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Does anyone else think brush vs rotary is getting too tribal?
Had a chat with a guy at the supply house in Denver last week. He's been sweeping for 25 years and he told me he only uses the old wire brush, never touches a rotary. Said rotaries just push the creosote around and hide problems. I've been team rotary since I started, and I told him my cameras show a cleaner flue after every job. He just laughed and said I was chasing shiny tools. Now I'm second guessing my whole approach. He's got 25 years on me, so maybe he knows something. But I've done 60+ flues this year with the rotary and had zero callbacks on draft or buildup. Is this just a generational thing or is there a real technical difference? Anyone switch teams halfway through their career and notice a difference on the next inspection?
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wendyg432mo ago
Funny you mention this, cause my uncle ran a chimney business in Ohio for like 30 years and he swore by rotary until one day he pulled a dead raccoon out of a flue that the brush had totally missed. He said it was a sign from god to switch back to wire. The raccoon thing made zero sense but he never touched a rotary again. I still use both depending on the job, honestly whatever gets the soot out without me climbing back up there twice.
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jasonf172mo ago
Got a buddy who does the same work down in Tennessee and he had almost the reverse thing happen. He was using a wire brush one winter and it kept snagging on something weird, so he figured it was just a rough spot in the flue. Turns out it was a nest of baby squirrels that the wire had shredded into chunks, and he spent an hour picking fur and bones out of his brush. He said rotary would've just mulched them into dust and he wouldn't have had to see any of it. Now he's team rotary all the way, but he'll still use wire for the really baked-on creosote. We joke that every chimney guy has one dead animal story that picks their tool for them.
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