I'll be the first to admit I didn't know what I was doing during the first month of running my stove... burning incompletely seasoned wood and some smoldering fires at the beginning and end of the burn cycles.
Thanks to you guys I'm much better now, no more creosote inside the fire box.
But I'm worried about the damage I did to the flue liner during that month. Looking past the bypass damper I see a thick deposit of what looks like glaze creosote (based on what I've read about it and some pics).
When I burn the fire on start up (I only burn after work and thus a cold start everyday) with the bypass damper open and air control open and dry kindling burning, the flames are tall and sometimes go up past the bypass damper into the connector pipe and are licking at that deposit.
My questions are:
1. Is this glaze creosote?
2. Should the flames go that high up on start up regardless of any creosote deposits?
3. How high is my risk of this deposit catching fire?
4. If it looks this bad at the base, how bad is the rest of the flue liner?
5. Can I do anything my self to fix this (I'm not up to sweeping the flue myself at this point, I'm thinking more about any solvents I can apply or burn)
6. Should I have it professionally swept now, so soon into the burning season (I'm out of money, having just bought this big drafty old house and paying the oil bill).
Some pictures are attached.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks to you guys I'm much better now, no more creosote inside the fire box.
But I'm worried about the damage I did to the flue liner during that month. Looking past the bypass damper I see a thick deposit of what looks like glaze creosote (based on what I've read about it and some pics).
When I burn the fire on start up (I only burn after work and thus a cold start everyday) with the bypass damper open and air control open and dry kindling burning, the flames are tall and sometimes go up past the bypass damper into the connector pipe and are licking at that deposit.
My questions are:
1. Is this glaze creosote?
2. Should the flames go that high up on start up regardless of any creosote deposits?
3. How high is my risk of this deposit catching fire?
4. If it looks this bad at the base, how bad is the rest of the flue liner?
5. Can I do anything my self to fix this (I'm not up to sweeping the flue myself at this point, I'm thinking more about any solvents I can apply or burn)
6. Should I have it professionally swept now, so soon into the burning season (I'm out of money, having just bought this big drafty old house and paying the oil bill).
Some pictures are attached.
Thanks in advance.