TIL a 30 year sweep in Cleveland told me my rods were the problem, not the brush
He watched me fight a flue for 20 minutes last Tuesday, handed me his 3 foot sections and said 'you're pushing wrong, short rods bend and lie to you about where the brush is,' and the next chimney took me 8 minutes flat, so now I want to know if anyone else switched to shorter sections or if I just got lucky with that one liner.