Creosote Buildup - Cleaning

[IndyIan]

I would get a thermometer on the stove top just to see what temps you are getting. Now that the chimmney is clean you can run higher temps, check your manual, but we run 600-800F and get a quart or two of creosote cleaning once a year.
Ian

 

[nocdpc]

mine does not run that hot although it should... I suspect that even with the lastest cord I do not have the most seasoned wood possible. The thermostat reads high 500's on a good day. I have not see the thing get above 600 yet... The other Jotul F500 woodstove I had got so hot I could barely keep wood in it sometimes. This model the F600 has not gotten that hot yet. I am going to go to the local gas station and get a couple bundles of that expensive plastic wrapped wood and throw them in there and see if I can get temps hotter then 700...

 

[Zodiac45]

I large piece fell off from inside and gave some blowback into the house. That was when I decided to shut down wood burning operations until I cleaned up. From what I hear the looks of my cap are not normal so I am glad I made the decision. On a side note my stove is burning much better now that I am burning some good seasoned wood and have cleaned out the flew. Thanks all for helping me with this.

Thanks for posting the pix. I think that you'll find the better seasoning your wood gets, the better it burns with less of a build up. A good hot burn helps too. Smart too invest in the brushes too. Now you can clean whenever you see the stove performance begin too fall off.

 

[nocdpc]

Thanks for posting the pix. I think that you'll find the better seasoning your wood gets, the better it burns with less of a build up. A good hot burn helps too. Smart too invest in the brushes too. Now you can clean whenever you see the stove performance begin too fall off.

Now here is another questions I have. I am want to know if there is anything that can be purchased like special tarps etc... that can excelerate the seasoning process? Anyone have any insite or links on this site or others?

 

[sdt7618]

As far as I know wind and heat.... nothing fancy, just plain wind and heat. unless you build and kiln!

Spent the day cutting up my wood for next year and hopefully some for the following. 10-12 months and its ready to burn:angry2:

 

[Zodiac45]

As far as I know wind and heat.... nothing fancy, just plain wind and heat. unless you build and kiln!

Spent the day cutting up my wood for next year and hopefully some for the following. 10-12 months and its ready to burn:angry2:

+1 and the wind even more than the heat. Wind and heat both= Unbeatable.

 

[wkpoor]

One thing I want to caution you on is with a stainless steel flue you must use a plastic or poly type brush, you CANNOT use a steel brush. The reasons I have read is that the steel brush will scratch the flue, leave particles of the brush behind (Carbon steel) and then they will begin to rust and decay the stainless liner.

I've been using a wire brush for 8yrs now. My pipe looks the same all the time. I can't believe a plastic brush could clean all that well. In a flue liner I would say absolutely but not a smooth wall stainless class A chimney. Brush box also says for SS too. Since a chimney always has some level of creosote on it I would think that is your barrier against corrosion.

 

[Shmudda]

I went and looked at my stainless liner warranty, which is a lifetime warranty, and it plainly states that you must use a "poly" brush or it will void the warranty. When the warranty time comes I am quite sure they will be able to tell what was used. Surprisingly, that poly brush does quite well in cleaning, as I do have both a steel and poly. I use the steel brush on my stove pipes and the poly for the chimney flue.

To each his own I guess........

Also, you are asking about how to "dry" your wood faster, make sure you stack it with just a tarp on the very top of the pile to keep rain water off the top, leaving the sides open, and also be sure the cut ends of the logs are facing the wind so it can actually blow thru the pile. Air movement is the whole key to drying wood......

Craig

 

[woodchopper]

About 10:00 p.m. last night I could hear some odd noises in my office that is alongside my chimney. Hummm, I felt the wall and it didn't seem overly warm only about the temperature of when the stove is burning. But, then I looked out the window and saw sparks floating down. Immediate thought was "this is not good"!
I rushed outside to check things out and I could see a nice red glow at the top of the chimney and some sparks coming out. I then went down to the basement to check things out and there was no great rush of air going through the barometric damper so I knew things were not all that bad.
I sealed off the air supply around the damper, the clean out door, and the draft fan on the stove. Then I watched and waited for the nice slow controlled burn to clean my chimney. It took almost an hour to completely burn out to where I couldn't see any "redness" by looking up the chimney with a mirror.
It worked, but I wouldn't recommend this method of chimney cleaning as a method to keep it clean. But, on the bright side, there wasn't that much of a build up so it didn't get that hot as to damage anything.
Yes, it scared the :censored: outta me!! I guess I will have to build some hotter fires to keep the creosote from forming.
BTW, so much for the aluminum can theory! It doesn't work!
Jim

I had this happen to my masonry chimney once about 2 AM and I thought I was going to lose everything I owned due to my house burning down. It was snowing pretty hard and I just happen to have a ladder leaning against the side of my house so I could shovel the snow off the roof the following day. I climbed up on the roof with a wrench to get the cap off and a big box of baking soda to extinguish the flames which were now almost a foot above the top of the chimney. Once I got the cap off I poured half of the box of baking soda down the chimney and guess what ??? It stopped for about 45 seconds and then started up again. After I poured the rest of the box into the chimney it stopped but my heart was racing for quite a while afterwards. I was told if I ever have a chimney fire to put it out as soon as possible to reduce possible damage to the refractory cement which cracks at a certain temperature. I always wondered about the aluminum can theory especially now that the cans have a different composition. Glad everything turned out OK for you.

