Sooteater

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Foggy Mtn

Member
Jan 8, 2022
27
Tennessee
I have a hearthstone shelburne with duravent double wall pipe. Only 3 months old. Will the sooteater or a product similar to that work for my needs? I have 25 foot roof and high pitch and prefer not to get on the roof. And chimney sweep services I have called don’t seem that impressive.
 
I don’t know how a Shelbourne is admittances, whether it’s possible to access the pipe without having to disconnect it from the stove. But the Sooteater works great for bottom-up cleaning, either way. Many pros use a similar system today, just a more durable variant if the Sooteater tech.

I find mine even cleans the cage at the top of my pipe, so no need to go on the roof other than inspections, but your mileage may vary.
 
Should work well. Lots of people here using from the bottom up so they don’t have to get on roofs.
 
If not, pull the pipe off the top of the stove. You might want to check the cap with binoculars just to be sure.
 
More likely than not, you'll also need to find some way to sweep all the fallings out of the bypass damper area after sweeping, lest the door won't properly close on your next use. This was easier on my old Jotul Firelight 12's than on my new BK 30's, but that is one of the very few good thing I can say about those old stoves.
 
I have a hearthstone shelburne with duravent double wall pipe. Only 3 months old. Will the sooteater or a product similar to that work for my needs? I have 25 foot roof and high pitch and prefer not to get on the roof. And chimney sweep services I have called don’t seem that impressive.
I'm curious what was it about the chimney sweeps you called that did not seem impressive?
 
I'm curious what was it about the chimney sweeps you called that did not seem impressive?
Didn’t seem too knowledgeable of creosote glaze. Only selling point was they clean up after themselves. Other than that they’re gonna do exactly what I do. No camera or anything
 
Didn’t seem too knowledgeable of creosote glaze. Only selling point was they clean up after themselves. Other than that they’re gonna do exactly what I do. No camera or anything
Jeeze yes a sweep with no knowledge of creosote glaze would raise my eyeball brows too.
 
I’ve never used a camera. They’re nice, and if I was running a sweep business I’d probably have one, but you don’t need one to do a good job. People burned wood for a long time before cameras came around.
 
I’ve never used a camera. They’re nice, and if I was running a sweep business I’d probably have one, but you don’t need one to do a good job. People burned wood for a long time before cameras came around.
Somewhere, way back in the bowels of this forum, there's a thread about me sending my iPhone 3 up and down the chimney on 30 feet of pruning pole. An inspector had tried to get me flagged, and sell me $10k worth of remediation work, by claiming I had wood timber running thru the chimney. He was a total shyster, even tried to sell me a different $10k solution to his invented problems after my redneck chimney camera proved that there was in fact no wood running thru my chimney.

Cameras have their place, they certainly can be useful when you're peering up 30 feet of pipe and wondering what that odd shape or color half way up might be, but they're certainly not needed for every routine site.
 
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Somewhere, way back in the bowels of this forum, there's a thread about me sending my iPhone 3 up and down the chimney on 30 feet of pruning pole. An inspector had tried to get me flagged, and sell me $10k worth of remediation work, by claiming I had wood timber running thru the chimney. He was a total shyster, even tried to sell me a different $10k solution to his invented problems after my redneck chimney camera proved that there was in fact no wood running thru my chimney.

Cameras have their place, they certainly can be useful when you're peering up 30 feet of pipe and wondering what that odd shape or color half way up might be, but they're certainly not needed for every routine site.
From the back bowels of this forum
  • Oct 25, 2015

    Also, do beware of masonry companies wanting to sell you on things you don't need. I had one company try to sell me a $10k chimney rebuild, based on finding wood timber in my chimney. When I had them come back to observe the "wood" was actually brick, they came up with another reason why I needed to spend $10k on a poured liner. Three subsequent sweeps verified their proposal was not only unnecessary, but violated code as a proposed solution to their faked problems.
 
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From the back bowels of this forum
  • Oct 25, 2015

    Also, do beware of masonry companies wanting to sell you on things you don't need. I had one company try to sell me a $10k chimney rebuild, based on finding wood timber in my chimney. When I had them come back to observe the "wood" was actually brick, they came up with another reason why I needed to spend $10k on a poured liner. Three subsequent sweeps verified their proposal was not only unnecessary, but violated code as a proposed solution to their faked problems.
lol... Blast from the past! I can sound like a real jerk, sometimes. ==c
 
So, this is the latest sooteater thread I could find. Rather than posting a new thread with a very simple question, I thought to do it here. I hope the OP is ok with it.

I am looking to buy 2 or 3 additional rods for my sooteater. The white ones with the click system (not threaded).

I can't find this anywhere, including on Rockford where I bought the original.

Does anyone know where I can get these?
 
A search shows there are exension kits available.

Let me look later where I bought mine. I ordered extra rods with it.
 
Just checked the garage. Call Rockford tomorrow. There are 12, white, flexible, button-connect rods in my box even though the box states 8 rods. I ordered extra rods. There is a shipping label from Rockford on the box.
 
ok. I could not find it on Rockford. Will give them a call tomorrow then. Thanks.
 
Rockford web site: "Additional rods available, please contact us for details."

It's in the text description towards the end.
 
Last edited:
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So, this is the latest sooteater thread I could find. Rather than posting a new thread with a very simple question, I thought to do it here. I hope the OP is ok with it.

I am looking to buy 2 or 3 additional rods for my sooteater. The white ones with the click system (not threaded).

I can't find this anywhere, including on Rockford where I bought the original.

Does anyone know where I can get these?
It’s probably better to just buy another whole kit (the white rods). That way u have a spare head if ever needed.
 
I ended up buying 2 sets. It was cheaper.
Ditto. Extension rod kit was equal or more than the cost of just buying two full kits, and I got a spare of every other part, with the second kit.
 
I had a 27 ft set for $106.99.
Cheapest set I see online there is $89.

I called them and ordered 3 extra rods for $30.

Thanks for your input!
 
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Wow... things have changed. I paid $52/ea for mine, the style of which is now oddly labeled "for open chimneys". I don't believe they even had a separate product with white rods for liners, back when I bought, or at least I wasn't aware of it.
 
The white rods are newer and are claimed to be better going around an elbow. I go out thru the wall in my basement. I take a telescoping horiontal piece off and then still have to go thru the thimble and then up into the chimney (liner). So I bought the white version because they say not to bend to 90 degrees (I'm slightly more open than that because of the additional space the 6" ID piping gives me).

I don't know how much more expensive the white rods are, or whether it's just inflation. In any case, I had some cash to spend because I gave up a seat on my flight to catch a later flight. So it's all good :-)