New chimney brush or Soot Eater?

I used the sooteater once in my rectangle flue and I thought it did great. I did run it up from the bottom but I don't see why you couldn't do it from the top down.

I used a sooteater for the first time this fall. I didn't have enough poles, so I had to go at it from both the chimney and stove. I didn't tape off the opening, and it did put a fine layer of black dust over everything within 5', but it wasn't as bad as I expected. But my stove is in it's own room in the basement, sweeping up the dust wasn't a big deal to me.

Seemed to do a decent job cleaning my square flue though.

Do you think running a shop vac in the firebox during soot eating could eliminate most of the mess? Maybe slower spinning?

I want to dump the brush.

Highbeam said:

Do you think running a shop vac in the firebox during soot eating could eliminate most of the mess? Maybe slower spinning?

I want to dump the brush.

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When I paid a sweep to do bottom-up cleaning last year midseason (my 1st year burning), that's exactly what they did to cut down on the dust.

I used a shop vac where the fine soot was landing and also opened up a window/door and to be honest I didn't have much of a mess at all.

bassJAM said:

I used a sooteater for the first time this fall. I didn't have enough poles, so I had to go at it from both the chimney and stove. I didn't tape off the opening, and it did put a fine layer of black dust over everything within 5', but it wasn't as bad as I expected. But my stove is in it's own room in the basement, sweeping up the dust wasn't a big deal to me.

Seemed to do a decent job cleaning my square flue though.

Click to expand...

Yeah, too bad the SOOT-EATER didn't actually EAT the soot

i guess it all depends on chimney setup as to how much dust and dirt you'll get, but i just recently bought a sooteater for my pellet stove and its awesome in my opinion. For my wood furnace, i have a metal brush which works good and gets the job done, but for my outter secion of pipe that goes up over the house wall, i use the old "rake" that expands when ya pull on it. I may purchase a full size soot eater to try. Actually, i may just make one. Wouldnt be much more than a weedwacker head with strings...only not near as heavy duty.

I just ordered a Rutland 6" Nylon brush for my SS flue liner. Tried to buy it at Tractor Supply Co. but all were out. Got the rods at TSC as they were $12 cheaper.

The sooteater is a great chimney cleaner and you don't need to get up on the roof.