Picked a manual sweep kit over a rotary one for a job in an old Victorian last week

The flue had so much buildup and weird angles I figured the rotary might just shred the liner. Manual took twice as long but came out clean, anyone else find the old tools still win in tricky spots?

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1 Comment

the_emery20d ago

Honestly, the "manual took twice as long but came out clean" part really hit home. I had a similar battle with a buddy's old cast iron boiler flue last fall, we ended up using a shop vac and a wire brush on a stick because the rotary would have just bounced off all that crud. Took forever and we were both covered in soot, but beating that stuff by hand felt way more satisfying than watching a machine chew it up wrong.