Can we talk about how I used to brush flues by feel and now I wont touch one without my camera

Stella Thompson · 2026-09-16T03:25:04.565545+00:00

For my first 9 years on the brush I did every flue blind, just feeling for ledges and listening to the bristles, and I honestly thought that was the craft. Then about 3 years ago I picked up a cheap inspection camera for $180 and ran it down a flue in an old house near Dayton where my rods had been gliding smooth as butter, and there was a shelf of creosote the size of my hand sitting 6 feet above the smoke chamber. That stuff was glaze, hard and shiny, and no brush I own would have knocked it loose, so I would have signed off on a chimney that was one hot fire away from a real problem. Now the camera goes down first on every job, even the easy ones, and I find something maybe one time in 15 that changes how I sweep the thing. Some old timers tell me I am wasting time and scaring customers, but I would rather lose 10 minutes than miss a shelf. What do you all do, run a camera every time or just when something feels off?

Vivisector

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Can we talk about how I used to brush flues by feel and now I wont touch one without my camera | Chimney Sweeps - Vivisector