creosote

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WVwoodsman

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I have a new Mahoning OWB model 300. I lit the first fire in it on Thursday night and have been noticing a lot of creosote inside the firebox. The firebox has a glossy black look to it and also when I opened the door to the firebox, there was creosote hanging down and some got on my finger....it burned. My aquastat is set at 180 deg. so my blower motor isn't coming on as often, is this what is causing the creosote build up? Would it be better if I lowered the aquastat temp. so that the blower would come on more often?



Thamks!
 
Get used to seeing creosote inside your OWB. In most OWBs the smoke and water in the firebox continuously condenses on the sides of the surrounding cooler water tank. As a result creosote builds up. Also the type of wood makes a big difference. Burning pine or fir with a lot of pitch will result in more creosote buildup. Burning a hardwood like maple or oak usually results in less buildup. Burning green and wet wood will result in more wet gooey creosote. Burning dry hardwood will result in less dry flakey creosote. The water temperature setting will not really make a huge difference in creosote buildup, because the firebox is a lot hotter than the surrounding water jacket. You will always have condensation on the sides of the tank, even when set to 195 F (which is about as hot as you can go before you start to get boil-overs). In most starved-air OWB systems (I am not familiar with your brand) just scrape down the sides and the creosote will burn in the fire. I use a garden hoe and a flat shovel to do the job every few days, more or less often depending on the wood I am burning. We have been running a Central Boiler OWB unit here for 3 years now, and love it.
 
Windthrown is right on. If the ceresote build up bothers you throw in some cardboard boxes and that will burn up some of the evil black stuff. you can scrape off some of it when the stove is hot, but if you want to give it a real good cleaning, wait until summer when the stove has been off for a couple weeks and it will flake off a lot easier when you scrape it.
 
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