Frustration with 6" SS liner installation

[sixminus1]

Well, I've been working toward having my Jotul Winterport installed for the past two months. I thought that this would be all done by now, but after all the waiting for the insert delivery, and delays with the installer, there are problems.

The 6" SS liner will not fit all the way down my chimney because of how some of the clay flue tiles are put together. There's mortar sticking out between some of the joints, and some of the tiles aren't lined up 100%, so there were lots of snags trying to run the liner down the flue. They managed to get it down to the top of the firebox, but no further.

The connector at the top of the Winerport doesn't seem to fit the 6" liner. I'm wondering if the liner connector should go on the *inside*, or the *outside* of the stove's connector. The 1/4" self-tapping screws that the Winterport's instructions call for will not grab the holes drilled in the stove's collar, so I assumed that we had to find a connector that would fit on the *inside*, allowing the screws to grab the liner and pull it outward against the inside wall of the stove's connection collar.

Overall, this is turning out to be an ordeal... my questions are:

1) Can I get away with a 5.5" SS liner, instead of the 6"? This would make it a hell of a lot easier to run down the chimney.

2) How is the liner supposed to connect to the insert?

I'm ready to call it quits. Any advice before I decide to give it up?

 

[Hogwildz]

You should be able to get away with the 5.5" liner. At the stove, you need a 5.5 to 6" stove adapter which will take the 5.5" liner and make it possible to attach to the 6" stove outlet. The adapters all vary, but the bottom line is the outlet should fit into the stove outlet. Some adapter have an inner & out lip, still the inner goes into the stove. This is set up this way so that if creosote builds up and runs down the inside of the liner, it runs back into the stove and not all over the top of it. Even with the 6" liner, you still need an adapter to connect the liner to the stove outlet.

Adapter examples:

Adapter: (broken link removed to http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=65)

Reducer/adapter: (broken link removed to http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=89)

 

[jtp10181]

I assume you have an oval clay chimney. We would install an oval rigid liner all the way down and then switch to a piece of flex to get through the damper area. The oval stuff we use is double wall pre-insulated and only 5-3/4" or so on the skinny side. Fits down the oval clay flues no problem.

 

[RedRanger]

Forget the frustration and go with the 5.5 like I did. If you have at least a 20ft draw it will be fine. Only drawback is you will definately need to do a mid-season chimney cleaning. takes very little cresote to show a difference in your stove or insert`s performance. If you don`t have 20ft or more of liner, then maybe not a good idea.

 

[sixminus1]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Managed to muscle the 6" liner down far enough into the firebox, but now there's another problem -- the connection collar on the top of the insert does not sit far enough into the firebox to connect to the chimney liner. The lintel doesn't allow enough clearance to run the liner into the top of the insert. I'm thinking that the solution is an offset insert adapter, like this one:

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=64)

It looks like future chimney sweeping will result in soot falling into the offset box, but it looks like it would be easy enough to get my shop-vac in there to clean it out.

My other concern is how this adapter is going to affect my draft. Right now, the draft is pretty strong even when the chimney/liner are cold, so I'm hoping that it will work properly when completed and heated up.

If this adapter doesn't work, I may have to fabricate something myself, but I don't want to get into that just yet.

I'll be posting updates on the install, and also celebrating when this is done. What a PITA!

 

[theheatelement]

Try this one, it has a cleanout with wingnuts on the end and it's really easy to clean out and slides in and out easy enough... your system uses negative pressure so it doesn't need to be sealed.

http://www.sandhillwholesale.com/ad....html?osCsid=9c62b55ad0648c78670fc8be08cd0f2e

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Managed to muscle the 6" liner down far enough into the firebox, but now there's another problem -- the connection collar on the top of the insert does not sit far enough into the firebox to connect to the chimney liner. The lintel doesn't allow enough clearance to run the liner into the top of the insert. I'm thinking that the solution is an offset insert adapter, like this one:

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=64)

It looks like future chimney sweeping will result in soot falling into the offset box, but it looks like it would be easy enough to get my shop-vac in there to clean it out.

My other concern is how this adapter is going to affect my draft. Right now, the draft is pretty strong even when the chimney/liner are cold, so I'm hoping that it will work properly when completed and heated up.

If this adapter doesn't work, I may have to fabricate something myself, but I don't want to get into that just yet.

I'll be posting updates on the install, and also celebrating when this is done. What a PITA!

 

[Hogwildz]

I'd avoid both of those unless it is the only alternative that will work.
Have you checked into the 30 degree adapters, might just work for you: Part #: 4681 about 1/2 way down the page on right (broken link removed)

You can also use a s.s. 45 or 30 degree elbow as an adapter.
My opinion is those offsets your looking at, while they should work, there is no way in hell they don't restrict flow more than an elbow. Ad if you can use the 30 degree adapter, that would be the best choice.