LINER INSTALL HELL

[pulldownclaw]

Well, I've spent the better part of my holiday weekend trying to install my 6 inch liner for my insert down my 10 inch round poured concrete liner, to no avail. I've got a corner chimney, and there is a 45 degree turn about 6 feet from the fireplace. I cut the end of the liner to make a tapered pulling cone (ala Elk), even pulled it out again and cut more of it to give it a better chance of making the turn, but it's not coming down. I had a buddy on the bottom pulling with me up top pushing and twisting it and it would not go. The only thing I can think of is to get the guy out here who poured the liner and get him to chisel out more of the liner so I can make the turn. I've been waiting to get this thing going since last Spring, and it's driving me crazy

 

[Todd]

I feel your pain. I had the same situation and ended up purchasing a 5.5" liner and it went right down.

 

[pulldownclaw]

Really? I was wondering about getting 5 or 6 foot length of 5.5" and attatching that to the end of the liner that needs to go down the tricky part. Hmmmm......

 

[Todd]

That might work too. How would you connect the two? Sweeping the liner might be a pain tho?

 

[RedRanger]

The chimney sweep who installed my liner knew right away that a 6" liner wasn`t gonna work. The firebrick in my masonary chimney was 6" by 12" and there is a curve down close to the insert. Put in a 5" and it works great (22ft length) So lots of draw.What length do you have? If you have over 20ft you should be okay with a 5 or 5 and a half. It still took both of us-one pushing and one pulling cause of that damn curve to get the job done.

 

[pulldownclaw]

I bought a 25 footer. Hampton takes a 6 or 5.5" liner, so that's why I was thinking of using an adaptor to a smaller pipe at the bend. I'm still not sure that will do it, though. I'm just trying to figure out how to use what I've got. I bought the liner online so it's not so easy to return. :-/

 

[Burn-1]

Pulldown,

I just did my liner this weekend and had a similar difficulty with an offset in the chimney.

I didn't make the nose cone because I had already attached my 15 degree stainless elbow but what made the difference for me was a 10 foot long piece of 2" hard black polyethylene tubing. It was rigid enough to stick up the liner and get the leverage to bend some of the corrugations bit by bit as we slid it down. But, soft enough not to damage the liner. If you could get your hands on some that might help.

 

[pulldownclaw]

Thanks, Burn 1, might have to try that. We were able to get a crowbar up there to grab it, but it would just not make the turn. I think what happened was that they carved out the 10" masonry liner, but it might have gotten a little narrower right where that turn is, just my luck. For the straight part of the chimney they use an inflatable bladder, but they have to carve out the rest by hand, making it an imperfect thing. If I can just get them back here to widen that hole out, I should be good. Too bad the chimney guy hates my guts 'cause I kept telling him his install was bogus! :grrr:

 

[Burn-1]

I would go easy with a crowbar. The liners are pretty sturdy for their weight but still only about 5 or 6 thousandths. Since containment is the name of the game I wouldn't want a small hole or tear ruining the investment or the effort. The tubing was good since it had a slight bend in it and allowed me to manipulate as much or as little of the liner as needed. Twisting it a bit as it descends helps a bit as well.

 

[theheatelement]

you can always try to run a pvc pipe over it to ovalize it a little bit in an effort for it to go down...just a hint...

 

[pulldownclaw]

Yeah, thanks, I tried that already. I even cut more of the end of the ss liner to make the taper more gradual to make the turn. I'm going to see if I can get the guy to come back and chisel out some more of the poured liner.

 

[theheatelement]

take a two by four and place it on the liner and apply pressure one foot at a time until the liner is oval to about 4x8 instead of 6in round then it should slide down there better.