Sooteater

[Treacherous]

Roofers tied their harness ropes off to my opposing fir trees when they replaced roof a couple months back. I have gotten up there with a long ladder in the past but I don't like it.

 

[Sprinter]

Yeah I set up both pipes to do it that way. I go up and open the megabucks caps and drop both ropes and push the brushes into the pipes. Close the caps and go down and pull the brushes through. No it isn't a squeaky clean cleaning but squat is left and it ain't gonna play in a chimney fire.

What I like best about the sooteater is that I can leave the door closed and just let the stuff drop into the firebox without getting soot in the room. I'm sure the brush cleans just about as well, though. I don't think the sooteater would be very good with difficult creosote anyway.

 

[BrotherBart]

Bart, how do you like big ladders? Planning any trips north, say... January?

Unfortunately, the way it's currently set up, I'd have to pull the flagstone on the big chimney to remove the squirrel cage. The chimney guy does this each spring, when he does his top-down cleaning.

View attachment 110532

No big deal, until you consider where you're working from (I don't think I need to re-post THAT picture ).

I hear ya. The Realtor said I was the only person she ever had seen show up with a ladder and go up on the roof and head for the chimney. I just had the place re-roofed and when asked why I didn't do metal my response was "I don't want to slide sixteen feet getting ready to fall two stories."

 

[Mr A]

I got it easy with a one story roof at 5/12. And it doesn't snow here. I have asphalt shingles, so when its icy, it's still not slippery. I just cleaned my one year seasoned flue with the sooteater, and I have POUNDS of soot! WOW! That seasoned wood I thought was good, not so much. Stuck my neck in as far as I could, and it does look like it did a good job. I put a "fine filter bag" in the shop-vac, and wrapped the exhaust area with a wet towel. Towel stayed clean, so, unnecessary, no hose to outside. I just covered the stove opening with the included plastic sheeting, just draped, stuffed it into the sides, and worked the rods in. I did 4 ' rod back and forth, first ,to get it started. I set my 18V dewalt cordless at 10 clutch. I have a oval flue, felt resistance through the damper,smoke shelf bend.I had a rod break in the middle, just twisted in half. Fortunately I was able to recover, didn't need the 5th rod. Definitely need a clutch setting on the drill used, I started at 17, finished at 10, so start low. Just picked up all the tools, I have pretty pictures of soot for you all tomorrow. I forgot to cover the secondary air. I covered half way through the job, got a lot more soot and not much on the cover. I got 3-4 piles like this. Feels like 5-10 pounds in the shop vac.

 

[DanCorcoran]

I am probably the only Sooteater naysayer. The drill started smoking halfway up the 35 foot liner. And in the 21 footer I hated hearing the joints in that flopping rod beat the crap of the liner.

I went back to the rope and brush.

I used my cheapo HF 18v cordless and it worked fine. My chimney is a straight shot up and only 18'. I inserted all the rods before I started spinning it and cleaned from the top down. Not sure which of those factors contributed to the survival of the drill, but I'd guess probably the chimney height, since that would greatly affect the friction and therefore the strain on the motor.

 

[begreen]

Our sooteater arrived Thursday. Looks like I will be doing a run with it next weekend.

 

[Treacherous]

Ar

I used my cheapo HF 18v cordless and it worked fine. My chimney is a straight shot up and only 18'. I inserted all the rods before I started spinning it and cleaned from the top down. Not sure which of those factors contributed to the survival of the drill, but I'd guess probably the chimney height, since that would greatly affect the friction and therefore the strain on the motor.

Are you using the same model drill I posted pic of earlier? I find mine has been surprisingly durable. I've thrown a lot at it and not broken it yet.

 

[DanCorcoran]

No, mine's blue. It's at the cabin, so I can't check the model number. They change models every few months it seems, but they're probably all pretty much the same. The one I have here at home is orange...

 

[Treacherous]

Our sooteater arrived Thursday. Looks like I will be doing a run with it next weekend.

I am really curious to hear what you think. Keep us posted.

Thanks!

 

[Bluerubi]

For anyone considering this system I just ordered a couple from Smarthome for a little over $80 with free shipping. Seems like the lowest price I've seen anywhere, so might be worth checking out. Pricing is strange though, where it is far cheaper to order an extra full kit than the extension rods, so keep that in mind if your chimney is greater than the 18' a single kit will do.

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

 

[begreen]

I am really curious to hear what you think. Keep us posted.

Thanks!

The clean out went very smoothly. I dropped the baffle on the T6 which gave me a clear shot up the flue. Although I was a little concerned about the offset I have coming off the stove, the brush head went through it with ease and so did the rods. I'm glad I bought an extra pair. They were needed to reach the cap. I ran the sooteater using an 18v Makita 1/2" drill. No big deal at all for this drill. I ran it up and down the pipe many times but all I got was about a cup of sote. I used the trivets on the T6 top to hold the plastic sheet and cut a 9" slit into it to poke the rods through. That worked really well. There was no mess at all. I had a damp rag handy to wipe down the rods as I pulled them out. All in all it was a much neater and easier process than I thought it would be.

PS: The one mistake I made was to not stuff a rag in the secondary manifold pipe feeding the baffle so a bit of sote went down the tube. Turns out that it was no big deal. If you pull the ash pan you will see that the tube ends right at the firebox bottom. I could see a little mound of sote at the back of the ashpan housing and just vacuumed that up.