odd occurence

[svaangus]

Hi. So something strange happened to me with my wood stove that I'm hoping someone can fill me in on. I have to interior wood stoves (1 old flat top wood cook stove which I'll call stove a and 1 newer pot belly stove I'll call stove b). So about a month ago I started having trouble with stove a not drawing properly and went up on the roof to make sure there was no blockage and no animal had decided to make a winter home there. No blockage and no animal but saw that the chimney was coated with a black glass tar like substance and thought oh <expletive deleted> that is a very bad 3rd degree creosote build up. So quit using stove a and went with stove b. Then today being a nice clear warm low 50's degree day, I went back on the roof to check out chimney b and make sure things were good. No problems there, so decided to take a look a chimney a and see if I could do anything. To my amazement it was all gone and the chimney was clean as a whistle. I had been burning creosote sticks in stove a until I stopped using it, so did they work magic and desolve all that creosote tar build up? If so I'm sold on them and if not what happened? What would cause it all to vanish like that? Any ideas?
Thanks guys!

 

[bholler]

What type of chimneys are they?

 

[svaangus]

What type of chimneys are they?

it is brick. would that matter? am i missing something? thanks.

 

[bholler]

If it is stainless liner creosote can fall off on its own sometimes. It is unlickly if it was gooey but possible

 

[rwhite]

My cap screen will often fer a "fuzzy" type build up which affects draft. I notice that it occurs when we have high humidity or inversions for a long time. Seems like if we get any wind or precipitation it washes right off but barring that I have to go up and clean it. My biggest issue is multiple starts throughout the day. I try and get my wife to just keep the fire going but she gets busy being the family taxi and ends up doing restarts throughout the day. So rather than have the one smoky startup for 10 minutes once a day I get it four times a day and it plugs the screen quicker.

 

[Fsappo]

It is unlickly if it was gooey but possible

I was called unlickly once! Once.

Also, a lined chimney stays warmer, reducing buildup