I tried sweeping a 30-foot flue with rods and then a rotary whip, and it was not close
Last Tuesday I cleaned a two-story colonial over in Milford with a 30-foot flue, and I ran my old fiberglass rods down first. It took me almost an hour, and I still felt grit with my hand at the smoke shelf. Then I switched to the rotary whip on my drill and got the same flue done in 15 minutes, with a lot more soot in the drop cloth. Anybody else find the rotary setup beats rods on long straight runs, or do you still grab the rods for certain jobs?
Switched to a rotary whip two seasons back and never looked back for straight runs like that. Those fiberglass rods just wear you out and leave behind way too much grit. Fifteen minutes versus an hour is not even a fair fight. The whip gets the walls clean on the first pass because it actually flings out and hits the whole flue. Only time I still grab rods is when there is a bend or an offset the whip cannot get around. On a long straight shot like yours, rotary wins every single time.