Nervous about this

Lots of running around yesterday. Didn't get a fire going till 3:30. While I was outside before it got dark I always look at my chimney to make sure it's not smoking. It wasn't. But I woke up to this. Awful dirty I think. Please tell me what you think.

Inside the stove.

This is the wood I'm burning. Sorry I messed up the pictures. But you guys get the idea.

 

This will be our 3rd burning season. I was on the road when it was installed, but it was installed by the company we bought it from. Which is all they do. I don't remember it ever looking like this before. Thank you for your response. I take everything you say very seriously.

 

I don't see anything there that I'd worry about. Your firebricks are quite clean, and your ash looks burnt down to nothing, save for the black chunk I see. That was probably the culprit (my guess) once the other wood burnt off. I've had the same thing happen often in shoulder season.

Are you sure it didn't happen at start up when the stack wasn't warm yet? I've seen my smoke come out, roll down a bit, and then wisp away on a cold start.

Snow and rain make it go away.

 

Yes it did smoke when I started it up. I don't leave my door open, just open the air control all the way. I use super cedars and dry pallet wood to get it started. Thank you for your help. I feel better about this. Just for kicks I will be getting on the roof for a better look after the grocery store.

 

So where is the dirty pic?
Can't see inside the cap, if you are really worried about it check inside the cap and make sure whatever screen may be there isn't plugged. But looks pretty normal to me. And you say you saw it was not smoking, so sounds like no big deal to me. Grab a beer, sit down by the fire, and chill. All stoves will smoke during startup, and this will eventually discolor the top, and doesn't self clean with a good hot fire like some of the internal sooting might.

 

As others have said it looks like it's not a problem but if it bothers you always best for piece of mind to get a close up look if you can. My guess is, if you have not seen this before it may be that you had just a little different wind pattern and it made the exhaust drop when it exited.

 

Thank you all for your help. I feel better about it now. I'm kind of a worry wart sometimes.

 

I start at 6a.m. but i usually am at work by 5:40 a.m. FYI I was on the toilet when I replied. Sir no offense, but some of my best work happens there,

 

If that's all you got after 3 years of burning,,, !

Looks very clean to me. You're bound to have a smoky fire now and then (especially if you're trying to teach the wife to run the stove!! )

Now if you had black drips running down the side? That would be bad. That's the bad sort of creosote, and if you see it on the outside, there's probably 100x as much built up on the inside.

For me, with my non-EPA stove, there's a lot of things that can lead to a less than ideal burn. One of the biggest, is how I build the fire inside the box in the first place. I like to lay the splits in there in crisscrossed layers for better air circulation inside the box. Can't leave too much ash in there either, or the bottom layer won't get enough air to burn right.

But from the looks of your chimney, I wouldn't change a thing.

 

Thank you all for your help. I've been a burning fool since. I'm really trying to get the time off from work for your GTG. In April.

 

Nothing wrong with that, better safe than sorry! My wife HAS to have something to worry about, she's a real worry wart!

 

Sorry I see you p.m. me I didn't sign out.