Couple of questions before I sweep my chimney

[PAbowhunter]

Im waiting for the tools to sweep the chimney myself in the mail. I was going to have it professionally done but its hard for me to be home during the week when they are available. Since i know ill be doing it this week coming up and my stove is cold right now I decided to remove the baffle to see what that entailed. It was easy enough but im a little concerned with what i found.... the stove pipe past the flue damper looks fine as youd expect right above the stove. Before the damper and in the back of the actual stove before the flue i found a lot of flakey creosote that chipped right off, but it has some glazed creosote underneath it. From my last couple of posts here i know that i was doing a really bad job burning when i first got my stove and im attributing this to the poor job i was doing. However, is this common? Is this a hazard? Ive been doing a really good job of burning lately how has this not burned off? And what kind of brush can i use to remove the glazed stuff

 

[blades]

soot eater for cleaning, will take care of the glaze/ flake creosote. I

 

[PAbowhunter]

Yes but some of it is inside my stove above the baffle. When i started out i was burning wet wood and had really low temps. I was basically a creosote factory.

 

[blacktail]

I wouldn't worry about it inside the stove. But if it really bothers you, just reach in with a piece if kindling and see if it'll come off.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Yes but some of it is inside my stove above the baffle. When i started out i was burning wet wood and had really low temps. I was basically a creosote factory.

Maybe snap a few pics and post them so we have a better idea of what you need.

 

[PAbowhunter]

I have the stove running again so ill grab some pics tomorrow. It might make my post make some more sense

 

[PAbowhunter]

So I swept the chimney from the top down and thats what I ended up with not including the cap which was the worst part. The buildup i was talking about in the original post is what you see in these pictures. Is that normal?

 

[begreen]

That looks pretty good,maybe a cup or so?

 

[PAbowhunter]

Yeah its far less than i thought id get but a lot of what i thought was creosote was just ash. Any ideas on that buildup inside the stove though? It is hard to get off and looks like creosote to me

 

[begreen]

I don't see anything alarming. What stove is this? Can you add it to your signature line in your account settings?

 

[PAbowhunter]

Sorry i think that youve asked me to do that about 5 times now. Its a hearthstone manchester. Im not so concerned with it in terms of a house fire..... i was just under the impression the creosote should be at or near the chimney cap and not before the flue. Im guessing its from a lot of cold starts?

 

[begreen]

That's a reasonable guess. Thanks for the add of the stove.

 

[vwmike]

Looks pretty minimal to me especially if you were burning questionable wood.

Funny it seems to go either way around here. Just cleaned chimney, got 5 gallon bucket of creosote, not bad less than normal

Or I'm worried about my chimney, just got a cup of soot out of it