I used the soot eater last year to clean my chimney flue. I liked it then and shared my good experience. I packed back into it's box for storage until this year when I just used it for the just second time to brush the flue. All went well brushed up and down the flue, got a quart of soot to fall down into the insert. I got my flue cleaned, but as I pulled the soot eater out of the flu, one of the rods snapped! Luckily, I was able to reach up and get a hold of the broken part and pull it out. Waste of money, looking for a good brush set now.
To quote a great philosopher: "That's a bummer dude!" Send back the broken part, I bet they replaced it for free.
Free replacement or not, just imagine the headache had I not been able to get a hand on the broken shaft. The thing seemed to work OK though. I'm not willing to accept the risk of a broken shaft stuck in my flue. The 2 uses I got from it were still less than calling a sweep.
That would be interesting getting one of those out. I recall having to fight getting a brush out one time. No fun for sure! Took many hours but we finally won. Thanks for posting about this as others may face the same thing. But hopefully, this is a rare thing and the company will stand behind it.
Glad you posted this, my brush bit the dust and I was wondering about the soot eater as compared to a brush almost ordered one last week, I'm with you now going shopping for a new brush.
The only time mine broke was when the neighbor jammed it in his chimney and broke the rod right at the connection to the ball....Me thinks that it is really not a bad rig...
That's where mine broke, about a foot south of the ball as it was being pulled out through the damper bend. I have an insert, so a bend around the damper. Come to think of it, this happened last time too! It came with 5 shafts,I only had four to do the job this time, now i have three. Not enough to get to the top. So, come to think about it, this thing fails at every attempt! Find my post at the"other"forum, lol
Sorry for your trouble & I'm glad you got the broke section out. The rods seem really sturdy to me, I guess there's just a limit to how much they'll bend. I'm happy with my soot-eater and would still go that direction if I had it to do over again.
They're not so sturdy. I used an 18 V DeWalt cordless drill, on the drill setting. Something snagged it, and the shaft twisted and snapped.
