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Tried poly vs HD ash rods on a heavy creosote buildup last Tuesday. Poly won by a mile.
Got a call from a lady over in Oakdale whose chimney hadn't been swept in maybe 8 years. Thick stuff, almost like tar. Started with my usual HD ash rods and they kept bending and popping apart at the threads. Switched to poly rods and got through the whole thing in about 20 minutes without any flex. Felt like night and day. Has anyone else noticed a big difference with stubborn jobs?
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the_thomas14d ago
Cut a set of poly rods down to 3-foot lengths for the tight bends in my flues. They flex just enough to get past a offset without snapping, but I keep a steel rod handy for the first punch through a hard block. That tar-like stuff you dealt with, sounds like the kind that builds up from those wax logs people burn. Poly handles that better than steel in my experience because it doesn't transfer the cold shock from the metal to the creosote.
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the_thomas19d ago
Yeah, poly rods saved my back on a crusty buildup last month too.
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23 years in the trades and I've seen poly rods shatter on the third hit in cold weather more times than I care to count. A good steel rod might weigh more but it'll take a beating and keep working when you're dealing with real buildup, not just soft stuff. Your mileage may vary but I'll take the reliability over the weight savings any day.
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