This poly brush worked to perfection in my wood burning stove with my custom rod made of pex line. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because the price of attaching rods was a bit high, though they should last indefinitely. I ended up not being able to use the rods and designed my own custom rod. I chose poly, which is just stiff and snug enough to make it up the flue without too much resistance, scrub it clean, yet leave the interior metal lining free of scratches (fine scratches may result from a wire brush and leave a rough surface that's more grabby for future build-up). I made three passes up and down, but could have gotten away with two. And yes, I said UP the flue: my roof pitch is obscenely steep and nearly 40 feet above ground. I can get up there if I build a safety bridge, but I could see with binoculars that my cap was clean and no blockages, and building that bridge is a timely pain in the neck. So, I came up with a plan to use the brush going up the flue. Of note, my flue pipe is all metal, not a traditional stacked chimney made from rock and ceramic flue. For that sort of chimney I would choose a metal wire brush. The challenge for me was getting to the vertical part of my flue (17 feet to the chimney top), which is not located inside of my place. I first needed to go a foot horizontally through the interior wall portion of the flue, then change angle on the brush so it heads up the flue, all this with a push rod attached. Traditional fiberglass rods were a bit too stiff, and while I could force them through the 90° angle change, I was concerned they might create too much lateral pressure on the vertical flue pipe and risk separating it inside the wall from the horizontal connecting pipe. So I went on a hunt at the local Home Depot and found a 20'pex pipe that had just the right flex and stiffness enough to push up 17' of flue. That pex comes in different diameters, and the bigger the diameter the stiffer the pex pipe, and the easier it will be to push up a long flue. But that same stiffness makes it more challenging to flex through a severe angle change like I have. If you go this route you will have to experiment to see which is ideal for your metal flue. A 20' length of pex runs from $6-$10, and you can always return the one you don't use. The rod mount on the poly brush fit perfectly inside the pex, and actually screwed in despite the pex pipe not having threads. For extra security I used two hose clamps also from Home Depot, and secured them tightly over the inch-and-a-half of brush mount that was inside the pex pipe. I imagine I could have used duct tape, but IMO the hose clamps are more secure. As a backup I secured a 20' long piece of nylon twine to the upper loop of steel wire that makes up the core of the brush, weaving it down along core. I ran the system up the flue, the twine hanging free so if the brush and pex rod separated I could use the twine to retrieve the brush. I didn't have any separation issues, but am glad I took the extra two minutes to put on the twine. The pex had just the right flex for me to safely push it through the 90° angle change, and just enough stiffness to push to the top of my chimney. It required a little ummph pushing it foot-by-foot up the last 5 or so feet (reaching inside the wall), but it did the job. I do not have a serious creosote issue, and I'm not sure that this system will work if your walls are overly thick with build-up. Also, my vertical flue has a drop down (where I reach horizontally through the wall) of about 8-10" to catch debris and any rain that might trickle in. I placed a flashlight on the catch to shine up the flue, and used small digi-cam to take pics up the flue. I also popped in a small circular mirror that's on a mount that can be angled to look up, and I could shine the light through the wall onto the mirror and see up the flue. For my wood stove I first had to dismantle the pipe coming up from the top of the stove, then angling into the wall. If that is something that you can't figure out how to do on your own, then this level of DIY project is probably more than you can take on. If you do clean your own flue from inside the home, wear gloves, keep a shop vac handy and cleaning rag/spray handy to immediately remove smudges up the walls and debris from the carpet. And if you are thinking, "WOW, that's a lot of work to save $125 for a chimney cleaning", well, it's not really that much work once you've got the tools (all together cost me under $30) and set things up to do it. Besides making the cleaning rig, the work took about an hour for the whole thing. And, for years I paid chimney sweeps, and then one year a new guy came and I didn't trust that he did a good job, so I had another guy come out to inspect and he confirmed that the first guy had done a very poor job, pulling out about two cups of build-up that the other guy missed. So I decided that if I want it done right, do it myself, and over 10 years of cleaning once a year, I'll save $1250. Hope some of this was useful for you, and I welcome any suggestions you might have for me.
