Unpopular opinion: nylon rod kits are a waste of money, and a $9 drain snake proved it
I bought a 12 foot nylon chimney brush rod kit for $65 last spring thinking it would handle every flue in my town. First real job, a 1920s brick house near Bristol, the rod kinked at the third joint and the brush came unhooked inside the flue. I ended up fishing it out with a cheap $9 drain snake from the hardware store, and that snake did the whole run without a single snag. Now I keep two of them on the truck and the nylon kit sits in my garage. Has anyone else had a cheap tool beat the fancy one on a real job, or is it just me?