No first fire yet but I did try sweeping my chimney myself this year using a soot eater and I feel like it went really well. Other than the optional chimney cap brushes, which I couldn't get to install properly to save my life, it was fairly quick and easy. Definitely worth saving a few hundreds dollars. Thanks for the advice.
Attached a few pics of the process for anyone curious.
Also, the braided gasket around the air tube was in great shape, I just dropped it back over the tube when done.
![[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/299/299601-7976325fc485e577e51a5bab0b93094e.jpg?hash=yqqGZvuOKi "[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5")
![[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/299/299602-da133d64c9f8130d4d16ee96d2a0c418.jpg?hash=PzGtCkdCBu "[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5")
![[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/299/299603-b80bbc2b7d52a6b0fc125acda228f345.jpg?hash=pVPFMjGbay "[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5")
![[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/299/299604-98350f42c5a20dfdc188a923276d45ad.jpg?hash=yta7GDm-Gg "[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5")
![[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/299/299605-374e3315d642a0b61c88eb3c05f6fdef.jpg?hash=HHca0IBFU7 "[Hearth.com] First experience with the Soot Eater on Pacific Energy T5")
Attached a few pics of the process for anyone curious.
Also, the braided gasket around the air tube was in great shape, I just dropped it back over the tube when done.
