I was a little nervous about what I was going to find when I cleaned my flue after a full season of 24/7 burning in my new stove. My stove ran non-stop from November through March, it only went completely out maybe 3 times. I could see the cap was black from the ground, more black than the season before when I burned a non-cat Avalon. I know of the low flue temperatures, and I was a bit concerned given that I ran my stove low and slow nearly all winter and the oak I burned was right on the edge of acceptable moisture content.
Seeing my spark arrestor made me even more nervous. It was caked with a considerable amount of creosote. Way more than I'd ever seen before. I was already sweating from being 25 feet up in the air, so seeing that was unpleasant... Oh crap, I thought, I've been telling all these people about how great my BK is, and now it might turn out to be a creosote factory...
When I peeked down the flue I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was barely worth brushing. I'm sure I could have gone all this season with no problem. My 18', insulated flue had less than 2 cups of fine creosote. There was more creosote on the cap than in the entire flue.
It seems odd to me that there was so much on the cap. My theory is that the flue gasses from the BK are too cool to heat up the spark arrestor at all. So the flue gas just hits that cold metal and precipitates out a lot of whatever is left in it.
Whatever, it was great to see, and it sort of closes the book for me on whether I am completely happy with my BK. I am very much looking forward to burning the VERY dry oak I have waiting for this fall.
Seeing my spark arrestor made me even more nervous. It was caked with a considerable amount of creosote. Way more than I'd ever seen before. I was already sweating from being 25 feet up in the air, so seeing that was unpleasant... Oh crap, I thought, I've been telling all these people about how great my BK is, and now it might turn out to be a creosote factory...
When I peeked down the flue I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was barely worth brushing. I'm sure I could have gone all this season with no problem. My 18', insulated flue had less than 2 cups of fine creosote. There was more creosote on the cap than in the entire flue.
It seems odd to me that there was so much on the cap. My theory is that the flue gasses from the BK are too cool to heat up the spark arrestor at all. So the flue gas just hits that cold metal and precipitates out a lot of whatever is left in it.
Whatever, it was great to see, and it sort of closes the book for me on whether I am completely happy with my BK. I am very much looking forward to burning the VERY dry oak I have waiting for this fall.