Question about black tar on my chimney cap?

[olskool53]

I installed my liner 3 weeks ago, since then Ive burned about 12 days maybe 6 overnight burns. Today i decided to pull my inset out farther on my hearth to get more radiant heat. When i disconnected the liner at the stove everything looked good, just a little blk/grayish soot. I went up on the roof loosen the connections and found my cap coated with black tar! I checked the liner at the roof and it was blackened but not sticky tar like the cap. Is this normal? most of the wood i have been burning is very dry but i know the last few splits i put in were somewhat wet. my insert is a Vermont castings Winter warm, I did pull the cat and it was in great shape with no soot and my secondary air probe was fine too. I want to make sure i'm not doing anything wrong! We did have a big rain last weekend and i noticed my insert was wet when i went to start a fire the next day, could that have caused it?

 

[fossil]

Your chimney cap is likely to be the first place in the system to accumulate creosote, because that's where the hot flue gas stream has become as cool as it's going to get on its way to daylight, and then suddenly mixes with ambient air. Creosote will condense out there. If you have a spark arrestor screen installed, you may find you want to clean that occasionally, so that it doesn't begin to adversely affect your draft. If you're burning dry wood, and burning hot from time to time, and the rest of your system is staying fairly clean, then you're doing about all you can. Rick

 

[olskool53]

Thanks Fossil! I was surprised to see so much Sticky tar, most of it was on the top of the cap and some dripped on the top plate. The liner looked ok, dark but ok. Is there a different cap i should use? I don't want my chimney full of creosote!