Broken top liner seal

[Rhone]

Cleaned my gutters today, while up there I checked out my chimney to see how the stainless liner and rain cap were doing. I noticed the caulk surrounding the base had torn and my liner at an ever so slight angle. Probably from a high wind, the rain cap caught it (and my liner sticks out 18" out the chimney) and bent in the wind to break the seal.

I was thinking of recaulking it. What kind of caulk is used, looks like silicone. Silicone doesn't adhere to itself so how does one recaulk, secondly prevent the seal from breaking again?

 

[elkimmeg]

A liner is just that I was never meant to be the chimney 18" above the cap is beyond the normal application
with that amount exposed you could re caulk it after every windy day. Time to either shorten it or extend the chimney

 

[Rhone]

Thanks. That's pretty much the straw the broke the camels back. I need to rip out my liner and do it myself in Spring.

My liner has flex at the base that was ovalized to fit through the damper. My draft isn't particularly good when reloading wood. I like Frank Ivy's choice of using a blow torch on the damper instead.

When they pulled out my insert, they crimped my liner at the block-off. Now I have a crimped ovalized, flex liner.

The liner sticks out too much from the chimney and that won't help with creosote. Next issue with the liner sticking out too much, is the rain cap acts like a parachute and we've had some amazingly strong breezy days. Well, the rain cap caught the wind and was strong enough to break the seals at the top of my chimney.

Lastly, they either underestimated how much flex pipe was necessary to make the offset or they gave up trying to get my solid liner one more tile length down (and why it sticks out) because they pulled my flex out 110% to try to get it to go into the insert. Once they got it, my insert now can't be pulled out without first removing the flex pipe as there isn't enough flex left. Hence, when they came back and pulled my insert out the flex pipe crimped at the block-off plate.

Come early summer I'll begin the work of removing my liner and fixing & replacing the issues myself. Thanks Elkimmeg, I thought I'd have a little more issues with creosote with a liner sticking out far now I see it's a serious issue as it's a sail that catches wind and breaks seals.

 

[Sundeep Arole]

Rhone,

I used a reciprocating saw (a heavy duty rental) with a gritty blade. I quickly found that any blade with teeth wasn't up to the job. With the grit blade I was able to cut the
sheet metal, but it was a slow and hard job. The hardest part of the whole liner installaton, IMHO. I cut my opening just enough for the liner to fit, but I had a bad feeling the liner
was going to be damaged by the abrasive ends left on the cut, or by pulling the insert in and out, so I got a 6" thimble to surround the liner and reinforce it at the place where it goes through the damper. I held the thimble in place on the liner using the radiator style clamps I got from the chimney supply place.

 

[Sundeep Arole]

Rhone,

And yes one other thing I had t go through about 4 blades cutting through the cast iron. They get desroyed pretty quick through the thick material.

 

[Sundeep Arole]

Frank,

I can't really say much about my draft, since my insert isn't installed yet. That's a whole long story in itself - I'm actually really PO'ed at the dealer, but don't think I can do much about it. I bought and fully paid for my insert in August, and I bought the floor model. Before my installer could pick it up, the dealer learned that the new models won't arrve at his place until December, so he suddenly decided he won't release me mine until he gets a new one to put back on his display. The way I see it, the stove became mine once I paid for it and the dealer accepted the money; so now he is just using mine as a free rental for keeping his display going. He knows I can't do much about it - and is taking advantage of that.

For cutting, in retrospect, the torch is probably a better choice. I went with the sawzall because I had used it many times before, and knew how to. But it was pretty tough to cut through the cast iron.

As for the gif, I can't claim credit for it. It was one of the ones availaible in the standard library. I'm a linux geek, so that explains my choice a bit.

 

[elkimmeg]

Rone I would use a small gringed called a wiz wheel and cut the Stainless liner. Yes a Ac tourch will make short work out of it. Real pain to drag up the roof. Many have sucess using a 2.5 lb shedge and smack out the cast iron damper fram to make room for the liner again a grinder will work. As another mentioned sawzall mental blades wear out real fast in cast iron

 

[Sundeep Arole]

Elk, he isn't talking about cutting the liner - that's trivial to cut even manually with a hacksaw. He's talking about cutting the damper frame to send the liner through without ovalizing.

 

[Rhone]

Thanks all, I printed what Frank Ivy said yesterday,now I need to print again! My liner has many issues Hotflame. It sticks too much out the chimney top which is what Elkimmeg was addressing. He recommended a wiz wheel to trim off the top of the ss. Was wondering what to use, as I'm not familiar with stainless besides my fingerprints show on the fridge. My liner is ovalized to fit through my damper and my draft not particularly good, I want to cut my damper like Frank Ivy (which is what Frank Ivy & you were discussing). It's crimped at the block-off plate and the flex was stretched out 110% percent to reach my insert which Frank Ivy said his is somewhat similar.

Many months ago I posted my liner stuck a long distance up past my chimney when it was installed and Elkimmeg warned me it needed to be trimmed down because creosote is going to collect on it. I didn't do anything, and we had some extremely strong winds and I should've trimmed it. It sticking out so high these winds caught the rain cap and liner and was strong enough to push my liner sideways enough to break all the silicone seals on the top. Elkimmeg wants to make sure, that I do something about the height next time.

Anyway, it's going to be spring before I try any of this. It took two installers 7 hours to install my liner so I think it's going to be a weekend project in spring. I'm printing this all out though as I plan my strategy.