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Hit 500 cleanings this week and it made me change my tune on rotary brushes

I always swore by hand tools for everything. Thought rotary brushes were just for rookies who didn't know how to work a rod. But at job 498 I hit a stubborn creosote glaze on a zero-clearance insert that had me sweating for an hour. Grabbed my boss's rotary setup on job 500 and it cleared that flue in 12 minutes flat. Has anyone else had a tool they hated that ended up saving you time?
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2 Comments
gavin_kelly91
You said you "don't know why I waited so long" with the rotary brush, and that's exactly how I felt when I finally tried a power scrubber on a really old stove pipe last month. I'd been stubborn about it too since I figured hand tools were more thorough, but after that one job where I was basically just polishing soot for 40 minutes I grabbed the rotary and finished in ten. Its weird how we get so set in our ways with certain tools until something forces us to try the other option.
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allen.charlie
My first 300 jobs I was all manual rods, but last winter I finally caved on a rotary for a factory-built fireplace with heavy soot, and it cut my time by more than half. I still use hand tools for the easy ones, but that rotary is a lifesaver on the tough stuff (I don't know why I waited so long).
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