Forensic examination of chimney soot

[F4jock]

Please LISTEN to the posters above. They all have good advice. This is a safety issue as well as an efficiency one! As a firefighter lieutenant in NJ for eleven years I saw my share of chimney fires. Some were saves, some were not. Don't risk being a statistic. As an aside, I burned wood for years. Finally went to.pellets because I didn't want the hassle.

 

[SmokeyCity]

Bart is 100% correct. If you wsnt to run at idle you have to crank the thing up at least once a day for a hour or so to try and burn that garbage off. Chimney fires are no joke.

Unfortunately BB is always right on Englanders. I took the pipe off and took pics inside the stack tube and up the chimney shaft above the thistle.
Im only a relative newbie but my guess is these pics are not good indications.

 

[SmokeyCity]

I dont burn wet wood. I burn really dry stuff and at this point im sure it is the long term low idle low temp burning that must stop.

2012? srsly? Ok, I have never let mine go that long.

If you got all that in one season, you got major problems. Season and a half, I don't like it.

I would suggest both cleaning more often and looking into an insulated liner, folks like begreen and BrotherBart know a lot more about this than I do.

I haven't tried burning wet wood in my cat stove. However, I can burn dry wood low and slow finding cresote in the firebox that I scrape off onto hot coals for a second chance at the cat. I find about two tablespoons of light fluffy grey/brown with a few specks of shiny black per cord of wood burned when I sweep the chimney.

 

[bholler]

i see more burnt creosote in that pipe to you neeeeeeeed a liner badly

 

[SmokeyCity]

Don't get it stuck for ****** sake! Try explaining that to the firemen!

meant to say get a "peek" down from the top

 

[SmokeyCity]

and i see you have multiple stoves listed how many feed into that one old unlined chimney?

each chim has 4 tubes

I am using 1 tube in three different chims. No sharing of tubes or chims

 

[SmokeyCity]

Can I have link to the liner you would most recommend for my ancient 10x10 brick and mortar tubes?

Please LISTEN to the posters above. They all have good advice. This is a safety issue as well as an efficiency one! As a firefighter lieutenant in NJ for eleven years I saw my share of chimney fires. Some were saves, some were not. Don't risk being a statistic. As an aside, I burned wood for years. Finally went to.pellets because I didn't want the hassle.

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

meant to say get a "peek" down from the top

I know. A little levity at times is a good thing!

 

[bholler]

Can I have link to the liner you would most recommend for my ancient 10x10 brick and mortar tubes?

Any good quality insulated ss liner will do we only use heavy wall liners for wood but light wall will work ok as well i would stay away from the double layer smooth wall stuff though

 

[Hogwildz]

I believe the double layer bholler speaks of is flex, not double wall insulated rigid. Just to clarify.

 

[Thislilfishy]

Unfortunately BB is always right on Englanders. I took the pipe off and took pics inside the stack tube and up the chimney shaft above the thistle.
Im only a relative newbie but my guess is these pics are not good indications.

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Egads! You got insurance right?

Ian

 

[bholler]

I believe the double layer bholler speaks of is flex, not double wall insulated rigid. Just to clarify.

Absolutely right hw sorry if that was unclear

 

[MJFlores]

This is my first year burning with an insulated SS liner...installed in Nov of this year. Prior to that it was 7X11 clay tiles chimney. It's a HUGE improvement in performance. My ash after burning is nothing but fine gray powder with some finer finger nail sized hot coals here and there. A liner is really the way to go these days. Well worth the money.