After a season of moderate burning, I pulled the telescoping flue pipe loose from Drolet Legend (permanent fixed baffles) to clean the chimney. I'd used SW flue pipe to radiate more heat inside (with a heat shield/13" from wall), and double wall flue pipe - all is Selkirk/Supervent.
The flue pipe wouldn't telescope because of hard creosote buildup - it looked like little mountains from the stove to the double wall Supervent connector, where it abruptly stopped and there's only thin powder - maybe a little creosote at top of pipe by vent (vent/top part of chimney shows brown residue on the stainless steel - most of which washes off with the rain). "Mountains" were ~1/4" (cleaned out fairly easy with brush) with 1/16+" of hard deposit underneath (this did not clean off, nor would it easily light with propane torch [would turn red but not catch fire]).
I'd read that creosote will accumulate more in single wall flue pipe, but I didn't get impression it'd be this bad/so much different from the double wall. I've burned some wood that wasn't completely dry (can hear it hissing - mostly small 3-4" dia pieces) and most always let vent pipe get hot (350-400F), and sometimes accidentally let it get to maybe 600-650F) before shutting vents/promote secondary burn. Fires weren't burned continuously and were typically started when room was 65F. If I closed the stove vents and didn't see a good secondary burn, I'd crack the door and let it get burning hot before closing them again.
Is this typical (so much creosote in SW pipe, with basically none in DW chimney)? was burning maybe 5-10% non-dry wood a major factor)? does creosote accumulate more near the stove because the smoke dries out as it goes up the chimney (or any other factor)?
I was glad to see just powder (type 1 creosote) in DW - I will replace the SW flue with DW (stove radiates enough heat anyway) and hope it'll all be good in future. I've learned more about building fires, but sometimes seems like too much visible smoke exiting the chimney vent until fire gets going good.
The flue pipe wouldn't telescope because of hard creosote buildup - it looked like little mountains from the stove to the double wall Supervent connector, where it abruptly stopped and there's only thin powder - maybe a little creosote at top of pipe by vent (vent/top part of chimney shows brown residue on the stainless steel - most of which washes off with the rain). "Mountains" were ~1/4" (cleaned out fairly easy with brush) with 1/16+" of hard deposit underneath (this did not clean off, nor would it easily light with propane torch [would turn red but not catch fire]).
I'd read that creosote will accumulate more in single wall flue pipe, but I didn't get impression it'd be this bad/so much different from the double wall. I've burned some wood that wasn't completely dry (can hear it hissing - mostly small 3-4" dia pieces) and most always let vent pipe get hot (350-400F), and sometimes accidentally let it get to maybe 600-650F) before shutting vents/promote secondary burn. Fires weren't burned continuously and were typically started when room was 65F. If I closed the stove vents and didn't see a good secondary burn, I'd crack the door and let it get burning hot before closing them again.
Is this typical (so much creosote in SW pipe, with basically none in DW chimney)? was burning maybe 5-10% non-dry wood a major factor)? does creosote accumulate more near the stove because the smoke dries out as it goes up the chimney (or any other factor)?
I was glad to see just powder (type 1 creosote) in DW - I will replace the SW flue with DW (stove radiates enough heat anyway) and hope it'll all be good in future. I've learned more about building fires, but sometimes seems like too much visible smoke exiting the chimney vent until fire gets going good.
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