Liner all the way?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

dandb819

New Member
Oct 25, 2009
32
Seattle
Trying to figure out if a liner is required to be run up the entire length. The pellet stove is in the basement and from where it is to the top of the chimney is 28 feet. It is a large brick chimney with the clay 10" liner that is in good shape. I took out the wood stove that was down stairs and i have 18 feet of three inch flex liner to install into the excisting chimney. My question is do you have to install the liner all the way to the top cap? What would be the negative affects of not taking the liner all the way up to the top?
 
dandb819 said:
Trying to figure out if a liner is required to be run up the entire length. The pellet stove is in the basement and from where it is to the top of the chimney is 28 feet. It is a large brick chimney with the clay 10" liner that is in good shape. I took out the wood stove that was down stairs and i have 18 feet of three inch flex liner to install into the excisting chimney. My question is do you have to install the liner all the way to the top cap? What would be the negative affects of not taking the liner all the way up to the top?

I didn't use any liner, went into the thimble for the woodstove I took out.
 
With the stove you took out was it an insert with dirrect vent up the chimney or was it a stove pipe that you ran the pellet stove into? I really dont want to buy almost 30 feet of 4 inch pipe if i can just dirrect vent into the existing chimney at the end of the 18 feet of three inch that i have available.
 
My Harman manual showed and stated to just run a 5' flex section section up through the damper plate and up past the chimney floor bottom. It said to seal the damper plate area with insulation. This is after the plate is removed. This is what I did and it works good so far. I am expecting a mess when it comes time to clean the pipe and chimney. The stove dealer here said the main reason they install flue liners, if the chimney is not is bad shape, is to contain the fly ash and make it easier to clean. I will probably get flamed for posting this but oh well. If it proves to be real messy I will put in a flex pipe all the way up.

I would try what you have and see how it works before I ran out and bought a larger and longer pipe. I don't think there are any stoves that have enough push to expel all the air up 30' or more, so they have to count on draft to help get the job done.

Bkins
 
here are the problems with NOT running continuous pipe to the top into a BRICK chimney.

Draft. if you dont have good draft and your power goes out or your combustion blower fails smoke may spill into your home.

Cleaning: even if pellet stoves are cleaner that wood stoves they put out a lot of fly ash out the exhaust. if you dont have a pipe you can run a brush down and into a clean out T how are you going to get that ash out. and if you dont have a good seal on your damper area that ash and exhaust gases may get sucked back into your home from the convection (room air blower) back into your house. if this stove is an insert that will happen because the blower is inside the fireplace.

see photos here of a stove a service customer called me to service because the stove did not work right and his wife hated the stove because her house always has black dust all winter long. http://www.hearthtools.com/install/dirty_insert/index.htm

IMG_1126.jpg
 
dandb819 said:
With the stove you took out was it an insert with dirrect vent up the chimney or was it a stove pipe that you ran the pellet stove into? I really dont want to buy almost 30 feet of 4 inch pipe if i can just dirrect vent into the existing chimney at the end of the 18 feet of three inch that i have available.

No, it was a WOODSTOVE. A large freestanding stove that burned large pieces of wood. I replaced it with a PELLET FURNACE. For me the setup works well. I'm not saying that YOU should do this, simply giving MY input on the advice you asked for.
 
If it was me I would install 4 " liner all the way .But I am very cautions with wood and pellet stoves . I don't want to get carbon monoxide poisoning .
I would hate to spend the money but I would do it any way .But this is just the way I do things . I don't know if you can splice onto what you already
have ,you might look into that . It would have to be 4'' the rest of the way for sure .I think it is supposed to be 4" after 15 '
 
hearthtools said:
here are the problems with NOT running continuous pipe to the top into a BRICK chimney.

Draft. if you dont have good draft and your power goes out or your combustion blower fails smoke may spill into your home.

Cleaning: even if pellet stoves are cleaner that wood stoves they put out a lot of fly ash out the exhaust. if you dont have a pipe you can run a brush down and into a clean out T how are you going to get that ash out. and if you dont have a good seal on your damper area that ash and exhaust gases may get sucked back into your home from the convection (room air blower) back into your house. if this stove is an insert that will happen because the blower is inside the fireplace.

see photos here of a stove a service customer called me to service because the stove did not work right and his wife hated the stove because her house always has black dust all winter long. http://www.hearthtools.com/install/dirty_insert/index.htm

IMG_1126.jpg
Draft??? I had plenty of draft to run 8 cord of wood through the old smoke dragon every winter.
Cleaning???I have 2 cleanout tee's in my double wall pipe going into the chimney, 1 at each of the 90's. How do I run a brush down and get the ash out of the chimney? I use the SAME brush I used to clean the chimney when I was running the woodstove. How do I get the ash out? Through the "cleanout door" that chimneys have at the bottom (at least they do around here).
Like I said, it's a furnace.
 
hossthehermit said:
hearthtools said:
here are the problems with NOT running continuous pipe to the top into a BRICK chimney.

Draft. if you dont have good draft and your power goes out or your combustion blower fails smoke may spill into your home.

Cleaning: even if pellet stoves are cleaner that wood stoves they put out a lot of fly ash out the exhaust. if you dont have a pipe you can run a brush down and into a clean out T how are you going to get that ash out. and if you dont have a good seal on your damper area that ash and exhaust gases may get sucked back into your home from the convection (room air blower) back into your house. if this stove is an insert that will happen because the blower is inside the fireplace.

see photos here of a stove a service customer called me to service because the stove did not work right and his wife hated the stove because her house always has black dust all winter long. http://www.hearthtools.com/install/dirty_insert/index.htm

IMG_1126.jpg
Draft??? I had plenty of draft to run 8 cord of wood through the old smoke dragon every winter.
Cleaning???I have 2 cleanout tee's in my double wall pipe going into the chimney, 1 at each of the 90's. How do I run a brush down and get the ash out of the chimney? I use the SAME brush I used to clean the chimney when I was running the woodstove. How do I get the ash out? Through the "cleanout door" that chimneys have at the bottom (at least they do around here).
Like I said, it's a furnace.
ut

I was responding to the original poster dandb819 who has a 10" clay chimney not a manufactured metal flue.
but as for as your answers
yes draft on a wood stove exhaust is 400 to 1700 degrees and will draft much better with larger pipe than a pellet stove that the exhaust is only 250 to 500 deg
 
Well i have the 3 inch up the 18 feet and then the last part is 4 inch pipe that i had from another stove. It does work at this point but the problem i have is this stove is an older Earth Stove and it is a positive pressure stove not negative. So if I open up the damper to get a cleaner burn it will over pressure the fire box and push smoke through the auger and up the metering cup into the pellet hopper. I have it set right now with the damper half closed and it is working but not quite as clean as i would like it. That is why i was thinking of taking the last ten feet of 4 inch off and try that, but i was not sure if that was a viable option or not. I run two CO detectors in the house right now and they never go off so i know the way it is right now is safe, but just always looking to tweek it a bit to get it as clean a burn as i can.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.