Swept out my pipe and found this.

[medic81]

New member and not sure where this best fits. I swept out my stove pipe today. Double wall pipe down to single wall into a small wood stove. Sweeping was all good got lots of soot out and found no sign of creasote. However I did find about a hundred of these little pellets in the bottom of my stove and have no idea where they came from. When you crush them they look like red clay inside. Inspected all stove pipe double and single wall and all is intact. Any idea where these came from? My stove is a cheap Vogelsang VG 1120. Can't imagine any part of it having pellets in it. And can't see any parts on the schematic that had pellets.

Any ideas? I'm emailing the stove manufacturer as well but thought maybe someone has come across this before. Just can't imagine where these things came from. It's like 2 or 3 12g shotgun shells worth of bird shot.

 

[EbS-P]

Hmm. Toasted or burned desiccant?

 

[bholler]

Or some sort of berry dropped in by birds? Not sure

 

[stoveliker]

I'd take a lighter and see if it can burn.
If not, and the volume is not restricting the flow, then who cares?

 

[brenndatomu]

Looks like your heat exchanger bearings burnt out already...

 

[brenndatomu]

Nah, I'd say some critter carted some sort of seeds in there...

 

[medic81]

Hmm. Toasted or burned desiccant?

Wonder if there was a desiccant packet in there I didn't remove and it's just been sitting up in there.

 

[medic81]

I'd take a lighter and see if it can burn.
If not, and the volume is not restricting the flow, then who cares?

There is no restriction at all lol. Strait shot outside. Just curious where those have been sitting since I installed the stove last year. My concern was I messed something up when brushing out the pipe.

 

[stoveliker]

There is no restriction at all lol. Strait shot outside. Just curious where those have been sitting since I installed the stove last year. My concern was I messed something up when brushing out the pipe.

I have never seen or heard of parts resembling this shape on the inside of a pipe. Hence I think you can safely conclude you did not mess something up brushing the pipe.

I did think about insulation of the pipe - but I have never heard of pelletized insulation in chimney pipe. (And it'd mean you'd have a hole in the inner pipe. To me this is all too farfetched.


I do note that there are silica dessicant granules that become pink after absorbing moisture (humidity sensitive scientific samples in laboratories are often stored in a container with such granules - and once they change color, we exchange them and bake the old ones in an oven to dry them out, after which they become their blue-ish color again). Given your "red" remark, and the idea that "black+pink" (the pink from being in a humid chimney) might be seen as red, I wonder indeed if it's a dessicant. Break them open, put an oven dish on your stove, put the open pellets on there, burn the stove nice and hot, and see if they change color.

That's an experiment I would do - but I am a little out there regarding these things. Any normal person would likely just trash them, and if they don't appear again after this season, forget about it (rather than be haunted in 911-type dreams...).

 

[Riverbanks]

Does your stove pipe cap have a screen on it?

 

[Ashful]

Stovepipe dingleberries?

They almost look like the synthetic ball bearings used in sailing hardware (eg. blocks, traveler cars, etc.), but I'd agree the bird dropping seeds is most likely. They do some silly things atop chimneys, including regularly gassing themselves with CO, passing out, and falling down inside.

 

[medic81]

Does your stove pipe cap have a screen on it?

Cap yes but no screen so possible something got dropped inside.

 

[Riverbanks]

Do you have a berry producing bush near by, I have a few, and those berries show up in some strange places, lol

 

[medic81]

Do you have a berry producing bush near by, I have a few, and those berries show up in some strange places, lol

Yeah nearby. I'm honestly thinking it was a silica pack left in there when I installed it last year. Burned it all last year as a primary heat source many times it burning 24/7 for a 2 weeks at a time.

 

[medic81]

New member and not sure where this best fits. I swept out my stove pipe today. Double wall pipe down to single wall into a small wood stove. Sweeping was all good got lots of soot out and found no sign of creasote. However I did find about a hundred of these little pellets in the bottom of my stove and have no idea where they came from. When you crush them they look like red clay inside. Inspected all stove pipe double and single wall and all is intact. Any idea where these came from? My stove is a cheap Vogelsang VG 1120. Can't imagine any part of it having pellets in it. And can't see any parts on the schematic that had pellets.

Any ideas? I'm emailing the stove manufacturer as well but thought maybe someone has come across this before. Just can't imagine where these things came from. It's like 2 or 3 12g shotgun shells worth of bird shot.

View attachment 299483 View attachment 299484

Thanks to all for the replies. Thinking it might very well had been a silica pack. Now to fix a pesky roof leak I can't nail down. Thanks again to all!