Cleaned out stovepipe today, ton of creasote

[psu927]

Last year I didn't clean it out but maybe twice the whole year, this year I am burning better wood (mostly oak and hickory) dried well over a year almost 2. Pipe was almost totally full. Anyone have any ideas? Using a baker double eagle free standing stove with blower, 2 90's and about 4-5 feet of stove pipe to the thimble. worst part was the horizontal pipe I have going into my thimble. Chimney is on the outside of the house.

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Swap out your 90's for pairs of 45's?

PS Oak typically takes 18 months to 2 yrs. to season properly.

Shari

 

[mga]

Last year I didn't clean it out but maybe twice the whole year, this year I am burning better wood (mostly oak and hickory) dried well over a year almost 2. Pipe was almost totally full. Anyone have any ideas? Using a baker double eagle free standing stove with blower, 2 90's and about 4-5 feet of stove pipe to the thimble. worst part was the horizontal pipe I have going into my thimble. Chimney is on the outside of the house.

describe your chimney set up. brick? steel? lined brick?

 

[CTYank]

Last year I didn't clean it out but maybe twice the whole year, this year I am burning better wood (mostly oak and hickory) dried well over a year almost 2. Pipe was almost totally full. Anyone have any ideas? Using a baker double eagle free standing stove with blower, 2 90's and about 4-5 feet of stove pipe to the thimble. worst part was the horizontal pipe I have going into my thimble. Chimney is on the outside of the house.

The obvious: you're generating unburnt stuff, as smoke, such that it's cool enough to condense in the pipe.

Does the stove seem to run normally? As in, draft and heat output.

I'd suggest some basics like:
1) start fires upside-down, with kindling & paper on top.
2) when feeding a batch of wood, leave spacing for airflow & don't damp things down until batch is really burning. And stays burning.

Why? One sure way to generate smoke is to quench the flames of some burning wood by having it pass by cold wood.

Your pipe is long enough to recover some significant heat, and to accumulate some serious poo. Maybe you'd benefit from letting things run hotter in early part of each cycle. And possibly not stuffing a whole batch in there in one toss.

If you run a properly hot & clean fire, you can only condense water; there will be nothing to become creosote. If you see smoke coming out above, you're doing something wrong.

 

[pook]

Last year I didn't clean it out but maybe twice the whole year, this year I am burning better wood (mostly oak and hickory) dried well over a year almost 2. Pipe was almost totally full. Anyone have any ideas? Using a baker double eagle free standing stove with blower, 2 90's and about 4-5 feet of stove pipe to the thimble. worst part was the horizontal pipe I have going into my thimble. Chimney is on the outside of the house.

Easier to clean the pipe than the chimni!= clean creo from pipe into bucket & reburnt it but keep a wtch on the chimni2

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Easier to clean the pipe than the chimni!= clean creo from pipe into bucket & reburnt it but keep a wtch on the chimni2

Pook - You always 'suggest' something and then say 'keep a watch on the chimney' (proper spelling). Now, why do you say this? So people can watch a fire start in their chimney? Why don't you just give your advise and say "Keep your hand on 9-1-1 because you will probably need it."

Are we, the general public, some kind of personal science experiment for you? Are you trying to see how stupid people can be? Or.... are you honestly that stupid?

Shari

 

[pook]

Pook - You always 'suggest' something and then say 'keep a watch on the chimney' (proper spelling). Now, why do you say this? So people can watch a fire start in their chimney? Why don't you just give your advise and say "Keep your hand on 9-1-1 because you will probably need it."

Are we, the general public, some kind of personal science experiment for you? Are you trying to see how stupid people can be? Or.... are you honestly that stupid?

Shari

i'm guessing u dont approve burning creosote? why?

 

[Wife'nHubby]

i'm guessing u dont approve burning creosote? why?

I you cared to really read (with understanding) my previous reply to you, you will find my answer in that post.

Shari

 

[pook]

I you cared to really read (with understanding) my previous reply to you, you will find my answer in that post.

Shari

oh my, the wizard posted a quiz! what next?

 

[John R]

I you cared to really read (with understanding) my previous reply to you, you will find my answer in that post.

Shari

At the risk of sounding stupid, why not burn the creosote that you scrap from the pipe?

 

[logbutcher]

Last year I didn't clean it out but maybe twice the whole year, this year I am burning better wood (mostly oak and hickory) dried well over a year almost 2. Pipe was almost totally full. Anyone have any ideas? Using a baker double eagle free standing stove with blower, 2 90's and about 4-5 feet of stove pipe to the thimble. worst part was the horizontal pipe I have going into my thimble. Chimney is on the outside of the house.

Do a quick search on creosote here, other sites, Google.

