Chimney brush ?'s

What kind of brush do you guys use, poly or metal? I am leaning toward poly cause it won't be so abrasive to the pipe. I figure I would have it done once by a professional and watch then do it myself

If its in a stainless chimney or liner, only Poly, if in a clay tile metal. My Liner said warrenty VOID if anything besides a POLY brush is used.

I use a poly brush. Somewhere I seen a wire brush will scratch the stainless and rust will start and creosote will build up faster.

Poly.

+1 - Poly on stainless, steel on tile. Watch the poly brush, some are a little too big. When you get a new brush push it down the pipe a foot then try to pull it up. There should be an increase in resistance when the brush changes direction but not a lot. If it jams hard when you try to reverse direction you may want to trim it just a little. You don't want the head to get stuck in the pipe and pulled off the rod/rope. You also don't want it to stretch the seams when you reverse direction.

KaptJaq

I use a metal wire brush on a 6 inch stainless steel ventinox liner. The professional stove installers said that is what they use.

Poly on my ss liner. Very easy to do it takes me about a half hour that including removing the baffle in the stove.

That doesnt make it right! Did you see the post by pallet pete where the pro used the "chain flail" on his buddies SS liner

It dont matter who uses a metal brush onmy liner.. warrenty still void, although if a pro did i i guess i could try n go after them if it failed under warrenty??

Clemsonfor brought up a good comment. To add to that, I've posted on here before about this. The last time we put up a new chimney (SS) just for kicks I asked the man at the stove about steel vs. poly. He has worked at this for many, many years (don't remember exact so will just say many). His comment was that you indeed could use either but.... In his years of working with this stuff, the only SS chimneys he has ever seen that had to be replaced were the ones where the owners used steel brushes. Never any damage with poly. He did say no damage appeared much at all until close to 20 years but by 20-22 years they had to replace.

With that comment, I simply figured, why not buy a new poly brush for $15. Sure, I have the steel brush but probably will never use it again. For a lousy $15 I'll go with the idea that it won't damage the SS.

good post -

6" metal brush for sale

I'll go with poly.

I use a sooteater....

Steel on the galv straight shot and poly on the flex SS.

I use Fossil's ferret . . . looks almost as good as the day it was installed.

On the boxes of the wire brushes that are available in my area, it very clearly states that a wire brush is meant only for a clay liner --do not use on a SS liner.

Rolling eyes. Here we go again, every gdamn year.

If you don't like to see questions repeated then you probably shouldn't spend so much time on an internet forum.

Yeah but betting ffjake's ferret thing is new.....

Ed do you remove and inspect / clean all the tubes in your Osburn when you pull the baffle? I don't - just wondering if that's worth the extra few minutes....?

Yes, I have to remove my front two tubes to get the baffle out so it was worth the look. This is the first winter for this stove so they were obvioulsy clean. Maybe the next year or year after that the far back tube will be pulled and cleaned.

Thanks Ed - I can get away with dropping 1 tube + front baffle support (guess I have a bit more leeway since the baffle in the older Osburn is a series of bricks..?). Maybe I should drop all the tubes next time I clean the stove and give them all a closer look. Probably only add 10 minutes to the job. 3 years of weekend burning - from the outside they still look great - but sanity checks are always good.

i think he is more referring to why dont more folks use the search feature before posting? But really i dont mind seeing it more than once, i too have asked questions that have been asked more than once. I try to look at searches but the tangents we go on sometimes make them not as productive without reading for hours. Just like i am posting here!

I would guess that about 85% of newbie questions have been asked before. Sometimes with slightly new twists that the poster does not realize will not change the answer. Some answers do change as new products and procedures hit the market. Other answers change due to changes in codes.

I have no problem answering the same thing over again especially for a newbie. Many are overwhelmed with the idea of bringing fire into their home safely or don't understand why they cannot do it the way their father did. Many do not even know what to search for.

This place is a fun place to banter and tease each other but it is also here to help those that need help.

KaptJaq

Duh, I have to know this for work, and have seen first hand the consequences of contaminating Stainless Steel with ordinary steel, but never thought about it when I bought my steel brush for a Stainless Liner.
Carbon Steel scratching on Stainless Steel will introduce free Iron (Ferric), over time this can form a corrosion cell that will eventually pit the Stainless Steel. If the brush is stainless then this is not a problem, but I don't know if any brushes are stainless.

TE