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Used to hate vacuum setups until I saw a guy pull 3 pounds of soot out of a single flue
I always thought sweeping by hand was the only way to really know you got everything. But last week I was on a job with an older sweep who showed me his HEPA vac setup. He ran it on this old masonry chimney that looked pretty clean... and that thing pulled out so much fine dust I couldn't believe it. Made me realize I've been missing a ton of the nasty stuff that settles in crevices. Has anyone else had a change of heart on vacs vs hand tools?
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murphy.tessa1mo ago
My first vacuum setup looked like a Frankenstein toy from a garage sale, and I swore it was more trouble than it was worth. Then I borrowed a proper unit from a buddy and watched it suck a whole pound of fine ash out of a flue I'd just hand-swept clean. Now I'm the guy trying to talk my old hand-tool buddies into trying one, even if it means admitting I was wrong.
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claire_davis311mo ago
Oh man that's wild. Tbh I read somewhere that a lot of the stuff vacuums pull out is actually microscopic carbon and other junk that settles deep in the flue's pores. It's not just visible soot, it's the stuff that can cause chimney fires later on. Ngl I used to think hand sweeping was better because you could feel the flue surface, but that fine dust is basically invisible to your brush. Honestly it's changed how I think about chimney cleaning completely.
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Hang on there - I'd wanna see the science on that before I worry too much. A little microscopic dust seems like a stretch when creosote buildup is what actually causes fires.
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