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My old lead in Cincinnati said creosote logs were a scam, and I ran the numbers behind his back
Honestly I always nodded along when he said the chimney log things at the hardware store were a waste. Then a customer in Hyde Park asked me to sweep hers in January after she burned 4 of them over the winter, and the flue was still caked a quarter inch thick. I started keeping track on 11 sweep jobs where folks used them and 11 where they did not, same neighborhood, same wood, same season. The log group was maybe 15 percent cleaner on the top section and basically the same at the smoke shelf where it actually matters. Now I still tell people a log is not a sweep and it is not a fix, but I stopped calling them a total scam because they do loosen some of the light stuff up top. Curious what you all say to folks who swear by them, do you tell them to skip it or just let them burn one and see?
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hannah_west3919h ago
The thing nobody brings up is what is actually in those logs. Most of them are just sawdust and paraffin wax with a little copper salt thrown in, and the wax is what does the loosening. So you are basically paying five bucks to burn a candle in your firebox. If the creosote is glazed or stage three, that wax does nothing but make it shiny. The real question is whether the person is burning hot enough fires in the first place, because a guy running wet wood in a cold flue is gonna get build up no matter how many logs he throws in. I tell folks to save the money and put it toward a moisture meter instead.
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