My Liner Cleaned Itself

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

Hi Everybody,

When I shut the insert down in the Spring, I decided I’d wait until Fall to clean the liner. I just plugged the liner with some insulation in a plastic bag.

There’s an outside chance I may make a fire in the next week so I decided to take out the plug. When I did a few cups of crud fell out all over my arm. Looks like stage 2 (shiny coffee grounds).

Not sure if I’m happy it was all loose enough to fall out on its own during the summer or upset there’s enough to fall out like that.

I see a lot of posts where people say they get a cup of fluffy stuff. I’ve never had that. My wood is dry, under 20%, 3 years old. But I’m also a heavy night and weekends burner so I do a lot of cold starts. Also having an 32’ uninsulated liner on an exterior chimney probably doesn’t help.

We’ll see if I get much more out with the sooteater. Hopefully not.

 

[Highbeam]

I think you will get a lot more. 32’ exterior uninsulated should be a mess up high.

Go slow with the sooteater and kind of pump it slowly to cover every foot a few times.

 

[snaple4]

Wow, that is a lot. I have a 30’ liner in old clay tile with ceramic insulation around pipe. I would burn hot and would usually have highish moisture wood (above 18). I would get some black after cleaning but not that much.

Do you burn hot or turn it way down?

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

I do burn hot. It actually likes to run more in the hot side. I start to turn it down at 400F (collar temp) and usually is in the 500 to 600 range. My draft can be very strong. I usually see white water vapor coming out well into the burn, rarely is it perfectly clear until the cooling stage.

Forget to mention too that I don’t have a cap directly on my liner. It dumps into the open air. There is a double rectangular cover over the liner and the oil burner’s flue. The lack of a direct cover probably cools the liner down a lot too when it’s starting up.


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[Jan Pijpelink]

I do burn hot. It actually likes to run more in the hot side. I start to turn it down at 400F (collar temp) and usually is in the 500 to 600 range. My draft can be very strong. I usually see white water vapor coming out well into the burn, rarely is it perfectly clear until the cooling stage.

Forget to mention too that I don’t have a cap directly on my liner. It dumps into the open air. There is a double rectangular cover over the liner and the oil burner’s flue. The lack of a direct cover probably cools the liner down a lot too when it’s starting up.


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What stove do you have?

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

What stove do you have?

Enviro Boston 1700 insert.


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[bholler]

The lack of a liner cap will have no effect. The problem is a tall uninsulated exterior chimney.

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

The lack of a liner cap will have no effect. The problem is a tall uninsulated exterior chimney.

Yeah, when I think about it I don’t think there’s anything in my burning habits that’s causing it. My wood is good and dry I don’t shut it down too much. My draft is very good despite the cold starts, probably because of the height.

I don’t think I’m burning any less efficiently or putting out more smoke, it’s just that my flue is sticky from being cold. This combined with a lot of cold starts could do it.

Maybe I’ll think about doing a mid-season sweep and piling on the kindling even more than I do now and see if that gets different results. Also will look into getting a new liner soon. It’s getting a little late to get a sweep out this time of year so maybe in the Spring.


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[blacktail]

If what's in the picture was all you get from a cleaning, it wouldn't be bad. Uninsulated, exterior, and numerous cold starts will lead to heavier buildup. My 15' liner is uninsulated and exterior, and I do 1-2 restarts a day. A mid season sweeping takes 15 minutes.

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

Last night I started to get ready to sweep and took a look up into the liner. I saw this.

At first I thought it was a part of the liner peeling away. Then I thought it was some of the plastic bag that I stuffed up there that got caught. Then I thought it was part of the plastic bag that if you look at it the right way kind of looks like a bat. Then I thought, yup that’s a bat.

So this little guy flying around, tumbling down the liner probably knocked out a bunch of stuff. Looks like he died in the service of something greater than himself.

Rest In Peace little guy.

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[SpaceBus]

Huh, I would not have guessed. My flue collar got plugged up with stage one that had fallen down over an extended period of no use. I never thought about the possibility that a critter knocked it down. My assumption was expansion and contraction of my stove pipe loosened it all up.

I got about the same amount of creosote as you when I clean my interior 24' uninsualated oversized liner after m first season. I also swept mid season since our firewood was questionable and the flue system is less than ideal. An insulated liner is on the way!

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

Huh, I would not have guessed. My flue collar got plugged up with stage one that had fallen down over an extended period of no use. I never thought about the possibility that a critter knocked it down. My assumption was expansion and contraction of my stove pipe loosened it all up.

I got about the same amount of creosote as you when I clean my interior 24' uninsualated oversized liner after m first season. I also swept mid season since our firewood was questionable and the flue system is less than ideal. An insulated liner is on the way!

Yeah - I assumed that the expansion shakes thing loose too. That does some I’m sure. What came out is about 3/4 of what I’d normally get with a full cleaning. We’ll see how much I get out after sweeping it.

But I’m not going to run a science experiment to see how well bats clean liners. It’s more fun to think that’s what happened so that’s what I’m going with...


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[blacktail]

I almost posted that maybe a bird or bat got in!

 

[firefighterjake]

And that -- along with the possibility of birds, bees and who knows what else may have made their way into the chimney -- is why I always recommend inspecting and sweeping (if needed) at the start of the burning season.

 

[SpaceBus]

And that -- along with the possibility of birds, bees and who knows what else may have made their way into the chimney -- is why I always recommend inspecting and sweeping (if needed) at the start of the burning season.

I would imagine it's not fun to find out while there's a smoldering mess in the stove.

 

[Grizzerbear]

And that -- along with the possibility of birds, bees and who knows what else may have made their way into the chimney -- is why I always recommend inspecting and sweeping (if needed) at the start of the burning season.

Agreed. Mine had a good size red wasp nest in it.

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

So here’s the rest of it that I got out with the sooteater. Together with the bat cleaning it’s probably about 8 cups. Maybe a little bit more than I’ve gotten in prior years but not by a huge amount.

 

[Ashful]

And that -- along with the possibility of birds, bees and who knows what else may have made their way into the chimney -- is why I always recommend inspecting and sweeping (if needed) at the start of the burning season.

Actually, this is why I have one fire BEFORE sweeping in fall. I don’t need a stove full of hornets mid-sweeping, with a sooteater rod hanging out of the stove and preventing me from closing the loading door.

 

[blades]

soot eater standing at ready, have fired the stove couple times so there should not by any surprises of the buzzing kind with pointed backsides.
the summer before i installed the stove but had already finshed the flue I had it pluged with a wad of plastic bags. Had some small tornadoes go through the area ( actually bounced right over my place) at any rate I noticed a couple days later that the plug wasn't there anymore... it got sucked right up to the top of the stack. roof is steep enough that you can walk up it carefully but best use the drag your back side descent mode unless you bounce real well. ( me I do not bounce any more just go splat)

 

[Chas0218]

I get about the same with DuraVent triple wall exterior 18' chimney. I haven't ever cleaned an interior chimney so I don't know if mine worse than an interior chimney. I think mine runs cooler than what the other interior chimneys run giving me a little more of the black dust creosote. Either way long as it isn't that sticky crap I'm happy, with the soot eater it only takes about 10-15 minutes and she is spotless.