Bought a soot eater rod after renting a machine for three years

The cheap rod snapped on the second flue on a job in Toledo last Thursday so now I'm back to renting the machine, anyone else had issues with those fiberglass rods getting brittle?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_hall520d ago

Switched to a steel core rod after breaking three of those fiberglass ones in one season... the fiberglass just gets too brittle once it's been banged around in the truck for a bit. I got mine from a local supply house for about sixty bucks and it's held up on some pretty nasty commercial flues with heavy creosote buildup. The steel core adds a bit of weight but it doesn't snap when you hit a tight bend or a clogged up section. Worth the extra money if you're doing this work more than once a month for sure.

miaprice20d ago

Totally saw a guy on a chimney work forum swear by the steel core too, @parker_hall5. He said the fiberglass rods are fine for light jobs but once you hit that heavy commercial creosote it's like butter. The extra weight thing seems worth it if it means not having to fish a broken rod out of a flue. Heard one horror story where a guy spent two hours trying to pull a snapped fiberglass piece out of a 90 degree bend so yeah, I'd take the sixty bucks for steel any day.

danielowens20d ago

Dude yes, that's exactly what I found too. I went through four fiberglass rods in like two months and swore off them for good after that. The steel core is the way to go, especially if you're dealing with those sketchy commercial jobs where the creosote is basically concrete. The extra weight kind of bugs me on long days but I'll take that over a rod snapping off in a 45 degree elbow any time. Once you go steel you never go back, at least in my book.