Went up the ladder to clean the chimneys today, finally used the Sooteater that my wife got me for Christmas and WOW, it actually works as well as I've heard. Of course it helps that there wasn't much to clean other than a light coat of dust, but it took the liner down to pretty much bare metal in no time flat. Sorry, no pics as my chimney is not that easy to get to and I managed to get all my gear (minus the camera) up to the top of my 24' ladder (well, not the very top, but as far as one can go with out getting really stupid) in one trip and I just wanted to get done and down! I don't think it would do much with heavy gooey creosote build-up, but hey, a brush won't either! Anybody else use a Sooteater? http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVvQItrNX.GEAM2UnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTE0MTJtMWwwBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDRkZVSTNDMV8xBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1471424137/RO=10/RU=http://www.sooteater.com/chimney//RK=0/RS=ONawkCkrXj.Heqin_vEKd_k2Pz8-
Yep. I do. I am a bottom feeder though. I have never had to clean my cap, so I've just continued to do it from the living room.
Pretty much do eat soot when I take my stove apart in the fall , and clean it , and clean the chimney from top down Last fall
Yes, Sir. But I too do it from the bottom. I've got two bends that have to be cleaned, so it's just easier that way for me.
I'm a sooteater fan. Bottom up of course and I hardly get messy at all. I add and remove two sections of driveshaft at a time and kind of pump the head in and out. You know grabbing wall the whole time...... All the mess ends up in the box. The drill gets a bit messy especially when I really need a longer shaft for the shop stove. So she's buried. I have been known to set the shop vac hose intake into the firebox and leave it running while sooteating so that any dust that falls into the firebox doesn't float out into the room. I keep checking the length of the strings on the head and they don't seem to be wearing down.
I use it here. Up through the skylight and onto the roof. Only on days where a brisk northwest wind blows any soot away from me. It is a great tool and I use the extension kit on an electric drill.
Ha, yeah that's how I looked yesterday, only it was up past my elbows. Like I said before, I was at the top of the ladder working at chest height...and it had rained earlier, so there was just enough water around still to make a real mess! I could do the stove chimney from the bottom, but its kind of a PITA to get the baffle out of my stove...and the furnace chimney would still need to be done from the top so...
Yup got one but actually a rag on the end of it with out powering it up even works for me now that my wood is dry...Lol only time I eat soot is when I burn my grilled cheese sandwich...
I've heard good things about these. My local ace hardware stores don't sell these though, despite sooteater's site saying they do. How much are these?
Mine was $45 shipped. Plus another $15-20 for 2 extra 3' sections for the furnace chimney...they are making good money on the extra sections!
Amazon was the cheapest when I bought. It will also clean your dryer vent if you reline it to 4 inches. Well worth the $ if you ask me.
Almost worth buying a second soot eater kit to get the extra rods. I can't sweep my entire 19 foot stack above the NC30 with the regular rods, need like one more section. I know that a chimney fire won't ignite at the top foot of the chimney but also know that the cool chimney top is where a lot accumulates so I suppose I'll need to get up on the roof or buy the stupid extensions.
Yep I just cleaned mine about a week ago using the sooter eater. Went up on the roof and did mine from the top down. It was a little windy that day and I did manage to get a little soot in the face. The sooter eater worked great on getting it clean.
I was going to ask about cleaning the chimney and what I should buy but then saw your post. I guess the price is not so bad if it is something that will last for years. Even though I did not burn much last year I want to clean the flue and chimney before the heating season starts here. With the through the wall setup I have, I can clean the chimney from a short ladder on the ground.
I busted one of the sooteater shafts on this last cleaning. Nothing strange was happening, I must have overbent the rod when stuffing it into the stove. Bottom up requires a 90 degree bend.
