Chimney... another newbie question

Excel may be the best chimney that money can buy... although you might hear some say Isokern is a better fit for that description.

That said, I personally wasn't willing to pay that price premium for Excel - may have been a dealer issue, but the dealer who had Excel (boutique stove shop) quoted at least 50% more than the dealer who had Metalsbestos/Selkirk (local hardware store). I think you'll find most people with any of the main chimney brands are pretty satisfied - the main complaints end up being a question of installation, set-up or configuration rather than quality issues with the chimney.

Simpson Duravent Duratech & Metalbestos are fine chimney. I'm not a fan of the air cooled chimneys (Dura Plus). Excel is nice stuff, I don't personally sell it but have seen it at the show. If you want the best of the best Excel is probably it but if you have a budget then the Duratech or Metalbestos will surely last you 20+ years.

Chimneys are chimneys. Simpson, ICC, metalfab, metal bestos, they all do the same thing. Installers have preference because they like to work with what there familer with. Like KP said, there all good.

I've installed some Simpson DuraTech and was not so impressed with the looseness of fit at the twist-lock joints. Also, the manufacturer shipped in plain cardboard boxes with no padding. First piece arrived badly dented. Maybe Excel puts alittle more into their shipping containers and their pipe fits together tighter?
Good luck.

Arthur said:

I've installed some Simpson DuraTech and was not so impressed with the looseness of fit at the twist-lock joints. Also, the manufacturer shipped in plain cardboard boxes with no padding. First piece arrived badly dented. Maybe Excel puts alittle more into their shipping containers and their pipe fits together tighter?
Good luck.

Click to expand...

I used the "supervent" chimney materials which I think is made by the same company and sold by the big boxes. I agree with your comments, the looseness of fit and flakey twist lock joints that don't "lock" seem kind of questionable, but they are safe once you properly secure every joint with a "locking band" (sold separately of course). Their shipping is horrible, I think every single piece was dented as Arthur described. I had to return some of them and pop dents out of the others. I don't know how this compares to other brands though...

One thing to watch out for - the locking bands used to be really wide (another dumb mistake on their part) but now they are nice and narrow for a tighter fit. Make sure you only end up with the narrow ones.