Sooteater

[Bad LP]

How flexible are the rods? I’d like to enter the masonry chimney from the basement.

Will the Sooteater work on a 6” tile? There was no affordable way to install a pipe in the smaller tile. I’m feeding it with a 6” round off the boiler.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I could put the black rods through a 90 going from 6” to 5.5”. The only time one broke was when my kid was holding the drill and dropped it while it was running.

No idea on the white rods.

 

[stoveliker]

How flexible are the rods? I’d like to enter the masonry chimney from the basement.

Will the Sooteater work on a 6” tile? There was no affordable way to install a pipe in the smaller tile. I’m feeding it with a 6” round off the boiler.

That is what I do. I have about a foot of pipe, then the thimble (thru a concrete wall), then the snout and up. All 6" ID.
I don't think 6" tile is any different in that respect.

However, I assume it's a square flue? With a rotating brushing system it may be hard to clean in the corners?

 

[Bad LP]

That is what I do. I have about a foot of pipe, then the thimble (thru a concrete wall), then the snout and up. All 6" ID.
I don't think 6" tile is any different in that respect.

However, I assume it's a square flue? With a rotating brushing system it may be hard to clean in the corners?

That’s my thinking with the round peg in a square hole. It’s only fly ash.

 

[stoveliker]

That’s my thinking with the round peg in a square hole. It’s only fly ash.

Then a good leafblower up the flue after brushing it with the sooteater might do all that you need.

 

[Ashful]

Then a good leafblower up the flue after brushing it with the sooteater might do all that you need.

... and my wife told me that I was the only one stupid enough to run a 2-stroke leaf blower in the house.

In my case, it was the quickest way to blow a bedroom clean of 250 year old mortar and ten generations of the dirt that collects behind window casings and sills, after tearing some timbered window frames out of a stone wall.

On the sooteater, mine makes an easy 90 degree turn with black rods, to get thru the front door of an Ashford and up thru the bypass. Then snakes thru a bypass damper and another pair of 45-degree elbows.

 

[stoveliker]

lol. We've more in common than having a BK ;-)

The height of the firebox allows for a much larger angle than 90 (and larger than the 100 or so I have in a 6" pipe). Maybe I bought into some advertisement hype ("white more resilient to flexing than black" in order to sell more of them), or maybe not. I don't know.

 

[Bad LP]

Then a good leafblower up the flue after brushing it with the sooteater might do all that you need.

I cut the bottom off a Christmas tree indoors once. What a mess and the stench was nasty. I don’t need to do that again.

 

[Ashful]

I cut the bottom off a Christmas tree indoors once. What a mess and the stench was nasty. I don’t need to do that again.

I suspect you're implying some indoor use of a chainsaw.

When I read it, I thought, "what's the big deal, I've done that before." But I was using a human-powered bow saw, no 2-stroke exhaust or flying chips, involved.

 

[stoveliker]

It's my basement with three windows, and a door to the garage. I air it out for 15 mins and all is good. Only run the thing for 30 seconds.

 

[PaulOinMA]

Had a lot of needles fall off a tree the first time I took a real Christmas tree down.

I learned to take a garbage can idoors and cut it up. Or wrap it in a painter's tarp to take outside.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

My Christmas tree is 5 feet from my front door. Gentle nudging and spinning gets it to the front door, a stiff shove sends it out. And I still have cleanup.

 

[Ashful]

The farm where we cut our trees bundles them nicely in fishnet, to get them inside and onto the stand. But I end up lopping most of the branches off indoors, just to get them out the door, when it's time. The 10'ish foot trees we get are usually over 6 feet wide, and our door is probably less than 3 feet wide. It doesn't take much math to figure you're going to be rubbing some paint pretty hard on the way out, without removing some branches first.

It makes a mess, but a minute or two with a broom and dustpan, followed by the vacuum, makes quick work of it.

 

[BKVP]

So on the subject of flexible shafts for cleaning rods, there was a guy at the NCSG Convention that has a brand new 24" flexible shaft (he demonstrated it for me and it bends like a pretzel) with a heavy flexible sleeve to protect it against abrasion. I think it was in the Copperfield booth, but I'll double check. It was super slick, easily could improve the time and less frustration of sweeping chimney's with convoluted corners/obstructions. I didn't see bholler there in Las Vegas (he may know of this device) but I did see The Scorpions in concert!

 

[shoot-straight]

Anyone else replaced the strings in theirs? I did But it's not a easy as you would think. Regular weed whacked line I assume is Ok?

 

[PaulOinMA]

Yes. 10 strands 0.105" star-shaped trimmer line from page 7 here.

https://www.northerntool.com/images/downloads/manuals/101754.pdf

 

[Ashful]

Anyone else replaced the strings in theirs? I did But it's not a easy as you would think. Regular weed whacked line I assume is Ok?

Yes, I replace mine maybe every second year, which is every 4th brushing for my two stoves. They don't hold up all the well, given the arrangement, and perhaps the way I like to let them spin around in the cap to get it clean.

Paul already called out the right material, I won't bother to check him on that, I have a 100 foot spool of the stuff sitting next to my sooteaters in the basement storage.'

Loosen the set screw... a lot. Pull out old strings, insert new strings, leaving an inch more length than required, re-tighten set screw. Trim to the guide in the manual, and you're good to go.

I've been tempted to replicate the stringing of the pro models, which usually have a loop rather than dead ends, but wouldn't know the ideal loop length. Anyone ever tried it? It looks like it'd give better life, and perhaps better performance.