soot eater 101

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Bocefus78

Minister of Fire
Jul 27, 2010
538
Just Outside Indy
Ok....here's an honest review of the sooteater. I ordered from Amazon and got my sooteater and extension kit way before the estimated arrival date. I'm a first year burner that had marginal wood at best knowing what I know now. In all honesty, my wood was css for 9 mos min. I THOUGHT I was ok. Well, let me intoduce a pic of what marginal wood gets you. Keep in mind, this pacific energy Vista is about as small of firebox as money can buy so I wasnt burning 10 cords a year. I burnt 2. The sooteater did more than expected. the bad pic of the pipe is a before shot. Battrery died so no after shot was had but the pipe was silver again :) For my area, the cost was half of a pro sweep. Money back in my pocket....woot woot! As far as volume, don't ask me.....I'm just glad my wood is much drier this year. It's waaaaaaay more than your average cup or two. Overall, money well spent. Piece of mind knowing its done and done right is priceless.

A couple tips for the first time users:

Use the plastic they supply. Tape it up GOOD. Trust me on this.

Use a shop vac propped up inside to get the airborne dust that may escape thru the hole you put in plastic to insert your rod in. I say propped up so you dont end up vaccuming up all the junk, just the airborne dust. DO NOT USE a vaccum unles it has a hepa or drywall filter as per instructions. Your wife will be mad when she dusts.

Lay a towel or dropcloth in front of your hearth. As the rods come out, its a great place to put them and it will protect your carpet. Again, happy wife is a good wife.

I used a corded drill and only hit half RPM or so. Im sure any 18v cordless will do it too.

Thats really about it. It was simple, took less than an hour including trimming it to fit but not including my trip to lowes after my shop vac drywall bag broke :(

Its supposed to hit 40 tonight....maybe Ill open the windows and start a fire :)

Now, for the pics:
 

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Great pics Bo....I just got my sooteater yesterday,,,,gonna sweep this weekend. Trying to save a few bucks by doing it myself also......
 
I need to get some type of flu cleaning system going. I have a pretty tall flu 2 story plus.

I guess you are satisfied with the results. thanks for the review.
 
mecreature said:
I need to get some type of flu cleaning system going. I have a pretty tall flu 2 story plus.

I guess you are satisfied with the results. thanks for the review.
Click to expand...
mine was roughly 25 ft. I was satisfied but h3ll, I'm a noob.
 
thanks Bocefus.

I bet I am close enough to 40 to call it that. but should work fine.

guess I could work from bottom then go to the top.

would I have a problem stretching the rods this far. I need the flex this thing seems to have
 
mecreature said:
thanks Bocefus.

I bet I am close enough to 40 to call it that. but should work fine.

guess I could work from bottom then go to the top.

would I have a problem stretching the rods this far. I need the flex this thing seems to have
Click to expand...

I don't see it being a problem to get 40ft. It'll be cheaper to buy 2 kits rather than extensions in 2 packs.
 
I should be eating my soot for the first time this weekend. I have yet to see a bad review.

Shawn
 
I also bought the sooteater and it did a good job. It took me though a lot of time to take few flue parts apart to have access to the chimney. Now, considering that the sooteater is pretty flexible, I thought maybe I can use it w/o taking the flue apart, and come with a soot vac with a long hose to suck the soot. I have a regular shop vac from HD, can I use it for this task ? maybe after I buy a special filter ? Some people recommend not to use a shop vac but to buy a soot vac like sootmaster.
Please advice. Thanks!
 
Treacherous said:
I was going to use mine for the first time tomorrow.

Did you trim the head to exactly match the diameter of the pipe or is it slightly longer or shorter?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Don't cut the line yet. Instead loosen the center nut with the allen key provided, then start sliding the line out until one side has the right amount of line sticking out, as if you cut it. Now tighten the center nut and cut the other side to the length you need. There,,,,now you have a whole extra line refill left over. If you do it the other way, you have nothing left over for another refill.
 
xclimber said:
Treacherous said:
I was going to use mine for the first time tomorrow.

Did you trim the head to exactly match the diameter of the pipe or is it slightly longer or shorter?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Don't cut the line yet. Instead loosen the center nut with the allen key provided, then start sliding the line out until one side has the right amount of line sticking out, as if you cut it. Now tighten the center nut and cut the other side to the length you need. There,,,,now you have a whole extra line refill left over. If you do it the other way, you have nothing left over for another refill.
Click to expand...

