Broken chimney on 1970s Heatilator

[marcospeechli]

Hi New here, can’t find ‘post new message’ button but my question is about Heatilators so I hope this is okay:

We had a Pacific Energy insert installed in the 1970s era Heatilator that was in our old masonry fireplace. The installers put a flexible SS liner down the old clay flue and connected it to the insert. Our masonry chimney fell over due to so much snow this winter. We would like to replace it with a modern round insulated SS chimney but the guy who installed the insert said there is no way to do this - we have to have the outside chimney rebuilt with a clay flue and then have a new flexible SS liner installed in that. I just wanted to be sure there wasn’t a product out there that allows a rigid insulated SS chimney to be mounted to a Heatilator that has a wood burning insert.

Thanks!

 

[begreen]

@marcospeechli, I created a new thread for you. The big orange button is at the upper right of the page.
There are adapter plates that can attach class A chimney to a stub of a masonry chimney if there is still one left. However, there may be complications that make this hard or impossible that the installer is seeing. Can you post some pictures of the chimney?

 

[marcospeechli]

Thanks Be! Pics attached. Unfortunately there isn’t one showing a clear pic of the top but hopefully you can get the gist. You can see the flexible liner coming out of the top of the stone. We were thinking of demolishing the chimney and converting to a through the wall SS fitting and insulated SS chimney with siding behind. Plan B would be keep what’s left of the chimney and adapting to SS from there up. The main reason we want to get away from liner-in-masonry is that it takes a long time with a space heater blowing right into our Pacific Energy insert to heat the chimney enough to get convection going so we don’t fill the building with smoke when we light a fire. The second reason is that snow that collected behind the chimney melted and leaked through our standing seam steel roof.

Any ideas gratefully received!

 

[begreen]

That's a sad sight. I'm not sure if the snow was the main issue or poor construction of chimney. The stone work looks pretty loose, almost like it was a DIY install. @bholler may have some options including putting a metal chimney on the old heatilator but I am not sure that will be less expensive once the carpentry is included.

 

[bholler]

Thanks Be! Pics attached. Unfortunately there isn’t one showing a clear pic of the top but hopefully you can get the gist. You can see the flexible liner coming out of the top of the stone. We were thinking of demolishing the chimney and converting to a through the wall SS fitting and insulated SS chimney with siding behind. Plan B would be keep what’s left of the chimney and adapting to SS from there up. The main reason we want to get away from liner-in-masonry is that it takes a long time with a space heater blowing right into our Pacific Energy insert to heat the chimney enough to get convection going so we don’t fill the building with smoke when we light a fire. The second reason is that snow that collected behind the chimney melted and leakedView attachment 338672 through our standing seam steel roof.

Any ideas gratefully received!

It is absolutely possible to run a section of liner to an adapter plate then use prefab chimney. But honestly that chimney structure looks really rough. Im not sure i would do it

 

[marcospeechli]

Thanks for replies, much appreciated. Yes it is DIY, and over 50 yrs old. And we had a ton of snow this winter. My preference would be to demolish the existing stone and replace with insulated SS but the local business that installed the Pacific Energy insert with a flexible SS liner through the clay flue said it is impossible without demolishing the fieldstone fireplace inside the building and basically starting from scratch which is not an option for us because the fieldstone fireplace is beautiful and sturdy. (For context, the current building was built up to/around the old fireplace so we could keep the original footprint of the building closer to the lot line than a new build would allow.)

My amateur hunch was that if we can walk on the moon we can retrofit an insulated SS chimney and some of you agree (thanks!). It would save the insurance company over hiring a local mason to redo in stone and we don’t care about the esthetics because it’s a side of the building that’s never seen.

Any idea where we could procure an adapter plate?

Thanks again.

 

[bholler]

Thanks for replies, much appreciated. Yes it is DIY, and over 50 yrs old. And we had a ton of snow this winter. My preference would be to demolish the existing stone and replace with insulated SS but the local business that installed the Pacific Energy insert with a flexible SS liner through the clay flue said it is impossible without demolishing the fieldstone fireplace inside the building and basically starting from scratch which is not an option for us because the fieldstone fireplace is beautiful and sturdy. (For context, the current building was built up to/around the old fireplace so we could keep the original footprint of the building closer to the lot line than a new build would allow.)

My amateur hunch was that if we can walk on the moon we can retrofit an insulated SS chimney and some of you agree (thanks!). It would save the insurance company over hiring a local mason to redo in stone and we don’t care about the esthetics because it’s a side of the building that’s never seen.

Any idea where we could procure an adapter plate?

Thanks again.

You could leave the face inside and rebuild the base outside. Then either transition to class A or run the masonry chimney up to height.

 

[kborndale]

Is the installer that said it can't be done the only installer around? I would get a second opinion. Often times it can't be done really means I don't want to do it.