Advice needed on wood furnace chimney installation

[wrx-snowdrift]

You have to cut and fold the sides of the cap over on all 4 sides then take silicone and do the perimeter of the top tile and pull the liner tight and it will hold the cap down for a water tight fit. Every liner I've seen is uninsulated. For furnaces water heaters and boilers we use aluminum liners. Fire places and wood burners are stainless steel. The masonry part of ur chimney should be a halfway decent insulator and the part in the house will be fine. That's the way I'd go uninsulated stainless steel liner being the correct size for your btu output.

I was under the impression that for solid fuel such as wood it had to be insulated? I've removed all of the old clay tile.

 

[Mustang71]

O that must have been fun to do. Idk I put a Napoleon wood burning insert in and it came with a 6 inch stainless steel flexible uninsulated liner. I would think any sort of add on chimney would need to be insulated like my triple wall stainless chimney. You wouldn't want to run an uninsulated single wall pipe as a chimney because it wouldn't stay warm enough to keep the flu gasses hot enough and they would condense. You can put a wood burning stove into a regular clay/ brick chimney that is in good shape. The flex liner is a way to reline and make sure your chimney is the correct size for the heat output.

Half the time we put liners in is because the clay tile has fallen apart and is blocking the chimney.

Edit. I'm sure an insulated liner will help improve draft but the actual liner is the safety part.

 

[Mad Professor]

A good insulated SS liner then a dual fuel hot air furnace, wood and oil/gas. Some will do hot water too.

I forget the name but one out of upper midwest had the best bang/buck for furnaces, CHARMASTER!!!, but you'll be into about 8K with a good liner.

Try Rockford for chimney liners.

Combo those and your grandkids will be using them

 

[wrx-snowdrift]

A good insulated SS liner then a dual fuel hot air furnace, wood and oil/gas. Some will do hot water too.

I forget the name but one out of upper midwest had the best bang/buck for furnaces, CHARMASTER!!!, but you'll be into about 8K with a good liner.

Try Rockford for chimney liners.

Combo those and your grandkids will be using them

Already ordered my Kuuma Vapor-Fire 100

 

[kevin j]

i've never use the corrugated flex but I've used of rigid stainless steel liner. She drop it down at on another section drop it down and on another section etc. The masonry around it is already the thermal protection I don't understand why you would need insulation granted it would help keep the flu warmer but the air space around it is going to be keeping that internal pipe pretty worn

mine definitely holds the heat well and draft pretty well


The biggest mistake I made was going down to the stove level and then into the stove. I should I had a T their continued into the basement and put a clean out in the basement I would've made life a whole lot easier

 

[wrx-snowdrift]

I'm getting so confused on whether or not I need an insulated liner. Most people on here are saying I don't, some seem to say I don't but I should for a better draft, and most sites selling liners seem to indicate I'm required to have one.
Here is a quote from a chimney service in St. Paul "current Local and National building codes state, The Flue Liner Shall Provide a Continuous Gas and Moisture-Tight Insulating Lining between the Flue Gases and the Chimney Structure"

 

[NSMaple1]

I don't think I would want a chimney without some kind of insulation inside.

Don't some people just put a s/s liner in leaving space around between it & the chimney, then fill the space with pourable insulation? Maybe vermiculite?

 

[Mustang71]

That local code means that it should not be able to leak flu gas or water from the liner into the chimney. It doesn't mean it needs to be insulated. I'm sure insulation would help but is not necessary to be safe and meet code.

 

[Highbeam]

Yes, since you broke out the clay liner you are required to install an insulated SS liner for wood burning. If your clay liner was still in place and not damaged at all (oversized is fine) then you are allowed to skip the liner insulation. At this point, the existing masonry chimney is nothing but structural support for your insulated SS liner.

 

[Mustang71]

That's sort of the part that interests me and Idk if I would have removed the clay liner until I figured out what I was going to do. Idk if it's still classified as a chimney or just a brick column/chase. You sort of lost that fire barrier in the clay tile but Idk what kind of brick you have it may clay brick. May just want to insulate it to be safe it can't hurt.

 

[Marshy]

Use the insulation with your liner and never have to worry about it again. You won't look back. You go without the insulation and have a low flue gas temp on a warmer day and you could be generating creosote and possibly poor draft. Yes, "what if's" but it's worth the extra 1-200 for the install to get the insulation. You just won't know how necessary it is until you install it without the insulation and see if it works. The cinder surrounding the liner is a heat sink. Your liner will be giving up heat to the cinder all the time. You might find yourself in a similar situation I was in where on cold windy days the flue gas mixing with the cold air in the top 2 ft of the chimney makes creosote and never gets warm enough to dry it out so it starts running down your chimney. Not worth doing it twice IMO.

 

[wrx-snowdrift]

Again, thanks for the replies. I still think I made the right move removing the clay tile, it was in terrible shape with pieces completely missing and a lot of it crumbling apart and an insulated liner wouldn't have fit down it anyways. I'll continue on and hopefully have an update in a month.

 

[Marshy]

You are making the right choices.

 

[wrx-snowdrift]

Here is a video I took of the tile breaker in action. It's hard to see but you can sure hear the tile pieces falling.

 

[Marshy]

Awesome

 

[LondonNeil]

If you're confused on the building code, ask on h e a r t h.com. A sweep called bholler ALWAYS answers. His replies can seem a bit blunt but I think he knows his job.

Building regs in the UK are different so I may be wrong, but I'm sure bholler will say something like ' a liner alone may work but isn't to code, you need to insulate it to comply with code's. Only in a blunter manner! Probably with something added about burning your house down unless you have huge clearance to combustibles from the flue.

 

[LondonNeil]

In the UK, if you insulate (you don't have to) most people pour in vermiculite, unless the brick chimney is a huge space. Not sure if that is OK for you though as there is no way to guarantee the liner is central and well surrounded by vermiculite, not touching brickwork at some point.