chimney dirty

[quotejso]

The outside of my chimney has creosote buildup coming down the side. I have been running a progress hybrid with liner. Why would this happen.I think the smoke is condensing when it exits because the top plate looks covered in black. Otherwise couldn't be happier with install.

 

[Heftiger]

How long have you been running? When's the last time you looked down (or up) the flue to see what's going on?

 

[quotejso]

How long have you been running? When's the last time you looked down (or up) the flue to see what's going on?

Just this season, I haven't looked up the flue yet.

 

[Jags]

Highly recommended to new burners to take a look at their stack after a cord of wood has been consumed. It gives you a good idea of how well things have been going and gives you a chance to clean if needed as well as make adjustments to your burning practices (if needed).
Take a look or have a sweep inspect. It will yield a bunch of info on your burning practices and fuel.

 

[quotejso]

I looked up from the bottom clean out in the tee, some minimal creosote unfortunately I couldn't see very far up the liner due to slight bend. Might have to get the ladder out and look from the top where the gasses really cool off.

 

[Highbeam]

So is this an airtight 6" liner connected in an airtight method to your flue and running the full length of the chimney to the cap?

For a PH to burn dirty you most likely have one or both of the following problems. Burn too cold and stall the cat or burn wet wood. Cat cloggage is pretty common on the PH.

What temperatures are you running?

 

[quotejso]

So is this an airtight 6" liner connected in an airtight method to your flue and running the full length of the chimney to the cap?

For a PH to burn dirty you most likely have one or both of the following problems. Burn too cold and stall the cat or burn wet wood. Cat cloggage is pretty common on the PH.

What temperatures are you running?

Yes the liner runs from stove to top of chimney. My wood might be less then perfect. However I have been running the stove hotter now that it is finally cold. I checked the cat a while ago and it was clean. I am going to pour in insulation around the liner I think that should help.

 

[quotejso]

So an update. I have a large flue that the 6" liner is in about 16" x16 " so it is covered by a large cap. I had used the wind guard that came with the liner kit. I think it was sending the smoke up into the top of the chimney cap and turning it into the black creosote powder and making it accumulate on the top plate where it would get blown down and stain the outside of the chimney. I swept the liner and it was fairly clean, better then expected. I removed the wind guard so the smoke should have a better chance of escaping before it hits the top of the cap. I have the thermix, pour in insulation, waiting for a warm day to put it in. Getting the mix up to the top of the chimney now that will be interesting, I was thinking a pulley?

 

[quotejso]

Thermix is in, a pulley is one of the best inventions ever. Unfortunately I came up about 8 feet short, damn smoke shelf ate like three bags of the thermix.. I thought I had stuffed the smoke shelf full of roxul, apparently not. So I just filled in the remainder of the flue with roxul. The stove almost hit 700 degrees a few nights ago, that had never happened before. I will see if the creosote running down the sides of the chimney stops.