We don’t have a lot of fireplace fires in our house, but we like to have 3-5 or 6 during a winter. But someone nearby had a fireplace fire and it freaked me out thinking that we could have one. We did have the fireplace/chimney cleaned a few years ago and with so few fires, I don’t think I need to do it again real soon. So - do those logs that are sold on tv really help?
They harden chimney buildups so that some of it will flake off. Without cleaning with a brush a lot will remain. I don’t think a chimney sweep will give you a discount on the price of decent cleaning if you use a creosote log firt.
Some people say it will damage chimneys but there doesn’t seem to be supporting evidence for that except that they may burn at a higher temperature than most firewood. On that basis I wouldn’t burn a stack of them in a fireplace.
We burn a lot over the winter, using our wood stove, which we’ve had for 15+ yrs now.
We have it professionally cleaned every autumn before we begin burning wood. (Cost C$200+) in addition, we burn a creosote cleaning log beginning of Dec, and another end of
February.
That has served us very well, the cleaners say it’s the best approach and so far, that has proven true.
I think they work well.