Cobra Products Encased Sewer Rod 3

Based on the product description (on the Ace Hardware site, I think), I'd hoped to be able to use this rod to clear out my downspouts from the ground up--but what I found is that it combines the worst of both worlds: it's too rigid to bend, but it's too flimsy to break up a heavy bolus of debris. On the packaging, there's an illustration of the rod in action, taking a 90-degree turn inside a pipe--in my experience, though, the rod couldn't successfully get through even a 45-degree bend. I ended up climbing a ladder and clearing the downspout with the rod from the top down, so it wasn't totally useless (and it might work better on indoor plumbing, to be fair).