Have any here? LOL sister complained she saw smoke coming out the single wall pipe on her Ideal Steel. Ok, I’ll change the pipes out for her. I originally used the adjustable elbows to create a 45 degree pipe instead of horizontal. Not a fan of adjustable elbows structural integrity. Bought new pipes with solid elbows. Back to the old school vertical and horizontal run for safety. anyhow when I pulled off the old pipes they were clogged with a dry black soot that was like spider web material. Never seen that in my life. I’ve seen plenty of black hard stuff in the pre epa stoves but this stuff was like cotton candy. Anyone care to hazard a guess how that formed. It had been three months since chimney clean. I fully expected her cat to be clogged and black from improper use. Nope, clean as a whistle and nice and grey on both sides. Looked better than mine or my mothers and we have no creosote problems. We all burn the same wood too.
I've had very big fluffy flakes in the horizontal piece between the 90 above the stove and the T going into the chimney. The flakes all fell apart rather easy. They weren't hard or glazed. I attributed it to trying to get 8-10 hour burns out of a 6-8 rated stove. Stopped with the low slow burns and that section of pipe stayed a lot cleaner.
Does she keep a pot or a kettle of water on or near the stove? The only time I’ve seen that, is there was a small air leak in one of the 45s and the steam from the kettle went into it. Could be something as small as the screw hole or damper control.
What do you reckon the temp would be in that part of pipe? Anyway it could have been spider webs in there that caught soot etc? Might be a silly thought...
Out in the woods so I’ll just reply to all. I think cotton candy may be the more apt description Not really hard or even semi hard flakes. Someone mentioned the water pot. Yep. Big one. That is quite the possibility. I’ve long ago given up on that myself. Mom uses one. But both our stoves are set up for rear exit. Sis is on top. Most likely cause so far. Thanks all.
When creosote burns in a chimney fire it puffs up like popcorn into a grey/black puff looking thing that has a thin shell but is soft inside. You can crush the marble sized balls into dust between your fingers. That first section of flue will see lots of flame, lots of smoke during bypass, and can burn off without setting the main chimney on fire. Since it is single wall it is relatively cold and will quickly gunk up with fuel during warm up for the chimney fire. Does she do more cold starts than you? During operation of a cat stove flue temps are low enough to not self clean the flue so accumulation from startup bypass can be significant. How was the rest of the chimney system?
Creosote forms At lower temperatures, the way that stove is designed the cat is almost at the top, if Your moisture was getting in from inside the fire box, it would’ve been caught by the cat. So therefore, it makes sense that moisture is coming from outside. And the formation Described sounds like steam through a pipe.
Yeah I think you win the creosote expert award LOL Not even sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing? I’ll let you decide. 20 years in masonry building fireplaces and chimneys. Rebuild obviously also. Thought I had seen it all as far as creosote goes. Never saw anything like this. Like a chia pet with troll hair growing inside the pipes. Steam makes sense. I won’t try to even explain how it makes sense to me but it does. Thanks for the expertise.
Interesting. Nope, never saw anything that looked like cotton candy in any type of smoke pipe or flue. It will be interesting to see if anyone knows what it is or how it is formed. OFFTOPIC: nice screen name. Big fan of 'ole slab sides' myself. Recently been working with 10mm and like it a lot although most of what I shoot is loaded way (WAY) down for comp- just sufficient to cycle the piece. Brian
Haha. That moniker is as old as the internet itself. Well, as old as my internet that is. Back in the day when you bought a computer and they signed you up for AOL at the cash register. Was supposed to be [email protected] but the sales girl dropped the E. I kept it. Used to shoot IBS Benchrest. Taught myself accurate reloading, the only way to fly. Costs more but you learn more. Once toyed with the minimum cycling loads in the 45. Never shot pistols in comp tho.
