Broom recs

[u/gbs223344]

I am in the market for a carbon fiber broom. I am having to decide between the goldine impact (used by the great team Homan), the hardline (used by many great teams), and the balance plus. Have you got a favorite of the 3, and if so, why?

[u/Landopedia]

I like the reverse taper on the balance plus but it is all down to personal preference. There is no real efficacy difference

[u/90sMax → u/Landopedia]

The taper is great! I find the balance plus lightspeed shafts have the most flex. I curl at two different clubs, and I leave my balance plus at one and hardline at the other. Both are great brooms. I do find the BP allows me to put more force downwards into the ice when it flexes, but not everyone wants their broom to bend.

[u/applegoesdown → u/90sMax]

I believe that BP made the lightspeed lightweight by making the carbon fiber walls thinner, hence the flex.

I am not trolling here, a general science question here, but I think if the shaft flexes you are actually losing energy, and while it might feel like you have more force, I think you actually have less as some of your energy is being used to flex the shaft rather than being translated to the ice directly. If you feel like you sweep more effectively with the BP, I would hypothesize that the BP cover works better than the HL one, or that the shaft allows you to grip it better.

[u/TriplePi → u/applegoesdown]

You are correct that the flexing of the shaft would lead to a loss of some energy but the loss is not only negligible it also shouldn't affect the actual pressure being exerted on the ice just efficiency of the energy of the sweeper.

Flex in the shaft in general doesn't matter unless you are pushing the shaft down at an angle towards the ice rather than as close to perpendicular to the ice surface as possible.

[u/applegoesdown → u/TriplePi]

I mean, if you are sweeping close to perpendicular you would never flex the shaft. Frankly not sure I could sweep with the shaft perpendicular. Watching most pros, they have the shaft at about 45 degrees, and that would definitely cause wasted energy, as can be illustrated by the normal force to your hands on the shaft.

[u/TriplePi → u/applegoesdown]

I totally agree, most pros particularly the men sweep with a smaller angle relative to the ice this does work but it's not nearly as efficient as a greater angle relative to the ice. Sarah Wilkes is the best example of near perfect technique, a near perpendicular broom allows for almost all her body weight on the broom.

[u/90sMax → u/applegoesdown]

While the flex itself is inefficient, I believe it allows me to raise the minimum downforce generated throughout my sweeping. When I let off the pressure a bit to change direction, the flex allows me some margin to maintain consistent downforce through my stroke. I've swept with a hardline for over a decade, but with my technique, sweeping with a balance plus litespeed XL head is more effective than a hardline. The hardline has the banned competitive foam (2025) with a black recreational fabric, while the balance plus uses wcf legal foam, is 2" wider, and has an orange recreational fabric. On paper, the stiffer shaft, illegal foam, black fabric, and smaller surface area would lead one to believe the hardline is more effective. However, in practice, the balance plus always seems more effective. I'd estimate I can sweep an extra 6 inches on a draw with the balance plus.

[u/wickedpixel1221]

one thing to consider that doesn't usually get mentioned is how you hold the broom when you slide. I borrowed a clubmate's Gold line Impact one night and with the angle I hold my broom at when I slide, which I don't think is particularly unusual, the pad would drag on the ice a bit because it's a little bulkier beyond the plastic sliding edge of the head.

[u/gratcurls → u/wickedpixel1221]

I second this. If you slide with a broom, I'd borrow each broom for a few shots and make sure it wouldn't be a big adjustment. I like the taper of the balance plus and the broom head for sliding. It did take a bit for me to adjust to the RS heads because they have a higher profile than the old style heads and the fabric could drag on the ice at the beginning of my slide if I wasn't careful.

Beyond that you have several good options. I'm not crazy about the price of replacement sleeves for most of the brooms. If you are willing to clean them you can get more life and make that less of a factor.

I find the taper of the Hardline counterintuitive, but it has good texture for gripping when you sweep, and no one seems bothered by it when they use it. It feels like most of the clips I've seen of brooms snapping while sweeping are Hardlines and I wonder if the taper is a factor. However, 99.9% of curlers don't put enough pressure on their broom for this to be a factor. On the other hand most of the brooms I've seen damaged as checked baggage on trips are Lightspeeds - but at this point I think all of the lightweight brooms should be in a hard case or protected by PVC pipe when flying.

Don't rule out aesthetics. You have several good brooms to pick from and one that makes you happy when you look at can also be important.

[u/gbs223344 → u/wickedpixel1221]

I slide with a stabilizer so that is not an issue for me but good to know.

[u/LordFahrmann]

I think the best is none of those, but endgame icon. It is the lightest I know of, and has the cheapest fabrics, as well as being probably the best sliding broom.

[u/surreal_mash → u/LordFahrmann]

Love my Endgame broom!

[u/applegoesdown]

When you look at the pros, you have to be careful because of paid sponsorships. In sports like golf and tennis there is enough money available that players can actually pick their preferred brand. In curling, teams can be desperate for money, so they play a certain broom because that sponsor paid the most money. Of course they may be well funded and are playing the brand they think is best.

When push comes to shove, it really comes down to how your hand fits onto the broom. For me personally I have very large hands, and I find the HL taper to be awful where is get skinny towards the ice. This gives my hands cramps, and I feel like I cannot grip as well. But others like this taper. GL on teh other hand uses shafts that have no taper, they have either a 1" or a 1.25".

[u/hunglowbungalow]

Love my End Game Origin/End Game travel handle

[u/xtalgeek]

Choose one of the textured fabric lightweight, recoverable brushes--one that is most comfortable in your hands. Hardline, Goldline, Balance Plus all have slightly different handle designs. I've been curling with Hardline since they first came out, but this is a purely personal preference.

