Old school chimney sweeping methods that just work better

I was up on a roof last week in Portland doing a clean on a house built in 1922 and it got me thinking about how much the trade has changed. 3 years ago I was still using the same round brush my mentor gave me back in 2010, but now every new guy I meet has a fancy rotating whip system. Don't get me wrong, those things have their place, but last month I had a job where the motorized setup just couldn't handle the heavy creosote buildup from a wood stove that had been burning wet pine for years. I swapped back to my old hand brush and rods and got it done in half the time with way less mess. There's something about feeling the rods catch every little ridge in the flue that you just don't get with a machine. Has anyone else noticed that the old fashioned methods still beat the new gear on certain jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

ward.kim5d ago

Honestly I gotta disagree here. Those motorized whips have saved me so much time on heavy buildup its not even funny. Maybe your client was burning compressed cardboard or something lol but I've had the exact opposite experience with wet pine jobs.

ben_lewis5d ago

Ward.kim brings up a fair point about the motorized whips being faster on certain stuff, but that heavy wet pine job I mentioned was a real eye opener. My old round brush and rods just dug into that gunk like a shovel, while the whip system was just bouncing off it and flinging crud everywhere. I think a lot of the new gear is built for lighter, more routine cleaning where you aren't fighting decades of buildup. Once you get that thick, tar-like creosote that's been baking on for years, the hand tools give you way more control and force to actually scrape it off the walls. The feel of the rods connecting with every ridge is something a motor just can't do, it tells you exactly where the problem spots are. I bet if your clients were burning compressed cardboard like you joked, that whip would be fine, but for the real nasty jobs the old school stuff is still king.