 

[logbutcher]

All of the above works for burning.

The 2 flues here are brushed prophalactically ( love big words ) only 1X/year. The fibergalss brushes work fine for Selkirk SS chimneys, though friends use metal without any harm.

More important is to burn hotter fires. Open the ash door or other door once each day usually in the morning ash emptying, to burn off any creosote from a low night fire. Done each day or regularly depending how the stoves are used, it will prevent any buildup of creosote.

Also: if you don't need high heat, build smaller but hot fires with smaller loads.
Always give the load, whether seasoned or wet, time to get burning so that the wood has time to get to the coaling stage. Most firewood is never really "seasoned" completely anyhow unless you have $$$ to kiln dry.

Doing all this is not a big deal. There's never a problem with creosote or buildup, except in the shoulder seasons with smaller low fires. Then the cap and screen --the coldest part of the flue--may get some buildup. Then a good hot open door fire burns it off.

The stoves here have been going 24/7 since early November--no real backup.
Rule #1 through infinity: don't go on a 10 pitch roof in winter. :jawdrop:

 

[nocdpc]

I have the Selkirk SS and their tech support stated metal or plastic can be used. I will now have to look in the manual and call back if in deed it states only plastic

When I did talk to the tech person at Selkirk they say lab tests are done on their pipes to simulate chimney fires. The SS Selkirks can withstand upwards of 2300 degrees F and heat the surrounding elements only 90+ degrees. Not that I want a chimney fire but at least this is a little comforting.

Good info on leaving the ash door open in morning to get the fire going. That really brings out the flames in my fire. I get nervous leaving that open for long periods for potential damage to the stove and it burns out all my wood coals on the bottom of fire really quick.

 

[logbutcher]

Good info on leaving the ash door open in morning to get the fire going. That really brings out the flames in my fire. I get nervous leaving that open for long periods for potential damage to the stove and it burns out all my wood coals on the bottom of fire really quick.

Right, you need to watch carefully when a door is open. Because of C.R.S., SWMBO orders me to set an alarum. A loud one. Zero-Dark-hundred mornings are tough. :censored:
Never allow the stovetop temp to get above mid-range, around 500F, not more, with the increased draft from an open door. Then close door or ash pan, damp air and/or damper ( cat or pre-EPA stoves ) to where you want it.

 

[wkpoor]

Never allow the stovetop temp to get above mid-range, around 500F,

I must really be a rebel here. I consider 500 degrees a minimum temp on my stove top. If I burn cooler than that my pipe doesn't stay hot enough to keep creosote at bay. Somehow my Nashua is efficient enough to keep the heat in the stove and not let it up the chimney. I run about a 300 degree delta from stove to pipe. I burn in the 5-700 degree range.

 

[itn]

My stove runs best around 500 degrees also. It's a Lopi Freedom.

 

[sloth9669]

stove temp

when you all speak of stove temp are you talking about 1 foot up on the pipe or the stove its self. all i got to tell me temp is 1 foot up on single wall black pipe a little thermometer thing. i try and keep it at 300 but it does not want to stay there that easy. i open the air it goes 450 plus i damper down goes 200-250. first year with the stove so its a learning cure. also tarp was not big enough for the wood pile so snow got on and i got wet wood. its killing me...

 

[woodchopper]

. Somehow my Nashua is efficient enough to keep the heat in the stove and not let it up the chimney..

Haven't seen a Nashua in years. How old is yours if you don't mind me asking. They are nice performers.

 

[logbutcher]

I must really be a rebel here. I consider 500 degrees a minimum temp on my stove top. If I burn cooler than that my pipe doesn't stay hot enough to keep creosote at bay. Somehow my Nashua is efficient enough to keep the heat in the stove and not let it up the chimney. I run about a 300 degree delta from stove to pipe. I burn in the 5-700 degree range.

No rebel, right. 500F is towards the lower end of burns.
What was said: "WITH ASH DOOR OR OTHER DOOR OPEN, ....500 F." To prevent damage.
Could have been clearer.

 

[wkpoor]

I measure my temp in 3 places. Stove top,stove pipe just above stove, and thimble at the ceiling on the thimble itself. The idea it to never see any temp on the thimble. If the thimble starts to show heat rise then my pipe would be getting too hot and the heat would be starting to transfer to the wood structure called my house.
I bought my Nashua second or maybe third or forth hand last year. Never heard or seen one before then but after seeing it I thought WOW! what a stove! 500lbs of iron. Their slogan was double heat and I got to believe it was a good slogan. Never seen a stove that keeps heat in itself like this one. Makes me wonder how they went out of business. I know the EPA killed many stove mfgs but I would have thought such a good design could have easily moved on to the next generation. I'm guessing this one at late 70's to early 80's.

 

[nocdpc]

I also believe a major contributor to how hot the stove will burn is how large the logs are as well. If you have massive logs they just will not burn as well as smaller logs. The airflow is the problem.

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

That's a beautiful stove, man. Wish I had one like that in my basement.