Drove 3 hours to a job and my rotary brush seized up on the first flue

Customer had a heavy creosote buildup from burning green wood all winter. Got maybe 10 feet into the first sweep and the brush just locked up solid. Pulled it out to find a chunk of glaze had jammed the bearings. Had to finish the whole thing with a hand rod and scraper, took 2 extra hours and my arm is still sore. Anyone else run into brush failures on those neglected fireplaces?

3 comments

3 Comments

kellyjones28d ago

Man, that sounds like an absolute nightmare, I've been there too. Had a similar thing happen last winter on a rental property where they'd burned nothing but pine for months, brush seized up so bad I thought I'd snapped the cable. Your arm must be killing you after all that extra hand rodding, I know mine was out of commission for a week after a job like that.

faith_thomas25d ago

That thing about checking the cable after a big glaze fight is spot on. I read somewhere that the sudden release of tension when the brush breaks loose can actually cause micro-fractures in the cable that you won't see till it's too late. I always run my fingers along the whole length after a tough pull now, feeling for any weird flat spots or kinked strands. Caught a frayed spot once near the coupling that would have snapped for sure on the next pull. @kellyjones I bet your cable took a beating on that pine job too, all that sticky resin can hide the damage till it's mid-job and you hear that awful pinging sound.

claire_hart5328d ago

Man oh man, that glaze is the worst. I gotta ask though, when you were pulling that brush out did you check the cable condition afterwards? Ive had glaze chunks do more damage than just locking up the brush, like actually fraying the cable wires where they got pinched. If the cable got any kinks or flat spots from that jam, you might be looking at a snap mid-job next time and that's a whole different level of headache. Just wondering if you gave the whole system a good once over after that fight, cause I know I get so focused on getting the job done I forget to check for that hidden wear.