Rotary brush vs chain knocker, I was team rotary until Tuesday

Been doing this for 7 years and always swore by the rotary brush, thought the chain knocker was old school junk that just beat up flues. Then last week I had a job in a 1920s house in Columbus where the flue had this weird offset and heavy scale buildup, rotary just kept bouncing off and leaving chunks. The homeowner, a retired mason, handed me his old chain knocker and said try it slow and let gravity do the work. Honestly felt dumb how easy it was, it busted through the scale in about 15 minutes where I'd been fighting for 45 with the rotary. I mean, I still think rotary has its place for light soot, but now I carry both and switch based on what I see in the inspection mirror. Anyone else find situations where the old school tool just flat out works better than the fancy one?

1 comments

1 Comment

andrew85423d ago

That 1920s house had to be way easier to clean than my modern horror stories.