I saw a commercial about logs you can purchase to remove creosote from flues from fireplaces.

I remember reading notes here in I FORGE IRON where blacksmiths have discussed a creosote problem.

I wondered if these creosote logs actually work and would solve the problem?

I am asking out of curiosity as I am not forging right now.

I have a friend who tried logs like that and he said that it didn't work. The only way that I have found that works for me is to use a brush that fits my flue and pull it through the flue a couple of times to knock the cresote loose. Messy job! It helps to clean the flue once a year before wood burning season, that way the cresote dosen't build up too bad.

The creosote logs do not work well, I agree with Oakwood on this one, the only solution is to manually clean the chimney.

A friend of mine who is a full-time paid firefighter in New Hampshire told me to cut flashlight batteries in half and throw them into the fire to remove creosote. He said do not throw in whole battery because it will explode. I never tried it and don't intend to try it. I would think that would give off some nasty noxious fumes. My choice, the brush down the flue.

Has anyone heard of throwing a couple empty soda cans in the fire as a way to get rid of creosote?

That's one of the local wive's tales thats keep getting passed around during wood burning season.

I don't really see how aluminum or aluminum oxide would do anything to creosote.

Pity the Chimney Sweeps
Percivall Pott and the Chimney Sweeps' Cancer

The English surgeon Percivall Pott (1714-1788) was the first to establish a causal link between cancer and exposure to a substance in the environment. In 1775 he described the occurrence of cancer of the scrotum in a number of his male patients, whose common history included employment as chimney sweeps when they were young.

Benzopyrene

Benzo[a]pyrene, C20H12, is a five-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon that is mutagenic and highly carcinogenic. It is a crystalline yellow solid. Benzo[a]pyrene is a product of incomplete combustion at temperatures between 300 and 600

Edited December 6, 200817 yr by Ice Czar

My brother always burned his potatoe peelings in the wood stove, said it removed creosote.

Jayco-I've always heard the pop can thing too. Never could get an explanation on why it supposedly worked, so I use a brush. Anyone else hear this and maybe got an explanation for it?
Mickey

Creosote is a big problem for me in my stove. I have the stovepipe made so I can take it to pieces very easily and clean it out. I don't have a brush so just pull a small pine tree through it.

Hotter logs is the real answer as they don't produce the creosote in the first place.

My Dad growing up had an airtight woodstove, which made it too easy to run a cold, smoldering fire that didn't burn very hot but lasted all day or all night. His solution was to make a hot fire at least once a day, hot enough to get the stack warm and expand a little and get all the previous day's creosote to flake off and tumble into the stove. It seemed to help control the level of build-up, but he would still brush it out every year. The worst thing you can do is to run little smoldering fires day after day--or burn pine. If you can't bear to be in the room with the stove when it's burning properly and not shut way down, you bought too much stove...