Hello, I'm a stove newbie and would like to clean my chimney connected to my Woodstock Ideal Steel stove for the first time. I bought a sooteater as it was highly recommended, and I cannot clean from the roof so I will need to go bottom up. The sooteater manual has several cleaning options, and one of them is for going through the stove door and up. Is this option possible with the Ideal Steel, at least without major disassembly? I have removed the catalyst before but I know there is still a plate between that and the firebox so I'm thinking it is not worth it to take that all apart, but I thought someone else may have advise about cleaning with the Ideal Steel. My stovepipe is connected to the top of the Ideal Steel, and just goes straight up. I do have a section of telescoping stovepipe connected so I'm thinking that if I can't clean through the door, I'll need to disconnect that from the stove and retract the stovepipe somewhat to clean that way. It will probably scratch it up so if anyone else has a suggestion for what to do differently, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
I can’t imagine how you could go through the door as the air path snakes quite a bit. For me, the easiest way to clean is to remove the entire stove pipe as one section. I have to remove a screw at the top where the pipe connects to the chimney and then disconnect from the damper above the stove. That gives plenty of clearance to get a rod up the chimney and the stove pipe can be carried outside and cleaned from either end.
I bought a sooteater for my IS as well. Proved to be a pain in the azz so I just decided to go old school and use a brush and rods from the roof. It's easier than taking the pipe off. If you can take a section of pipe above the stove off and then use the sooteater that will work too. Telescoping? Push the pipe up some and use a piece of 2 by 4 to keep it up.
