I spent months on end, doing my homework. Didn't want a flex liner, wanted a high quality heavy duty liner, wanted a block off plate, wanted insulated. Had nothing but problems trying to get someone to do it, the way I wanted. Finally had a guy that did chimney work for 30 years, do the job. He told me that the HomeSaver 316T high quality, strong enough he could stand on it and not to worry about the flex building up more creosote cuz it was smoother inside than most flex's. He did insulate it with a blanket liner. Did not do the block off plate. I paid extra for a vacu stack cap, due to high winds in our area. The install was $2300.00
So today, I had a local chimney sweep come up to sweep and he practically had a fit. Really nice guy but he was pretty disgustd the the materials. He told me that he could not get the vacu stack off the liner cuz the guy glued it on, or caulked it on. He said the liner was so thin, that he was worried he would tear the liner, getting the cap off. He said he will come up next week, when he can put a plate up there that he can actually sit and be more stable, and use a razor blade and screw driver to try to scrape the stuff off without tearing the liner. He has a cap that is made for the thin liners and said he would just give it to me. He also said, never never never let anyone use a steel brush on that liner or it will shread. He said it basically is one step above junk. He said that the vacu stacks hardly let the chimney breath and usually get totally plugged up.
So today, I had a local chimney sweep come up to sweep and he practically had a fit. Really nice guy but he was pretty disgustd the the materials. He told me that he could not get the vacu stack off the liner cuz the guy glued it on, or caulked it on. He said the liner was so thin, that he was worried he would tear the liner, getting the cap off. He said he will come up next week, when he can put a plate up there that he can actually sit and be more stable, and use a razor blade and screw driver to try to scrape the stuff off without tearing the liner. He has a cap that is made for the thin liners and said he would just give it to me. He also said, never never never let anyone use a steel brush on that liner or it will shread. He said it basically is one step above junk. He said that the vacu stacks hardly let the chimney breath and usually get totally plugged up.