SootEater Rotary Chimney Cleaning System - Gardus RCH205-B Chimney Sweep Kit, Cleans Open Chimneys up to 18' with 6 Flexible 3' Rods, Chimney Cleaning Kit with Trim-to-Fit Spinning Chimney Whip

UPDATE (Oct 18, 2014): Added another star to the four I gave it last year.I just finished my annual chimney clean today using this item... last winter I burned ~2.5 full cords (not facing/kitchen cords) of which ~30% was not well seasoned and there was an easy 1/4" to 1/2" of soot and creosote build-up.Suffice to say, I was a little anxious about the task at hand. It was cold and rainy outside and top down cleaning really wasn't an option so armed with my chimney soot whacker, shop vac and flash light, I set-up in the living room and went about cleaning from the bottom.I had anticipated a 2-3 hour ordeal chipping away at layer after layer of solidified smoke but in the first five minutes of cleaning the firebox and damper, I realised it was going to be a breeze.The whipping trimmer line made light work of everything glued to the sides and I found myself done inside 25mins... not only was it quick, but I was super happy with how clean it ended up too.For those of you wondering; I also found cleaning from the bottom up to be heaps quicker, safer, cleaner and all round just easier. No ladders, roof pitch, chimney caps, dust in your face or dropped tools to deal with.Just make sure there is a decent draft going up the chimney (or the dust will inevitably end up on the inside of your house!).I didn't bother with the instructions to seal the fireplace opening with a plastic sheet, I just had the shop vac (with a 1 micron fine dust filter) running the entire time with the suction pipe pointed up into the chimney.And just to be clear, I have no ties/affiliation with the reseller/manufacturer of this device - I'd be suspicious of such a glowing review myself but I'm honestly just an impressed user.ORIGINAL REVIEW (Nov 1, 2013):I paid $275 earlier this year to have a chimney cleaned in a new residence with no real idea of the service delivered (I'm originally from Queensland, Australia, chimney cleaning is an absolute non-issue; what can I say?).Nonetheless, I'm a Mech. Engineer with an innate drive for DIY so I figured this product would suit my prep for a snow belt winter in Western NY... we've got two options for heating our ~3000sq.ft. log cabin; propane or a relatively large wood fireplace (with recirculated heat-exchanged air) that sits in a vaulted ceiling living room.With the math done, wood burning is by far the cheapest (and warmest) method of heating the house... I'm fully aware it's not the most environmentally friendly method but at almost ~$1000p.a. saving I figure I can put that toward offsetting the increased carbon I contribute ;-) Add in the $275 saved not having to use a sweep and I might feel like a wind farmer!Getting back to the real point, this product is great... I worked from the top down with the damper closed (to decrease the possibility of dust issues in the house) and was blown away by how effective it is at removing chimney build-up of all kinds (glaze, creosote and soot). Glaze is incredibly hard to remove without solvent (and the manual does suggest professional help for glaze) but I was surprised to see how much it did remove.It is essentially a weed whacker/trimmer for your chimney and I'm confident it replaces a chimney sweep for 90% of people that have educated themselves on having a safe chimney.It did a great job removing build-up on the grate in the chimney cap as well...Having said all that, don't go buying this thinking it'll save you doing hard labour to keep your chimney clean... it's simply a great tool that will save time in the process. If you can't be bothered spending the better part of a day a year to inspect and keep your chimney in order then I'd recommend you use a professional sweep instead.The rod couplings are a decent design and I had no issues with disconnections... just make sure you keep the chuck tight on the drill (if you're doing top down) and it'll be fine.The fact it's been designed to work with readily available trimmer line is just icing on the cake; most other manufacturers would make it proprietary for the added financial benefit but common sense has prevailed here... hip hooray!N.B. Don't be an idiot; this thing creates dust that contains all kinds of toxins... the top down approach is likely the worst (the updraft in most chimneys WILL come back at you!) so please use a dust mask. AND, if you use a vac for final clean-up downstairs, use a filter rated for fireplace soot/ash!

