thanks for the input everyone
well i got it going again, thanks to bits and pieces from everyone on this site!
vet ithink it was you telling me about the hard blockage at the bottom of your pipe and you had to pound through it, kinda same thing was going on with me, i went back to the chimmney again even though i swore i cleaned it like new, this time i took the cleanout cover off the bottom of the "t" and put a halogen light in there so icould make sure it was clean, went up on the roof looked down in and could barely see the light, just a hole about a finger wide. what happened was when i sweeped all the thick stuff down it created a shelf of hard packed creosote on the lip of the "t" , i was pushing it down and it sounded just like it was bottoming out on bare metal. like you said i took the pole end of the sweep and rammed it about five times and it broke loose and all came out the clean out!
the second idea i got from people on this forum is the simpson ss duravent chiney i installed, several people say that this piping is notorious for causing backdrafting. im thinking this is causing my creosote build up because the holes on the outer shell of the pipe actually was drawing the cold air and somtimes smoke, from the top of the chimney. when i say this i mean there was cold air blowing into the basement through the holes so hard that you couldnt keep a match lit near the pipe! thus all the cold air was not letting the pipe get up to temperature, always had thick smoke pouring out the top of the chimney, even with the flus open and fire roaring. the outside of the pipe was always ice cold even though the fire was hot, now keep in mind the pipe goes out the concrete foundation wall 3' horizontily (with about 4" steady pitch) then the "t" with a cleanout is outside the house and has about 15' high pipe.(there was no where to run it straight up through the house) so what ive done now, is taken some insulation and plugged the holes where it comes into the basement, and went up on the roof, removed the cap and plugged the slotted holes on the outer shell of the ss pipe reinstalled cap. now i go back in the house to check, no more cold air backdrafting, checked the draft in the stove, lit a wooden blue tip and the draft is so strong the match is sucked right out! (thats still with no fire) so now im thinking i got it ####ed! i start a fire, she run hot and not a puff of smoke, u can feel the draft being sucked in the draft control! now this is all happening with my outside temp being 6 degrees with winds that feel like 10 below, i went outside an hour later to feel the pipe to see if the insulation in the holes worked, and the pipe was warm to the touch, smoke was barely seen coming out the cap, not thick smokey and stinking of creosote as it usually did.
so --- im sure theres an engineer out there somewhere that designed this pipe this way for a reason.... probly for going through the floors and through the attic and out the roof the ventilation would keep the pipe cool....... but using it outside with the hole open doesnt work so great! in a week or two ill check for build up again let u know how it goes! thanks for everyones input, it helped me solve the problems! if anyone has done this and had problems result from plugging the holes(ya know like your house burnt down?) let me know! thanks!
