Using Wood Stove is New to Me - Newbie Questions

[Greg1881]

I am new to using a wood stove and bought a home with a Quadrafire 3100, the stove pipe goes straight up through the roof, the pipe is about 30 feet long. Just before starting to burn seasoned wood I cleaned the stove pipe till nothing more would come out. Been using the stove every day since November as my primary heat, about 16 hours per day.

The cap is getting quite a bit of creosote and it is shiny, tar like. (see picture) The vent slots are still very open and I still have a month I need to use the stove here in Montana. I have a couple questions:

Is it still safe to use the stove, should I buy a creosote log to help burn off some of the creosote?
What is the best way to clean the cap when I remove it?
The Stove has a Burn Rate lever and an Automatic Combustion Control Lever, sometimes I turn both to low when it gets too hot in the house so there is almost no fire. Is this a bad idea?

Thank you for the help

 

[begreen]

Try burning some shorter, hotter fires by loading less wood in the stove.

 

[bholler]

I am new to using a wood stove and bought a home with a Quadrafire 3100, the stove pipe goes straight up through the roof, the pipe is about 30 feet long. Just before starting to burn seasoned wood I cleaned the stove pipe till nothing more would come out. Been using the stove every day since November as my primary heat, about 16 hours per day.

The cap is getting quite a bit of creosote and it is shiny, tar like. (see picture) The vent slots are still very open and I still have a month I need to use the stove here in Montana. I have a couple questions:

Is it still safe to use the stove, should I buy a creosote log to help burn off some of the creosote?
What is the best way to clean the cap when I remove it?
The Stove has a Burn Rate lever and an Automatic Combustion Control Lever, sometimes I turn both to low when it gets too hot in the house so there is almost no fire. Is this a bad idea?

Thank you for the help

Do you have a thermometer on the pipe so you know when to shut the stove back? Have you read the stove manual to know how to properly operate the stove.

 

[kborndale]

What is your definition of "seasoned wood"?

 

[xman23]

Your cap looks like the same brand as mine. It’s hard to tell, but I think your 1/4” screen has been removed. If so there’s 3 small vertical bars, that hold up the top. And two horizontal straps around. You see both in the picture. So without the screen it’s almost impossible to plug it up. It does look like it’s trying, those formation of wet creosote. But if the screen is there it’s about plugged. You need to fix that. Also it’s very hard to clean the cap with a bottom up brushing. So when, if ever was the cap cleaned up?

The cap is always an issue, as it’s not insulated like the rest of the chimney is. When the cooling exhaust gets to the cold cap it does what you see. I think might be condensing. Nothing all that wrong, but looks bad. To do a top down brushing, I remove the top section. The section and the cap come apart with a small CCW twist. I clean the cap with a good chemical creosote cleaner.

 

[Greg1881]

Thank you for information Tom.

Greg

 

[maple1]

I think I would inspect the whole thing for creosote ASAP. Burning that much since November on a new-to-you setup (and you being new at it yourself - no slight intended) could be asking for a lot of sudden trouble. All setups make creosote a bit differently, IMO a monthly check up & possibly cleaning also should be a starting point until you get a handle on it & how it performs on that front. But 4 months is a long time to go for the majority anyway, I suspect.