Creosote problem solved - hopefully!

I've been running a Crown Royal 7400 since 2008. After a summer of burning on and off at lower water temps just to keep my two hot water heaters hot, I had a bad creosote build up. It was so bad the my chimney was plugged and I couldn't keep a fire going, and I burned out one my of blowers because the smoke was backing up in them so bad. And I couldn't pull the smoke bypass handle out.

I've spent the last three weeks crawling inside the burn barrel scrapping creosote, trying to burn it off with a weed burner torch, scraping the inside of the chimney, burning with the door open to try to get a hot fire, everything I could think of to soften up the creosote enough to be able to pull the smoke bypass out.

Finally after reading a post on this forum, I found someone recommending throwing a couple aluminum cans in the fire to eat through the creosote. Well, I'm happy to say that after about an 18 pack of Miller Lite thrown into the fire over the last three/four days, my creosote problem has been solved - hopefully.

Tonight I was able to pull the smoke bypass out, and everything seems to be working much better! I think I've burned out another blower motor in the process, but that can be replaced. I was worried for a while that I was going to have to scrap the whole thing, so another blower motor doesn't seem so bad!

line it

you will have to line the flue one day.i did my chimney this year,with insulation and double wall pipe.no more heavy tar.just the light stuff.safer too.k

MMMMMMMMMMBEER

So do the beer cans get hot enuff that they just burn up or? Woodstove possibility?

You mean that's not a myth?

I may have to do some testing over the next few days. 18 cans is the magic number? I can make that happen I think.

he said

He said Crown Royal and 18 beers.

After that I wouldn't care what my Chimney was like!!!!

(I will have to remember the can thing)

So burning a aluminum can every couple of days will keep my chimney clean? Or is it the hot fire it takes to melt the can? :msp_confused:

Hmmmm, clearly some experimenting is in order. I'm all for drinking beer in the name of science.

Digging around in Google...

Aluminum cans are made from an aluminium-manganese alloy. About 1% manganese.

And it's the manganese (specifically I think manganese dioxide, MnO2) that acts as a catalyst lowering the temperature the creosote will burn at to 300ºF.

I still don't know all the chemistry going on, but at least I have a reasonable explanation now I guess the goal being you're burning off just enough of the outer layer of creosote to make a difference, without ever getting enough heat/open flame to light it off and have an uncontrolled chimney fire.

GrassGuerilla said:

Hmmmm, clearly some experimenting is in order. I'm all for drinking beer in the name of science.

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give it a try you'll be suprised at the results.

Can I use the tops off of empty tequila bottles?

So seriously just throw a can in at a time? Maybe a few? Crushed? So many questions with so much beer in the fridge.

I find the idea so appealing I'm already preparing some aluminum manganese alloy "treatments" as we speak.

They sell a product here in Maine called Maine Chimney sweep. It is essentially manganese mixed with other unknown ingredients.

It works in the same way only a lot better than aluminum cans. The downside is you have to buy it at about $10 for a half gallon or so. It turns any sticky creosote into more of a powder so it can easily be swept out of the chimney.

Mid Maine Chimney Sweep Creosote Remover

I use a half a cup a week and it makes sweeping very easy.

Ok, so here's what I did - after scraping and clawing and trying to melt it off with a propane torch, if found a post in a thread that I thought was on this site, but may have been somewhere else. That guy said he threw 3-4 aluminum cans in his OWB every month or two, with a hot fire, to keep the creosota down. I was out of ideas, so I started throwing in a couple cans in the morning and a couple at night. After about three and a half days of goo dripping off the sides and top of my barrel, there was a little give in the smoke bypass handle. Two more cans and then everything was working great again. So far I have not found any remains of any cans in the burn barrel or ash pan.

I'll probably keep throwing 3-4 in once a month.

phil21502 said:

So seriously just throw a can in at a time? Maybe a few? Crushed? So many questions with so much beer in the fridge.

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No crushing or anything fancy. Only thing I did was empty them!

I finally have a good excuse to tell the wife when I need to buy more beer! I'm not getting intoxicated, I'm sacrificing to keep the family safe!

It's all part of the routine maintenance!!

DRY wood will help more than your empty beer cans... I ain't given up my dry wood, but you can have all my empty beer cans you want!

In the interest of helping people out, because that's how I am, if anybody wants to send me their full cans, I'll empty them for free!