Excess creosote at pellet stove pipe termination

[Bwcinvt]

Why do I have so much creosote at the end of my pellet stove pipe termination?

Here's a brief overview:

Stove: castle serenity
Pellets: Greene Team Platinum Hardwood Premium from the big blue box store.
Approx. 12 vertical feet of pipe and 1 foot of horizontal run from back of stove to the T.

It's in my workshop and mudroom area, approx. 400 sq. Feet so I don't run it at fI'll heat much of the time and usually leave it on the thermostat setting around 65. I realize not running it at a high temp all the time can create creosote, however I don't understand why there is so much jammed up at the end of my pipe run.

I cleaned the stove pipe today for the first time since purchase back in early December and was shocked by the amount of creosote clogged up at the end of my termination. I added a screen to the end of the termination as a spark arrestor as I was seeing lots of live sparks fly out the end.



How can I prevent this creosote build up in the future? If I didn't have the screen there would all this just be landing on my roof and ground?

Thanks for helping the newbie.

 

[Mysticenchantment]

I'm not sure why there is creosote, but the screen is clogging and restricting the air flow too much. If you're concerned with the fly ash there are buckets that will catch that. Such as this: (broken link removed)

Hopefully someone will be able to explain the pile of creosote.

 

[PinetreePellets]

Why do I have so much creosote at the end of my pellet stove pipe termination?
I was seeing lots of live sparks fly out the end.

I don't know your stove specks, but 12' pipe along with burning at low temps and the addition of the screen may all play into it. Also depends on your fuel quality

 

[Dr.Faustus]

I'm not sure why there is creosote, but the screen is clogging and restricting the air flow too much. If you're concerned with the fly ash there are buckets that will catch that. Such as this: (broken link removed)

Hopefully someone will be able to explain the pile of creosote.

Holy cow, someone actually designed and manufactured the famous spark bucket!

 

[Bioburner]

Your outside pipe is dropping the the temp so the H2O is condensing and creating the collection of $#!*. That's alot of outside pipe

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Your outside pipe is dropping the the temp so the H2O is condensing and creating the collection of $#!*. That's alot of outside pipe

I'm going along with Bioburner. Can you reduce the 12' vertical to 6' and see what happens? Probably a window in the way?

 

[Lake Girl]

While I appreciate the concern for sparks, the multiple layers of screening at the end and the long outside of run of venting are generating part of the problem. As suggested above, see what you can do to reduce your vent height. If an OAK is installed, you can reduce clearances to 18". It is recommended that there be a 3' vertical rise but I think some owners may have a horizontal only... Hard to tell what your clearance to ground is...

Not sure if the vent cap gets included as a 5 when calculating EVL but, if it does, you are pushing the limits of 3"
1' horizontal = 1; t=5; 12' vertical = 6 EVL of 12 w/o the cap

As to sparks, there are a couple of threads about sparks with the Serenity when running on high.... check those as there was some discussion of ash pan positioning inside the fire box.

Edit: deflector adjustment in the fire box...

 

[Cory S]

WOW... I didn't get that much creosote burning wet wood in my woodstove after 6 months...

You mention you have sparks emitting that far up and out the pipe? That's not right...

I'm guessing you would have to see vapor/smoke from the end of the pipe to create that much creosote from a pellet stove...

 

[bags]

There have been discussions on the Castle Serenity stoves spewing out a lot of ash and sparks here. I also agree with Bio that the vent pipe is cooling and contributing to the build up.

 

[rich2500]

I don't get it with the sparks especially on an exhaust that long, 3 yrs.and I never seen a red spark out my exhaust and my run is out and up just 5 feet. It's almost got to be from the combustion blower running to fast, those with the spark issue should try opening the airgate slightly and back the combustion blower speed down.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

I don't get it with the sparks especially on an exhaust that long, 3 yrs.and I never seen a red spark out my exhaust and my run is out and up just 5 feet. It's almost got to be from the combustion blower running to fast, those with the spark issue should try opening the airgate slightly and back the combustion blower speed down.

That's exactly what I've been saying. Increase volume, slow the velocity a bit. The other thing is pellet quality. I wonder if some of the sparkers are using a pellet that has a lot of fines? Watching youtube, it seems like when augering fines it makes quite a spark show.