We have had a wood stove for years that we only used for power outages. Last winter I used it all winter so decided to clean the metal chimney this month to get ready for this winter. In a different house we had back in the 80's we had a non certified stove that could be cleaned by placing a bag under the chinmey inside the fire box and it was a straight shot out the roof to sweep it. I discovered on the one we have now that it is a mid 1990's catalytic stove. I determined I couldn't remove any stove pipe pieces to bag the soot, so I removed the impingment plate and combuster in order to get the chimney soot to fall into the fire box. My questions:
1) The chimney (stove pipes) had up to maybe 1/16 inch of soot build up. It swept clean with out much effort. How do you tell the difference between a little soot and cresote buildup?
2) The chamber between the combuster and the stove pipe exit had several handfulls of fully burned white powder soot. Is it normal to get this type of build up in this area or should it be clean?
3) The side of the stove has a button plug for a thermometer. What is the best way to get the plug out? I can't see it on the inside of the combuster chamber.
We used this stove all last winter without ever closing the damper to benefit from the combuster but it still heated the place up almost too hot.
Thanks for any comments and input......................
1) The chimney (stove pipes) had up to maybe 1/16 inch of soot build up. It swept clean with out much effort. How do you tell the difference between a little soot and cresote buildup?
2) The chamber between the combuster and the stove pipe exit had several handfulls of fully burned white powder soot. Is it normal to get this type of build up in this area or should it be clean?
3) The side of the stove has a button plug for a thermometer. What is the best way to get the plug out? I can't see it on the inside of the combuster chamber.
We used this stove all last winter without ever closing the damper to benefit from the combuster but it still heated the place up almost too hot.
Thanks for any comments and input......................