I have an exterior masonry chimney with 2 flues. One flue ends in the fireplace on the main floor (now containing an insulated SS liner for the Hampton stove on the hearth). All is good there.
The other flue continues to the basement level. It is lined with 8" diameter round clay tile. Two bends carry it around the fireplace, not sure at what angles. There is an old "Home Heater" brand coal/wood burner in the basement using that flue. Note that I say "using" and not "connected to." The stovepipe (which itself has two 90 degree bends), goes out through the poured concrete basement wall but isn't physically connected to the flue. At all. The pipe ends a good arm's length away. Don't ask, I don't know, it was like this when I bought the place.
The bottom of the flue is just a busted-out clay tile. There is no way to connect anything to it right now. There's not enough room to stick both arms in, the flue is too far away to reach anyway and there is no access door on the outside of the chimney. The stove puts out great heat and doesn't send smoke up through the fireplace floor or anywhere else but now that I have been reading here for a while, the installation seems...scary.
I am considering replacing it with something like a Napoleon. I am going to have a pro take a good look at everything over the summer but I have the following questions:
1) What are the chances of being able to get a 6" flex liner down this flue?
2) What are the chances of being able to get an INSULATED liner in there?
3) What about a 5 1/2" liner?
4) And finally... how feasible would it be to cut a hole in the cinderblock chimney for a small access door so that one could drop a liner, put in a tee and make a proper stovepipe connection in the future? Please tell me the chimney won't collapse.
Given the chimney height of probably 30', the exteriorness and the cold climate, the advantages of an insulated liner seem considerable. Even if the flue is too tight for a wrapped liner, maybe insulation could be poured around a liner if I could get arms and hands inside to build a "floor" to close off around the bottom of the tile.
All thoughts and comments will be appreciated.
The other flue continues to the basement level. It is lined with 8" diameter round clay tile. Two bends carry it around the fireplace, not sure at what angles. There is an old "Home Heater" brand coal/wood burner in the basement using that flue. Note that I say "using" and not "connected to." The stovepipe (which itself has two 90 degree bends), goes out through the poured concrete basement wall but isn't physically connected to the flue. At all. The pipe ends a good arm's length away. Don't ask, I don't know, it was like this when I bought the place.
The bottom of the flue is just a busted-out clay tile. There is no way to connect anything to it right now. There's not enough room to stick both arms in, the flue is too far away to reach anyway and there is no access door on the outside of the chimney. The stove puts out great heat and doesn't send smoke up through the fireplace floor or anywhere else but now that I have been reading here for a while, the installation seems...scary.
I am considering replacing it with something like a Napoleon. I am going to have a pro take a good look at everything over the summer but I have the following questions:
1) What are the chances of being able to get a 6" flex liner down this flue?
2) What are the chances of being able to get an INSULATED liner in there?
3) What about a 5 1/2" liner?
4) And finally... how feasible would it be to cut a hole in the cinderblock chimney for a small access door so that one could drop a liner, put in a tee and make a proper stovepipe connection in the future? Please tell me the chimney won't collapse.
Given the chimney height of probably 30', the exteriorness and the cold climate, the advantages of an insulated liner seem considerable. Even if the flue is too tight for a wrapped liner, maybe insulation could be poured around a liner if I could get arms and hands inside to build a "floor" to close off around the bottom of the tile.
All thoughts and comments will be appreciated.
