I need a chimney brush...

Thanks for the tip on the free rod kit at woodmanspartsplus. I have an 8" brush, a 6" brush, adapter and rods coming for $84.62 shipped. Beats paying my chimney guy $125 a year to do it.

the problem w/ metal brushes on stainless chimneys/liners flex or not IS real. It will damage the chimney, not as fast w/ wood as with fuel oil/coal due to less acidity, but it will cause a shorter lifespan nonetheless. Bits of steel become embedded in the protective oxide layer of the stainless which allows a pit to form like a cancer. some alloys are more resistant to this than others, 316ti being one, but damage is still being done. btw, it has nothing to do with actually "scraping" away at the liner itself, rather, as i mentioned, the embedding of non-stainless steels into the exterior of stainless steels allows corrosion to start on an otherwise healthy chimney thus giving it a shortened lifespan... and it ends up looking like swiss cheese. Coal is especially bad for stainless chimneys/liners because the flyash naturally contains bits of iron, as well as higher acidity etc. This is why Coal should not be used with stainless unless the user has the expectation that the liner/chimney won't last more than a decade, and likely not even that. There is a very good thread (on the Nepa coal website) on a stainless flex 316ti (the MOST corrosion resistant alloy) being used with coal; it collapsed after less than 5 years and looked like a slinky. That is what happens when iron particles allow pinholes to begin on "stainless" steels in a corrosive environment.