hello I have burned a little less than 2 cord of wood last winter and i just cleaned the chimney I got about 0.25 cubic foot of creosote removed from it, the chimney, from the stove to the end, the whole length is about 16-20 foot long. It seem a lot. Last year I didn't really check the quantity (my mistake) but I remember it was way less than that. Last year I had to clean the glass every 1-2 weeks but this year i only had to clean it maybe every 5-6 weeks and I also used a thermometer and I followed the direction of keeping the temp between 400 and 900f. (I aimed at 600f most of the time) Last year I didn't had a moisture meter so I don't know if my wood was properly seasoned but this year I had one, I noticed I had some good wood (17-20%) and some bad one (25-29%) All that to say, is 0.25 cubic foot a lot for about 2 cord of wood?
Seems like a lot. I never even cleaned my chimney last year from the year before :0 What stove? What chimney? What wood? 600-900 F? Dang that’s cooking. You burning rocket fuel?
Seems to me like quite a bit, but what matters more (I believe) is the kind of crud that comes out. I'll get 2 or 2.5 cups of crud during a cleaning, and we'll guess that's per cord. It's either fluffy grey/brown/tan kind of stuff, and you could literally wipe it out with a tea towel on a stick except for the top 2 inches of my chimney stack where it meets the world. Seems like a lot compared to some guys, but burn some dodgy wood, or lots of bark, or cold starts can all attribute to this.
Your pail of crud looks like a match for mine. I've started to control my air a bit more than I used to, and have noticed less crud in my situation. I sometimes go against popular dogma since I've got a few years of burning under my belt now. What stove are you running? What wood? What kind of outside temps?
stove : Wood stoves : XVR-II wood : mix of Yellow Birch / Sugar Maple / Beech (some of them this year wasn't well seasoned, I had some hissing / boiling water on some) this year it was pretty cold, I live in Canada close to Ottawa, you can go there and check other month; Weather in December 2017 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
That's a roughly 2 cubic foot 50,000BTU stove. Do you choke it back more at night than during the day ? That looks like brown dry sooty stage 1 creosote. Lots of red oak ?
during the day / while I'm awake, i try to keep a flue temp of 600f but before going to bed i follow the manual which say to leave about 10% open (i did this this year, last year i was fully closing it)
Spirch first welcome, I would consider that a lot of creosote for one year. Before I joined here it might have been normal. As you are probably aware, your wood is not dry enough. When you start though you burn what you got. I would focus on non sugar maple, and others for this year and get as much as you can NOW. Also consider a mid season clean, just to be safe!
If you stop burning wood that is over 20% moisture your problem will be solved. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
that is my plan this year, I remember having some wood with 30-35% last winter, I had nothing else and this might be it this year I should have enough and I will try my best to put the one that are above 20% on the side until it get there
Thats a crap load to me... either your woods not ready, or you are choking your fire of air. I average a coffee cup or so each year. I have a pro sweep come over and he laughs as I stand there and watch for the results.
One thing that confuses me here after looking back, is how the flue temps are so good if the wood isn't dry. I've burned some real dodgy stuff on purpose, and if I remember correctly, stove temp of 400 and probe temp of 400-450 F was pretty much the best I could do wide open. Obviously a different stove though. Dry wood is always a good thing mind you.
That's why I asked what his night habits were. That can be 33% of burn time often undocumented. I know I don't get up in the middle of the night and check very often and more often than not when I have the stove was not in the "safe" or efficient zone. It's a lot easier, it seems, to keep a cleaner burn going at night with a bigger stove.
the chimney / stove was installed a few year before I got the house exterior chimney, about 12-14 foot long and something like SuperVent 6 inch double wall insulated and the interior chimney is "normal" black double wall one 40 inch up, 90 degree then 16 inch to the wall and it goes outside
