I just finished cleaning out my chimney with my new sooteater. It worked perfectly, and I ended up with about a quart of what I'm calling soot (very light black granular substance). The chimney looks nice and shiny now (metal shiny, not creosote shiny!).
My confession is that the Clydesdale was installed in July 2008 and this is the first chimney cleanout. In my defense, prior to installing the insert, I'd had chimney sweeps out every other year or so to inspect the chimney from my open fireplace and each time they looked at it and said it was in good condition and didn't need cleaning. It's an interior masonry chimney three stories high (35') with a 6" stainless steel liner installed at the same time as the insert.
Now that I have the sooteater, I'll clean it at least annually (more frequently depending upon how much I get at the end of this season).
My question is with regard to the "ceramic" baffle. It's cracked right down the middle (front to back of stove) and all the way through. It still sits in place like it's supposed to, and there are no gaps. I'm going to order a new one just to have it in reserve, but my assumption is that the current cracked one is fine to use as long as there aren't any gaps/holes in it. Agree or disagree? Thanks in advance!
My confession is that the Clydesdale was installed in July 2008 and this is the first chimney cleanout. In my defense, prior to installing the insert, I'd had chimney sweeps out every other year or so to inspect the chimney from my open fireplace and each time they looked at it and said it was in good condition and didn't need cleaning. It's an interior masonry chimney three stories high (35') with a 6" stainless steel liner installed at the same time as the insert.
Now that I have the sooteater, I'll clean it at least annually (more frequently depending upon how much I get at the end of this season).
My question is with regard to the "ceramic" baffle. It's cracked right down the middle (front to back of stove) and all the way through. It still sits in place like it's supposed to, and there are no gaps. I'm going to order a new one just to have it in reserve, but my assumption is that the current cracked one is fine to use as long as there aren't any gaps/holes in it. Agree or disagree? Thanks in advance!
