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Bought a $12 creosote log at the hardware store in Reno and I owe the guy who sold it an apology
My old boss back in 2019 said those chimney cleaning logs were a total scam and just separated folks from their money, so I parroted that line for years without ever testing it. Last month a homeowner in Sparks asked me about them and I caught myself giving the same speech, so I figured I should actually look into it before running my mouth again. I grabbed one of the CSL logs at the Ace on Oddie, burned it in my own fireplace, then swept the flue a week later with my 6 inch poly brush. What came down was maybe 60 to 70 percent less flaky glaze than the fire before, and the brush moved way easier past the smoke shelf. Here is the catch though, it did nothing for the hard black glaze on the upper third of the flue, that stuff needed the rotary whip and I still spent 40 minutes on it. The log softens and dries out the loose stuff, it does not replace a real sweep, and the label even says so. So my boss was half right, they are a scam if you think they do the whole job, but they are legit as a between-sweeps helper for light buildup. Anyone else tested these against a control fire, and did you get more or less than my 60 percent?
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brooke_taylor4419d ago
The 60 to 70 percent drop on the loose stuff lines up with what I saw when I ran my own test two winters back, so you are not imagining it. My setup was a little different, a Vermont Castings insert with about four seasons of buildup, and the CSL log knocked down the powdery flakes noticeably but left the shiny black crust untouched. What got me was how much softer the brush felt going past the smoke shelf, same as you described. I have to admit I laughed at myself after years of calling them snake oil because my old sweep told me the same thing your boss did. Sounds like both of you were right, it is a helper and not a replacement, and the folks who get burned are the ones who skip the real sweep thinking the log did it all. Thanks for actually testing it instead of just repeating the line like most of us do.
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