Black Shiny tar

[Treemoss]

Do you guys think this is worth getting? I think it will help keeping the creosote at bay. Also has anyone used this, and when and how is the best way to use this.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yeah, I don't really expect a hot fire to clean that. It's not as hot at the chimney cap as I imagined it would be - the outer layer of the insulated pipe at the cap is cool to the touch with a probe temp of about 500 down by the stove (I was up there a few days ago cleaning the gutters while the stove was burning). I cleaned all that crap out of the cap yesterday after I took the pics. I'll keep an eye on the joints until I get to know this stove and chimney better. There did seem to be a little more of a build up of stuff at the joints when I looked down the chimney with a flashlight, but nothing like what the cap had.

I've been trying to keep the flue temps up, but sometimes it just gets too hot in the house. It was 27 degrees the other night and the house was at 82 degrees with a window open and fans going. We have a small ranch house and this Dutchwest stove is probably a larger stove than we needed, but I got it for free from a friend.

Don't be concerned about that 82 degree temperature. We keep our house like that all winter long. Just checked and we are at 82.

Build up at the joints is not good. They should be sealed so as to not get this.

 

[Treemoss]

So basically we run our stoves with a few logs and let it burn down to just coals to keep the house a nice comfortable temperature. That's why we get cooler temperatures up top to form creosote tar. So when I'm running 24 7 and a little hotter that should not be as bad up there. What do you do when your house is 90° and you don't want to run hot fires all the time. Will that cause you to get that buildup specially in the dead of winter.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

So basically we run our stoves with a few logs and let it burn down to just coals to keep the house a nice comfortable temperature. That's why we get cooler temperatures up top to form creosote tar. So when I'm running 24 7 and a little hotter that should not be as bad up there. What do you do when your house is 90° and you don't want to run hot fires all the time. Will that cause you to get that buildup specially in the dead of winter.

No.

We run our stove with a few logs when we only need a little heat. But this has nothing to do with producing creosote. Even when we run the stove with fewer logs, we still have heat going up the chimney. If you are getting creosote, almost all the time the cause for this is burning wood that has too much moisture in it. As I've stated, we happily run our stove with just a few splits and get no creosote.

Last evening it was plenty warm in our house and we were expecting the lows to be only in the high 30's. No problem. We simply did not add any wood to the fire. I started a fire in the stove about 15 minutes ago (3 splits) with the house temperature at 75 degrees. It is cold outside with high winds expected. In addition, because of a tight schedule the next few days my wife wants to do a little bit of laundry. In the warmer days she uses her solar drier. When it is colder, like today, she likes to dry them indoors using the heat from the stove. It works out good for us and adds humidity to the house. We won't need much heat today but the stove will keep the temperature level or a little warmer while also drying the laundry. During this time, the flue temperature will stay warm enough to keep the draft so the gasses will go up the chimney.

What do we do when the house is 90 degrees and we don't want to run hot fires all the time? Read that last paragraph again. 90 degrees is a bit too hot even for my liking so we just do not raise the temperature very much and I certainly would not be adding wood to the fire.

Treemoss, I fear you have made a connection thinking that creosote is caused by running your stove without a full load of wood and by not getting the stove hot. If so, a bit of a change should be in order. For the most part, if you are getting creosote, you are burning wood that is not dry enough. Yes, the top of the chimney will be the worst spot.....but it need not be bad. You've read before about our chimney cleaning. We did run a brush through our chimney after 2 years burning the Fireview. We got about a cup or less of soot and fly ash with absolutely no black junk and certainly not tar. We have not cleaned the chimney since then and it is fine. You know now that we do not necessarily burn the stove hot. We run the stove so that the indoor temperature is at our comfort level. We have never felt that we had to run any stove hot just to keep creosote at bay. To keep away from creosote, we burn dry wood. It is really as simple as that.

Please allow me to give you some thoughts on the 3 year plan:

1. We always try to be a minimum of 3 years of wood split and stacked (top covered only).
2. We are not afraid to leave our wood in the stack longer if we have an abundance of wood. I believe when we joined this forum we had something like a 7-8 year wood supply already split and stacked. We never had a problem with any of that wood and the stove ran wonderfully from day 1.
3. If you do try the 3 year plan, be prepared to learn that you don't get creosote like most folks do.
4. If you have a 3 year plan, all wood that you prepare will be dry, including that oak which normally takes 3 years to dry properly in most places.
5. Be prepared to find that you really do not need as much wood to get the same amount of heat.
6. Be prepared to find it very easy to start new fires.
7. You will not have smoke problems. The stove will burn very clean.
8. You won't be cleaning the glass daily.
9. You will be prepared for possible problems such as injury or sickness that might keep you from putting up wood some year. You will still have good dry wood to burn and won't have to depend on others to supply you with wood. We have had many examples of this from members of hearth.com. Being ahead is a blessing.
10. With a bit of practice, you can make your wood stacks look nice rather than looking trashy.

Well, I could go on but perhaps this gives a good idea why we promote the 3 year plan.

 

[Treemoss]

I see, I thought that no matter how dry the wood is that a cold pipe up top on the chimney will produce creosote no matter what. Not tar that I have on the cap. My chimney is very clean it only has a light dusting of a grayish sote. It is the cap on the inside top that has this sort of sticky black tar the pipe is good.

 

[HotCoals]

Water is a by-product of burning wood.
That said very seasoned wood will only have 10-20% moisture content to begin with but that does not mean a very inexperienced operator could not still gunk up things.
Especially if the install is not all that.