How to tell if my SS liner is insulated?

[Christopix]

In an ever ending quest to make my burning more and more efficient, I'm curious if I can better my chimney at all. We are still new to our house, just past the 1 year mark being here. Burned a old All-Nighter first year and installed a bran new Endeavor this fall.

Chimney was cleaned this fall by local sweep. He said that he installed the flex SS liner a few years ago and that it looks great still. I didn't know enough to ask him if it was insulated.

Chimney runs through the center of the house 3 feet past the peak all the way from the basement just about 25-30 feet I think. The liner is rectangle.

Is there anyway to determine if the liner IS insulated? And, if it isn't insulated, is there a way to insulated it after the fact?

Any thoughts about seeing performance increases if I slimed down the size of my chimney a bit? Stove is 6" and enters an 8" thimble-T to a rectangle SS flex liner. I've noticed that despite having wood that is in the 20% moisture content range, I'm not able to close down the air control fully without creating a situation that stalls the fire or approaches smoldering. My thinking is that with such a tall chimney, the amount of draft it should create one would think I could close the air control fully and have a strong draft.

I'm wondering if the hot gasses are expanding to accommodate the rectangle liner which is larger (I think) than the 6" connector pipe that would possible slow down draft. Yes?

And, if that is the case, would insulating the current chimney liner assist in gaining some that draft back?

FWIW, I'm getting burn times approaching 10 hours. About half of which is usable heat I suppose. Basically I can load it at 10pm on a good bed of 300 degree coals and at 6:30/7am I can still do a hot start easily.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[begreen]

Is the sweep still in business? The fastest way would be to call him up. If the chimney is interior it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't insulated. Is it worth the effort to reline? Probably not. Your burntimes are not bad and you certainly wouldn't see a 25-50% increase in performance for making the change. The best way to get good performance from the stove will be by getting 2-3 yrs ahead on your wood supply. The Endeavor is going to want drier wood than the All-Nighter did. If you are burning oak or hickory it should be split, stacked and seasoned for at least a couple years before burning.

 

[Christopix]

Is the sweep still in business? The fastest way would be to call him up. If the chimney is interior it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't insulated. Is it worth the effort to reline? Probably not. Your burntimes are not bad and you certainly wouldn't see a 25-50% increase in performance for making the change. The best way to get good performance from the stove will be by getting 2-3 yrs ahead on your wood supply. The Endeavor is going to want drier wood than the All-Nighter did. If you are burning oak or hickory it should be split, stacked and seasoned for at least a couple years before burning.

Thank you for this. The sweep is still in business. I wasn't sure if they would remember or even keep record of doing such things. I'll give a try for sure though. They are hard to get a hold of on the phone, it goes to voicemail every time. Here is the link to their site and chimney reline page: The Chimney Specialists Inc. They apparently use "HomeSaver Pro" brand SS liners.

So, based upon what you are saying begreen, you wouldn't have issue with my stove collar/pipe being 6" entering an 8" thimble to a rectangle chimney liner given it goes up about 25-30 feet? Am I right in my deduction that if the pipe stayed the same size or got smaller even the draft would be stronger. And with a stronger draft I'd be able to close my air down further. And by closing the air down further, I'd get slightly longer burn times?

Unfortunately I don't have enough room on my property to allow me to get ahead 2-3 years. What I do have is a south facing backyard patio which receives a LOT of sunlight and is further intensified by the suns heat being reflected off the white siding of our house. The area is a wind tunnel too evidenced by all the leaves and yard debris that tends to gather there. I buy de-barked wood from a local supplier Semi-Seasoned Debarked Firewood - Treehugger Farms. The de-barked stuff seems to dry faster and has less bugs/mess. I've found that if I stack what I buy in a half dozen, 1/3 cord racks I can get moisture content of much of the wood down to the 20% range in about 4 months. Some wood, the oak, doesn't get that low in the same period of time. I'm going to make my order earlier this year so as to begin seasoning even earlier this year. I only have room for about 6 cord at any given time.

 

[mellow]

You sound like me, I have about the same room and stick with Maple/Cherry/Gum so it is seasoned in 1 year with leftover for the next year or in case we have a bad winter, I usually use about 2 cords a year but with the polar vortex I will probably be in the 2.5 cord range this year. The 3 year seasoning time of Oak is to long for me, I do have some but only use it for overnight burns during cold weather but a majority of my wood is Maple/Gum.

 

[begreen]

It doesn't sound like there is a draft issue. What you are describing is common with semi-seasoned wood.

I've found that if I stack what I buy in a half dozen, 1/3 cord racks I can get moisture content of much of the wood down to the 20% range in about 4 months. Some wood, the oak, doesn't get that low in the same period of time. I'm going to make my order earlier this year so as to begin seasoning even earlier this year. I only have room for about 6 cord at any given time.

Where are you checking the moisture? On the end grain or on the face of a freshly resplit split?

I agree with mellow. If you can order ash, beech, gum, maple you will be better off for drying times. Avoid oak and hickory if you can't store at least a year in advance.

 

[Christopix]

Where are you checking the moisture? On the end grain or on the face of a freshly resplit split?

I've learned well from this forum. Always check moisture from the face of a freshly split piece of wood.

 

[mellow]

Next time you order from that company tell them they need to read this site as well, they take the measurements for the kiln dried wood from the ends.

http://treehuggerfarms.com/kiln_dried_debarked_firewood.html

 

[Christopix]

Next time you order from that company tell them they need to read this site as well, they take the measurements for the kiln dried wood from the ends.

http://treehuggerfarms.com/kiln_dried_debarked_firewood.html

Point taken! You would think they knew that.