Repair or replace clay liner

Hi everyone,

I have a 25 foot tall exterior brick chimney with a clay tile liner. Inside is a small Hearthstone wood stove (16 inch firebox). When I first cleaned the chimney after we bought the house I discovered that 4 feet down, at about roof level, the clay liner was not aligned with the one below it. There's a gap. It's as if the tile sections shifted. I can barely get a tight fitting wire brush past the offset. Can't see but feels ok below this. No evidence of broken tiles at the bottom of the chimney.

I don't have any experience with repairing clay liner tiles, but I once helped a pro chimney guy remove a clay liner and install a flexible SS liner so I'm familiar with the process and willing to do the work. However, I'd rather not spend the money for the steel liner (obviously) if the existing liner can be fixed. Couldn't I just pull out the liner sections, then reinstall properly with refractory cement? I'd rather not take down the brick to the the roof line where the gap is..instead I was hoping to break up the sloping cement cap, then just pull out the tiles somehow. Not sure how I'll pull the one out that's 4 feet down though. The brush is so tight I wonder if I can use that to pull out the tile sections. Any chance this will work? Or am I kidding myself.

I've read about how great the SS liners are. The chimney I helped re-line with SS was my own, and I can't say I noticed a difference after the new SS liner and insulation was installed. It would seem to me that the clay liner would last longer, excluding a fire event.

If I have to take the chimney down the 4 or 5 feet to fix this, I'd almost rather reline with steel, since I've not been too proud of the brick work I've done in the past.


Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for your time.

-Jeff

Thanks Guys.

Yes the clay tiles are 6 inch so I'd need to bust them out if I wanted to re-line with metal. I do have a clean out so I'd try to borrow one of those drill rotating smasher things and clean up from the bottom.

I don't have a cam, but when brushing the lower tiles feel fine. I can see a ways down with a light and they all look good below where the gap is. I should stick my head in the clean out and look up too.

I kind of like the idea of the metal liner, but it looks to be $500 in parts. I wouldn't need much to fix the clay tiles, if I can make it work. I guess I'm here looking for someone to challenge my plan on fixing the tiles, and to see if there's something great about the SS I'm missing. I must admit that I'd spend the money if I really thought I'd get better fires.

-jeff

One more question if I may. I'm taking another look at metal liners, and find Titanium liners to be just a tiny bit cheaper. I would think titanium to be better than stainless. Sometimes stainless isn't as "stainless" as we'd like.

Which is better?

I thought this would have been discussed, a search turned up nothing.

Thanks cmonSTART.