I have a wood insert that I installed 2 years ago with a new 6" SS liner. The chimney is on the outside of the home, has 3 flues, and made of stone. The liner terminates on top of the center flu. On the top of the chimmey there are stone piers which on top sits a 1/8 steel chimney cap to cover all 3 flues. Its about 30 x 60. My issue is the smoke condenses on the bottom of the steel chimney cap and runs down the chimney and of course eventually on to my shingles. My plan is to extend the liner to sit on top of the steel cap. I already cut a hole in the metal but I am not sure if I should use the left over liner or buy an 18" length of insulated chimney pipe? My fear is that if I use the liner in the 18" or so the smoke is above the roof line since the pipe is not insulated the smoke will condense inside the pipe as it cools and I will end up with more creosote in the pipe. Do they make an adapter to connect SS liner with insulated pipe?
do i need insulated pipe above roof line
- Thread starter jrex
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I'm sure you will get plenty of replies about the flue. I'm not an expert on all the connections and codes, but some are, so I will leave it to them to answer that portion. However, my thought, is that you may want to look to the source of the trouble...why is your burn so smoky?
If you have an old 'smoke dragon' insert, than there may not be much that can be done. However, if you have a later model insert, then maybe changing the burning practices and/or other aspects of the fire may eliminate much of the smoke. I have a similar set-up where the flue cap is a solid metal piece over the flue, but (luckily!) mu burn is clean enough that I don't have much, if any creosote condensing on the cap, and no issues with stains on the brick chimney. If you can take steps to clean up the burn, not only are you doing your neighbors and the air a little favor, but you are also getting a more efficient burn which means less wood for you to buy / cut / haul / stack, etc.
If you have an old 'smoke dragon' insert, than there may not be much that can be done. However, if you have a later model insert, then maybe changing the burning practices and/or other aspects of the fire may eliminate much of the smoke. I have a similar set-up where the flue cap is a solid metal piece over the flue, but (luckily!) mu burn is clean enough that I don't have much, if any creosote condensing on the cap, and no issues with stains on the brick chimney. If you can take steps to clean up the burn, not only are you doing your neighbors and the air a little favor, but you are also getting a more efficient burn which means less wood for you to buy / cut / haul / stack, etc.
I don't think that the burn is an issue but I didn't really think about it before you mentioned it. All of my wood was seasoned at least 3 years and typically once the secondary burn kicks in I can't even see smoke coming out of the flu. Last year I burned oak that was seasoned for at least 4 years. I think the stove was manufactured in 2004 so that should not be an issue. I believe the issues is just caused by the chimney cap/spark arrestor for the liner being only 2 inces or so below the large steel flu cap. My second option was to just increase the peir height which would raise the steel flu cap and increase the distance between it and the liner's chimney cap.
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