Do I need a chimney liner?

[Lloyd H]

flue liner

I started in 1979 with a clay tile lined flue. Problem with them is they leak, smoke out and worse cooling air in. Keep your flue hot and it doesn't creasote. I had a flue fire, stunk up the house. knocked out the clay liner and replaced it with 7 inch schedule 40 iron pipe inside the brick chimney, wrapped it with fiberglass building insulation without the paper. 27 feet high and haven't had a brush in it in 20+ years. Beginning of heat season take about 1 gallon of ash and crud out at bottom and look up flue, looks like rifle barrel. Only problem old stove leaks and have so much draft its hard to hold low fire in mild weather.

 

[kd460]

Here's a thought: What does the manufacturer of the stove say? If it's a new stove, I bet it says 6 inch stainless liner. No, 24 feet is not to much for 6 inch.

Somebody mentioned 2 gallons of creosote in their chimney? I had 4 ounces out of my stainless liner for the whole season.

A new stove is designed to use a liner, and it runs at it's best in efficiency with a liner. Insulated liner is even better, and some liner manufatcturer's require it. You can run it to excess creosote build up (which can be a fire hazard), poor efficency from the stove, back draft issues, difficult to start issues, and you will need to pull an insert everytime you clean a chimney. Who wants to do that BS.

I would not cheap out on a safety item like this. Do you want your house to burn down? I don't think so. Will it with a non manufacturer reccomended install? Probably not. But if it does, at the least, good luck with the insurance company. At the worst, what about your family?

As far as someone else asking about using their current fireplace prefab 8 inch flu pipe, nope, not good enough. It is not rated for an insert. You need a liner as well.

Liner kits can be purchased for reasonable $$ on fleabay. Do yourself a favor, do your homework, don't cheap out, and do what the manufacturer of your stove/insert reccomends for installation. KD