Long post warning - quick version is, based on these pictures would you just clean out the creosote that fell to the bottom of the flue and keep burning or would you wait 30 days for a cleaning?
________________________________________
Hey everyone, another creosote question here - apologies if this has been asked before, I tried searching but did not find anything like this and Google is totally useless for specific creosote questions because every result just talks about creosote build-up in general rather than the specifics of this inquiry.
A bit of context - we've been running a 2013 Super 27 for the past 3 months or so - it's the main source of heat for 2000 sqft on two levels, though the oil furnace (set to 16C) typically kicks on an hour or two before we wake up since we don't reload the stove overnight. We're first-time wood stove users, and when we bought the house we had the chimney cleaned and inspected.
I'm a nervous user and have been reading a ton, bought a moisture meter, and while the moisture content on some of our wood is a bit on the high side (no more than 25%) most of it is in the 15-20% range. This may be a contributing factor to the problem, though.
Being a nervous user, I decided I wanted to check the flue for creosote and see how we are doing. My wife is less careful about smouldering fires than I am and with some of the wood being over 20% MC I wanted to make sure I didn't burn the house down. So we didn't light the fire this morning and I disconnected the stovepipe from the chimney to check the flue.
See pictures (w/ numbers in red): Picture 1: The flue on the first level where the stove is seemed fine - a thin layer of creosote with the liner showing through in a couple of spots. Picture 2: Likewise the stovepipe seemed fine - a bit of build-up, but very minimal compared to what the previous owners left us.
When I went into the basement to check the chimney doors down there, though, all hell broke loose. Picture 3: Again, the door on the side of the chimney that is a few feet above the bottom seemed totally fine. Picture 4: But the one at the bottom is JAMMED full of creosote that has clearly fallen down and collected at the bottom. Surely this is not normal, right?
My understanding was that creosote typically builds up on the sides of the flue, not at the bottom. Is it just falling off rather than building up on the sides? Is that a good thing, bad thing, or neither?
Do I wait until I can get a professional in to clean it? That will be a minimum of 30 days. Do I clean it myself and keep burning, being more careful to only burn wood that measures under 20% MC? Or is there something else at play here?
For the record I will not be burning again until I get more information on how to proceed - saving a few hundred bucks on oil is not worth burning down my house!
![[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/291/291250-9b11dfedb5e367c5fe6042e6f826b4f4.jpg?hash=le2RC0IeZ0 "[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?")
![[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/291/291251-b934c2c9e09d45d8a11722bfd2e34e5c.jpg?hash=PoKFVAAYsq "[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?")
![[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/291/291252-7c8d85744882d4bb8ee5277976f5e9bd.jpg?hash=8hMLk_CQCE "[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?")
![[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/291/291253-5fbdc750cfc0bd11d4144296d21d94b0.jpg?hash=QiGL2H2bJo "[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?")
________________________________________
Hey everyone, another creosote question here - apologies if this has been asked before, I tried searching but did not find anything like this and Google is totally useless for specific creosote questions because every result just talks about creosote build-up in general rather than the specifics of this inquiry.
A bit of context - we've been running a 2013 Super 27 for the past 3 months or so - it's the main source of heat for 2000 sqft on two levels, though the oil furnace (set to 16C) typically kicks on an hour or two before we wake up since we don't reload the stove overnight. We're first-time wood stove users, and when we bought the house we had the chimney cleaned and inspected.
I'm a nervous user and have been reading a ton, bought a moisture meter, and while the moisture content on some of our wood is a bit on the high side (no more than 25%) most of it is in the 15-20% range. This may be a contributing factor to the problem, though.
Being a nervous user, I decided I wanted to check the flue for creosote and see how we are doing. My wife is less careful about smouldering fires than I am and with some of the wood being over 20% MC I wanted to make sure I didn't burn the house down. So we didn't light the fire this morning and I disconnected the stovepipe from the chimney to check the flue.
See pictures (w/ numbers in red): Picture 1: The flue on the first level where the stove is seemed fine - a thin layer of creosote with the liner showing through in a couple of spots. Picture 2: Likewise the stovepipe seemed fine - a bit of build-up, but very minimal compared to what the previous owners left us.
When I went into the basement to check the chimney doors down there, though, all hell broke loose. Picture 3: Again, the door on the side of the chimney that is a few feet above the bottom seemed totally fine. Picture 4: But the one at the bottom is JAMMED full of creosote that has clearly fallen down and collected at the bottom. Surely this is not normal, right?
My understanding was that creosote typically builds up on the sides of the flue, not at the bottom. Is it just falling off rather than building up on the sides? Is that a good thing, bad thing, or neither?
Do I wait until I can get a professional in to clean it? That will be a minimum of 30 days. Do I clean it myself and keep burning, being more careful to only burn wood that measures under 20% MC? Or is there something else at play here?
For the record I will not be burning again until I get more information on how to proceed - saving a few hundred bucks on oil is not worth burning down my house!
![[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/291/291259-8e84bd142945ff13eae959d9a96e1b9d.jpg?hash=CInwTk9SD1 "[Hearth.com] Creosote build up at bottom of flue - upper part seems ok?")
