Sooteater

[1750]

For you top-downers, are you concerned about the crud accumulating at the bottom?

It seems like it would lie on the baffle, and maybe just burn up?

 

[Ashful]

Joful...do you get up there?

Hell no! I've been up there once (or twice?), and my arse puckers tight enough to crush diamond, just shimmying the last few steps from the top of the ladder up the chimney side, to inspect the cap. A 40' ladder stops about 2 - 3 feet shy of the crown at full extension, and as scary as those photos look, it's 20x worse looking down from up there.


I pay someone to go up there... because I enjoy not being dead.

 

[charly]

I'd get the soot eater... I look at it as sanding by hand with brush and rods or sanding with an orbital sander using the Soot Eater... I can tell you this year my roofers took my class A chimney down that was hooked to my Esse cook stove.. I had cleaned it 2 years in a row with the soot eater from the bottom up .. I cleaned it before they came and after taking the pipes down, the soot eater had cleaned everything including the cap! That's proof to me that it works!

 

[Nick Mystic]

When I used my Sooteater I cleaned from the top down on our Jotul F 600. Later, when I cleaned the short stove pipe in my lower level on my Woodstock Classic (single wall pipe connects through a thimble into a clay liner) I took the four foot long section of pipe and its two 90 degree elbows outside to clean with the Sooteater and a wire brush. After seeing how well the Sooteater cleaned that section of pipe I came away thinking that you probably could do a somewhat reasonable job of cleaning the inside of your rain cap if you cleaned from the bottom up. You would want to be sure you got the Sooteater head fully to the top of the cap and you'd want to spend some extra time moving it up and down just a foot or so to give the lines a good chance to knock free any built up creosote. If you had someone outside with binoculars watching your cap as you worked it would be even better.

 

[charly]

When I used my Sooteater I cleaned from the top down on our Jotul F 600. Later, when I cleaned the short stove pipe in my lower level on my Woodstock Classic (single wall pipe connects through a thimble into a clay liner) I took the four foot long section of pipe and its two 90 degree elbows outside to clean with the Sooteater and a wire brush. After seeing how well the Sooteater cleaned that section of pipe I came away thinking that you probably could do a somewhat reasonable job of cleaning the inside of your rain cap if you cleaned from the bottom up. You would want to be sure you got the Sooteater head fully to the top of the cap and you'd want to spend some extra time moving it up and down just a foot or so to give the lines a good chance to knock free any built up creosote. If you had someone outside with binoculars watching your cap as you worked it would be even better.

When I get near the cap, I feel with the soot eater rod to hit the cap before running the drill, now I know I'm in the cap area for sure and like you said , work it well.. What a handy tool that has turned out to be... who'd ever think a weed whacker would one day clean your chimney That's it, we'll make an attachment so a weed whacker can be used to run the Soot Eater

 

[HDRock]

For you top-downers, are you concerned about the crud accumulating at the bottom?

It seems like it would lie on the baffle, and maybe just burn up?

I think it would lie on the baffle, unless U could figure a way to get a vacuum up in there to suck it out. Would it burn up ? IDK
I will be taking the pipe apart and put a bag on, so that doesn't happen

 

[1750]

I think it would lie on the baffle, unless U could figure a way to get a vacuum up in there to suck it out. Would it burn up ? IDK
I will be taking the pipe apart and put a bag on, so that doesn't happen

I think that would be best, too. I just can't figure out how to get that double-walled pipe apart!

 

[CenterTree]

When I used my Sooteater I cleaned from the top down on our Jotul F 600. Later, when I cleaned the short stove pipe in my lower level on my Woodstock Classic (single wall pipe connects through a thimble into a clay liner) I took the four foot long section of pipe and its two 90 degree elbows outside to clean with the Sooteater and a wire brush. After seeing how well the Sooteater cleaned that section of pipe I came away thinking that you probably could do a somewhat reasonable job of cleaning the inside of your rain cap if you cleaned from the bottom up. You would want to be sure you got the Sooteater head fully to the top of the cap and you'd want to spend some extra time moving it up and down just a foot or so to give the lines a good chance to knock free any built up creosote. If you had someone outside with binoculars watching your cap as you worked it would be even better.

Do you feel that the Sooteater will not bust out the mesh in the rain cap?

I was just assuming that the force from the spinning whips would rip holes in the mesh.

Of course there is not much sense in cleaning the flue all the way up and then NOT being able to clean the cap too.

 

[begreen]

Not if it is a DuraTech cap. That is a tough stainless mesh.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I have a basic stove shop rain cap and when I used my Sooteater on it down on the ground after I brought it off the roof I could see clearly what was happening. I spun the head around inside the cap several times passing up and down the pipe and screening. It knocked the creosote off pretty well and did not damage the screen at all. You would have to have a pretty flimsy mesh in your cap to have a problem in my opinion. I was able to knock some additional creosote off with a wire hand brush, but the little I removed this way wouldn't have amounted to much had I left it in place. It was more of a cosmetic clean up.

