Creosote or Sticky residue?

[Tonyray]

I do a full clean on my P61A every 10 days or so..
Lot of ash build up on the walls which I usually just vacuum over..
Decided yesterday to use a paint scraper on the walls.
when I scraped the walls, I have a sticky black residue underneath the ash.
could have built up a while a go and not noticed...
only on the walls but more so the walls in the ash pan area..
My flu and Outside exhaust only ever have light gray ash when I clean them..
no residue on the heat exchanger, burnpot, glass etc so this substance is somewhat minimal for now.
burned 4 tons this winter and only used 2 pellet brands,Energex premiums and HD Stove Chows.
Had a few partial damp bags of pellets this winter but sifted what I could.
could this be due to burning at low temps? few bags of Damp Pellets? Usually only run the P61 around half way...But got the stove in November and did a hell of a lot of exprimenting, changing feed rates, room mode, stove mode etc..for couple months before I settled down with it. lol
Should I get a creosote spray cleaner and spray the walls? or just run the stove at max for a few hours or more or both? wire brush just gums up the bristtles.

 

[krooser]

It's a good idea to run your stove on a higher setting everyday to help burn off unwanted deposits from the stoves innards… we do it every morning for about 20 minutes. I turn my St Croix up to 4 or 5… This is especially true if you've been running on a low burn...

 

[Tonyray]

It's a good idea to run your stove on a higher setting everyday to help burn off unwanted deposits from the stoves innards… we do it every morning for about 20 minutes. I turn my St Croix up to 4 or 5… This is especially true if you've been running on a low burn...

I assume you mean Stove temp#5 .not feed rate 5..
this may sound like a silly question but with having an OAK, especially on the windy side of the house with no other homes, this winter was lot of snow/rain AKA moisture.
could too much moisture coming thru an OAK cause a damp envirornment in the bottom ash pan area?

 

[Jp16]

I have a similar issue. We have not used the stove much in the past few days so I divided to give it a good cleaning. I found a dark goo on the exchanger and the walls. Its been raining all day today and it looks like its getting more noticeable. Its supposed to be cold tomorrow so I may crank it up and attempt to burn it all off. I do think its creasote.

 

[Tonyray]

Cranking it up did the trick
Ran it pretty hot on Stove temp most of the evening...
Actually, for a 61k BTU stove, #5 is plenty hot...
Removed the ash pan today and all the damp black sticky grime[say the 5x fast] is gone..
Just lot of whitish ash to vacuum or brush down. Fine by me