First Year Burning and worried about creosote

I bet your cap needs cleaning and the source of the soot flakes. Also possibly your moisture meter is off and the wood is not as dry as you think.

 

I do have a Buck 91 which is a cat stove. The Buck 74 is a non cat. I am on the 3 year plus plan and I honestly waste my time running a brush down the chimney, never anything in there. I have never owned a tube stove so not much help. I do think though you could gunk up a chimney enough to have a fire pretty quickly if you are burning sub par wood or not burning correctly.

 

Hey folks. Went out and bought a soot eater to give my chimney a clean. Using it for the first time, so I think I may have missed a few spots but from the before and after pics below you can see a fair difference in the texture of the inside of pipe.
Before

after

What came down from the pipe was a lot of these little black flakes, which I assume is soot/creosote. Pics are attached below.
Based on what you see here, is this expected? Or is this a sign that I haven’t been burning correctly or haven’t been burning dry enough wood?

 

That isn't that much, and mostly dry flakes, so its not the worst thing, but something there could be improved a lil...just not sure what exactly.
One thing I can say is you need to back those self tapping screws out and drill through that inner pipe...those areas where the pipe is pushed in means (cold) air leaks into the chimney, which doesn't help anything.

 

Can't say how many thousands of these I driven......... The self-tapping screws were reserved for heavy gauge metal of multiple layers (not stove pipe)

 

Yup! My neighbor introduced me to those when he made some custom plenum parts back in 2012 when I was installing the then new to me Yukon wood/oil furnace...I was hooked right away and have used them exclusively for sheet metal work and stove pipes ever since...then only thing is that they are pretty expensive, and good ones are kinda hard to find. I bought a box of 100 from the local HVAC shop (his employer) and it was something like $20! They are called "self piercing screws" and most of the ones I have found in stores are just not as sharp as the ones from the shop (those are EXTREMELY pointy/sharp...and make their own hole in the metal right now!) I just recently found that ACE hardware can order a bag of 100 in for about $5...the only bad thing is that they are only available in white and brown though. They do however work well.
Malco No 7 Sizes X 1/2 in. L Slotted Hex Washer Head Sheet Metal Screws 100 pk - Ace Hardware
SL17857A Zip-in Product Sell Sheet

 

If that's all of it, that's not much. Those look like curls formed when the film on the pipe gets a sudden blast of hot air . The film is there kinda like thin glass and while they are curling and releasing in flake sizes it sounds a bit like glass breaking. It would be cool to watch it happen. Some of your wood might be a tad higher moisture content than you'd like, you might be cutting the air back just a tad too much. I'd like to see what you brushed out be grey dust rather than those black curls but from the small amount you're probably doing just fine with what you've got to work with.
The "before" pic looks kinda normal grey powder I see when looking down my chimney pipe(s). The after pic has a few black patches that must have been covered up with the grey dust and may indicate your burning practices have improved. Hard to tell from pics, but that's what it looks like.
A bad habit/practice ( and I've done it) is trying to burn at a lower temp especially in shoulder season or overnight . I find I have to have one burn in the morning and just let the fire go out instead of trying to nurse it along during the day which tends to build up in the chimney from too low temps. Relighting the stove every afternoon on sunny days is a PITA but getting up on the roof to inspect/ clean out the chimney is more of a PITA. Now that I (try to) batch burn I really don't have to clean out the vertical part of my chimney at all.

 

If you have a screen in your chimney cap "you really need to take it out" when its cold outside by the time the heat goes up the chimney and reaches the cap it is pretty cool and will form creosote and will plug that screen up very easily, if you are having problems with that now you will have even more problems when it gets really cold .
When you fire up your stove get your pipe hot quickly , you can worry about getting the stove hot after that , the quicker you get the pipe hot the less chance you will form any creosote
if you don't have a thermometer on your pipe you should get one , if you have single wall all you need is a magnetic one , if you have double wall pipe you will need a probe type.
You can check them out here , Condar stovepipe thermometers , these are the best brand thermometers and are also available on Amazon

 

I have two temp gauges on both of my stoves. One is on the flat top of the stove, the indicator is telling me the heat temp inside the stove, and when I can engage the catalytic converter in my stove. The 2nd is about 12~15 inches up the flue pipe, and it tells me the heat leaving my stove and going outside into the atmosphere.

It is a good way to watch your stove working for you. As the heat goes up inside the stove (and out the flue pre-engagement of the cat) when it hits 200+ I engage the cat and the high heat leaving via the flue pipe (not into my living room) decreases while the stove heat on the flat surface increases. Usually, my stoves will run at 5oo~700'F during the first half of the burn cycle, and then slowly decrease as the wood gasses off but the cat keeps working radiating heat into the house. You can pretty much substitute your secondary burn device for the cats I have in your model stove. I think this 2-temp gauge method is a good way to keep that flue pipe as clean as possible while not overfiring the stove.

 

I've not cleaned my chimney for the past 2 seasons. So this'll be the 3rd burning year. Based on the years prior burning essentially CSSed for 3 years standing dead ash and some box elder and silver maple.....................I'd get less than 1/2 cup of coffee grounds looking stuff from my chimney(just over 15'). I will sweep after this burning season............and post the results.