Clean Glass = Clean Stack?

[ckdeuce]

Just getting use to my new Mansfield. So far it has been very easy to operate compared to older stoves I owned.

Nothing beats a chimney inspection, but is it a good guess to say that if the glass is always clean then the chimney would also be clean?

 

[drewboy]

I don't think this is necessarily true as I've burned some questionable wood and my glass always stays clean. Could be that my splits sit away from the glass a couple inches. I'm sure that there are a lot of different airwash systems - some better than others, but I wouldn't bet that my chimney was spotless just cause my glass is.

Rob

 

[ckdeuce]

I don't think this is necessarily true as I've burned some questionable wood and my glass always stays clean. Could be that my splits sit away from the glass a couple inches. I'm sure that there are a lot of different airwash systems - some better than others, but I wouldn't bet that my chimney was spotless just cause my glass is.

Rob

+1 on the questionable wood. I have had a few days where in the morning glass had slight darkness at the bottom, but always burns off during the daytime.

 

[Highbeam]

You can have clean glass and a junky chimney. Reason being that you can burn off a months worth of goopy glass with one hot fire but the chimney won't get hot enough to burn off that goop. That is, unless you get a good chimney fire going.

 

[JotulOwner]

I have the opposite situation. I burn dry wood and still have to clean my glass all the time. I inspect and clean my chimney every couple of months in season and don't have any unusual buildup (most of the time my flue thermo reads 400-650 degrees). Also, I don't run my stove at very low air intake settings. I usually operate a a third open and sometimes a quarter open. I think that my t-out chimney may create less than perfect draft, but it works.

 

[BrotherBart]

Nothing to add to Higbeam's dead on correct assessment. Except to day "Yep".

 

[fossil]

Window tends to stay clean because of a well-designed airwash system and the fact that it's as close to the inferno as any other part of the stove. What's happening farther up the flue is a different question, the answer to which requires a different sort of investigation. The two phenonema are only loosely related...not an "IF A, Then B" sorta thing. Rick

 

[pen]

I'd say overall that if your glass never even remotely looks hazy, then there is a high probability that you are burning well.

However, I too agree that Highbeam's assessment is spot on. But, the people who are doing that are only fooling themselves. If the glass is getting dirty every day, then there should be no surprise. Right?? Does dirty glass mean a dirty chimney?

For you GOOD burners out there with consistently or reasonably clean chimnies, how often do you blacken the glass?

pen

 

[BrotherBart]

For you GOOD burners out there with consistently or reasonably clean chimnies, how often do you blacken the glass?

February 6, 1989.

 

[JotulOwner]

Does dirty glass mean a dirty chimney?
pen

Not with my setup. My glass gets dirty often. I inspect my chimney often and it has no unusual buildup of creosote. Anyone out there who can diagnose this condition?

 

[pen]

For you GOOD burners out there with consistently or reasonably clean chimnies, how often do you blacken the glass?

February 6, 1989.

We will also need the time you did it before then so we can better calculate an average.

pen

 

[oconnor]

For you GOOD burners out there with consistently or reasonably clean chimnies, how often do you blacken the glass?

February 6, 1989.

Pictures please or it didn't happen

 

[BrotherBart]

For you GOOD burners out there with consistently or reasonably clean chimnies, how often do you blacken the glass?

February 6, 1989.

Pictures please or it didn't happen

I have crapped up a lot of chimneys since then, just not the glass. To wit:

 

[Highbeam]

What do you do with a glossy chimney like that? How do you start cleaning it?

 

[ckdeuce]

What do you do with a glossy chimney like that? How do you start cleaning it?

Really Hot Fire With Lots Of Cardboard

 

[oconnor]

For you GOOD burners out there with consistently or reasonably clean chimnies, how often do you blacken the glass?

February 6, 1989.

Pictures please or it didn't happen

I have crapped up a lot of chimneys since then, just not the glass. To wit:

OK, you win - that is a messed up flue - looks like ice

I will remember not to use sarcasm with BrotherBart one of these days.

 

[BrotherBart]

Actually it is the only chimney fire I ever started on purpose. To clean it out before installing the liner in 2006. It got glazed that way because my old insert had a popped weld in the top back hidden by the baffle letting cold air into the stream right as it exited the flue collar. Drove me nuts that season trying to figure out why the thing was smoking so bad out of the chimney and glazing the tiles. Attempts to seal the crack didn't work and I hauled it out back, bought the 30 and liner and lit off the chimney.

No I do not recommend anybody ever do it. But small unintentional chimney fires fires had been a fact of life occasionally in that flue for 21 years. It wasn't enough of a glaze to make much of a chimney fire and done with the stove out of the fireplace. Just a lot of smoke out the top. And the house is still here.

 

[freeburn]

For you GOOD burners out there with consistently or reasonably clean chimnies, how often do you blacken the glass?

February 6, 1989.

Pictures please or it didn't happen

I have crapped up a lot of chimneys since then, just not the glass. To wit:

That chimney looks like you can skate on it!

 

[BrotherBart]

That chimney looks like you can skate on it!

My sig line here used to read "I learned everything I know about wood burning by screwing up." I have made every wood burning mistake you can make except the big one. I ain't burned the house down.

Yet.

 

[freeburn]

How else do you learn? Before there were forums, there was trial and error.

 

[Jags]

Where did you get the enamel coated flue tiles?? %-P Thats just showing off.

 

[firefighterjake]

Normally I like pretty shiny objects . . . but not this one. Great pic BB.

 

[firefighterjake]

Chiming in late as usual, but I'm with Highbeam on this one . . . clean glass MAY indicate a good, clean chimney . . . in the same way a gunked up glass MAY indicate some creosote build up -- or it may simply be there was a split resting up against the glass on the overnight burn.

 

[Skier76]

Does dirty glass mean a dirty chimney?
pen

Not with my setup. My glass gets dirty often. I inspect my chimney often and it has no unusual buildup of creosote. Anyone out there who can diagnose this condition?

What temp are you running the stove at? I found that during the break in fires, mine got pretty bad under 300F. But now we don't have that issue. Seems that even if we do a get a spot or two, they're quickly gone once the stove hits 550F.