Hello,
Anyone have any experience or informed opinion on this type of product for the prevention & elimination of soot and creosote in a fireplace. Its a 1″ x 10″ stick that’s thrown in the fire to burn with the wood. One specific brand is Flip-stick, made by Hercules (plumbing supplies maker). Only chemical listed is 3-sodium phosphate.
thanks
Replies
No product will eleiminate soot in the flue.
generally, the way these things work is to burn off the creosote condensate and trurnit into soot, which is less dangerous than creosote itself. A mini-chimney fire induced monthly by these products is theorized to be better than a major chimney fire once every year or two.
There might be some be3nefit to them, but my fear is thatwo many people use them to cover for bad habits like burning green firewood or creating a slo9w smudge that never heats up the flue.
You should burn only dry seasoned wood, and you should heat the flue up with a good fire before choking it down. Cold flues cause more condensation of creosote. Green wood creates more creosote to start with, The combination will clog the flue leading to two things - a poor draft and smioke/CO gas in the living area.
The flue should be cleaned and ionspected regularly whether you use those sticks or not.
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Why not sweep the chimney once a year?
Scott.
Thanks for the replies guys.
I already follow all the good habits (burn dry wood, clean chimney/flue...) Still can't help my curiosity as to the usefulness/effectiveness of that product. It's also supposed to be useful in oil burning furnaces.
Had a big roaring fire going last night, got in the teens. Threw in a couple sticks, made the flame real pretty. blue and green. impresses any company I have (very rare), but at $2.5 a stick, not sure it's worth it.
charles
Like piffin said: The flue should be cleaned and ionspected regularly whether you use those sticks or not.And make that a chimney inspection with a video camera. Aka NFPA Class 2 inspection (I think)
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