It's simple stuff:
creosote is unburned wood gas condensing and hardening on a cooler surface.
So either you're not burning hot enough fires every time, the wood is not dry enough, you're not doing the once a day very hot fire thing to burn off the night's accumulation of unburnt gases, or.......the flue never gets hot enough. The last is common with outside flues, and when you have too many bends, and horizontal runs.

My bet: the flue system.

JMNSHO

 

[psu927]

Good info! I am guessing some dryer wood will help. Should only be burning inside for another year as I have a Hardy outdoor stove will be hooked up soon. I am guessing that it's a combo of wood not quite seasoned and not burning it quite hot enough.

FYI Chimney is a lined block chimney with stone on the outside.

 

[Darin]

TO ALL: After reading much of the information provided by Pook above, it seems to be misinformed and even dangerous in some cases. Please disregard any posts made by him before this post. I have informed him and will inform you all, if you are giving out bad information knowingly you will be banned from this site and if somebody gets hurt by your poor information, you could be personally liable. This could include jail time or be at the very least financially liable. You are personally liable for anything you say on here or any other website!!! Since there seems to be so many posts with poor/dangerous information, I feel it has to be on purpose as nobody can believe many of the things that have been said, which includes the poster.
Thanks!!! Have a Happy, warm Holiday to everyone!! Also, Thanks to all that try to help others on here and have a genuine interest in making this a site full of good/useful information.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Thank you....

 

[mga]

TO ALL: After reading much of the information provided by Pook above, it seems to be misinformed and even dangerous in some cases. Please disregard any posts made by him before this post. I have informed him and will inform you all, if you are giving out bad information knowingly you will be banned from this site and if somebody gets hurt by your poor information, you could be personally liable. This could include jail time or be at the very least financially liable. You are personally liable for anything you say on here or any other website!!! Since there seems to be so many posts with poor/dangerous information, I feel it has to be on purpose as nobody can believe many of the things that have been said, which includes the poster.
Thanks!!! Have a Happy, warm Holiday to everyone!! Also, Thanks to all that try to help others on here and have a genuine interest in making this a site full of good/useful information.

cool.

thanks for the heads up on quite a few issues. i didn't really grasp the fact that giving out wrong information, even unknowingly, could be a legal hassle. i don't think many others realize that too.

it's good to have a slap as a wake up call now and then to keep things civil and legal, especially for the site.

 

[tooold]

Having the classic woodstove going up to a elbow, then out through the wall, another elbow, then up, many times with single wall pipe, is the problem. Your pipe will cool the gases too much. I have a Country woodstove with a 6" double wall stove pipe and double wall chimney, straight, all the way to the cap. It is located near the center of the house so most of the chimney is in the attic and not outside. The reasoning is to keep the inside of the pipe and gases as hot as possible. I am going on the 5th year with this setup and have yet had to clean the chimney. I check everything at least twice a year and have never had buildup. I do have to wire brush the coarse metal screen on the cap a few times because that is the one place it is cool enough for it to stick. When I was a kid, we had a chimney fire in a 100 year old house with a very well built brick chimney. It was christmas time and we were burning all the wrapping paper in the fireplace. It sounded like 100 loud bikers racing out the chimney. We ran outside to see what looked like a jet engine at the end of the chimney. Luckily, there was no damage.

 

[Wife'nHubby]

TO ALL: After reading much of the information provided by Pook above, it seems to be misinformed and even dangerous in some cases. Please disregard any posts made by him before this post. I have informed him and will inform you all, if you are giving out bad information knowingly you will be banned from this site and if somebody gets hurt by your poor information, you could be personally liable. This could include jail time or be at the very least financially liable. You are personally liable for anything you say on here or any other website!!! Since there seems to be so many posts with poor/dangerous information, I feel it has to be on purpose as nobody can believe many of the things that have been said, which includes the poster.
Thanks!!! Have a Happy, warm Holiday to everyone!! Also, Thanks to all that try to help others on here and have a genuine interest in making this a site full of good/useful information.

Thanks, Darin.

Shari

 

[Mike PA]

Last year I didn't clean it out but maybe twice the whole year, this year I am burning better wood (mostly oak and hickory) dried well over a year almost 2. Pipe was almost totally full. Anyone have any ideas? Using a baker double eagle free standing stove with blower, 2 90's and about 4-5 feet of stove pipe to the thimble. worst part was the horizontal pipe I have going into my thimble. Chimney is on the outside of the house.

Your set-up sounds a lot like my old one. I had a Baker stove, also, with a similar flue and chimney (SS chimney). I generally don't have much trouble with creosote, except in the early and late season when my heat demand is low, but still need a fire. Try smaller, hotter fires more often. You may simply be damping the stove down too much during the cool seasons, or damping the stove down overnight too much to get longer burns and not heating the stove enough. With your stove (Like my Baker), you need to burn hot fires to keep the creosote problem down.