My old boss told me to quit brushing flues by hand and I told him he was crazy

Alice Wright · 2026-09-23T08:00:04.616402+00:00

I ran into the guy who trained me back in 2019 at a supply shop in Akron, and he asked if I was still doing everything with a wire brush on a pole. I told him yeah, that is how I was taught, and he just laughed and said he had not touched a hand brush on a standard flue in 4 seasons. He pulls a rotary setup with a drill and says a typical 8 inch flue takes him about 6 minutes instead of the 25 I was burning. I argued with him for 20 minutes about how a brush gets corners better, but then I did 3 jobs his way and the creosote came off cleaner. I still keep a hand brush in the truck for tight spots and old masonry, but I was wrong about it being the only way. Anybody else made the switch on rotaries, and did you get pushback from old timers about it?

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My old boss told me to quit brushing flues by hand and I told him he was crazy | Chimney Sweeps - Talk Freely