 

[charly]

Do you feel that the Sooteater will not bust out the mesh in the rain cap?

I was just assuming that the force from the spinning whips would rip holes in the mesh.

Of course there is not much sense in cleaning the flue all the way up and then NOT being able to clean the cap too.

Use common sense and spin the soot eater slower while working the cap.. I'd say the wire will be like a knife edge to the whips, but would still just use your drill on a slower speed once at the cap...

 

[Ashful]

Wire? My mesh cap is expanded stainless steel sheet. No way in hell the sooteater will hurt it... just the opposite, in fact!

 

[Sprinter]

Just reading through these posts. Makes me feel very lucky that I can clean top-down and "easily" remove my baffle. I'm not sure I'd want to go through some of these issues unless maybe I had telescoping pipe. I think in some cases, it's just wiser to have it done.

One observation I've had after using my sooteater: It's really just for easy, light buildup. I don't think it would work well on difficult or thick creosote. Powdery soot and light, crinkly creosote okay, but if it's clinging to the sides too much, it just isn't going to cut it. If you are doing things right, you shouldn't have that kind of buildup anyway with modern stoves, but still you should be aware of that.

 

[neumsky]

Hell no! I've been up there once (or twice?), and my arse puckers tight enough to crush diamond, just shimmying the last few steps from the top of the ladder up the chimney side, to inspect the cap. A 40' ladder stops about 2 - 3 feet shy of the crown at full extension, and as scary as those photos look, it's 20x worse looking down from up there.


I pay someone to go up there... because I enjoy not being dead.

. TOOOOO FUNNY,

 

[Ashful]

I pay someone to go up there... because I enjoy not being dead.

My father owned a small structural / civil / architectural engineering firm, when I was growing up. They received a contract to build a new stadium for the local high school, which was seeing record attendance in those days. During the project, a man fell from one of the lighting towers and was killed, which must have left a lasting impression on me. It turned out this man was the father of one of my school friends.

 

[neumsky]

My father owned a small structural / civil / architectural engineering firm, when I was growing up. They received a contract to build a new stadium for the local high school, which was seeing record attendance in those days. During the project, a man fell from one of the lighting towers and was killed, which must have left a lasting impression on me. It turned out this man was the father of one of my school friends.

I too used to be a house builder...and seen my share of mishaps...I'm afraid of heights...and just turned 35 years of what I do for a living haha

 

[northwinds]

I too used to be a house builder...and seen my share of mishaps...I'm afraid of heights...and just turned 35 years of what I do for a living haha

I still get up on my roof, but I don't like it much, even though the pitch isn't bad. I always think of Max McGee, a former Packer player with oodles of money from business investments. Instead of paying a guy, Max fell off his roof at age 75 while he was blowing off leaves in the gutters.

 

[Treacherous]

I did my annual cleaning with Sooteater. More than I wanted to see but this years fuel is especially dry so we'll see how it goes. I did a more thorough cleaning of cap this time so that might have contributed to volume. You can't really tell from picture but it was quite brown overall in color so that is encouraging.

 

[clemsonfor]

Not bad I'd say

 

[HDRock]

I did my annual cleaning with Sooteater. More than I wanted to see but this years fuel is especially dry so we'll see how it goes. I did a more thorough cleaning of cap this time so that might have contributed to volume. You can't really tell from picture but it was quite brown overall in color so that is encouraging.

I'm curious ,I just installed a Lopi Republic
Do you remove the baffle bricks(edit , I guess U must have) and ,do you vacuum or brush off the crap that lands in top of the baffle plate in the back

 

[clemsonfor]

I'd vac anything up in the stove after I brush.

 

[NortheastAl]

I'm curious ,I just installed a Lopi Republic
Do you remove the baffle bricks(edit , I guess U must have) and ,do you vacuum or brush off the crap that lands in top of the baffle plate in the back

The Endeavor has a bypass that allows you to go straight up the back of the stove. If you notice, the secondary tubes are still in place on that pic. Il so do vacuum up between the baffle and flue at the edges of the bypass.

The republic does require a baffle brick removal, if I'm not mistaken. Or you could take out the flue pipe. Should say in the manual.

 

[HDRock]

The Endeavor has a bypass that allows you to go straight up the back of the stove. If you notice, the secondary tubes are still in place on that pic. Il so do vacuum up between the baffle and flue at the edges of the bypass.

The republic does require a baffle brick removal, if I'm not mistaken. Or you could take out the flue pipe. Should say in the manual.

Ok ,I forgot the Endeavor has a bypass
I have had everything in the top of my stove removed , and yes it, does require removing the baffle bricks, but I might just pull the pipe up ,put on a bag and avoid the crap falling in the stove

 

[clemsonfor]

That's what I'd do

 

[Sprinter]

Ok ,I forgot the Endeavor has a bypass
I have had everything in the top of my stove removed , and yes it, does require removing the baffle bricks, but I might just pull the pipe up ,put on a bag and avoid the crap falling in the stove

If you have a telescoping pipe, then that's the way to go.