Is this creosote buildup in the back of my stove?

[ecfinn]

Hi,

I cleaned the ash out of my stove today for the first time in about 10 days and inspected the inside before firing it back up. I saw what appears to be shiny black creosote in the back of the stove above the firebricks but below the damper bypass so inside the firebox. I've posted pics here where you can hopefully see it. Is this a concern? Should I be worried that I've got more of this dripping down my chimney liner?

Thanks,
Eric

 

[ecfinn]

one more pic on other side

 

[Roospike]

Does it always look like this ?

I'll get some black in mine once in a wile but normally is white ash looking 95% of the time.

If yours normally looks like this it doesn't look like the fire are hot enough OR you might have some wet wood.

EDIT: I didnt read "above the bricks" beofre posting. I was thinking the top back of the stove.

 

[BrotherBart]

I wouldn't worry about it. My 30-NC does the same thing in exactly the same place and their wasn't any creostote in that chimney last Saturday. Here is what I think is happening:

The air channel for the blower is probably that the the air enters under the front of the stove, passes under it and then up the back and out over the top. Whether the blower is running or just convection the air is constantly passing over the back of the stove body. Those two places are the only directly exposed pieces of the back of the stove body to the firebox. Since cool air is circulating directly over the steel they are also the coolest places in the firebox.

Viola, they collect a little creosote just like your baffle and firebrick do on a smokey start-up. Difference being that the baffle and firebrick get hot enough later to burn it off.

That's my story and I am sticking with it.

 

[Andre B.]

I get some black during startup and slower burns but it all burns off the bricks, the metal manifolds build up more because they are air cooled but even that flakes off when it gets thicker.
The stuff on the bricks usually burns off just after a good hot burn gets down to coals and there is a lot of very hot O2 floating around in there looking for some carbon to pair up with.

Edit:
How much wood are you burning per day that you can go 10 days between cleanouts?
I would have a good 4 inches of ash in there and vertical space is short as it is.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

BB and andre are both right.the area you have back there is a crevasse which probabbly traps some smoke and doesnt get enough direct heat from flame impingement (direct flame contact) to burn it off like it does the brick and the secondaries, i would not be too worried about it unless it starts to accumulate rapidly. most any reburn or cat stovve will have "cold spots" where this can show up from, time to time. i would kinda keep an eye on it but dont obcess on it as its likely a normal charactoristic of that model

edit: i noticed also that these areas are close to the secondary air path of the stove so they may be getting cooled by the flow of secondary airflow through its channel up the back side of the unit. still doesnt look dangerous and this little tidbit kinda confirms suspicions in that location

 

[BrotherBart]

BB and andre are both right.the area you have back there is a crevasse which probabbly traps some smoke and doesnt get enough direct heat from flame impingement (direct flame contact) to burn it off like it does the brick and the secondaries, i would not be too worried about it unless it starts to accumulate rapidly. most any reburn or cat stovve will have "cold spots" where this can show up from, time to time. i would kinda keep an eye on it but dont obcess on it as its likely a normal charactoristic of that model

edit: i noticed also that these areas are close to the secondary air path of the stove so they may be getting cooled by the flow of secondary airflow through its channel up the back side of the unit. still doesnt look dangerous and this little tidbit kinda confirms suspicions in that location

I don't know about "cooled by the flow of secondary airflow" Mike. I have regularly observed the the stove body where the secondary air manifolds are welded in on the 30 is over 150 degrees hotter than the stove top. You guys are pre-heating that air pretty darn good somewhere in there. I thought I was over firing the crap out of this thing when I was taking the readings on the sides of the stove. Then I figured it out when I could move the thermometer an inch and it dropped dramatically. I then started paying attention to what was on the other side in the firebox.

 

[ecfinn]

How much wood are you burning per day that you can go 10 days between cleanouts?
I would have a good 4 inches of ash in there and vertical space is short as it is.

I'm burning about 20ish medium size splits per day. My wood holder has about 8-10 pieces in it depending upon the size of the splits and I probably burn through that about 2.5 - 3 times per day. When I cleaned it out today I had about 3". I normally wouldn't let it get quite that high, but I had the stove store out today to look at it and instead of cleaning over the weekend, just let it go another 2 days. I must be getting better at this because I had virtually none of the black clinkers in the ash, all soft powdery stuff.

