How to Install and Use a Drillbrush Extension

Drillbrush strives to make cleaning comfortable! With the power of a cordless drill, scrubbing surfaces requires far less elbow grease than cleaning it by hand.

However, not every stain is within arms reach, and not everybody has the means to reach them easily. That’s why we created the Drillbrush extension, an attachment for your brush that extends its reach and allows you to scrub those daunting, often missed surfaces.

Today, we’re going to go over what extensions are, what they do, and how you install one in your drill.

What are Extensions?

A 5 inch (top) and 7 inch (bottom) extension.

Drillbrush extensions are long, stainless steel bars with a 1/4" quickchange shaft on one side and a sliding 1/4" quickchange chuck on the other. When used with a Drillbrush, it makes the brush extend farther by increasing the length the bit.

Drillbrush extensions come in two sizes; 5 inch and 7 inch. Extensions fit every Drillbrush product with a quickchange shaft and are compatible with all standard cordless drills and impact drivers. Both extensions are sold on their own, as well as bundled with a variety of combo kits that you can browse here.

How to Install an Extension

Top: A Drillbrush being inserted into the chuck of an extension. Bottom: A Drillbrush and extension being put in the chuck of a cordless drill.

Installing a Drillbrush extension is very simple. As stated above, one end of the extension has a 1/4" quickchange shaft, while the other has a sliding 1/4" quickchange chuck.

For standard adjustable chuck cordless drills, insert the 1/4" quickchange shaft of the extension into the chuck of the drill. Tighten the chuck of the drill until the extension is secure. You can remove the extension when you’re done by loosening the chuck and taking out the extension.

For impact drivers, simply slide the extension’s shaft into the driver’s sleeved chuck. To remove, slide the driver’s chuck forward and then take the extension out. Some older model drivers may require you to slide the chuck forward to insert the extension, but most modern versions allow the shaft to slide right in without any additional actions.

To attach a brush to an extension, insert the brush shaft-first into the chuck of the extension. The brush can be removed and swapped out by pulling back on the extension's chuck and removing the brush.

As the extension only fits quickchange shafts, Drillbrush Hex and Threaded brushes cannot be used. A threaded-to-quickchange adapter should not be used to connect a 7 inch brush to an extension, as while technically possible, the 7 inch brush is too bulky for safe use.

Proper Extension Techniques

Yellow Original in a 7 inch extension scrubbing a toilet basin.

When using a Drillbrush extension, there’s a possibility that depending on your drill speed, the brush used, the length of the extension, and slight variances in tolerances, the brush will wiggle back and forth slightly when you clean.

To avoid this, be sure to keep your drill speed down. Going full bore will amplify any small inconsistencies and make the brush unruly. Using a manageable speed will keep your brush under control.

You can also lightly hold onto the extension near the sleeve with your fingers to keep it guided. While our current extensions don’t have a spinning sleeve like some of our past models, your hand can act as a buffer to keep it pointed forward. Just don’t clamp down on it, or otherwise it will be inhibited from spinning. A loose grip should do the trick.

With proper usage, you can keep clean-up under control!

Ways to Use and Extension

Stiff Jumbo brush on a 5 inch extension cleaning siding.

There are a plethora of ways a Drillbrush extension can be used to make cleaning a breeze.

Extensions can reach higher surfaces, such as kitchen cabinets, hutches, shelves, and crown-molding without the hassle and danger of standing on a step stool or ladder. Not everyone is 6’5” like the author of this article, so having those extra couple of inches can help people hit stains they otherwise couldn’t reach.

Conversely, for individuals with knee and back problems, an extension allows you to get to surfaces low-to-the-ground without having to bend or kneel. Drillbrush Founder and CEO Anthony LaPolla suffers from joint stiffness and struggles to kneel, so creating an extension was of great help to him.

Man using a Drillbrush extension to clean a bathroom floor while putting minimal stress on his knees.

You can also use Drillbrush extensions to get into tight spaces and deep structures. Cleaning the deep recesses of a refrigerator or in narrow places like air ducts, piping, and behind the toilet. You can even use it with detail brushes to get into really tight spots, like jars, vases, and glassware.

Additionally, an extension can be helpful if you’re working with caustic chemicals. Having that extra distance between yourself and the chemicals makes you less likely to be hit by any potential splatter in case you go a bit too fast as well as prevents you from being nose-deep into particularly pungent substances. This is also the case if you need to clean fairly unpleasant surfaces, such as around litter boxes and toilets.

Brushes That Can Be Used with Drillbrush Extensions

The brushes we recommend (and don’t recommend) for extension-based cleaning.

Certain brushes work well with an extension, while others should best be left alone.

We recommend the Original, Mini, Corner, 2 inch Short, 2 inch Long, 1 inch, Edge, and Cotton Buffer for use in extensions, as their shapes and sizes work well when affixed to a drill in such a manner. Bullet-shaped brushes like the Mini and Original work the best, as their rounded shape allows for more distance-based applications. Brushes like the Edge and 1 inch are a bit more situational, but still useful under the right circumstances.

Jumbo brushes can be used on 5 inch extensions, but we don’t recommend them for 7 inch as they are a bit heavy and cause a wobble when cleaning.

Flat brushes such as these are not well suited for extension-based cleaning.

The 4 inch, and 5 inch brushes can technically be used in extensions, but the way you clean with those brushes isn’t really conducive to being on an extension. As flat brushes, they require a level seal on the surface to clean efficiently, which becomes cumbersome to achieve if you essentially place it on the end of a long stick. The same is true for our line of drill-powered scrub pads.

As mentioned earlier, Hex and Threaded brushes do not fit in extensions, and using a threaded-to-quickchange adapter to attach a 7 inch brush to an extension is dangerous and will not clean properly. Stick to polishers if you need to use one of those brushes.

Reach for the Sky

Drillbrush extensions can help you reach those hard-to-reach messes that plague the corners and cubbies of your home. The only negative is that now you can’t use “I can’t reach” as a way to get out of cleaning for the day.

Check out our catalog for our full library of extension-based kits here.

The extension is part of our line of Drillbrush accessories, which we talk about along with all the other accessories in an article you can read here.

We also made a video on extension for our Tips and Tricks guides, which you can view here.