I ordered this in 2020 and have been using for cleaning our chimney for four heating seasons. We use a wood stove as our primary heat. We grew too old to place and climb the heavy ladder to the second story roof to brush out our chimney. Our neighbors started yelling at us in horror because my husband is 80 and I’m 74. Rather than be dependent upon them, I ordered this system and now we can easily clean our own chimney regardless of weather any time we want. The cleaning is good and easy. This year I want to report that I sprayed graphite on the button ferrules and what a difference. For all of you wrestling to detach the sections, graphite will make the job easy. It used to take two of us to clean just because of needing two people to pull the rod sections apart. Now that the ferrules have been sprayed with graphite, I can do the entire job myself!! I have replaced the whipper snipper cord a few times now with heavy cord from the hardware store. I zip tie the cords on each side of the center ball to hold the cord in place. This system is still working after 4 years with no problem whatsoever. It has made us safe and independent. It cleans right to the top of our lined chimney without damaging it. We can clean often because the chore is no big deal.

I purchased the system plus two additional sets of rods since my chimney is approximately 26' tall. It is a prefabricated 6" double-wall insulated stainless steel chimney, with clean-out tee at the bottom. The tee cover is 21" above the floor. This review is based on only one usage so far.Although I probably had only about 1/8" of soot and creosote build-up following the first six weeks the chimney was in use, the Gardus SootEater appeared to clean everything right down to the metal, except for a dark-brown patina (which is good, since bright shiny metal would have indicated possible scratching or abrasion of the stainless steel surface, something the manufacturer clearly warns against). I'll probably use the device twice per season, once in mid-season and once at the end of burning season. Although the manual strongly recommends that this device is no substitute for an annual inspection/cleaning by a certified chimney sweep, I suspect this is a disclaimer for liability purposes. If it gets the chimney this clean at the end of season, I see no need for the services of a chimney sweep, except maybe once every few years to inspect the condition of the chimney near the top for any possible need for repairs.My unit and the extra rods I purchased are black, as opposed to the white rods shown in the video. I suspect they added the black outer jacket to protect the flexible rod from abrasion, but I also suspect this makes the rod stiffer and a little harder to manage. I was not able to completely clean the bottom 2-3 feet of the chimney because the rod was too stiff to properly make the bend into the first couple of feet, even though I was able to follow their recommendation to maintain less than 90 degrees of bend in the rod. I'll probably try a regular plastic brush with a short rod to clean the very bottom. A shortened version of their flexible rod would also work, to allow the drill to face straight up vertically into the chimney without the bend in the rod, while cleaning the first few feet.The plastic sheet they provided for sealing off the hole while cleaning was totally useless. At first I tried cleaning without using anything to stop up the hole, letting the soot/creosote drop into a pan on the floor below. This was a little messy, but the main problem I had with doing it that way was that the sharp edge of the interior sheet metal sleeve in the tee, cut deeply into the outer jacket of the first rod I tried to use, and would have severely damaged each rod if I had continued. Instead, I cut out a round disc the same size as the tee cover from a piece of scrap 1/2" plywood, drilled a slightly eccentric hole in the plywood large enough to pass the rod through, and fashioned a bracket to hold the disc in place at the bottom of the tee during the cleaning operation. This keeps the rotating rod spaced towards the centre of the flue as it bends up into the chimney. The wood still leaves visible surface marks on the outer jacket of the rod, but doesn't cut into the black plastic sleeve the way the bare edge of the sheet metal did. The entire cleaning process took less than an hour, not counting the time I spent fashioning the wooden disc and holding bracket, and left minimal mess when I removed the disc and let the soot fall into the pan.I believe the red trimmer string they use on the cleaning head is the same stuff used with a regular string-trimmer for lawn work. I plan to try using some of that when it comes time to replace the string. It would likely be much cheaper, and available locally whenever I need it, rather than having to wait for an order to arrive.At this point, I believe the SootEater is an excellent product, allowing routine cleaning multiple times during heating season with minimal time and cost, but someone who is knowledgeable and handy with a few basic shop tools will be more likely to have a satisfactory outcome with the device.