Old hand tools versus new brush systems on a tough creosote job

Last fall I did a triple sweep in an old house near Dayton with years of glazed creosote packed in. I brought my new rotary brush kit and it just bounced off the hard stuff, wasted a whole morning on the first flue. Switched to my grandfather's steel wire hand brush and worked it slow, that thing cut through like nothing else. The new gear has its place on light soot, but I keep the old brush in the truck now for anything rough. Anyone else finding the classic tools beat modern setups on neglected chimneys?

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verab284d ago

Watched this same thing play out in a hundred different ways over the years. Fancy new setups get all the hype and cost three times as much, but when the job gets ugly the old reliable stuff still does the work. My grandpa used to say they don't make things like they used to and every year that passes I believe him more. New tools are built to be sold, old tools were built to be used until they wore out. I still grab my dad's old pipe wrench over the shiny one in my box half the time because it just bites better.

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