Hand brushing vs rotary brush on a tough flue job

I tried using a rotary brush on a heavily creosoted flue last month and it just smeared everything around. Went back to hand brushing with a wire brush and got a FULL scrape out in half the time. Has anyone else found rotary setups useless on really baked-on deposits?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan6666h agoProlific Poster

Did you try heating the brush up first to break the glaze before going at it, or did you just run it cold? Because I found on the really crusty jobs a propane torch on the rotary head for a few seconds makes a huge difference. What kind of wire brush were you using with the hand method?

lewis.diana6h ago

Gotta hand it to you @rowan666, I used to just go at it cold and think the heat was overkill, but you changed my mind on this one.