I thought those new fiberglass rods were just a gimmick until a job in Boulder last month.
Had a tight, three-story flue with two offsets that my old steel rods just couldn't handle without binding up. A guy I know lent me his set of the new flexible fiberglass ones, and I was sure they'd snap. Not only did they make the bends easy, but the whole job took maybe 45 minutes instead of the usual two hours of fighting my gear. I was wrong, they're legit for tricky setups. Anyone else made the switch and found a specific job where they saved your bacon?
Oh man, I get that. But I gotta say, I still keep my steel rods for the straight shots on a simple chimney. The fiberglass ones are awesome for the tricky bends, but I find they can kind of whip around too much if the run is long and mostly straight. It's like they're too flexible for that. So now I just use both, fiberglass for the offsets and then swap to steel to finish the push. Maybe it's just me but mixing the sets feels right.