This is my first year with the new to me wood eater. It will be about a month until I am able to get and use a sooteater to check on the cleanliness of the chimney. I plan on removing the baffles and cleaning from the bottom up.
I have had about 15 evening fires of a couple loads each and only a couple day long fires where we have been home to keep it going. It was not our intention to burn 24/7 thought the heating season as the pellet stove can handle the whole house during the coldest weather but I wanted to have a wood eater just in case we lose power. Plus there are sometimes when we just would rather the heat of a wood stove.
I have a straight up chimney setup except for a 15 degree set of elbows in the attic to offset and avoid the roof framing. There is about 5 feet of double wall stove pipe going up to the ceiling where it changes to class A which is about 13 feet. For a total of about 18 feet. The probe thermometer which is about 18 inches from the top of the stove typically find between 400 and 800 during the burns.
There is not any smoke except for up to about 15 mins on a reload. Does no smoke equal no creosote? And does any creosote that does build up on reloads burn of or dissipate during burns?
The glass stays pretty clean. A couple times there have been smallish black spots that appear during startup but they disappear during the course of the next burn or two. A slight haze has developed but isn't noticeable unless you are right up close to the stove.
The firebricks typically are really light. Once in a while they darken up but I think this has omly happened during startups.
How clean do you think I am burning?
I have had about 15 evening fires of a couple loads each and only a couple day long fires where we have been home to keep it going. It was not our intention to burn 24/7 thought the heating season as the pellet stove can handle the whole house during the coldest weather but I wanted to have a wood eater just in case we lose power. Plus there are sometimes when we just would rather the heat of a wood stove.
I have a straight up chimney setup except for a 15 degree set of elbows in the attic to offset and avoid the roof framing. There is about 5 feet of double wall stove pipe going up to the ceiling where it changes to class A which is about 13 feet. For a total of about 18 feet. The probe thermometer which is about 18 inches from the top of the stove typically find between 400 and 800 during the burns.
There is not any smoke except for up to about 15 mins on a reload. Does no smoke equal no creosote? And does any creosote that does build up on reloads burn of or dissipate during burns?
The glass stays pretty clean. A couple times there have been smallish black spots that appear during startup but they disappear during the course of the next burn or two. A slight haze has developed but isn't noticeable unless you are right up close to the stove.
The firebricks typically are really light. Once in a while they darken up but I think this has omly happened during startups.
How clean do you think I am burning?
EBL is right, the only way to know for sure is to take a look in the pipe for the first few months. If you can't, run the Sooteater and see what falls out.
