Sooteater Feedback

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

I just wanted to get some feedback from anyone who owns a Sooteater. I just bought one and mostly am wondering how tight of turns folks have successfully taken with it. I ordered the SLK-24 Model which is the one for chimney liners even thought I am going through class A pipe. The reason I did this is because it looks like this model boasts an even higher degree of flexibility than the open chimney version.

I have always cleaned our set up from top down with a flexible rod and poly brush kit and had good success. The challenge is, as you can see from my profile picture, our set up has two 45 pieces directly exiting the stove outlet and then goes into straight pipe. I did this to space the larger stove further from the wall. I would like to ensure these two 45’s remain as clean as possible too and my pre-existing rod set won’t quite make it all the way through.

I would like to get feedback and see if I could go from the bottom up, through the top of my stove, up into those two 45’s. It would be a pretty good bend initially to get the rod down through the stove top opening and then immediately upward again into the pipe.

Thoughts? Worst case, I can always go top down like I have in the past but am trying to avoid having to couple and decouple all those rod sections while they hang down into the chimney and could possibly fall.

 

[begreen]

Our stove has the same setup with a pair of 45s as an offset and I bottom up clean the flue. It's not an issue for the original Sooteater kit RCH205-B. I barely feel resistance going past there.

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

Our stove has the same setup with a pair of 45s as an offset and I bottom up clean the flue. It's not an issue for the original Sooteater kit RCH205-B. I barely feel resistance going past there.

View attachment 262122

It looks like your stove is a top flu exit and the Jøtuls are that back flu exit. I will basically be diving down through the top plate and then back up, to get through that flu exit into the pipe. If I had to put a number to it, it will likely be a 120 degree bend. That initial bend is the one I am concerned with. Think I can make it happen?

 

[Rickb]

I run the same double 45 offset on mine, and the sooteater works just fine.

 

[begreen]

Give it a try.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

We too have a slight 45 degree elbow as an offset (to avoid an attic beam) in our double wall stove pipe as it goes up and out. I remove the pipe right under the elbow and shove my sooteater up there. I did try once to put it though the stove itself but the bends were too tight. It goes through the elbow just fine and cleans everything very well even gets the cap! I've used mine for a year now, no complaints!

 

[Rickb]

I run mine right up through the bypass. lol

 

[ben94122]

I clean from the top down with my Sooteater, but I couple all the rods together before I even start. I just point the drill up in the air, and the long rod makes a 180° turn in the air before going down into the chimney. As the sooteater gets further down into the chimney, I start to point my drill more towards the chimney.