My uncle swore by using dryer lint as a fire starter for chimney cleaning

My Uncle Bob told me last fall that wads of dryer lint work better than any commercial fire log for burning off creosote in a masonry chimney. I tried it on a job in Austin last Tuesday and the whole thing flared up way too fast, nearly set the soot on fire before I could get my tools out. Now I'm stuck cleaning a residue that smells like Bounce sheets. Anyone else get burned by a family member's "expert" advice?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma6859d ago

Did your uncle also insist on using eggshells to sharpen his lawnmower blades? I swear every family has that one person who thinks old-school shortcuts never have downsides. The thing is, dryer lint is basically a giant wick of chemical fibers and accelerants from laundry products. It's not just fluffy cotton anymore, it's lint soaked in fragrance oils and fabric softener wax that burn way hotter than you'd expect. What bugs me is how people pass this stuff around like gospel truth without testing it first on something small. We're all so quick to take shortcuts instead of just buying the proper chimney cleaning tools, and then we act surprised when the shortcut bites us back. It's the same pattern with people using WD-40 for things it wasn't designed for, everyone just wants a quick fix without reading the fine print.

michaelchen9d ago

Best trick I ever learned was testing lint on a brick in the driveway first. A quarter cup of my dryer lint burned hot enough to warp a metal grate in under two minutes. That little test saved me from turning my chimney into a Roman candle, and it only cost me a few matches and a ruined brick.