The day I found out my brush angle was backwards for 12 years

I was cleaning a flue in Milford about 3 years ago and the homeowner was an old sweep who'd been doing it since the 70s. He watched me work for a minute, then asked why I was angling my brush down instead of up on the return pass. Told me I was pushing soot back into the firebox the whole time, which explained why every job took me an extra 20 minutes and I kept getting calls about smoky reheats. Has anyone else had a basic move corrected by a stranger after years of doing it your own way?

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wesley_jones21d ago

That "every job took an extra 20 minutes" line hit home. My buddy Dave does HVAC and he told me he spent five years cleaning coils backwards because he watched one guy do it wrong at a supply house and just copied him. He found out when a customer's neighbor, who was a retired tech, pointed it out while standing in the driveway. Said he had to re-learn the whole motion and it felt weird for a month, but his service calls got way faster after that.