I thought those new fiberglass rods were just a gimmick

Honestly, when they first came out about 5 years ago, I was sure they'd snap on the first tough creosote clog. I stuck with my old steel rods for ages. Then my buddy in Cleveland let me try his set on a nasty, 30-foot flue last spring. Ngl, the way they flexed around the offset without buckling totally changed my mind. They're half the weight and just as tough. Has anyone else made the switch and noticed a big difference in how your shoulders feel at the end of the day?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph93227d ago

It's funny how we get stuck on the old way of doing things. New tools always seem weird until they just work better. What other old gear have you been slow to upgrade?

thea_chen27d ago

Remember they've actually been around a lot longer than that, like pushing ten years at least (I saw them at a trade show forever ago). The early ones were pretty flimsy, so your first guess was right for that version. The stuff they make now is a totally different material, way more glass in the mix. That's probably why your buddy's set worked so well, they finally got the recipe right after those first tries.

joseph93213d ago

Wait, ten years? @thea_chen saying they've been around that long is wild to me. I swear I only started seeing them in supply houses maybe five years back, tops. Those early ones must have been total junk that nobody bought. Makes sense why the good version feels like a new invention. It's like how the first cordless drills were bricks that died in an hour, but now you can't imagine going back to a cord.