Went with the rotary whip over the manual brush on a job in Portland

Had a choice between using my rotary whip or going old school with a manual brush and rods on a tight flue in a 1920s house. Picked the rotary because I figured it would save time, but the flex section got snagged on a cresote ledge halfway down. Took me 45 minutes to wiggle it free. Has anyone else had a rotary get stuck like that and found a quick way to pop it loose?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesf411mo ago

Forty five minutes? Dude, that is brutal. I would have started sweating about five minutes in and probably tried to yank it back up, which I'm guessing would've made it worse. Did you try spinning the head real slow while feeding it a little slack, or did you just have to brute force it with some wiggling?

elliot_patel1mo ago

Used to think patience didnt matter much with fishing gear, but this whole thread changed my mind hard. @terryw67s river story sealed it for me, man. I had the exact same issue a few weeks back and was ready to snap the rod in half. Wiggling was all that worked in the end, no tricks or spinning or anything fancy. Took me like 30 minutes and my hands were shaking from the frustration. Now I just accept the wait and try not to panic.

terryw671mo ago

That 45 minutes of wiggling sounds like pure misery, man. I had the same thing happen last month and almost threw the whole whip in the river.