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Just realized I was wrong about creosote logs after talking to a guy in Billings
I told a 30-year sweep in Missoula that creosote logs were a scam, but he showed me before and after photos from a job where one actually knocked down a heavy glaze. Has anyone else seen those things actually work in real world conditions?
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terryk1018d ago
The key detail nobody brings up with those logs is how aggressive the homeowner was running their stove in the first place. A hot fire burning dry wood for weeks on end creates a different kind of glaze than a smoldering damp fire does. That Montana sweep probably saw the log work because the flue had heavy, brittle glaze that was already stressed from heat cycles. The chemical reaction in those logs just pushed it over the edge into falling off. But if a chimney has that hard, shiny baked-on glaze from constant lazy fires, a log alone likely won't touch it. That's the piece most people miss when they call them a total scam or a miracle cure.
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Had a buddy in Kalispell swear by them after his chimney caught a small fire two winters back. He was cheap about getting a proper sweep and grabbed a creosote log on a whim instead. Said six weeks later he went to clean it himself and big flakes of glaze were just falling off the flue walls. Still not sure I'd trust them alone but the pics he showed me looked legit. You ever hear of someone using one as their only cleaning method?
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carr.elliot4h ago
Heard a similar story from a guy up in Oregon who used one after a year of not cleaning his chimney. Said it loosened up a bunch of flaky stuff but there was still a solid layer underneath he had to brush off himself. Idk, seems like they might work for that top layer of glaze but not as a total replacement.
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