Bluesea 27ft Chimney Cleaning Kit - Aluminum Brush & 8 Rods for Fireplace Flue Maintenance

The short story on this chimney sweep kit is that it is a bargain and does a really good job. The two main reasons I bought this kit was: 1) My parents have a full size brick fireplace that in over 40 years they had never cleaned.2) I called for a chimney sweep to service the chimney and tatter inspection their quote went up from their advertised rate of $99 to $950. I love this kit because it is simple, has its own storage bag and includes a lot of helpful accessories that are needed for the job. For those who complain that the goggles are hard to see through- they have a protective film on both sides of the lens plate which you must remove- then they are crystal clear. Tip- the cleaning head does come tied down sort of like some Christmas trees can be wrapped and netted. Even after you remove the binding materials the stiff nylon bristles have developed a memory. The best way to get them fully extended straight out from the head is to use a hot air or heat gun to warm them up and bend them in the opposite direction of the storage folds. Wearing the provided gloves helps during this process. In less than 5 min. you will have a rounded spider looking bristle head! The flexible connecting rods snap into place easily. Just be certain to tap on that union with something to ensure that the locking button of one rod fully pops up into the cutout section of the other rod’s coupling. This is important because during operation there is a lot of rotational torque and if that button is partially depressed it could allow it to slip. To clean the firebox and wider section that funnels into the flue I used a standard wood handled steel brush and also a metal tipped vacuum hose that captured the majority of the debris.Note: Before I tackled the cleaning I did use another product that I found on Amazon, Cre-Away. It’s a powder that you disperse into the chimney and then run a fire to help it break down the creosote deposits. Once the lowered/wider section was cleaned I assembled the sweep and inserted it fully to the top of the chimney. Then, wearing leather gloves, I held onto the rod and helped guide it and move it around in the flue while my father ran a 20v cordless drill on the ‘1’ speed setting. To me the ‘2’ setting was harder to handle and probably overkill, at least for our application. During the sweep process we also had taped the plastic to the face of the fireplace with gorilla tape, leaving the bottom loose enough for me to be able to reach in and work the flexible rods as needed. Pulling it down slowly we cleaned and rotated the head through the chimney, removing a connecting rod once it was fully in the living room. The result was a wonderfully clean chimney ( around 18ft of flue) from 10min with the bristle head. Summary: Pros- Super reasonable price, nice assembly of accessories, decent build quality and convenient storage bag with a very efficient and functional design. Cons- The snap coupling interlock could be smoother and more positive. Depending on your fireplace, stove, insert, etc, you most likely will need two people to operate- one for the drill and one for handling the flexible rods.