3 seasons w/o a sweep so today was the day. When I removed the clean out cover on the bottom, there was a bunch of wet ash. We just had some heavy rains so hope that doesn’t become an issue. This is an 8x11x4 box. Trying to show about 1/2 of the volume was the wet stuff. I’ll just keep on keepin on. All the credit goes to what I’ve learned on this forum. 3 year plan was achieved pretty early on and now I’m 5+. The 3’ horizontal piece that goes through my foundation didn’t have enough fly ash to even touch. The old Bakers would deposit much more. I’d say everything is finely tuned at this point. I can sit back and enjoy all the good things that burning wood offers.
My understanding is "glazed" or hard creosote is the worst or most likely to ignite. Your picture color looks like "glazed" creosote and I prefer less "glazed" creosote. Most "glazed" creosote collects in the coolest part of the chimney. Creosote should not exceed 1/8" thickness in any place in a chimney and your picture hints at exceeding 1/8" at some point in your chimney. I cleaned my cement block chimney monthly all winter to control "glaze" and the replacement insulated stainless steel annually. The insulated stainless steel chimney gets less than a cup of glaze per year plus more than a quart of soot type creosote per year.
I should have snapped a pic when I removed the cap. Top being coolest, it was minimal up there. My chimney is about 25' of double wall stainless, with 2 45 bends at the top to clear roof overhang on the side. The wet fly ash has me most concerned. No idea how that much water got in there. If I would have changed boxes after dumping it out of that bottom cap, you'd probably have a different opinion. After 3 seasons of burning about 4-5 cords each, I'm happy. I think after one season, I'd get less than a coffee cup. And.. for the first time last winter, I burned a bunch of pine.
Wow, I guess my Vaporfire has me spoiled, I don't get anywhere near that much, but I do it annually though too.
Not bad. I get about that much in one year, 15' masonry chimney with a ss liner, insert Kodiak woodstove.
How long is your flue? I’m wondering how much the pine added to the total. Of course I’ll never know but I typically never burn any. Several pieces leaked sap but the MM said 18%. That stuff let off a black smoke when it met flame.
When I started burning pine/spruce/hemlock regularly in 2020-2021, I noticed I actually had LESS creosote during my yearly fall clean out. Even though pine smoked more than hardwood, it didn’t equate to creosote buildup.
For sure. I usually burn it when I’m home to reload often, or mixed with hardwood. Choking down the air trying to get more burn time doesn’t work too well either IME. It needs a lot of air to get and stay going.
