Help with chimney decision

[claypoolxx]

Hi. I have been been lurking here for a little while learning as much as I can, but now I need some real help.

A little background: I moved into my house a year ago which has a Jotul F400 stove. I had it inspected for the insurance company and he said everything looked great, although looking back he never went on the roof.

I just had someone come to clean it for this upcoming season. He wouldn't clean it and recommended I put in a full insert. He said cleaning it properly would involve a chemical and a power brush to the tune of about
$1000. I now have a direct connect style without a tee section just an elbow up the chimney (I know that must be changed). I've read that this may have lead to the creosote build up due to a reduced flow where the pipe ends and goes into the larger chimney.

He said it had a bad creosote glaze. Took some pics with my phone, it didn't look good. He wanted to to install what he called "super pipe" with a tee and top cap for $2500. After some research, the super pipe looks to be a thicker pipe with smooth walls inside.

I have been looking up some insert kits, but have a couple questions.

1. With a new liner, do I have to have the clay cleaned?

2. Is insulation necessary? Could I avoid the cleaning if I put insulation on the pipe?

I have seen some kits with 25 feet of smooth pipe with insulation for about $900.

I live in Long Island and have gas heat so the stove is not my main source of heat. I'm not looking to cheap out or to do anything dangerous, but want to make sure I don't get ripped off and pay for stuff that is unnecessary.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank You

Jared

 

[claydogg84]

Please post some pictures if you can. I think what you have is the stove venting directly into a masonry chimney? If so, I had the same problem. Created a ton of creosote with my old stove and left a nice glaze on the flue tiles. In my case I cleaned the chimney myself with a SootEater which did a pretty good job, and then installed a flexible oval SS liner. After I had the liner in I also did pour in style insulation around it. I never did get the glaze off of the tiles though, and honestly I can't imagine I will have any problems with my setup now.

 

[claypoolxx]

Please post some pictures if you can. I think what you have is the stove venting directly into a masonry chimney? If so, I had the same problem. Created a ton of creosote with my old stove and left a nice glaze on the flue tiles. In my case I cleaned the chimney myself with a SootEater which did a pretty good job, and then installed a flexible oval SS liner. After I had the liner in I also did pour in style insulation around it. I never did get the glaze off of the tiles though, and honestly I can't imagine I will have any problems with my setup now.

That is exactly what I have. I read about the pour in liner, but was worried that I'd have problems if I ever had to remove it in the future.

 

[claydogg84]

It doesn't harden like concrete. If I needed to remove it I think it would all fall down if I removed my block off plate at the bottom of the flue tiles and gave the pipe a good wiggle. Me and a friend did my entire install and we had no prior experience doing so.

 

[bholler]

Yes it needs cleaned and yes you need insulation. But $1000 is very high for cleaning Honestly that should be in the cost of the liner and at $2500 that doesnt sound out of line if it is heavy wall insulated liner

 

[bholler]

It doesn't harden like concrete. If I needed to remove it I think it would all fall down if I removed my block off plate at the bottom of the flue tiles and gave the pipe a good wiggle

Yes it does set up pretty hard it can come out if need be but it does not just fall out

I can't imagine I will have any problems with my setup now

The danger is if you have a chimney fire it could ignite the creosote left in the old liners and then you would have fire between the 2. In your case that would be unlickly because you used pour in which means it would not really have any air to burn but still not a good idea.