I had installed last May 2008, a 316T flex, now being told I was sold a junk liner and probably $800

[KarlP]

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 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 how much did this used-car-salesman^W chimney sweep quote you to replace the liner with his company and a "superior" product? ;-) ;-)

 

[seaken]

It always gets me when a customer objects to my charge to properly sweep their chimney when they have an inaccessible cap. It's one thing if they have a ranch-style house with a 6/12 roof pitch and the chimney cap is easy to reach. Quite another when the roof is twenty feet off the ground, a 12/12 pitch, and the chimney cap cannot be reached because it is suspended in the air 12 feet. In order to properly and safely clean this cap I have to bring a hydraulic lift, or if a hydraulic lift can't be used I need at least two guys and custom scaffolding. Could take half a day just to get at the cap! The easy ranch style house will be about $150. But the high steep roof is at least $400. Another good reason to buy a new clean burning stove and work to burn as clean as possible. If I have to get up there more than once a year it's going to eat into your savings. This is also why I suggest building chases instead of leaving the chimney exposed. I can lean a ladder against a chase. But I can't honestly charge for a sweep and not clean the cap. It's not my fault the cap is in the local flight path.

 

[seaken]

We like to use the heavy-duty liners because they are harder to damage accidentally when cleaning. But all stainless pipe should be cleaned with poly brushes if possible. The only poly brush sizes I can't find are for the oval or rectangular liners. We end up using a steel brush when cleaning an oval liner. This is why we only use the heavy duty HomeSaver 304 or 316 OvalFlex when using oval to reline through a damper area. The light-weight liner can be a problem in these cases. But for round liners the light weight will be fine as long as the sweep is careful to use the right equipment when cleaning. We prefer to use the .006 HomeSaver Pro 316ti for light weight liners but we can work with just about any of the light weight liners. All it takes is knowing it's limitations and treating it with the proper care. As far as corrosion and operation goes, the .005 light weight liners will be fine. I don't think I would say it was "junk liner". Maybe not as good as some other choices but not junk.