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Tried a flat wire brush on a 30 foot flue and it beat my round poly brush by a mile
Did a job in a 1920s house near Dayton last Thursday and the flue had about 20 years of glazed creosote baked on. I started with my usual round poly brush on a rod, and after 40 minutes I had maybe a quarter of it off. Swapped to a flat wire brush and the stuff came off in sheets, done in 15 minutes with way less mess on the drop cloth. The flat brush bites the sides of the tile instead of just spinning in the middle of the flue. I still use the poly for light yearly cleanings, but for anything thick or shiny the wire one is what I reach for now. What brush setup do you all run on old masonry flues with heavy glaze?
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hollyl458d ago
The part about the brush biting the sides of the tile instead of spinning in the middle is the real key here. A round brush only has so much contact area, so the rods torque up and it just skims the surface. A flat wire brush hits two sides at once because the flue is square, and that edge contact is what peels glazed creosote off in sheets. One thing to watch though: the corners of the tile on those old flues chip easy with stiff wire, so check for cracks after. Also worth running a camera before and after on a 1920s chimney, those tiles can spall and the debris has to go somewhere. Poly is still my pick for yearly touch ups but for glaze, yeah, wire flat wins.
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