StovaxProtector, Flue & Chimney Cleaner Big 1 kg Tub

I'm fairly certain this works as it should.The only reason I don't sound 100% certain is due to not having anything to compare it to.Today I swept out flexible liner connected up to a 5kw morso badger.It was used extensively over last winter practically every day from early afternoon.I use only well seasoned wood, mostly soft last year and early on in the season some ovoids and anthracite.Though midway through winter I converted stove to wood only.So yeah today I took out all the vermiculite board I use in place of fire brick and used chimney typhoon (amazing) connect to drill swept from top down.Now they say it should probably be done at the mid way point through winter and I'd probably agree from what came out.It certainly wasn't anywhere near blocked but I could clearly see where soot had accumulated on the parts of the flue I could see.What I was left with was a bone dry fine brown powder filling ash pan and forming a fair sized pile on top of bottom grate.So quite a bit came out.Appreciate it's a long winded review but this was exactly my experience.I'd be interested to know what it would have looked like without it?Cost seems to have gone up significantly. I'd look on ebay, at the time of writing this it's around £18.I've bought a couple of tubs of hot-spot just to see if a cheaper brand works as well.

As Max Bygraves was alleged to say, "I wanna tell you a story". When I moved into my new home, the second bedroom had a freshly plastered wall. I was told it was because of water damage. When my new neighbour, the local jack-of-all trades, introduced himself he immediately brought the matter up. He'd been asked to have a look at things. It wasn't water damage, it was tar! He'd been a charcoal burner in earlier days, so he knew exactly what tar smelt like.The major cause of chimney fires is not getting it swept regularly enough. But, as my neighbour explained, a major factor in the amount of deposits you get (besides the state of your fuel) is how hot you burn your fire. The erstwhile owners were in the habit of burning a fairly small fire. A hotter fire produces hotter smoke & a hotter flue. So not only does the smoke rise more quickly, it cools less quickly, and more of it escapes through your chimney, instead of laying down nasty deposits in your flue. Just in case you didn't know!As for this product, it does what it says - reduces the risk of chimney fires & renders any deposits more amenable to brushing. There are two reasons why I'm only giving it 4*. First, it's pricey. The instructions on my tub say to use 2 measures for the first 7 lightings if you've never used it before, and then 2 measures every 4 lightings, so I'm not sure why some other reviews are suggesting you sometimes only use 1. One measure (I weighed it) is around 28g. Saving you the maths, one tub will last 17.85 uses. If you light your fire every day & you've never used it before, it'll be gone in 47 days. If you have used it before you get 72 days. Obviously, if you don't light your fire every day, it'll last longer, but at the current price, it's more or less a pound per use (and you will still need to get your chimney swept periodically; it doesn't save you that expense, just makes it easier & less messy).The second problem is that it can be a bit pongy. Even though I've been using it in a closed wood burning stove, I sometimes get a strong chemical smell pervading the house. I couldn't make my mind up as to whether it reminded me more of ammonia or chlorine, then looked at the tub; "product contains 10-30% ammonium chloride" - that explains that then! I can only imagine what it's like using it on an open grate, as I haven't yet done so! Still, it does do what it claims and is probably more beneficial, for the reasons given at the start, for those of you with smaller flues or less hot fires (a smaller flue implying the latter anyway). Oh, one last word of advice - I find it much easier to dump the two measures of powder onto a fire shovel & use that to distribute it, rather than use the small plastic dispenser directly. Especially if I forgot to add it before lighting the fire!

We discovered just over a week ago just how built up our chimney had become with hard deposits. After having a 4 o'clock on a Friday chimney sweep two years ago then not pinning him down to come and do it again last year we had to revert to my husband getting up there and doing it himself. He has a camera on a cable and could see that the creasote had built up alarmingly and our brushes wouldn't shift it - it took a drain spike to remove enough to get the fire to vent and we are only using smokeless fuel just now. I went on-line to see if I could find help and this is what I came up with. Tomorrow will be day 7 and the inside of our little Morso Squirl stove is as clean as a whistle - no sticky residue at all on the boiler or up to the bend in the chimney! We have had a sprinkling of hard dry sooty deposit trickling into the chimney bend but we have no idea yet what is happening further up - hubby will go up and have a look over the weekend. My husband says it smells like rhubarb jam when we come down in the morning instead of sometimes a sickly acrid tarry smell. I love it when I sprinkle the heavy powder on to the glowing coals as the flames are electric blue. I just shut it down with a tiny amount of draught from the vent and it burns and smokes away for quite a while. I also ordered a chimney log but it only arrived after I'd begun the Stovax treatment so we will wait until we see what is happening at the problem spot in the chimney before deciding if we will use it at this moment in time. We ordered the two things as we are desperate to prevent a chimney fire - we had a mega one about 5 years ago and don't want to experience that ever again!I've given 5 stars for the super job the powder has done inside the stove - fingers crossed that the chimney will follow in the same way and be clean as a whistle too. We realise it is bad and might take a bit of shifting! We will use this as a regular treatment now to prevent the build-up getting to a dangerous stage. My husband is getting on in years and won't be able to hoist himself up on the high chimney for many more years. We may need to look for someone willing to put the brushes down for us when that comes.Aug '14 - found new chimney sweep who has done a great job. He is not in favour of this product as people think it is an alternative to sweeping. He seems to have got rid of our build up so I assume the powder burning helped 'crust' the tary deposits making it come off. It gave the stove a treatment the evening before the sweep came so everything was dry and flakey. I'm happy and will continue to treat periodically.30th Dec '14 - I ordered my second tub just before Christmas and it arrived on Christmas Eve. The tub had a rough trip in the post causing the contents to leaking everywhere. Royal Mail had double bagged the box to prevent leakage! The tub was just in a box with no protective packing to take impact. I've contacted the seller re the fact that there is only 678gms left out of the kg. I poured all the loose powder into an old tub and weighed what was left as the seller said I'd get a refund on the amount that is missing. I've replied giving the weight but not a peep have I heard now in three days. Disappointing as it would be nice to have a conclusion asap. Had the 1kg tub had some protection then the damage may have been avoided.

We have been using Stovax for four years. When the chimney is swept there is hardly any dust just brown and black tiny bits of clinker. No more clouds and the lingering smell of soot. We use the Typhoon sweeping kit and there's not a sign of tar on the brush. Highly recommended. No wood burner should be used without it.