Bought a cheap brush kit off Amazon and it cost me 3 hours

Picked up a $25 brush kit online instead of my usual $80 one. The bristles started falling out after 2 chimneys and I spent the whole afternoon picking wire out of a customer's firebox. Has anyone had luck with any budget brushes that actually hold up?

3 comments

3 Comments

harpery471mo ago

and the thing is, it's not even just the cheap brushes that give you trouble. I tried that same budget trick once with a different set and had bristles shedding like a shedding dog within the first use. The real kicker was when a tiny wire got stuck in the damper and I didn't catch it until the homeowner called saying their smoke was acting up again. I swear those companies design them to fall apart so you have to buy replacement after replacement. At this point I'd rather pay up front for a quality brush than spend an afternoon picking metal out of a customer's firebox ever again. It's just not worth the headache.

parker1831mo ago

Man, that's rough. But honestly, I've had a similar thing happen with a paint scraper I bought for a different job. The handle felt solid enough but the blade just folded right over after scraping off one layer of old paint. Took me like an hour to get the metal shards out of the crack I was working on. You're right about these companies building in planned obsolescence - they know exactly when things will fail and they time it perfectly. Its like they study how long people can hold onto a tool before they get fed up and buy another one. I told myself after that, I'm only buying stuff from brands I actually trust now, even if it hurts my wallet upfront.

bettyroberts1mo ago

Oh man, "picking metal out of a customer's firebox" is exactly the kind of nightmare that keeps me up at night. You hit the nail on the head about them designing these things to fail. It's like they know exactly how much abuse a brush can take before it starts to crap out, and they plan it to happen right after the return window closes. I had a similar experience with a "pro grade" set that was supposed to be better, but the handle snapped off after three jobs. Now I just assume anything under a certain price point is going to end up costing me more in time and frustration than just buying the good stuff once.