Creosote in the chimney, pics

Cleaned the chimney today. 34° light wind
Got more than I expected, cleaned 1 year ago, may go back to twice / year.
1/2 to 3/4 of a coffee can full.
Cap was the worst, brought it down & cleaned.

 

I think the outside conditions, humidity and temp swings can change things year to year. We know it's not the firewood so the only other issue besides the weather could be the cat. At least that's my thinking....I have been wrong more than once though.

 

These stoves are dirty burners imo,(not smoke dragon dirty) I like to clean twice a season for piece of mind. With my non cat the flue was much cleaner and the quality of the wood wasn't nearly as good as it is now. Of course if I burned my BK at the rate my non cat burned it would probably be much cleaner too!

 

Not bad enough for me to worry about.
It all came out with little effort so it's not caked on like
when I was burning 3 to 6 month CSS wood years ago.

 

The flu temps are a lot lower than the old stove.
3 year wood now. May have something to do with the oily birch bark,
it burns like a piece of old tire or an asphalt shingle, black & smokey

 

Bogydave, in the second picture from the bottom, is that joint on the inside of the pipe coming undone.

 

I noticed that too...

 

When I saw it last night I was going to post about it, then I thought it might pizz someone off, but I would rather pizz someone off if it's coming apart.

 

I wouldn't look at it as pizzing someone off,, I'd be thankful to get the heads up ... That could take lives or a structure , without a chimney fire.. especially if it's inside passing by an combustibles at the minimum clearance.. If it's in an attic area you could be asleep just as something near that reached the kindle point... I would get the pipe hot and check that section against a known good section with an IR gun , just to see what's up...

 

Good catch
I'll go check it out.
It's outside pipe, but still , don't look good.
PIA to fix/replace as it's a bottom section.
Well at least it's clean

Glad I took a pic.
Goes to the top of the "to do" list.

Thanks

 

That's exactly why I like to see a minimum flue gas temp of 400 until the coaling stages.. I have 22 ft to the top of the chimney, insulated liner.. I think about how cold those gases might be by the time they reach the top... maybe 350... That's why I don't mind running a warm flue... saves a lot of headaches... Cooler and maybe getting build up, not worth it for the difference it wood one might use... The time you find you have big build up seems to happen right when there's a major weather event going on, snow , ice or arctic cold.. That's what I've seen happen on the other site, posts about draft issues right towards the middle to the end of the heating season, right when it's too nasty out to even get up and inspect the chimney... Just my thoughts....maybe I'm wrong...

 

Dave, it also looks like there is a crack on the left side of the pic of the flue.

 

How many cord did you burn between cleanings?

 

Gotta be close to 7 cords . last 1/2 of last burn season & the front half of this burn season.
Was some 1 year spruce in there last year.

 

1/2 to 3/4 of a coffee can full on 7 cord with an outside chimney in Alaska sound pretty good to me. Depending on the size of the can of course.

 

Yea
Not concerned with the small amount of creosote,

Zap identified a possible problem.
The broke seam inside the metal-bestos pipe has me thinking about changing it out.



Naturally it's the bottom section just above the "T".
Starting at the top & taking down each section .. Maybe two sections at a time.

Dishwasher just died, only lasted 20 years, they don't make stuff to last anymore.
New one to be real quiet. Not that I can hear it anyway. Wife has it at the top of the "To do " list.
Old one out in the driveway, Lowes to drop of the new one & take the old one tomorrow.
Of course some plumbing changes needed for the new one. Aaaarggg !

Things come in 3s , what's next ?

<<<<<<<<just ranting >>>>>>

 

The first and second pics didn't look too good. But at 1/2-3/4 coffee can from 7 cord of 1-2 y/o wood, I'd say you were doing fine.

I burn at low flue temps and get some creo too. Most of mine flakes off and falls into the stove on its own for some reason. When I start to hear it cilnking down the chimney, I'll sweep and vac out the stove top and get 2-3 cups of black shinny stuff. Getting less this year with 2 y/o wood, next year should be better.

Good catch on the split seam.

 

If the first section is going bad you may need to change the tee and snout also.
Can't be too safe!

 

Hope the dishwasher from Lowes worked out for you. It took them 3 trips to get us acceptable appliances 3 years ago when we bought new stove and fridge. 6 month later I bought a matching dishwasher from another appliance store. It was fine except within the first year they had to replace the motor. QUALITY stuff. Guess I am ranting too. Hope the pipe surprizes you.

 

I didn't want to here that....just got a new dishwasher about 2 months ago. Fingers crossed...