A sweeper in Boise told me my brush was too big and it cost me 3 callbacks

Two months back I did a sweep on a ranch house outside Meridian and the homeowner called me back twice saying the flue still smelled like soot. I was using a 12 inch poly brush on a 10x10 clay tile flue because that is what my old boss handed me on day one. The guy at the supply shop in Boise took one look at my setup and said point blank, you are spinning a brush that can't reach the corners, size down and add a whip. I switched to a 10 inch and started running a soot eater whip after the main brush, and the calls stopped cold. Anyone else figure out their brush size was wrong the hard way?

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rivershah17h ago

The "can't reach the corners" line is where I'd push back a little. On a 10x10 clay tile, a 12 inch brush isn't automatically wrong, the problem starts when guys run it at high speed on a cordless drill. A brush that fits snug will whip past the corners if you slow it down and work the flue in sections, top down. Going down to a 10 inch is smart, but I'd bet the whip did more of the work than the size change did. Soot eater after the main brush cleans up what the bristles leave behind, and that is probably what killed the smell calls. Size matters, but how you drive the brush matters just as much, and nobody tells new guys that part.

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