When posed with the choice of paying $300 for someone to clean my chimney or $80 for this product, my husband and I decided to try this ourselves.The product works great! I actually cleaned the chimney from the bottom up. I watched some videos first and found that if I’m not aware of the top of the chimney where the cap is that I could get the bristles stuck.I recommend using one rod at a time and cleaning the bottom section until you don’t see anymore soot dropping from the flue. Add the second rod and clean the section that it reaches and so on until you get to the top.