A guy in Denver said my brush was too small for the job and he was right
I was cleaning a 12x12 clay flue last month and thought my standard brush was fine. He pointed out I was leaving a quarter inch of creosote on the sides because the bristles weren't making full contact. I switched to a bigger, stiffer brush and it cut my time down by half. Anyone else run into this with older, bigger chimneys?
So you were basically just tickling the inside of that chimney for a month? I love the idea of a guy in Denver just watching you work and finally deciding he's seen enough. That's like using a toothbrush to clean a driveway and wondering why it's taking so long.
Oscar's "tickling the inside" comment hits home. I used to swear by my go-to brush for everything, thinking a good scrub was a good scrub. But after a job on a massive old farmhouse flue, I saw the same quarter-inch ring left behind. Getting the right, bigger tool felt like I'd been cleaning with my eyes closed before. It just cuts through the gunk instead of pushing it around.
Fair enough but I gotta say I see it a little different. Sometimes that smaller brush lets you really work the tight spots without beating up old mortar joints. A bigger tool might clear the ring faster but could also scrape stuff you don't wanna mess with. Just depends on the job I guess.