Would you trust clay liners?

My house was built in 1925, sometimes later the chimney was lined with the yellowish clay liners. I want to hook the wood burner into the chimney but dont know what to think of it? I looked inside and they dont appear to be cracked or damaged, no soot or creasote build up anywhere. here is a few picture of what I can observe from the basement looking up... I believe these are 8" inside diameter square liners the flue opening for the stovepipe is about 1 liner above the bottom liner.

blades said:

That flue as it stands is an invitation for a nightmare. Best you can do is bust out the clay liners then install insulated, if possible, or stainless liner with poured insulation around it like vermeculite. Liner needs to rated at 2100 deg.

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Yes, I watched a youtube vid where they bust them out and run a new liner, I dont even think a 6" liner will fit in there? Id like to have the 8" liner installed as I want to install a wood burning furnace next year if possible.

Fsappo said:

If I was going to invest in a wood burning central heating system, I may see how easy it would be to tear that thing down and put up a class A chimney. One thing to consider: There are a lot of high efficiency wood burning furnaces that use a 6" flue. I'd check with your local hearth professional for advice on this

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Yes, I would have it professionally installed anyways. With my basement it is possible to run out the wall and up the side of the house as well with a flue. Depending on which is easier. Since the chimney is open in the house it would be easy to tear it out and build a surround for the new pipes...

Fsappo said:

Oh yeah. that would be a sweet set up. I don't know if I missed it, but how many square feet are you trying to heat?

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My house is 1400sqft. an odd setup as it was built in 1925 by a farmer in 4 stages.

if it is ok, I can post a link to a site where I posted pictures of the house rehab... from gutting 3 years ago til moving in just this past May...?

Fsappo said:

I was just looking for a general idea. it doesn't look like you would need something huge. The Caddy furnace by PSG is rated at 140k BTU's (not a dealer any more so I'm going by memory) and could cruise at about 60K btus over a long burn. It had a 6" exhaust and was excellent quality.

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Thanks, I will check into that, Ive been looking at the FireChief FC1100E, its the biggest, but not much bigger than they say I need, BUT, I plan to keep it if I ever move, which I want a big log home in the sticks eventually... For $2200 its not a bad price, $1700 for the FC500
The 500 is 100000btu and heats 15-2000sqft. The 1100 is 200000btu and heats 35-5000sqft. Id rather go bigger, slower and longer burns

My basement isnt heated and I want to heat it as well ***

Here is the thread with my house, been a long road but finally moved in 05/14 from start to finish.
http://ramforumz.com/showthread.php?t=124351

UMainah said:

If it isn't too difficult to go out the basement wall, I'd be tempted to tear out the chimney just to get it out of the center of the living room and forget about an interior chase. It'd open up the floor plan even more.

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Yes I agree, it is off center until it gets into the attic then shifts over a few feet to go out the center of the peak of the roof... really odd design. If they would have put the doorway in another location in the basement then it would have went straight down,

Fsappo said:

For about $1000 more you can move from something that appears to be using 30 year old combustion technology in the Fire Chief to an EPA certified Caddy. I would look at them both before you spend your money on something so important.

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Yes, I got a lot to research still. Once I find all the different makes and models then look at the efficiencies of each and go with the best.