8 yrs that ive been using a wood heater. I originally had the larger of the two boxwood stoves that I bought brand new from tracker supply. Last year we bought this larger stove and this is when all of our problems started. Our chimney is closed off with a thick piece of metal about 3 ft above the stove with a hole cut in it to run the pipe out. The chimney is brick all the way to the top. With the boxwood stove we had the stove pipe going about half way up the chimney never had any problems with the draft. If the heater door was open it would actually pull my cigar smoke that way and up the chimney. So when we installed this larger heater last year we just connected it to the same pipe (had to add an elbow) expecting the same results. That wasn't what we got at all ! Every time we would open the door (damper completely open it would smoke up the house and it didn't make that roaring train noise like the boxwood stove. This is when the oozing started. This year we've took the pipe all the way to the top which has given us excellent draft but we still have the oozing. Its still running down the brick as you can see in the picture and it runs really bad down the inside and outside of the pipe. Oh I almost forgot, after we ran the pipe all the way up we tried it for about a week and the only change was the better draft so he capped the top of the chimney off closing it completely with the pipe coming out thru the center. Can anyone help me ? Why did this start happening with this different heater ? PLEASE COULD SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO FIX IT ?!?! I greatly appreciate any help or suggestions PS. I read the article "Creosote from Wood Burning - Causes and Solutions" and in that article it says to prevent buildup you need to burn up the gases that form creosote. "Burn the smoke and you burn the gases. No gases, no creosote." I don't understand what this means. How do I burn the smoke and gases ?

 

[DAKSY]

Hmmm...One man's opinion, based on what you've posted...
You didn't have any problems with draft using your old set up, but you definitely coated the inside of the flue tiles (if there are any) with creosote.
Your new set up is melting that creosote coating & gravity is bringing it into your fireplace.
You added a 90 degree elbow? That effectively reduced your chimney height by 3 feet.
That alone will change the draft.
You "took the pipe all the way to the top"?
Does that mean you don't have a stainless steel liner in the chimney?
As far as the draft, have you had the connector pipe swept?
How dry is your wood? Do you know the moisture content?
Is there a spark screen on your chimney? Is THAT plugged?
To eliminate the OOZING, call a chimney sweep & have him remove EVERYTHING & brush clean the flue.
Re-install your block-off plate & use stainless steel from the plate to the cap.
Verify the moisture content of your woodpile. You want it at about 18%
Dry wood = minimal creosote

 

[YETTE]

Hmmm...One man's opinion, based on what you've posted...
You didn't have any problems with draft using your old set up, but you definitely coated the inside of the flue tiles (if there are any) with creosote.
Your new set up is melting that creosote coating & gravity is bringing it into your fireplace.
You added a 90 degree elbow? That effectively reduced your chimney height by 3 feet.
That alone will change the draft.
You "took the pipe all the way to the top"?
Does that mean you don't have a stainless steel liner in the chimney?
As far as the draft, have you had the connector pipe swept?
How dry is your wood? Do you know the moisture content?
Is there a spark screen on your chimney? Is THAT plugged?
To eliminate the OOZING, call a chimney sweep & have him remove EVERYTHING & brush clean the flue.
Re-install your block-off plate & use stainless steel from the plate to the cap.
Verify the moisture content of your woodpile. You want it at about 18%
Dry wood = minimal creosote

Yes we added an elbow. The boxwood heater piped out the top so we connected a pipe and ran it straight up the chimney. This heater pipes out of the back so we connected an elbow and then straight up the chimney. When we bought this house the brick opening you see in the picture behind the heater was a brick fireplace with a brick chimney all the way out of the roof with a concrete chimney cap. It had no damper or anything in it. Just a huge gaping whole that sucked all of our electric heat out because it was winter when we moved in. So that year we closed it off by putting a piece of plywood in the chimney and packing insulation around it. The next year we bought the boxwood heater and closed the chimney off with a really thick heavy sheet of metal with a whole cut in the center for the stove pipe to go thru using enough pipe to go about half way up the chimney. We sealed all that up real good and off we went. We didn't have any problems until we changed to the bigger heater last year. We left everything just as it had been except the elbow we used out the back of the new heater. The draft with this heater was horrible and this is also when the oozing started. So this year we extended the pipe all the way up to the top of the chimney well just below the concrete chimney cap. This improved the draft by 110% but we still had ooz. So we went and bout all new pipe and still ooz. So now we have removed the concrete cap and closed the top of the chimney off with really thick sheet metal with the 6" metal stove pipe coming out in the middle and capped with a standard stove pipe cap you buy at the hardware store. Sealed everything really well. We have very little ooz running down the brick but there is quite a bit running down the inside of the pipe into the elbow and heater and also some running down the outside of the pipe. But all pipe and cap are new so no clogs yet. As far as the moisture content of the wood im really not sure. To be honest I didn't know there was a way to measure that. Our wood has been cut and split since summer of 2013 and under a shed the entire time. Ive always just assumed that was long enough to dry out for burning. I'll have to look into getting one of those moisture thingy's. I didn't realize wood heat was so hi-tech. Thank you very much for the info. I really appreciate it. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

 

[bholler]

Is the pipe stove pipe of chimney liner? what direction are the joints going? and i assume it is not insulated correct? I would guess your joints are backwards that is why you are getting stuff running down the out side the top pipe should always slide into the bottom one. insulation would help reduce the creosote and stove pipe wont hold up for long

 

[gzecc]

"I didn't realize wood heat was so hi-tech"
Not hi-tech at all. It just needs to be seasoned so it doesn't deposit that moisture (from the unseasoned wood) on your chimney walls, before its exits your house.
Different species of wood require different seasoning times. Post a picture of your wood seasoning for us.

 

[begreen]

I am wondering how well cleaned the chimney was before the pipe was run all the way up the top and how well sealed the top cap is. If there is a poor or no storm collar water can run down the pipe. If the steel top cap is not sealed well and has no drip lip, water might be running down the chimney. Or it could be the mortar is in bad shape up top and/or you are getting bad condensation. All of these conditions would be worse if the chimney was not cleaned well before the stainless steel liner was put in the chimney.

 

[bholler]

totally agree with you begreen we need more info

 

[ryjen]

I see the exact same thing with my stove if I use wood that isn't seasoned well enough. The moisture from the wood condensates into what is basically liquid creosote.
Burn hotter fires with more seasoned wood and that should take care of 80% of your issue.