BTW, I took a mirror and looked up through the damper bypass into the first 2-3' off the liner and all that's up there is the medium brown fluffy ash I also see on the sides of the stove. Nothing even remotely close to black in there that I could see. So I guess its not dripping down into the stove.

Your explanations that its probably building up on the cooler metal around the path taken by the air from the blower makes a lot of sense. Hearth.com helps again...

Thanks,

Eric

 

[stoveguy2esw]

[

I don't know about "cooled by the flow of secondary airflow" Mike. I have regularly observed the the stove body where the secondary air manifolds are welded in on the 30 is over 150 degrees hotter than the stove top. You guys are pre-heating that air pretty darn good somewhere in there. I thought I was over firing the crap out of this thing when I was taking the readings on the sides of the stove. Then I figured it out when I could move the thermometer an inch and it dropped dramatically. I then started paying attention to what was on the other side in the firebox.[/quote]



pretty cute aint it i dunno if the lopi sets up that way , air channel runs up the center back , little cooler back there than on the sides, was just a "wag" but its plausible, i may be wrong on it though. BTW, i about fell outta my chair laughing at your "poor man's PE" quip on another thread thought that was great

 

[Roospike]

Just took a pic of the inside of the Summit before reloading .

 

[Roospike]

as for the creosote pictured / I'm sure this come from a dead spot inside the stove with not much air movement.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

yep, by the way roo, nice unit , looks like it runs clean as a whistle, what is that thing sticking down from the back top , slightly off center to the left? looks like a lever of some sort, just curious, i havent seen anything like that before

 

[Roospike]

yep, by the way roo, nice unit , looks like it runs clean as a whistle, what is that thing sticking down from the back top , slightly off center to the left? looks like a lever of some sort, just curious, i havent seen anything like that before

Its the "key" that locks the floating secondary burn baffle in. Pull the key and the burn chamber lifts out.

The air supply tube in the back goes all the way up into the burn baffle and they sit togother with a gasket. The black rail and air tube are built into the stove , the burn baffle and the side rails just lift out.

 

[BrotherBart]

yep, by the way roo, nice unit , looks like it runs clean as a whistle, what is that thing sticking down from the back top , slightly off center to the left? looks like a lever of some sort, just curious, i havent seen anything like that before

Its the "key" that locks the floating secondary burn baffle in. Pull the key and the burn chamber lifts out.

Too complicated. My little Jotul F100 doesn't need a key pulled. I came down to the office one morning last year and the baffle was laying on top of the ashes on the bottom of the firebox. I think it is Jotul's ACT. Ash Compression Technology. :bug:

 

[Roospike]

yep, by the way roo, nice unit , looks like it runs clean as a whistle, what is that thing sticking down from the back top , slightly off center to the left? looks like a lever of some sort, just curious, i havent seen anything like that before

Its the "key" that locks the floating secondary burn baffle in. Pull the key and the burn chamber lifts out.

Too complicated. My little Jotul F100 doesn't need a key pulled. I came down to the office one morning last year and the baffle was laying on top of the ashes on the bottom of the firebox. I think it is Jotul's ACT. Ash Compression Technology. :bug:

******************* :lol: *********************

 

[stoveguy2esw]

ok, makes perfect sense, that chamber would have to be cleaned eventually i see it now, wondersed about that looked at pictures of the unit even the inside always wondered how that worked. no question on the burn though , looks like sombody exploded a bag of flour in that firebox, gotta be clean with all that white showing. looks good roo!

 

[KateC]

I might be being stupidly simple here but I notice the same thing happening in the back 'dead spots' when I run the stove 'sloppy'--barely raking the coals before re-loading. If I take the time to dig out those back corners and 'rotate the stock', as it were, this doesn't happen.

 

[Hogwildz]

Just took a pic of the inside of the Summit before reloading .

Cool, thanks bro, I was wondering, and now you just answered a question in my head. Mine looks exactly the same.