The effect of reactor orientation on the CVD growth of JH SIC is investigated. Compared with the up-flow orientation (the chimney reactor), the down-flow orientation (the inverted chimney) shows similar growth rate dependencies on C/Si ratio and pressure. The activation energy of the growth rate in the inverted chimney is Lower than that in the chimney. The inverted chimney also produces epilayers with high growth rates (10 - 30 mum/h) and low residual doping (low 10(16) down to mid 10(13) cm(-3)). The epilayer morphology is comparable with that of the chimney samples. A qualitative analysis is performed on the heat transfer mechanisms in these two reactor orientations in terms of dimensionless flow numbers.