PSA: Stop telling customers to burn a hot fire to 'clean' their flue, that advice cost a homeowner in Bend $4,200

Spencer Palmer · 2026-09-23T20:35:05.089721+00:00

Last month I got a call to a house outside Bend, Oregon, where the owner had been running hot fires every week for two years because a sweep on a home forum told him that was how you clean creosote. When I ran my camera up the flue I found glazed creosote three eighths of an inch thick the whole way up, and a hot fire just bakes that stuff harder instead of removing it. He ended up paying $4,200 for a rotary removal and a new liner, and the fire he was told to build is exactly what nearly set his attic off in February. Heat does not clean a chimney, brushing and proper draft do, and I will keep saying that until the forums quit repeating it. If you have been handing out that advice to your customers, what did you tell them to do about the glazed stuff that builds up anyway?

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PSA: Stop telling customers to burn a hot fire to 'clean' their flue, that advice cost a homeowner in Bend $4,200 | Chimney Sweeps - Thought Shares