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

Why it's worth it

The SootEater chucks into a cordless drill you probably already own and spins a trimmable whip up your flue, scrubbing all sides at once. Six flexible rods reach 18 feet, and you can work from the firebox instead of the roof.

The spinning whip is what separates this from every push-pull brush here. A manual brush scrubs in one direction — up, then down, then up again. The SootEater's whip rotates as you feed it, hitting the flue wall from every angle on a single pass. Owners who've cleaned the same chimney both ways consistently describe the rotary method as faster and more thorough. If you burn a couple of cords a season, that difference shows up in what lands in your firebox.

You don't need special tools. The rod assembly chucks into a standard cordless drill, and 18 volts is plenty. The reversible bottom link means you can run it top-down from the roof or bottom-up from the firebox, which matters more than it sounds — a lot of owners bought this specifically to stop climbing a ladder to a second-story roofline. Working from the floor with a drill is a genuinely different experience than balancing on a pitched roof with a rod bag.

From our review of 6 chimney sweep brushes, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +The spinning whip is what separates this from every push-pull brush here
• +You don't need special tools
• +The whip trims to fit, so one kit covers a range of flue diameters
• +Flexibility is the other reason it wins

What to know

• –It costs more than any other complete kit here, and it's a real jump over the budget option
• –A spinning whip throws soot with enthusiasm
• –Severe offsets are still a problem