Tried a cheap magnetic sweep kit and it ruined my liner

Picked up one of those $40 magnetic chimney sweep kits off Amazon last week to save time on a rental property job, and the magnet snapped off inside the flue halfway through. Ended up spending 3 hours fishing out broken ceramic magnets and scratched the stainless liner so bad it needs replacing now. Has anyone else had a cheap tool fail like this mid-job or am I just unlucky?

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3 Comments

aliceg612mo ago

wait hold on, are we sure it's really that bad? i mean yeah it sucks that your liner got scratched but replacing the whole liner over some scratches seems a bit dramatic. magnets breaking off is annoying but not exactly uncommon with those cheap kits. you kinda get what you pay for with that price point. i'd bet the scratches are mostly cosmetic and won't affect your draft or safety that much. unless you saw actual holes or the stainless is flaking off i'd just run a brush through it and move on. people act like a little scratch is the end of the world when really liners can handle way more abuse than we think.

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casey3932mo ago

Is it bad that I read this and immediately checked my own cheap kit?

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adam_nguyen72mo ago

Wait, are you sure scratches are always just cosmetic? I had a cheap kit once where scratches turned into little rust spots over time. @casey393, I get why you'd check yours right away honestly. The real issue with cheap liners isn't just scratches its the coating wearing off. If the stainless underneath gets exposed it can mess with your protection. Better to catch it early than find out the hard way.

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