class a or masonry

Class A heats up faster and generally drafts better. Or you could do masonry with a liner and get the aesthetics you want and the safety/performance of a liner.

Either would work but my vote would be for masonry with liner.

I have a tile flue and it seems to take a while to heat up. Other than that tile is fine.

Masonry is just fine, but once you have a flue fire it's wrecked! I would do a masonry chimney with an SS flue fight from the start. If you insulate it well, you can't go wrong. The all masonry will be cheaper now, but when it comes time to re-line it, it won't be any cheaper.

I'd say a lot depends on your budget. You can run Class A chimney in a chase a heck of a lot cheaper than having a masonry chimney structure built and then lining it. Up to you and your wallet. Rick

fossil said:

I'd say a lot depends on your budget. You can run Class A chimney in a chase a heck of a lot cheaper than having a masonry chimney structure built and then lining it. Up to you and your wallet. Rick

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A friend of mine had a chimney built a few years back. He got a quote for a Class A, and a quote for a masonry chimney with an insulated rigid SS liner. The masonry with the SS was much cheaper. I don't know how.

I am torn between these two options myself, anyone else have ideas on cost and performance between the two? This is for a basement install and I have a Cape Cod house.

I'm not torn. I have a large chimney which is masonary. I also have a clay liner 8x12. Inside of that is an insulated SS liner because it is easier to clean, safer and works better.

So, get the SS insulated liner. It took me 20 years before I went this way. If I had known in the beginning, I'd have done it from the start.

One thing is to think about what size flue you really need. If you get an 8 inch outlet stove (there aren't many) you'll need an 8 inch liner to be optimum. Most stoves today have 6 inch outlets, more or less. But that is one thing to think about.

the stove i need it for is the napoleon 1900 (so 6") - is it worth doing 6" clay flue tiles or just masonry and run a liner?

Perhaps not clear on my end. The clay was a waste for me. I ended up installing an insulated liner. The insulated liner maintains its temperature much better than the clay. It is far easier to clean it. And, it is safer.

There is not much of a choice. The only reason I have it in clay is that I started that way.

Up till they had EPA stoves, you could get enough pull from a clay flue that you would not need to be so concerned with precise flue size. Now, with burn tubes at least, you need to maintain uniformity in the flue size.

So, the Masonary would be for looks and your SS liner would be for performance. You could also box in and side the SS flue if you didn't care about the masonary looks.

IMHO I would run a nice class a system like Excel threw an insulated chase. Then side the chase with stone or brick. Best of both worlds performance of a class A system with the look of a masonary chimney.
Cory

Chelmsford Fireplace Center said:

IMHO I would run a nice class a system like Excel threw an insulated chase. Then side the chase with stone or brick. Best of both worlds performance of a class A system with the look of a masonary chimney.
Cory

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+1.

Make sure that the masonry chimney is big enough to fit the 6" liner and the insulation that surrounds it.

It looks like a minimum 8" square/round opening is required...but it is probably wise to make the opening a little larger - maybe 9"square? This will give you lots of room and you won't be "snagging" and even tearing the insulation as you move the liner into place.

One liner that I'm currently researching is the Duraliner. It is a double walled liner with insulation between the walls. The inside is SS, but the outside, I believe, is Galvalume. Also, I think the overall width of the liner is just a little over 6".

Please let us all know what you end of doing!

Cheers.

Whoops..meant to say "Please let us know what you end up doing!