Soot Eater question

What is the ID of your thimble and the size of the chimney? My soot eater is pretty flexible, but I do not have to make a sharp 90. I wonder how the rod might wear at the touch point of the bend if it is jagged or not rounded.

My question was poorly stated. I should have asked for the inner diameter not ID. And I was thinking about the cross section dimensions of the chimney. A small tight intersection might make it difficult to keep from wearing the soot eater rod. As the rod turns it will contact the inside corner of the thimble to chimney intersection. If that corner is smooth and rounded, the rod will fare better than if it is a sharp jagged corner.

With your dimensions, I was going to bend my soot eater rod to see if it would make the bend at all. The condition of the inner intersecting corner would then be a judgement call for you.

OK. I laid a 18" long by 6" dia thimble intersecting an 8" by 8" square flue out on the floor. My soot eater rod will make the ninety, but it takes good pressure to make it bend. I don't know how the rotation would be or the wear on the rod under these conditions. Sorry I couldn't be more definite.

I ended up snapping a rod when I cleaned today. It wasn't one of the white rods that came with original kit, but the black or dark brown rods that came in the add-on kit of (2) 3 ft poles. It seems to be made of a different material and like Brotherbart said is less flexible.

A few things I should have done differently:

• I forgot to use a drill/driver with a clutch. It simply bound up and then snapped it off.

• I think some of the poles had dropped down in pipe some and into stove and when I started again it just spun up the weaker poles inside firebox. The creosote fogged over the plastic so I didn't have a good view in firebox at the time. I was amazed at how the white poles survived the contorted spin but the black pole just twisted off. I think in addition to bunching it up I had reached cap and maybe that threw a little strain on it as well as it was beating around up on top.

Glad I didn't use the black poles as the first rods. Far easier for me to retrieve with it snapping at bottom. In this case just inside the firebox.

Less creosote than last year. Hopefully I can cut it in half again. I'm going to be burning douglas fir, cherry and energy logs this year.

Makes me glad that I bought 2 kits instead of 1 and the extensions.

muncybob said:

Makes me glad that I bought 2 kits instead of 1 and the extensions.

Click to expand...

I'm now thinking about picking up a second kit myself. I still have the second extension that would work but am now leery of using this less durable pole next year. I am sure the extensions work fine for many but they leave less chance for error if the operator, like myself, pushes it.

FYI: Gardus is sending me a replacement rod.

I appreciate the great customer service from Gardus. Timely responses and quickly sending me a replacement.

The president of Gardus even responded to me in a separate email exchange.