Created a mess - glaze creosote...

[shaggymatt]

This year in my search for ceramic wool, I found a company selling a non-toxic version and decided to give that a try. I didn't realize that your normal ceramic wool blanket, aren't the best for your lungs, and when replacing, the fibers are released into the room your stove is in.

The non-toxic blanket was the same dimensions, temperature rating, density as my original. We had some issues getting the stove (Osburn 2400i) burning well with smoke coming back into the house. This has always been somewhat of an issue, but not to this level. We attributed it to being too warm to get a good draft and with the warm spell, but the stove to bed for a bit.

The other day I started thinking about it, and thought that the bricks went in a little tighter than normal so maybe I put the support bar in the wrong way. I took that down and started noticing the blanket was adhered to every surface of the stove (for reference the Osburn has a blanket on top of the bricks over your fire). With all the bricks out, I removed the blanket and cleaned up everywhere it was stuck to the stove.

Then I realized, the blanket probably wasn't breathing enough. There's glaze creosote on the metal surfaces in the stove, smell of creosote in the house was more pronounced. Up to the roof with the sweeping gear, and there are a couple drips of creosote from where it hit the cap and fell down onto the stainless steel plate where it exits the terra cotta. Remove the cap, and sure enough, you can see the tarry like buildup. From my inspection the only glaze creosote is on the surfaces in the stove itself. The tarry buildup is in the stainless liner. I did the sweep, but it really didn't do much for the tarry buildup. But from the ~5 days of burning, I did remove about a cup of creosote, which is a lot.

It's not the wood. I've been burning wood that I've had stacked and covered for three years and also using the Enviro-Bricks. So the wood is plenty dry.

So now I'm finally onto my questions, figured the background would help...
1. Does the Rutland Creosote Removal powder do enough for this? Or should I get the PCR or Cre-Away Pro? Obviously they'd be quicker, but that kind of leads into question two.
2. The downside to how the blanket goes in, is that it's essentially tossed every year. So if I put my stove back together in the correct manner (bricks and blanket), and I burn the Rutland for a few cycles and come back to sweep the chimney, I need another blanket. Any idea if it'd be okay to burn a medium temp fire without the blanket in place? This weekend is supposed to be chilly, and warm up again next week. I can sweep again next week after using the Rutland for a couple days over the weekend. If I used the PCR or Cre-Away it's essentially going to be ready to be removed without a burn, so if I shouldn't burn without the blanket, it'll save that $30.

 

[Nick Mystic]

You cover a lot of points in your post and most of them I have no direct knowledge to share regarding them. However, as for burning your insert without the thermal blanket to save $30 I don't think I would risk it. The builder of the stove must have had a pretty good reason for including the blanket and that reason is likely to prevent damage to the various parts of the insert above the baffle. Why risk damaging an expensive insert to save $30?

Regarding the blanket "not breathing enough" as a cause for your excessive creosote build up I don't follow what you are saying. Do you mean you think the blanket is keeping too much heat in the stove, thus allowing the escape gasses to be too cool and form creosote? I'd be surprised if that is the cause of your creosote build up. I know you said your wood is at a low moisture content, but the build up of so much creosote makes me question that statement. Have you actually tested the wood with a moisture meter to confirm this low content?

The other common cause of high creosote build up is too low of a burning temperature. Have you been watching your rain cap to see if smoke is coming out, as opposed to heat vapors? Did you sort out the business with your support bar and bricks possibly being in incorrect positions? It sounds like your draft is being impacted at some point and your original hunch could account for your problem. Good luck getting everything sorted out.

 

[shaggymatt]

Thanks for the input. I guess I will just buy another blanket. Thinking it through further, the bricks can only go in one way.

The blanket is the only thing I can attribute the sudden and rapid creosote buildup to. Some of the wood is left over from last year, which was left over from the previous year. So I know the history of the wood, it has been stored on raised pallets and covered with black rubber roofing material. I know it's dry. The Enviro-Bricks are dry, they're shrink wrapped pallets, and have been in my garage for three months. Each "bag" inside the wrapped pallet is individually wrapped and wouldn't have exposure even if they were stored outside. And since I burned this same wood last year, the problem would've been evident last year if it was a fuel issue.

Yes. Smoke comes out. I don't think it's getting hot enough for secondary to kick in, because, smoke is pouring out (far more than normal) and not going to the heat vapor stage.

We've always had back puffing issues, but they were excessive since the blanket change. That's the only new variable in the equation.

By no means is the chimney clogged or near being clogged. It's not thick enough to fill the ridges in the stainless liner, so I don't think the liner is in need of replacement. Starting to think that I'll just go the route of PCR.

 

[begreen]

The blanket is most likely to help the fire in the firebox to burn hotter and cleaner. It helps the stove meet low emissions standards. I don't think it would harm the stove to temporarily run the stove with it out, but a call into Osburn's tech support should verify that.

It does sound like some fires may have been allowed to smolder, perhaps due to shoulder season temps being mild. A better way to burn in these conditions is with smaller loads of fuel allowed to burn hotter and then allowed to burn out if the house is warm enough.