Switched from wire brushes to poly brushes for clay flue tiles

Did a job out in Springfield last week where the wire brush kept catching on rough tile, swapped to a heavy poly brush halfway through and finished the whole stack in 20 minutes. Anyone else run into this with older clay liners?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_roberts2d ago

Come on, a 20 minute time save switching brushes? That sounds like an exaggeration. Those old clay flues are usually packed with soot and creosote that's been baked in for decades. Not sure a poly brush is gonna cut through that crust faster than wire. I've seen guys spend 45 minutes on a single stack with a wire brush and it still wasn't clean.

kelly9682d ago

Honestly, I get where you're coming from with those old clay flues, they can be brutal. But I think you might be underestimating the poly brush if you haven't tried one on a decently coated flue. The poly bristles are stiffer than people think and they don't get hung up on rough spots like wire does, which is where you waste time fighting the brush. On a really heavy glaze, yeah, wire is probably still the way to go, but for regular soot and moderate creosote I've seen poly cut the time down by a good 15-20 minutes easy. Ngl, I used to be a wire-only guy too until I gave poly a real shot on a few jobs. It's not a magic wand, but it's not just hype either.