Good day with sooteater

[flyingpig]

Finally I've found a free Saturday to clean my chimney for this year. We've got our insert installed (including the SS liner) in Feb this year but due to the wet wood situation we had, I still don't feel safe to start burning w/o any inspection.

Open up the damper and insert a camera deep into the stove....here is the result....yikes.

 

[flyingpig]

So now get to work...plastic sheet on the floor, stove door covered up....spin...spin...spin...and the result..about 4 cups..

 

[flyingpig]

It took me about an hour overall. The cleaning itself is probably 15 min. I think I'll still need a professional cleaning service once a year but at least this is good enough for an interim cleaning every other month. Now it looks much cleaner and I'm ready for 2010 winter!!

If you haven't done it yet, now it's time to do so. Chimney fire is not fun!!

Cheers....Som

 

[SKIN052]

Wow great job. Hopefully your wood situation is all sorted out. If possible I would attempt to bang that little lip on the liner flat. If you want piece of mind, go for the professional inspection and cleaning, but it looks like you did a great job yourself. If I were you, I would check it in a month or so and if it looks good, I would keep doing myself.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good job. There is usually not too many reasons that a man can't clean his own chimney although sometimes it is necessary. You saved many a dollar by doing that yourself and the next time you do it the job will take much less time.

 

[Greg Richardson]

No idea why you would pay for a cleaning when you did a fine job yourself.

 

[shawng111]

Impressive, just ordered my sooteater, should be here Monday, very curious to try it.

 

[flyingpig]

I think that my wood supply this year is much better now. It was a "newbie" situation last winter that I bought an insert without acquiring the wood first. With the much colder than normal of last winter, there were no seasoned wood left in Feb. My lack of knowledge on how to operate it correctly made things worse and I probably smoked it out quite a lot. It's scary to see that much soot from just only couple of months of burning.

The reason I still want to check with the professional cleaning is the fact that I can only clean it, but I can't inspect. The rod I use is pretty flexible, but it doesn't mean that it can't damage the liner. I have no idea how strong is the liner so just for a peace in mind, I may have an inspection after this winter. If I have a clean bill, I may skip that and keep doing it myself for a while.

Anyway, thank you the encouraging words. You guys @ Hearth.com are the reason why I got the insert in the first place.

Cheers......Som

 

[Treacherous]

I ordered one of these today off of Smarthome.

http://www.smarthome.com/92311/Sooteater-RCH205-Rotary-Chimney-Cleaning-System/p.aspx

I am straight up and have about 16 feet so the base kit should be fine without any extenders. If I had a one story rambler I would surely do this from the roof but my steep cabin roof is just asking for a broken back if I get there up on the slippery metal roof.

I need to download a manual if I can find one.

I wonder how much is trimmed off of sweeper for 6 inch double wall? Do you cut to exact width of pipe or do you leave it a little longer?

 

[argus66]

i left mine slightly wider it flexes pretty good there is not much to it connect each one then when u cant fit anymore put it on the drill and spin. last time i didnt even use the drill i just turned it with my hand going up and down seemed to work better. u wont have any problems. i do mine now twice a yr and get less then a 1/4 cup.

 

[DanCorcoran]

Treacherous,

As you can see from the photo, my cabin also has a 12/12 pitch standing seam metal roof. My flue is single-wall straight up inside the cabin, then double-wall outside (the chimney hadn't yet been installed in the avatar photo). Overall length is about 20 feet.

Inside your cabin, do you have a telescoping section that allows you to raise the single-wall for cleaning? Mine does, but I haven't tried to figure out how to use it yet. Let us hear how the SootEater works for you...

 

[Treacherous]

i left mine slightly wider it flexes pretty good there is not much to it connect each one then when u cant fit anymore put it on the drill and spin. last time i didnt even use the drill i just turned it with my hand going up and down seemed to work better. u wont have any problems. i do mine now twice a yr and get less then a 1/4 cup.

Good to know. Does this end up being about an hour job (setup & sweeping)?

 

[Treacherous]

Treacherous,

As you can see from the photo, my cabin also has a 12/12 pitch standing seam metal roof. My flue is single-wall straight up inside the cabin, then double-wall outside (the chimney hadn't yet been installed in the avatar photo). Overall length is about 20 feet.

Inside your cabin, do you have a telescoping section that allows you to raise the single-wall for cleaning? Mine does, but I haven't tried to figure out how to use it yet. Let us hear how the SootEater works for you...

That appears to be the same pitch as my roof. I have double wall pipe inside. There is a telescoping double wall piece but I plan to clean up through the bypass damper in the Lopi. I will definitely report back how well it works.