Had a brush cage lock up on me mid-sweep last Tuesday

I was up on a roof in the older part of town, running my 8-inch brush down a flue I'd done a dozen times before, when the cage jammed solid against a sudden mortar ridge. After 20 minutes of fighting it on the ground, I popped the brush head off and ground down the ridge with a rotary tool, which let it slide through clean. Has anyone else dealt with hidden chimney blockages that only show up after you're already committed?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_oscar1mo ago

Actually, you might want to double check the problem there. A brush cage locking up like that is often caused by the brush head itself getting worn down, not the chimney. I've had that happen where the bristles get flattened on one side from repeated use, and then the cage starts catching on mortar joints that were perfectly fine before. Sounds like you took a rotary tool to a chimney flue, which can be risky if you're not careful about the liner. Those old clay flue liners get brittle over time, and grinding on them can crack the whole thing. Probably should have just replaced the brush head first to see if that fixed the issue.

zarar671mo ago

Yeah that's a bigger pattern I see everywhere, people always jump to the most complicated fix first when the simple answer is right there staring at em. It's like when someone's car is making a noise and they go straight to replacing the alternator instead of just checking the belt tension first lol. Sometimes the boring obvious solution is the right one but nobody wants to admit they might have overlooked something basic.