Creosote Flakes from chimney

[wb11]

Hi all - not much of a poster but I certainly spend a lot of time on this site.

Looking for some opinions - today I noticed a lot of very light, thin, brown Creostoe flakes exiting my chimney, they're paper thin & easliy turn to dust / ash if you rub them between your fingers. At first I wasn't too concerned but after looking up @ the roof & yard around the house there are quite a few of them - we have snow on the ground & roof now so they're very noticable.

Burning seasoned Ash in a FPX 36 elite (CAT unit), approx. 25' of insulated pipe going through center of house (in a chase), through attic then through roof. I had just run the unit charring a new load (didn't over fire but ran in Bypass mode for a bit longer than usual) engaged CAT & went outside shortly after - this is when I noticed the flakes. Chimney was swept this Fall & I always get her going good & hot before engaing CAT & wait for the CAT to get glowing before shutting down the air.

Has anyone seen this before & would you have the chimney swept now or did I just take care of that unitentionally??? LOL. Third year burning unit & never noticed this before. Obviously from the "dryness" & "light consistency" of the flakes I'm burning clean but never had a buildup that blew out the chimney before so not sure if I need to clean again or if this is not a concern. As mentioned I have it cleaned each year & I'm burning about the same amount of wood (maybe a bit more) than the previous two years.

Thanks all for your input & opinions

 

[LLigetfa]

Are you sure you weren't burning paper in the stove? I get those flakes on top of the snow if I burn paper.

Paper thin flakes of creosote I would not be too concerned about. My guess is that there was a light overnight buildup that curled and fell off, getting carried up and out by a strong draft caused by a hot fire. As long as you don't have a spark arrestor screen in the cap to get clogged, the chimney is now probably clean.

 

[Girl]

Someone posted last year that this happened to them.
I can't find the post, I'll keep trying though.

 

[wb11]

Thanks for your input - no wasn't burning paper except for one small piece this AM to get her started again. Anyway this was defiantly not paper & there was A LOT of it. Regardless I was thinking the same thing but wanted other opinions.

In the meantime I do have a screen on the cap but this stuff is so light & thin it passed right through it. Really strange, never saw it "rain" creosote flakes before LOL.

 

[wb11]

Someone posted last year that this happened to them.
I can't find the post, I'll keep trying though.

Thanks in advance for your efforts Girl.

 

[Girl]

No problem
Found it, maybe it will help?

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/15937/

 

[Todd]

I know how you feel. I've seen it before and just like LL stated it's probably dry flaky powder residue or fly ash carried out by the draft of a hotter than usual fire. When it happened to me I inspected the chimney and it was fine, still had some ceosote, so I went ahead and ran a brush down. It wouldn't hurt to have a sweep take a look for peace of mind.

 

[BrotherBart]

My bet is that it came from the cap. It had collected on it and something, either wind or a blast up the pipe from the stove, knocked it loose and away it went.

 

[wb11]

Thanks everyone for your replys - sounds like I'll be fine but I will check out the post Girl found later....company arriving soon so I better go.

Thanks again!

 

[LLigetfa]

I stopped using sales flyers as fire starter because of the flakes on the snow. With all the recycle content and clay fillers in paper these days, some of it doesn't even want to burn.

When I was burning Birch with the bark on it, I got lots of black crap on the snow too. I started peeling the bark off with concern of creosote. I now burn Ash when I can get it.

 

[wb11]

Well I think I'm just going to chalk it up to a thin layer of soot in the chimney and/or cap that got knocked loose from a heavy draft while charring a fresh load. I wouldn't be surprised if this has happened before & I never noticed it.....usually it's quite windy here & this stuff was so light that on a "normal" day it would be blown to Oz along with Dorthy & Todo - today was actually dead calm so it had nowhere to go but up & straight back down onto the roof & ground.

Regardless I'll be keeping an eye out for the stuff on the next calm day & in the meantime I think I'll buy a poly brush & rods and do a sweep just to be safe. I don't mind paying a chimney sweep for a yearly cleaninig & inspection (peace of mind from the inspection) but between "anuals" I'd rather do it myself. Wish I could climb up on the roof & shine a light down the pipe but the snow up there pretty much squashes that idea!