I wish I read that one hour ago. I used mine for the first time and it worked like a charm. I couldn't get a poly brush into the chimney because of the secondary intake tube so I had to get the sooteater. I'm glad I did it works great.

pic is of the offset chimney of my regency insert:
 

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schwaggly said:
xclimber said:
Treacherous said:
I was going to use mine for the first time tomorrow.

Did you trim the head to exactly match the diameter of the pipe or is it slightly longer or shorter?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Don't cut the line yet. Instead loosen the center nut with the allen key provided, then start sliding the line out until one side has the right amount of line sticking out, as if you cut it. Now tighten the center nut and cut the other side to the length you need. There,,,,now you have a whole extra line refill left over. If you do it the other way, you have nothing left over for another refill.
Click to expand...

I wish I read that one hour ago. I used mine for the first time and it worked like a charm. I couldn't get a poly brush into the chimney because of the secondary intake tube so I had to get the sooteater. I'm glad I did it works great.

pic is of the offset chimney of my regency insert:
Click to expand...
No big deal, looks like you could possibly just use string trimmer line. I'll have to measure it with the dial calipers. Looks to be around .080 or so. Glad it worked well for you.
 
Do people only use this because of issues with getting up on their roof or being able to do it from below? I do mine from up top and am done in 3 minutes. Just wondering??
 
CTwoodburner said:
Do people only use this because of issues with getting up on their roof or being able to do it from below? I do mine from up top and am done in 3 minutes. Just wondering??
Click to expand...

I think it is because many people cannot easily access their chimneys very easily. Makes sense especially if you have a steeply pitched roof.

My roof is not very steep, and easily walkable. I prefer to sweep from the top down because I can also inspect and clean the chimney cap.
 
xclimber said:
schwaggly said:
xclimber said:
Treacherous said:
I was going to use mine for the first time tomorrow.

Did you trim the head to exactly match the diameter of the pipe or is it slightly longer or shorter?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Don't cut the line yet. Instead loosen the center nut with the allen key provided, then start sliding the line out until one side has the right amount of line sticking out, as if you cut it. Now tighten the center nut and cut the other side to the length you need. There,,,,now you have a whole extra line refill left over. If you do it the other way, you have nothing left over for another refill.
Click to expand...

I wish I read that one hour ago. I used mine for the first time and it worked like a charm. I couldn't get a poly brush into the chimney because of the secondary intake tube so I had to get the sooteater. I'm glad I did it works great.

pic is of the offset chimney of my regency insert:
Click to expand...
No big deal, looks like you could possibly just use string trimmer line. I'll have to measure it with the dial calipers. Looks to be around .080 or so. Glad it worked well for you.
Click to expand...

You sir, are correct....its trimmer line and the diameter is stated in the instructions....off top of my head, its .105
 
CTwoodburner said:
Do people only use this because of issues with getting up on their roof or being able to do it from below? I do mine from up top and am done in 3 minutes. Just wondering??
Click to expand...
I look at the soot eater as a power tool. Like sanding with an orbital sander verses sanding by hand.
 
Do you have to go up top and remove the chimney cap to use it?
 
Nope,,,dont have to remove the cap. You will feel the soot eater touch the cap while you are cleaning from the inside. I put the sooteater into the category of to good to be true,,,,but it truely performs as advertised,,,pays for itself in one cleaning......
 
Joey said:
Nope,,,dont have to remove the cap. You will feel the soot eater touch the cap while you are cleaning from the inside. I put the sooteater into the category of to good to be true,,,,but it truely performs as advertised,,,pays for itself in one cleaning......
Click to expand...
Soot Eater cleaned the screen on my flue tile style cap. I can look at it from a second floor window, and see right thru it. Amazing little set up.
 
I'm probably going to pull the trigger on this. We have a fairly steep, metal roof. Even when I get up there, the chimney is taller than I am (almost six feet tall) so I would need to have a ladder leaning against the chimney on a steep metal roof. Not my kind of adventure.

Anyone try a SE on a old VC Vigilant?
 
I am thinking of this for my liner but had a few questions. My roof pitch is not steep at all - easy access too. Is there any disadvantage to using this from the top down? I am somewhat concerned (maybe wrongly) about the pressure put on the liner to stove connection from brushing. From the design I am guessing the sooteater would be less aggressive on any connections and because it creates outward force only when spinning I would think the effort to sweep would be far less. Is this just a waste of money for my setup?

I was hoping to remove the internals, close the door, sweep from top down, then go in and clean up the inside of the stove with minimal mess.

Does this make sense?
 
I showed this thread to Mr Gamma and he did a lil research of his own on it....
Now we have one on order..... :cheese:
Seems like it has been getting rave reviews here.
Now time for a new shop vac... >:-(
 
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