Remember everyone telling you in the oak seasoning post, a minimum of 3yrs... Follow the rules and creosote wont be an issue. I pay a sweep once a year, mid spring to come out and clean my chimney. We live in a large A-Frame and the chimney is about 50’, and its well worth the $250 I pay to me... Anyways, every spring he scrubs everything as good as he can, and he might have a 6oz coffee cup worth of stuff fron a solid 1yrs use. Season your wood properly, use the damper properly, and creosote is nothing to worry about.
Heres how i recycled beer cans my beer drinin' boys accumulated for me.....won 50 bucks.....best in show!
I burn hotter than I like but I do it for that reason. I do have some buildup at the top but my stack is 20 feet up. Ill try to keep my pipe 425-450 at 18" above the stove for as long as possible. Sometimes 2 or 2.5 hours before it starts to drop. I don't think after that much time there is much creosote making gas anyhow. Ive never seen 500 on my pipe and don't plan to unless I make a mistake.
I'd say you have nothing to worry about. as for some junk right at the top of the chimney, that is where most folks get it and the higher the chimney, the more you'll get. But that is not enough to get big concerned. One can actually just clean the top 3' or so if need be or if you can and you'll be good. But if you find black stuff at the bottom or even toward half way up, you have a problem. We have a short chimney and a couple years ago we extended it 3'. When we did, we started getting a little bit of black at the top. Still not enough to be concerned with. My wife usually cleans the chimney as she worries but it's now been 2 years since it has been done. The chimney is fine.
I still clean mine quarterly. Just for my mind. Maybe later on ill stretch it out. Even now, I don't get much build up in the cleanout.
I brushed my stack this past fall for the first time after 4 years of burning. Got about a 1/2 gallon of ash out of it. I do remove the the stove connector pipes and 90 each year and check them out and the cleanout. usually has a little thin crusty build-up. About a 1/2 gallon.
