charles508•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Rant: Wasted $200 on a motorized sweep kit that barely worked

I picked up one of those fancy motorized chimney sweep kits from a big online retailer about 6 months ago. Cost me $200 after tax and shipping. The thing had a spinning head with nylon brushes that was supposed to make cleaning so much faster. First job I used it on, the motor bogged down after 10 minutes of normal creosote buildup. Then the plastic housing cracked where the rod connects. I spent more time fighting with it than I would've with my standard wire brush and fiberglass rods. Called the company and they said the warranty only covers manufacturing defects, not 'normal wear from heavy use.' Normal use for a sweep, right? I ended up tossing it in the trash and going back to my old manual setup. Has anyone else been burned by these fancy power sweepers?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake4321mo ago

Blew $150 on one of those spinny brush attachments for a drill once. Thought I was being clever, ended up just flinging soot all over my face and the brush flew off halfway through. My wife still brings it up.

patb861mo ago

It's more of a drill attachment problem than a motorized sweep thing, actually. Those drill spinny brushes work okay if you have a variable speed drill and keep it on the lowest setting, but most people crank it up and that's when the soot flies everywhere. The real motorized kits are meant to be used with a steady low torque, not like you're trying to mix paint or something. That $200 kit probably would've lasted longer if the company used metal where the rod connects instead of cheap plastic, but that's just bad design on their part. Sucks you got burned on it, but the old manual brush and rods really is the way to go for most people.