Burning Creosote?

[buckwheat]

Here's one to chew on...

Our woodstove chimney has a catch pit in the basement accessed through a small metal hatch. Every year I go down and shovel out a few cubic feet of creosote that has dropped down. What I figure is that it collects in the chimney from when I've got the stove loaded up for the night, but closed up, so there is incomplete combustion; and then it dries out and drops down when I get it going hot again in the morning.

It looks very much like pea coal in appearance and consistency. Given that it's basically unburnt fuel and mostly carbon, should I try throwing it back in the stove on top of a fire?

 

[Hansson]

burn it and throw the ash on your lawn

 

[buckwheat]

Actually...since that thread about the ashes I've started dumping them on a pile next to the compost bin. This spring I'm going to use our broadcast spreader to put them on the lawn and see what happens. Our soil has a lot of clay content, plus we were plagued by grubs pretty bad the last year, which has attracted both moles and skunks, not to mention the family of ground hogs. With all the tunneling going on, I wouldn't be surprised if our whole back yard just caved in one of these days.

 

[wahoowad]

I took a cup of creosote from a cleaning and tried my best to ignite it. It would not burn, even with the help of a propane torch.

 

[chowdozer]

Put your creosote in half of a half gallon milk carton and burn it in those quantities when you have a good fire going. I burn fir and spruce cones the same way. Makes an awesome fire.

Woodstove ashes on your lawn make a great moss killer. Don't get any on your cars or any painted surfaces as it makes little black specks you have to rub out.

Tough to light creosote with a torch. All it does is pop and spatter. Needs a good hot fire to burn.

 

[wdchuck]

This would have been good to know when I cleaned the chimney, below the smoke pipe entry, for the first time. Four feet deep in a 12"x12" inside dimension masonry block chimney, over three hours to chip, poke, and dig to get it all out, threw the 3-5gal buckets of creosote/soot into the woods.

Probably time to clean again, 3yrs worth, and one coon that should be petrified by now.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

My buddy bought a house from his uncle last year that has a fireplace w/ insert. his uncle had never had the chimney cleaned. When my buddy called the sweep over, he said that it was so full of creosote that he was surprised that it would draw. What he got out filled 3 trash bags.

Ian

 

[laynes69]

The third stage creasote will burn, the shiny goopy or hard stuff. The light and fluffly creasote won't burn.

 

[wdchuck]

Thanks layne, the little fuzzy stuff is all that forms, and collects in the bottom of the chimney. I'll just keep tossing it in the woods after cleaning.

 

[Sprig]

Put your creosote in half of a half gallon milk carton and burn it in those quantities when you have a good fire going. I burn fir and spruce cones the same way. Makes an awesome fire.

Woodstove ashes on your lawn make a great moss killer. Don't get any on your cars or any painted surfaces as it makes little black specks you have to rub out.

Tough to light creosote with a torch. All it does is pop and spatter. Needs a good hot fire to burn.

Agree chow! Burns just fine in small doses. I have a straight up chimney and bang the stuff down on a hot fire with my poker, saves me reaching down too far when I get on the roof. Nothing wrong as far as my experience goes for burning the stuff, wouldn't put it anywhere else except in the firepit (with nice big fire, no hotdogs till gone), definately do not spread it around, its tar (basically) and will kill your yard flora, maybe eventually poison the ground water. Just my megre 0.02$ worth fer the evening.



Serge

 

[Gark]

Around 30 years ago we could get creosote (a black liquid runny as water) to 'soak' fenceposts as a preservative. Haven't seen it sold for awhile. Wasn't it thought to be toxic? Found this (Google 'creosote paint'):
"The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that coal tar creosote is probably carcinogenic to humans. The EPA has also determined that coal tar creosote is a probable human carcinogen".