We heat only with wood in our barrel woodstove. This past Friday I went to clean the chimney and found it so full of crud, it was impossible. So I went to Menards & bought insulated pipes and put them directly from the woodstove through the roof. Why is it we've lived here 9 years & never had this much trouble with crud (or creosote, or whatever it's called) in the chimney? I've always had to clean it out a few times a year, but this was way too much. We used to heat with pine (because we have some pine plantations on our managed forest land that need to be thinned out), but I learned the hard way that pine is responsible for lots of creosote. So the last few years we've been using more hardwoods. Will this new pipes without a chimney system work better? Any comments or advice on this. Thanks & have a great day in the Lord! Bob Frohmader family from Buck Snort Resort

-- Bob Frohmader (buksnort@mwt.net), March 19, 2001

Answers

hello Bob, we always heat with wood too. We use beech mostly but never any soft woods. WE had a wood stove in the trailer we lived in whe nwe were first married and I didn't see any differance with the crude build up from then to now ( that we use a cement block chimney). We had an insuleted chimney in the trailer. Good luck with yours. Havea great spring!!

-- michelle (tsjheath@ainop.com), March 19, 2001.

Has your wood been green at all? That will build up more creosote. Or maybe you are like the rest of us---it has been a colder than usual winter, and the ole'woodstove has had to swallow more wood than usual of keep the house warm. More wood=more creosote!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), March 19, 2001.

In my opinion Bob, you did the right thing. Insulated pipe holds the heat from the flue gases in until it exits the chimney. Usually the higher the temps , the less creosote. Usually wood burners have more problems in spring and fall when they don't need as hot of a fire and the stoves get dampered down. This restricts the air and creates a smoldering type fire and more creosote. You mentioned changing types of wood and if it is not dry , that could account for a lot.

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), March 19, 2001.

According to our county forester pine, if dried properly, will created no more cresote buildup then any other type of wood. I think what your real problem is that pine burns very hot. When you burn your fire hot you get less buildup of cresote. Now that you have change the type of wood, you are burning at a lower temp. and that is why you are getting more cresote buildup this year.

-- David in NH (grayfoxfarm@mcttelecom.com), March 19, 2001.

A vertical pipe will help avoid as much creosote, but will not eliminate the problem. Do you have a stove pipe thermometer on the stove pipe above the wood stove? It was a revelation when I finally put one up. They only cost a couple of bucks and have a strong magnet to attach to the stove pipe (un-insulated part). Put it at eye level. It will tell you the exact temperature of the stove pipe and gives three temperature ranges: "Creosote", "Best Operation", and "Too Hot". The most important factor in creosote buildup is the temperature. Obviously wet or green wood makes it very difficult to maintain a high enough temperature to avoid excessive creosote. By maintaining proper temperature, we get by will stovepipe cleanings only two or three times a year.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), March 19, 2001.

We also have a barrel stove and a smaller stove in the kitchen attached all to the same chimmney that heats our whole old farm house very well. We have to clean this chimmney twice during the winter. When we used the stove in the livingroom only that one never seemed to build up with any cresote at all. I personnly think it is where the chimmney is located and the drafts and all of that or as other have said the type of wood you are burning. I guess you did the right thing about the metal stove pipe but I wouldn't get lazy in the cleaning of that either. Good Luck !!

-- Helena Di Maio (windyacs@ptdprolog.net), March 25, 2001.