I had my insert installed this year and when they put in the liner they worked out into an oval shape to get it to fit, I was told that it was ok. Now when I try to clean it my brush doesn't get the ends of the Oval and my concern is that an oval brush wouldn't fit right either since it's not a nice uniform oval. So I guess I'm wondering if a soot Eater would be the way to go or if anyone has any other suggestions. It's a single wall flexible liner about 25 feet.
chimney cleaning
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is it just oval at the end of the liner at the stove end, only a few feet? If so I wouldn't be worried about it since most of the accumulation will occur at the top of the stack.
Yes a soot eater will work in a round or ovalized liner
Yes a soot eater will work in a round or ovalized liner
Thanks for the quick reply. I can't say for sure if it's the entire way up cause it does eventually get a little easier to get the brush up, but from what I saw when the were doing it, I'd say at least halfway
Yeah, I am trying bottom up, top down is going to be a whole lot more trouble. In fact at this point I can't even get up there, the top of the chimney is roughly 30 feet from the ground and probably about 15 feet above the roof. It's a Cape cod with super steep roof. The chimney ends up coming out of the roof almost right above the front door. So my thought was to get it from the bottom up good and often in between having it professionally swept
if it is a light wall liner don't force the brush it could damage the liner. If you are using poly you can always get an oversized brush and cut it to fit. but if it isn't evenly ovalized that might not work. how did they ovalize it?
Believe it or not they used a rubber mallet, so the chances of it being even are slim to none. The salesman called to see how it was going woke they were doing it and when I told him they were in the yard beating it with a mallet he assured me it would be ok, they wouldn't do any damage. I did use a 6 in. Poly brush which I had to trim to get anywhere with it. Once I got to the top I gave it a once over on the way back downand when it done dropping stuff or I looked up and the narrow sides were pretty clean but the ends were a different story
well soot eater might be your only option then. It drives me nuts when I see pro installers ovalizing like that there are very simple and relatively cheap ovalizers out there that make it even and have very little chance of damaging the liner.
If they beat a single wall liner with a mallet, I would NOT consider them "pro installers" except for the fact that they got paid.
OP:My guess is that the SootEater won't mind if the liner is oval. But you would have to be mindful while using it to make sure you allow it to get to the oblong sides.
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Why did they need to shape the liner? And only half way up??
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Yes, they definitely weren't as professional as I had expected. They were recommended by the salesman and he got them to come at the last minute as long as I could supply the ladder, they were supposedly out on a job where they didn't need one, I thought that was strange but figured they must be ok since the salesman recommended them. Turns out I had to loan them everything but the mallet. All they're cordless tools were dead. I know they had to get it oval to get it past the smoke shelf at least,I can't say for sure one way or the other but they may have it oval all the way up. After the salesman told me it would be ok, I had to walk away. I know stupid on my part, but the entire process made me pretty nervous since I spent every bit of savings I had on this thing.
Actually, it will be fine (except for the added issue of cleaning). You still have the same amount of air flow volume for draft.
I suspect that oval will still get rid of the smoke same as round.
I suspect that oval will still get rid of the smoke same as round.
It just kinda freaked me out when I looked out the window and saw this guy beating on hundreds worth of liner with a mallet, it's working good now, had some issues at first, but turns out that was a wood quality problem. Think I'll order a soot Eater and give it a try, now they I have to wood figured out onset I hey the cleaning on track, I should be set. Thanks for the replies. This site has been extremely helpful for a new wood burner
no actually ovalizing it reduces the capacity especially due to the fact that it is not a smooth oval every one of those dents from their mallets causes turbulance
Nick Mystic
Minister of Fire
I know everyone can't always do their own work, especially on something like installing a liner and stove or insert, but this is an example of why I hate having to hire people to do work. There is no way I'm going to believe a flex liner beat into an oval shape to fit through a damper opening is going to provide as good of service as an undamaged liner. The proper approach would have been to cut open the damper to the proper size and then install a block off plate to finish the installation. I'm guessing these guys didn't take the time to install one since they didn't even have working tools! I hope the liner holds up okay for you.
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