Switched from wire brushes to poly whips after a sketchy job last spring

I used to always use a standard wire brush for everything. Then I was cleaning a heavy creosote buildup in a prefab fireplace near Boise and the brush head just snapped off halfway up. Had to fish it out with a magnet on a rod, took an extra 45 minutes. Switched to a poly whip that same week and I haven't looked back. Anyone else have a tool fail on them in the middle of a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_fox5029d ago

Welp, guess I'm a magnet fisherman now" - that got me laughing hard. Because yeah, that's exactly what it felt like. I had the same thing happen but with an old rod that just unscrewed itself mid-scrape. Dropped the whole top section into a chimney in McCall. Had to rig up a claw grabber on a rope, took me almost an hour to fish it out. That's when I decided poly whips are the only way to go. Less stress, less cussing, gets the job done.

blake69129d ago

Man, that is my nightmare right there. I can just picture you standing there with half a brush handle going "welp, guess I'm a magnet fisherman now." I've never had a head snap off but I did drop my entire extension rod down a flue once, that was a fun 30 minutes of cussing and praying. Poly whips do feel way less sketchy though, at least you know the whole thing is flexing instead of breaking.