The cap and right at the top was nasty, rest if the chimney wasn't too bad. The pipe coming out if the stove wasn't as good as I had hoped but I did burn a 1/3 cord of questionable cherry this year so it probably came from that.
Ya. Time for me to have my chimney guy come and do a good cleaning too. Next week I think. Where is the after picture swags?
I was thinking the same thing. That mesh is a magnet for gunk. That would really slow down the draft if'n it got any worse.
Good on you on the cleaning. Sounds like good use of fair weather. Mesh UN needed imho, but can be used as a gauge with a pair of binoculars.
Nice work swags. Way to stay on top of things. No ladder necessary. Except a real short one to get in that truck after you get the 35s on there.
Mine looked about the same when I cleaned it, I think it's more a function of the extreme cold this year and not so-so wood. I'm either going to get another style cap or cut some of the diamonds out, I hate going on my roof (even though it's relatively easy) since I'm afraid of heights and I go up and check that every year about half way through and clean it while I'm up there. You probably had the same problem as me and couldn't get up there because of snow depth. I ended up using my roof rake to clear a path and the warm sun cleaned a nice path up for me today.
I was thinking it may just get clean again when the rains come. My cap looks like new in the summer. Like Weatherguy said, it may be the cold this year that caused it.
It might have but it was so cold it probably wasn't noticeable. I didn't notice mine until the other day I opened my door and a puff of smoke wafted into the room, I knew right off what it was. Now that it's cleared I got super draft back tonight.
Ya I had some back draft too, but hadn't thought about it until I got up there and looked at the cap and thought wow that's clogged up.
Wow that does seem bad for a cat stove...I would guess it's the marginal wood. My old dragon used to get that way but this new stove shows very little build up.
The Princess is a dirty burner imo, the flue temps are so low it doesn't take much to gunk it up when the exhaust hits the cold cap. My chimney was a lot cleaner when I had a non cat hooked to it since it blew so much heat up the chimney.
Yes this stove seems to burn dirtier but like rdust said flue temps are so much lower it makes sense. So I just loaded up this stove and holy crap it lit up so much better and came up to temp way faster. The burn is so much better, holding temps way better then it was before I cleaned it out. This thing can breathe now it was really choked up with the cap the way it was. Still learning with this BK
Was just saying the same thing about mine, I noticed too that when I closed the bypass it felt different, I worked it back and forth and I think something came loose because now I can close it tighter, I get that last click now. I see its already burning a lot different than it was lately , I'll see how long it burns tonights load.