What else would you recommend? My chimney guy used a viper last year. He seemed to be done in now time and had a vacuum running in the stove and was clean. I just don't have confidence in the sooteater. I am afraid it will snap inside the chimney.
Please recommend the proper device to clean my own chimney
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I am not confident that the viper cleans well and it really does nothing to the cap. For the price of the viper you could buy a professional rotary cleaner. With our rotary cleaner in tight turns I run it through 1.25 inch flexible plastic conduit. It protects the rods and keeps them from kinking. Yes I occasionally break a rod but it really isn't a big deal. The rods in the chimney just fall back down
Do you have a make and model of pro rotary that you recommend. My issue is that I cannot get up on the roof regularly. The chimney is situated such that the pro guy use a ladder to get on the roof and then another ladder attached to the roof to go up to the chimney. I can go on a 30 foot ladder, I am not comfortable with a ladder on the roof. So, I like the idea of cleaning from inside. Thank you for your advice.
Diabel
Minister of Fire
Recently I bought sooteater. Have not used it yet.
Mine came with bristles that span 16”, 8” on each side. I am thinking to trim them to fit my 6” chimney. The website states that, this sooteater fits all chimney sizes. The bristles are crimped tight so I cannot just cut them in the middle and have a set of spares.
Bholler, should I attempt to clean the chimney with these long bristles?
Mine came with bristles that span 16”, 8” on each side. I am thinking to trim them to fit my 6” chimney. The website states that, this sooteater fits all chimney sizes. The bristles are crimped tight so I cannot just cut them in the middle and have a set of spares.
Bholler, should I attempt to clean the chimney with these long bristles?
We use white nylon button lock rods with a standard whip head. The botton lock stuff is interchangeable. The initial set we bought at a trade show from wakefeild I think but now we buy replacements from Olympia. To go through tight bends you would want the 1/2" ones
fire_man
Minister of Fire
fire_man
Minister of Fire
I figured the stiff whip strands might hold it. The strands are longer than the diameter of the pipe.
fire_man
Minister of Fire
I worry my sooteater will get stuck in the cap. Guess the only way out is to climb up on the roof and hope its accessible with no snow up there.
chazcarr
Minister of Fire
I have a sooteater, I haven't used it yet, but have a question, if you trim it to fit a 6inch pipe, would it still actually clean a cap at all? It seems it wouldn't even touch it.
Has anyone here used it for a BlazeKing Princess insert? Seems easy enough to just go right through the bypass plate. Is that acceptable?
Has anyone here used it for a BlazeKing Princess insert? Seems easy enough to just go right through the bypass plate. Is that acceptable?
Mine cleans my cap and its trimmed for a 6" The only part of the cap that I'm not confident its getting a really good clean on is the direct underside, but the screen is getting lashed pretty good... Its wobbling up there through the pipe and I know its cleaning very well. I've inspected it with a boroscope camera borrowed from a friend and have verified its doing a good job.
Do you have some sort of aggressive 90*? I can see that being the only reason why. I've used mine several times and I have 2 kits running on it, and it never feels like its having a problem.
Chas0218
Minister of Fire
I don't buy into all the infomercial hype but I will tell you the soot eater is one of the best investments I have made. It looks like something you would see on a late night infomercial but I will tell you it actually works. I was skeptical but my chimney has never been cleaner and I used the plastic brush with fiberglass poles for close to 30 minutes sweeping my 20' chimney and nothing holds a candle to the Soot eater to efficiency of the thing.
1 word of caution just make sure your flue is cold, I did it when it was warm/hot and I need to replace the weed whacker string on the head. I use it to clean the straight section of chimney I have gone 90* but it doesn't like it and won't go far after my 90* thimble.
My brother felt the drill was working pretty hard. Maybe I was holding the rod while he torqued it up and it snapped? I had to hold the rod to keep it away from the bypass door edge, otherwise the rod was get scoured.
Just another 2 cents worth on the Sooteater. My experience only on my personnel setup and a few other locals. Quite simply. It works. My setup is a easy straight up and out. I have a telescoping connector that I slide up off the stove (freestander) far enough to insert the cleaner from below/next to the stove. My cleaner rods run through a plastic garbage bag with a hole poked in the side above the bottom of the bag. The open end of the bag is fixed to the connector pipe. The bag catch's 90% of the debris. A old bedsheet over the stove catch's most anything else that gets away! I've never tried running these rods through a 90. Seems like it is asking a lot. My rods are running at a 30* angle and get scratched up on the end of the connector pipe. Don't care
When you cut the original whips down to fit a 6" I would recommend leaving them a touch longer than recommended in the directions. Just to make it a bit more aggressive.
When you cut the original whips down to fit a 6" I would recommend leaving them a touch longer than recommended in the directions. Just to make it a bit more aggressive.
Diabel
Minister of Fire
I am not sure if you are trying to answer my question that was buried in this thread. It was to Bholler. I do not mean to high jack this thread from the OP. But if you were trying to answer my question about the length of the “whips” I thank you.
SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
Would something like wire loom work for this? My clean out is right above the floor, so I will have some amount of bend. Sorry to thread jack, but there is a ton of great information in here.
The guy that used the bag, you are a genius.
It needs to be heavier than wireloom. We use the plastic felexible conduit it is still pretty stiff to support the rods but flexible enough to bend through the turn. It also allows you to pack around it to contain the dust coming from the clean out. Or put a bag over the pipe and tape the tube fast so the bag doesn't wrap around the spinning rods.
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