Beautiful day today so it looks like a good time to clean the chimney. I always do it in the spring too but I like to give it a piece of mind cleaning around the first of the year. Been burning since mid October just enough to keep the furnace from running so its been fewer, cooler fires for the most part. I use the Rutland creosote remover stuff maybe once a week and it actually does a good job of keeping the 6"x6" clay flue clean. I see more black flakes in the clean out than normal so I best give it a brush and break down the single wall from stove to chimney and give it a going over too.
I'm gonna inspect/clean mine on Sunday. Only need to check the one for the NZ3000, because we've barely used the 1900p in the kitchen at all this season.
I got more outta mine today than I normally would on a regular weather year. I blame that on the fact that I have been not burning as hot as I should and am using more soft maple than other years. Before I brushed the chimney I scooped out a soup can full of flakes outta the clean out. I brushed the chimney 4 or 5 times and got a cup full of brown dust. What I don't get is the single wall pipe from stove to chimney. Its the heavy gauge welded seam pipe I bought when I got the stove. 4 feet up to a 90° and 1 and a half foot into the thimble. I always seem to get about 2 cups full of brown dust outta the stove pipe. Nothing that I am worried about starting a far but I would think that should be cleaner than the 20 feet of 6"x6" clay chimney. Excuse the mess please. I'm wunderin if I should run a two 45's rather than the 90? The dammed pipe is so pricey that I hate to start experimenting only to find it wont work. As my set up is now I get such a strong draft I am afraid that if I went with two 45's it could get even stronger and make the stove hard to control. Oh, in case anyone wunders, those brown stains on the cinder blocks behind the stove showed up after we had an F5 tornado go within a half mile of the place in "08". Kinda drove rain and hail everywhere and it did a helluva job drivin rain down the chimney to the bottom of the clean out. It aint dripping creosote. Just added that as a disclaimer.
I often get the same results. Excess buildup from the stove to the main chimney. Guessing the smoke hangs out in there a little longer causeing it. I don't know if 2 45's would help. Probabaly just make a lot of holes for smoke to come out. I usually only clean that piece of pipe once maybe twice a year though.
Ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies. If you ever get hit with a bucket of chit ya best close yer eyes.
Brushed mine today and found the same thing. Just a little bit at the top of the chimney but a lot in the couple feet of single wall inside and going through the wall. Maybe RockyMtnHigh could chime in on this.
Hmm? Not sure lol. My only guess would be that burning smaller more smouldering types of fires the creosote/soot is actually forming lower in the system because it's cooling off faster than usual. Another theory that I've heard is that when you fire up your stove for the first fire of the day etc. you generally have a hot fire as you grow your bed of coals and this helps burn off the stove that collects closer to the stove. I don't have any research or a real scientific reference it's just something I've heard. It seems to be directly related to shoulder season burning so I think it's just build up from smaller fires.
I got up on the roof on Friday too. My chimney was amazingly clean. A little creosote on the cap screen, but that cleaned off really easily. I use a creosote removing powder every week. The chimney is a big one though. Iirc, it's 13 x13 clay. That's for one fireplace. No insert. Yet.
