Drolet cleaning

[Capt. Chewey]

I have a drolet stove that is clogged. How do I clean the chimney and top of stove from below without taking off double wall pipe

 

[saydinli]

The Sooteater works really well for the chimney and is easy. Just attach the rods and brush head to an electric drill and feed it up the flue from the bottom .


You can find it on Amazon


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Squisher]

If you have a drolet with a welded in place baffle you have no choice but to remove the pipe at the flue connection to clean things out properly.

You could try cleaning top down from the roof and then tape a smaller hose onto your vac and painfully try to suck everything out by fishing it up into the baffle area. But this will be a exercise in frustration and ineffective. And most importantly impossible to verify.

 

[Capt. Chewey]

If you have a drolet with a welded in place baffle you have no choice but to remove the pipe at the flue connection to clean things out properly.

You could try cleaning top down from the roof and then tape a smaller hose onto your vac and painfully try to suck everything out by fishing it up into the baffle area. But this will be a exercise in frustration and ineffective. And most importantly impossible to verify.

Stupid design , why would you build a stove you can't easily clean? go figure. Looks like I have to take the pipe down ( big hassle) but thanks for confirming what I was trying to avoid.

 

[Squisher]

It is a hassle and a stupid yet robust and simple design. You could pull the connecting pipe and clean up through it through a garbage bag or some such. I'd go top down though if the roof is accessible. That way you can manually clean the cap too which is always better.

 

[Squisher]

I have thoroughly cussed out more than one drolet.

 

[begreen]

Yes, pull the stove pipe. Some newer Drolet stoves have a removable baffle, but the old ones do not. Some have a bypass like the Baltic 2. But even with the bypass, the baffle is in the way of the flue outlet. The bypass is on either side of the flue collar. You need to pull the c-cast baffle out of the way of the flue collar to clean or pull the stove pipe.

 

[Squisher]

I have a customer with one of those side bypass drolets. Seems like an interesting design. He experiences smoke spillage issues on reloads and start ups and has never used the bypass. It amazes me how little education is given with the purchase or installation of a stove. Shocking really.

 

[begreen]

Wow, that is a key feature. Stateside, a lot of Drolets are ordered online or from big box stores. No customer education there and it seems like few read the manual.

 

[Squisher]

The stove came to this fellow in a new home construction. I suspect the manual was either never received or filed with other paperwork and never opened. It's been swept by someone else many times prior to me having a go at it and I got the same feedback I often hear 'nobody's ever mentioned that before'.

A little education goes along ways in burning practices and customer relations. I always make an effort to ensure that my customer understands atleast the basic operations of their system.

I feel like a broken record some days. Thermometer, thermometer, thermometer. Lol.

 

[begreen]

I feel like a broken record some days. Thermometer, thermometer, thermometer. Lol.

Sounds like an opportunity for some thermometer sales.

 

[Squisher]

I already blew through my first dozen this fall. I'm a soft touch though if you treat me well I'm more inclined to give one away then upsell it.

Word to the wise, be nice to your sweep! Lol.