Enviro Kodiak 1700 Insert Question

[xname]

I own a house with a masonry chimney with terra cotta inserts built in. It's a nice house, and I am moving in this week with my family.

The home was built in 1947, but I think the chimney was built in the 1980s.

The opening will take an insert the size of the Enviro Kodiak 1700, and I feel like it would be wasteful to use a stainless liner when I have a perfectly useful terra cotta chimney.

Any I crazy for thinking this? Do I need the stainless insert? The chimney is 27-28 feet from the firebox. The Kodiak insert manual says I can use the clay liner, but it is not the preferred option. -- See pages 35-37 of the manual attached.

Any guidance is appreciated.

 

[Lockpicker]

I have a kodiak 1700 insert. So far seems like a great unit. I would not even think of running without a liner. It will perform poorly without one. It should be lined all the way to the top. If it is an exterior chimney insulated would be the way to go.

 

[prezes13]

My house is built in 1994 also with a terra cotta liner and I have ss flexible un insulated liner. It's un insulated because when I was installing my insert I didn't know any better. I discovered hearth.com two years later. If I was to do it all over again it would be insulated I would have had block off plate which I am planing on installing and I would have had bk princess insert.

 

[Grisu]

It's certainly not wasteful. Those modern stoves/inserts are designed to just generate enough draft to burn properly but for that they need an appropriately sized liner. Otherwise, you may get smoke back into the room, accumulation of creosote in the chimney, and the need to leave the air open more and therefore reduced efficiency. A liner will also be way easier to clean in the future. As a good liner will last as long as the insert (20+ years), the added expense is really minor over its whole lifetime.

It is also highly recommended to install a block-off plate to keep the heat in: https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/make-a-damper-sealing-block-off-plate/

Do you already have several cords of dry wood that was split and stacked at least one year ago?

 

[xname]

These responses are in the vein of what I expected-- I ought to just pull the trigger on the Chimney Liner.

Why does an individual prefer a BK Princess over a Kodiak, prezes13?

 

[prezes13]

I am in love because of the long burns, relatively big box and it sounds like a very easy stove to run. I would feel comfterble having my wife run it. And of course it's efficiency.