Rant: dropped $65 on a rotary chimney brush kit that just spun in place

Bought one of those cheap rotary brush kits online for a stubborn creosote job on a brick flue in Council Bluffs, and it was a total waste. The rods kinked on the second pass when it hit a shelf of glaze, so the brush just spun without biting anything and I stood there looking like a clown. I ended up going back to my old flat wire brush on a poly rope and finished the whole flue in 40 minutes. $65 gone, plus I ate a two hour trip for nothing. Any of you had luck with a rotary setup, or is it just a gimmick for soft flues?

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angela_morgan2d ago

The kinking is the real killer with those kits. The rods are thin walled junk that fold the second they hit any real resistance, and once a rod bends even a little the brush stops spinning true and just polishes the glaze instead of cutting it. What makes it worse is that glazed creosote is basically plastic, it does not crumble like the fluffy stage stuff, so spinning a brush on it just heats it up and smears it around. I have heard the rotary setups work fine on soft soot or a stainless liner where there is nothing to snag, but on a brick flue with shelves and offsets you need something that scrapes, not spins. Your flat wire brush on a rope biting into the corners makes way more sense for that kind of job, and 40 minutes for a whole flue is honestly a good day.

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