chimney liner insulate or not

locals get obcessive & assumptive= skip the liner & listen to dealer
http://www.gulland.ca/florida_bungalow_syndrome.htm

I had an outside chimney with an uninsulated stainless liner in my last house and did not have a problem with creosote and draft was usually good.
In a relatively warm climate lack of draft could be a problem. I notice a big difference between 30 deg. and 0 deg.
My current chimney is interior with an insulated stainless liner (no masonry liner) and I still fight the draft problem in warm weather.

I live in Mass, code in my town required full insulation on a stainless liner. My liner runs in the chimney and shares space with the old oil burner flu (now unused). As far as it's use I can't say it makes a difference eitheray. Th chimney is two bricks thick and runs through the middle of the house. Good luck...

DAKSY said:

Insulate the top - just under the cap & the bottom - where it passes thru the damper area.
Use Kaowool, rock wool or unfaced fiberglass insulation.
It'll keep the cold air out & the heat in.

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makes sense

My Oslo heats my home said:

I live in Mass, code in my town required full insulation on a stainless liner. My liner runs in the chimney and shares space with the old oil burner flu (now unused). As far as it's use I can't say it makes a difference eitheray. Th chimney is two bricks thick and runs through the middle of the house. Good luck...

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Did you have your liner installed and if so how much did that cost? I noticed a crack in a chimney tile so I am thinking I need one here..

Thanx,
Ray

I did the install myself. When I went to my towns building department to get my install permit I spoke with the inspector. He advised me that if I was putting in a new/used (new to the home) wood stove
he would require me to use a liner and that he wanted it to be insulated. The inspector in this town was requiring the SS liner on all woodstove installs even if the house was brand new (no clay liner cracks) or 100 yrs old. The fire chief had alot to do with the new ordinance as well.
Sorry to run on there a bit. I used August West Chimney Co out of Pembroke Ma, on Oak St. I don't remember the cost of the pipe off hand.. You may want to price out other suppliers if your doing it yourself. Good luck

Waz

Insulating the liner will get you your best performance from the chimney, and is the only way to ensure you have a code compliant install. Read my post here for the details:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/60132

I got tired of typing the same thing 30 times a season, so I put it all in one place.

I insulated my SS liner when I installed it. All of my research indicated that it would be safer and my chimney would perform better. I did all of the work myself. I didn't buy one of the expensive kits, just ordered the foil blanket online and picked everything else up at Home Depot/Wal-Mart. I believe everything to insulate up to 25' was around $170-$180. I may be cheap, but I wanted max safety and the best performance I could get from my short chimney (around 13').

South, just out of curiosity, what kind of draft do you get from your 13' stack?

My chimney is 14.8' from the bottom of the insert to the cap. I have not used the new insert yet in super cold weather but the other morning it was 45f outside and I was able to light my first break in fire with no problem. With my old stove I never had a great draft on my short chimney, any time the temperature got above 60 it the draft would reverse and the house would start to smell like creosote.

Have heard that about short stacks, crappy drafts.

My Oslo heats my home said:

South, just out of curiosity, what kind of draft do you get from your 13' stack?

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The draft seems good and the stove does burns well.

burleymike said:

My chimney is 14.8' from the bottom of the insert to the cap. I have not used the new insert yet in super cold weather but the other morning it was 45f outside and I was able to light my first break in fire with no problem. With my old stove I never had a great draft on my short chimney, any time the temperature got above 60 it the draft would reverse and the house would start to smell like creosote.

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I haven't had a problem in the two years I've had my insert. The draft on my short chimney seems good enough to get the job done. Just curious, do you have an insulated liner installed?