The Flexicore Advantage: A Patented Process for Added Strength

The cable strengthens and stiffens just when the operator needs it the most, making it much less likely to kink or break

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The Flexicore Advantage: A Patented Process for Added Strength

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Years ago, we hired a sales representative out west who had spent decades selling a competitor’s products. After initial training, he returned to his territory and we sent him a smattering of cables, cutters and machines to get him started. The first time he demonstrated our Flexicore Cable, he called me up to complain that the snake, “just didn’t feel right.” It didn’t feel “springy.” 

Virtually every other brand of cable in the drain cleaning industry is simply a long, thin and hollow spring. Sometimes they will insert a wire rope or piece of plastic down the middle of the spring to give it added strength.

General’s Flexicore Cable is the result of a radically different process. Instead of coiling a hollow cable, we tightly wrap spring steel around a 49-strand aircraft-quality wire rope using a patented process. We do this in order to give the cable additional strength when it is under torque. 

When a General machine rotates a snake down the drain and it hits a clog or stoppage, tension or torque builds up in the cable. Because of the direction the drum is turning, the reaction of the outer coil of spring steel is that it wants to contract due to the tension. However, because the wire rope is in the way, the only thing that it can do is tighten, which makes it stiffer and stronger. Essentially because of the way that we engineer the cable, it strengthens and stiffens just when the operator needs it the most. This makes the cable much less likely to kink or break when in use, and allows the operator to get through tougher clogs. 

This is all good, but it has the effect of making the cable feel less springy than hollow cables. This perceived limpness was the difference my rep was confused about. I got back on the phone with him and explained the engineering behind his experience. Within a few weeks he was out on the road converting his old customers to General-style machines and cable.

About a year later I got another call from him, this time singing our cable’s praises. According to him, he was selling less than one-tenth of the replacement cables that he used to sell to these same customers when they used competitive equipment. Although I found this hard to believe, he continued to insist it was true until the day he retired.

Since then I've heard the same story from many customers. Once you convert to General and get used to the feel of the cable, the Flexicore advantage pays for itself many times over. Try it and see!

Visit drainbrain.com for more information about General Pipe Cleaners’ equipment.



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