Plastic rotary brush failed on a 2 story rental, got blamed for the mess

Last Saturday I hit a chimney on a rental in Tacoma that had been burning green pine for months. My plastic rotary head cracked halfway up the flue and sent bristle chunks down into their fireplace insert. Tenant saw the mess and thought I broke their chimney. I spent 45 minutes fishing plastic bits out with a shop vac and a wire hook, then had to explain that the head was junk, not their masonry. Has anyone else had a plastic head give out on a heavy creosote job, and do you carry a steel head as backup now?

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the_brian5d ago

Plastic heads are a gamble on anything but a light cleaning. I burned through two of em on heavy creosote before I wised up. Now I carry a steel head in the truck for the nasty stuff and only use the plastic on routine maintenance. That Tacoma tenant is lucky you got the chunks out clean, that could have been a lot worse.