Tools for cleaning a chimney ( ~25 ft)

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Member
Nov 10, 2017
46
Bonner , Idaho
I have a 6 inch chimney about 25 feet long...stove is in the basement. I have a steep metal roof covered in snow so getting on the roof for cleaning is not an option. This is going to be my first year cleaning my stove. Looking for brush and rod reccomendations, seems there's some cheap and some expensive options out there, I would rather buy nice than buy twice but at the same time want to spend extra money on something that is going to do the exact same job. I plan on cleaning next weekend so rod, brush and any other tool reccomendations would be appreciated!
 
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You also might want to check out a rotary system called Sooteater. We used that for a 25 foot basement install, and it worked great. We just stationed me outside with a phone so that we could verify that he got to the top.
 
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Honestly, the first cleaning problem many first year burners hit is plugged mesh on the cap, and you can't clean that very well with a sooteater. Maybe you could get a 30 foot pole with a wire brush screwed to the end... :)

If there's no mesh on the cap, any kind of brush or sooteater that can reach the top should be fine. There are lots of threads on peoples' favorite tools and techniques here.
 
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Honestly, the first cleaning problem many first year burners hit is plugged mesh on the cap, and you can't clean that very well with a sooteater. Maybe you could get a 30 foot pole with a wire brush screwed to the end... :)

If there's no mesh on the cap, any kind of brush or sooteater that can reach the top should be fine. There are lots of threads on peoples' favorite tools and techniques here.


I've used a pump BB gun to shoot holes in a plugged expanded metal chimney cap. Works great in a pinch.

They sell the Crossman pump guns with a scope for 25 at Walmart, and you can knock some holes in the screen to get you through until Spring.
 
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And another vote for the sooteater.
 
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Yeah, the soot eater is my choice as well. The only problem is that you might end up cleaning other people's chimneys because you talk about it a lot. Seriously, this happened to me, I kept telling people how neat the thing was, next thing you know I'm over their house cleaning their chimney.
 
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