Is this staining on my chimney cap normal?

[Casadecorgz]

I have a three flue chimney in a house I just bought. I’ve had a stainless steel liner installed for my wood stove in my basement (2 story house) the guys also cleaned it and installed a brand new cap (seen in photo)

I was walking my dog smelling the fire which I like and looked up noticing where the smoke comes out of the cap it’s stained black almost looking charred

Is this normal? This is maybe my 3rd fire since having all the work done

 

[DAKSY]

What is the moisture content of your wood?

 

[Casadecorgz]

What is the moisture content of your wood?

Hey! It’s wood I got from ACE that was inside and wrapped up in plastic dry

 

[Wildflush]

What kind of stove do you have? what color is the smoke coming out of the chimney? Do you burn hot and not cut the air too soon? Wood over 20% can make things black quickly. Not sure about the ACE wood since the only way you can tell is bring a split in the house for a day and resplit it and use a moisture meter. $14 at Harbor freight.

 

[Casadecorgz]

What kind of stove do you have? what color is the smoke coming out of the chimney? Do you burn hot and not cut the air too soon? Wood over 20% can make things black quickly. Not sure about the ACE wood since the only way you can tell is bring a split in the house for a day and resplit it and use a moisture meter. $14 at Harbor freight.

The color comes out not very dark to be honest. I usually warm up my wood stove with small pieces and then gradually add more. Does too much moisture create soot or creosote?

 

[Wildflush]

The color comes out not very dark to be honest. I usually warm up my wood stove with small pieces and then gradually add more. Does too much moisture create soot or creosote?

Too much wood moisture condensers in your flue creating creosote. Wet wood also blackens your glass. I just had my flue cleaned after burning just over a cord. Most of my wood was 20 and under with a few hissing splits that were over 20. Had about half or 3/4 of a coffee can of soot with some flaking creosote in my 90 chimney connector. All stage one creosote my sweep said.

 

[Casadecorgz]

Too much wood moisture condensers in your flue creating creosote. Wet wood also blackens your glass. I just had my flue cleaned after burning just over a cord. Most of my wood was 20 and under with a few hissing splits that were over 20. Had about half or 3/4 of a coffee can of soot with some flaking creosote in my 90 chimney connector. All stage one creosote my sweep said.

Could it form that quick? Just burning maybe 10 logs over 3 burns in total

 

[Wildflush]

I know creosote can form quickly with wet word but would not expect significant buildup with 10 splits. A black chimney cap happens even with dry wood. My cap had some powder/soot dislodge in late February do to a strong draft and wind. My sweep said try to burn hot which I do. Want my STT 550-625.

 

[xman23]

The un-insulated cap and screen can get real gunked up, and the screen plugged up. Brown coating is normal. But what needs to be looked at is the inside of the chimney.