Chimney Liner Question

I currently have an old wood stove that was installed by a previous owner with no liner. I was going to get a full liner installed, but when the chimney sweep came it ended up that one cannot be installed. the way the stove installs, there is no access to hook up a liner while it is installed.

A few weeks later the he said he was uninstalling a nice Lopi stove from another house and would sell it to me for a good price, so I am getting that. He said the manufacturer instructions for the stove only call for an 8" stainless liner through the flue and up to the ceramic liner already in the brick chimney and that a full liner is not necessary.

This will save me money, so sounds like good new to me, but I wanted to check if this is a standard thing to do. In the research I've been doing I though wood stoves needed a stainless liner all the way through to the roof. Since I have a brick chimney with a ceramic liner in good shape, is that not necessary?

begreen said:

Ask him what model Lopi this is. With an 8" liner it may be another old PreEPA version stove.

A stubbed direct connect will require a block-off plate. This is a dirty way to install because all the sweepings come down around the stub and sit on the block off plate and smoke shelf. It makes me nervous to have creosote accumulating around a hot flue stub. Creosote is combustible and a fire there is hard to put out. It may be better than what is currently installed, but the question is, how much better?

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It is a flex 95, so I believe it is an 8" connection.

Woody Stover said:

The Flex 95 appears to be a cat stove. Is that what you want?

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Yes I saw that when I was looking it up. I had been interested in cat stoves, but figured they were out of my price range. From what I have read about them they sound nice to me.

Is there any drawback besides needing to replace the cat element when it burns out?

HomeinPA said:

I don't understand why the liner can not be run from the top and be hooked up to the original stove but he can install an 8" liner from the new stove up through the damper to the terracotta liner above the smoke chamber. I'd guess you have a really steep roof or high chimney that he doesn't want to get on top of. The process to get the liner through the throat of the fireplace is actually more complicated for a large liner as opposed to a 6" liner and cleaning the flue correctly can get expensive if the stove has to be pulled out of the firebox everytime. Regardless of the reason, an insert with a direct connect to the terracotta liner must have an airtight seal around the liner where it enters the terracotta. Unless there is a cleanout/access door in the smoke chamber this is virtually impossible. I'd need more specifics of what you have and why he can't do it. Something sounds a little....fuzzy.

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He didn't say he can't do it, he said it wouldn't be required to do one and would save me a little money. Based on the replies here, I'm going to ask him to just do a full liner. I guess the only possible issue is that an 8" liner might not fit down the chimney. He is actually going up on the roof to do some brick repaid on the outside of the chimney anyways, so it is not a matter of not being able to access to top of the chimney.

Woody Stover said:

In addition to what begreen said, 8" liners are rare. I would go 6" stove now so that if you want to switch down the road, you'll have better selection and no additional expense.

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I'm getting this stove for $200, so it is a pretty good deal. I've been keeping an eye out on craigslist and facebook and this is the best deal I've seen.

I live in North Carolina, so it doesn't get too cold and I don't use the stove as my primary heat source. Realistically it is just for fun and if I can save some money by heating the house with it at the same time, then that is great.