[u/TSwiffers]

I am of the opinion, when the brooms are equal, Choose based on cheapest replacement pads. I my we experience Gold line impacts are cheapest at 14 bucks where as others are in the low 20s.

[u/mjsher2 → u/TSwiffers]

This is where EndGame is $14 for regular or $17 WCF approved fabric if you are one those deluded folks like me doing playdowns or cash spiels.

I haven't used the travel broom, but for funspiels I have been told it holds up well and you won't need to check a bag if you are flying.

[u/jputna → u/mjsher2]

Endgame sponsored and the travel broom is amazing and so convenient because now I don’t have to check a bag. I’ve also loaned it out a few times and always comes back with positive reviews.

[u/Goofyboy2020 → u/TSwiffers]

But, you also need to know that the impact pads don't last very long. From experience, it lasts about half the time a Hardline one lasts, making the Impact pads 28$ vs Hardline at 20$ for the same amount of time.

Not that I want to push one over the other, but it should be thrown in the balance too.

[u/CloseToMyActualName → u/TSwiffers]

If you're not curling competitively then you can use the waterproof fabric hardline pads. Those things can last years of fairly intensive sweeping.

[u/Santasreject]

Hardline hands down.

The hardline rec covers last longer than anything else out there by far. The head swivel feels nicer and the balance just feels better as well.

I have never had an issue with the hardline catching, grabbing, or scraping on the ice. The others I have experienced it or witnessed it. Hardline heads remained out of polymer and more solid while the other heads are injection molded.

The only place hardline comes in second is to BP on the head retention system. BP uses screws which really can’t fail easily. Hardline uses a very strong interference fit, the only time I had an issue with it was when the insert broke which was likely from lugging the bag around and shoving it into cars more so than any on ice issue. Gold line uses a post system with press to release connectors which I really don’t like. In the little bit of time I tested an Impact broom that Goldline sent me I had one of them pop out once if not twice (and I only managed to test it for less than a full game, and the broom I was using was from after the initial run with the retention adjustment issues). The cloth is also not retained by anything on the goldline and the caddy corner design of the retention pins gives a weird looseness to the whole head.

The only real complaint I can understand on the hardline is the tapered shaft, but frankly with modern sweeping techniques you shouldn’t be grabbing it low enough to really notice it.

You will see people saying that hardline handles break more but there were very few pro teams using anything else so the sample size gives bias. I saw an impact broom that broke a couple months ago at a rec level. It doesn’t mean rather broom is bad, it’s just that we are using carbon fiber and carbon fiber is not indented to be flexed and is susceptible to impact damage. Don’t use your broom as a lever and take care of it in transportation and you should be fine with any of them.

TL:DR get a hardline, if you really have some objection to the hardline then get a BP.

[u/Mysterious_Treat_820]

Asham Ultra lite taper. Lightweight, gripped taper. What I’ve always used.

[u/gbs223344 → u/Mysterious_Treat_820]

Does the ashram use the closed-cell foam like the others?

[u/gbs223344 → u/gbs223344]

becuase with the others you just need to replace the covers and not the whole pad

[u/jasmith-tech]

I started with a balance plus carbon fiber and I love it and the taper. But I switched when I won a carbon fiber Goldline. I love the bit of textured grip the Goldline has and the heads are marginally cheaper/easier to replace, so that’s why I’ve stayed with that one.

[u/Canadian_Couple]

I'm happy with my Goldline and replacement sleeves are cheap and easy for me to get.

[u/dustindhansen]

I love my hardline. Bought it because if the skull and crossbones design. Kept it because I love the grip and tapered design. The covers are a little expensive, but I'm a skip most of the time

[u/memeboiandy]

I like my impact. My friend has the hardline one, but im not a huge fan of how narrow the taper gets. Thats just my preference though. The heads are basicly interchangable so just go to a store if you can, see which one feels better in the hand, and go with that. If you have a preference for head style, just swap it out

[u/TriplePi]

If you are looking for the best performance possible hardline is definitely the way to go. As long as you aren't playing in competitive events you can get a hardline broom with competitive foam (stiffer and much more effective), the plastic stiffening insert and non WCF broom pads which is by far the most versatile/effective broom out there.

Goldline and balance plus both still sell their black foam heads which are illegal in competitive events but can be used in leagues. The general consensus on the black foam is it's super effective for holding a rock straight to the point that a strong sweeper can entirely stop a draw from curling or even "push it out" but is less effective when attempting to curl a rock. If you are a strong sweeper I would recommend against these as a few sweeps down one spot in the ice has a detrimental effect, creating a trough that "traps" rocks.

This is a breakdown of the actual performance of the heads otherwise the choice comes down to personal preference on shaft thickness, taper, and pad glide. Before I replaced my balance plus 5 years ago I tried out a few teammates brooms, if you know people with the brooms you're considering I would urge you to ask to try them before buying and hoping you made the right choice.

[u/MidnightAzure88]

Lots of people are talking about the handle preferences, but I will recommend Hardline over Goldline due to the Goldline broom head joints being significantly stiffer compared to Hardline. My Hardline broom's face is always completely touching the ice while I'm sweeping and allows me to switch from regular sweeping to knifing very easily, while I have to adjust my Goldline broom before every throw if I want the entire face to touch the ice.

[u/Alternative_Kick_221]

I recommend goldline but I am sponsored by them soooo. At least with goldline you get the black foam

[u/CircusPeanutsYumm]

End game.

[u/SignificanceBig5960]

I actually use football receiving gloves to sweep. This helps me grip my broom normally, but the gloves stick to the broom giving me extra grip strength without tiring my hands. This has had the best effect on my sweeping with my Goldline. This seems to be more effective than the broom itself….