This is our third winter in an older home (circa 1976) which has a wood-burning insert. We've never burned wood before. The home is a A-frame with additional wings on two sides, one of which is two stories high. As a result, our chimney (triple-insulated pipe) is extremely tall and not accessible from the top. It does go straight up with no elbows of any kind. There is no masonry involved, just a tall metal pipe.
Last summer I purchased a round fireplace brush with enough extensions to reach to the top of the chimney pipe, and used it to clean out the pipe from inside the house. Quite a bit of small, flaky residue fell into the insert.
This year, we purchased our firewood from a local who has a tree trimming business. To make a long story short, the wood was not seasoned (rookie mistake which I won't make again!!). Now, smoke often comes into the house when the fireplace doors are opened wide enough to let me place a log on the fire. That never happened the last two years. A slight opening of the doors (enough to use the poker or the bellows) does not result in any blow-back smoke in the house. There is a shiny, black substance inside the firebox, which I assume is creosote. It will not come off with a wire brush. I also am assuming that the same thing has happened inside the pipe and that that might very well be the reason for the smoke coming back into the house. Do you experienced people agree or not????
I've been on the Internet, and I've pretty much eliminated all the other possible reasons for the smoke I found there. There's just nothing that's different about our house this year than last, and everything worked great last year. We still had old wood available from the previous owner.
One more thing to make the diagnosis even more complicated. I don't know when the fireplace insert was installed. The person from whom we bought the home is out of the country and unavailable. The insert may, in fact, be a newer model. I just don't know.
Finally, if you agree that my smoking problem is most likely the result of creosote build-up, what should I do? From what I can see, the best option available at this time seems to be a chemical powder. Right or wrong? One product said to just put it on the logs and start a hot fire. After several repetitions, the stage 3 creosote should be either gone or converted to the more easily removed stage 1. I wonder if just burning the fire would remove the stage 3 creosote all the way to the top of my very tall chimney pipe (approximately 30')?
We've finally just stopped using the fireplace, which is sad considering the extreme cold snap we just suffered through! What suggestions do you experienced people have? I'd really like to get my fireplace up and going again!
Last summer I purchased a round fireplace brush with enough extensions to reach to the top of the chimney pipe, and used it to clean out the pipe from inside the house. Quite a bit of small, flaky residue fell into the insert.
This year, we purchased our firewood from a local who has a tree trimming business. To make a long story short, the wood was not seasoned (rookie mistake which I won't make again!!). Now, smoke often comes into the house when the fireplace doors are opened wide enough to let me place a log on the fire. That never happened the last two years. A slight opening of the doors (enough to use the poker or the bellows) does not result in any blow-back smoke in the house. There is a shiny, black substance inside the firebox, which I assume is creosote. It will not come off with a wire brush. I also am assuming that the same thing has happened inside the pipe and that that might very well be the reason for the smoke coming back into the house. Do you experienced people agree or not????
I've been on the Internet, and I've pretty much eliminated all the other possible reasons for the smoke I found there. There's just nothing that's different about our house this year than last, and everything worked great last year. We still had old wood available from the previous owner.
One more thing to make the diagnosis even more complicated. I don't know when the fireplace insert was installed. The person from whom we bought the home is out of the country and unavailable. The insert may, in fact, be a newer model. I just don't know.
Finally, if you agree that my smoking problem is most likely the result of creosote build-up, what should I do? From what I can see, the best option available at this time seems to be a chemical powder. Right or wrong? One product said to just put it on the logs and start a hot fire. After several repetitions, the stage 3 creosote should be either gone or converted to the more easily removed stage 1. I wonder if just burning the fire would remove the stage 3 creosote all the way to the top of my very tall chimney pipe (approximately 30')?
We've finally just stopped using the fireplace, which is sad considering the extreme cold snap we just suffered through! What suggestions do you experienced people have? I'd really like to get my fireplace up and going again!
