Rotary brushes beat hand rods every time on heavy creosote jobs

I switched to a rotary kit after a bad morning in Spokane last March where I spent 45 minutes fighting a 3-inch glaze with just rods and a brush. Anyone else find hand tools just can't touch the buildup that's been baking for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

stella_lane1d agoMost Upvoted

Did you try a soot-eating torch first on that 3-inch glaze? I had a chimney in Boise last December that had about five years of creosote baked into a solid shell, and my rotary brush tore through it in maybe ten minutes after the hand rods just bounced off the surface. That was the moment I realized the power tools are worth every penny on the real tough jobs.

miles2791d ago

Yeah that torch trick works okay on the softer stuff but on that hard, glassy creosote you're better off just going straight to the rotary. I had a job in Missoula two winters back where the previous guy tried torching it for 20 minutes and all he did was stink up the house and still had a 2 inch crust left. I brought in my rotary with a 4 inch chain knocker head and it cracked through in about 8 minutes flat. Keep the speed down low and let the weight of the tool do the work, dont push it or you'll snap a cable. Those glazes are like concrete once they bake in, hand tools just dont have the vibration to break the bond.