Soot Eater advice

[Byrond]

So I ordered a soot eater. My question that I should have asked before ordering is Is it flexible enough to pass through the liner where it was ovalized to clear the old damper area? It is a 6 inch SS liner

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

Absolutely. Short of anything greater than say 45 degree bend, this thing works well.

 

[Byrond]

I thought it would. Just wanted to make sure. I have been away from home a lot and the wife has been loading the stove before she leaves for work and not letting it get to temperature before she closes the air. Came home to dirty glass which never happens with my buck 81. Decided to buy one and sweep it just to be safe. Also ordered an extra head for my pa in laws clay chimney

 

[ironworker]

I zip tied some extra weed wacker strings to the rod right below the head.

 

[Byrond]

I zip tied some extra weed wacker strings to the rod right below the head.

Now that it came in I saw where it uses .105 dia trimmer line. I just happen to have a 10lb spool of Stihl x-line that would work a replacement.

 

[muncybob]

Absolutely. Short of anything greater than say 45 degree bend, this thing works well.

I have had success even with a 90 degree turn, just have to slow down the drill a bit.

 

[KodiakII]

My advice is go easy near the top of your chimney. A couple of hours ago I knocked the cap off my stainless chimney...guess I don't know my own strength.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I have had success even with a 90 degree turn, just have to slow down the drill a bit.

I go from 6" horizontal to 5.5" vertical in a 90* turn. I snapped a rod after 5 years of sweeping, but I had my 5 year old sweeping and she dropped the drill, which I think over stressed the rod. It snapped within a minute of starting the drill back up.

 

[CrufflerJJ]

I used my soot eater today for the first time. We had used our Quadrafire 2700i insert for only about 3 months, and I swept the 6" liner from the roof (I've got a TV antenna tower that makes it very easy to get on the roof). The only hassle I had was getting the tube channel assembly out of the way. Quadrafire makes NO mention that you need to pull the baffle boards forward before you can slide the assembly to the left before swinging down the right side. Now I know for next year!

The soot eater did a GREAT job. I had nice shiny (corrugated) chimney liner once I was done.

Anxiously awaiting cooler weather....

 

[NJ_Burner08002]

Love mine. Great investment.

 

[jlightning]

I'm another big fan of the sooteater!

 

[jharkin]

One thing about the sooteater (love mine too, btw) is that we have found there are at least 2 revisions of it. The older version which I have have rods made of a white plastic. These rods are so flexible I can bend one into a loop and it will easily go through 90 degree bends in the flue.

There is a more recent version that has grey plastic rods. These are stiffer and don't seem to bend as well.

Let us know which version you get.

 

[jlightning]

I think soot eater also makes a cleaning kit for dryer vent ducts which comes w/ the white extra flexible rods.