Original Chimney Cap vs Chimney cap with liner

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jharmon203

Member
Dec 8, 2014
6
Columbus, OH
So I want to get some opinons on this. The cap that fits on my liner recently blew off the chimney. The only thing that was holding it on was the rutland fire safe caulk that I put on the edge of the top of the clay liner. It worked well until this year. I was going to go back up and reaffix things, but I was wondering if there would be any downside to just using the original chimney cap. It holds onto the outside of the chimeny with bolts.
 
What liner do you have? There should be a top plate that mechanically fastens to the liner or to the clay tile somehow. None of the components should be held on by only sealant.
 
The topplate should have a band clamp built into it. The plate gets sealed down to the clay, and clamped to the liner. The cap then clamps down onto the top plate.
 
Isn't that what he meant in the original post, that the top plate was silicone to the terracotta liner, and it is that weld which did not hold?
 
Be sure the top edge of the clay is clean and dry. Then put a very thick and consistent size bead of clear silicone on the clay edge. Let it sit for a couple minutes to firm a little. Then lay the plate on top and evenly press into the bead until it it compressed about 50%. Do not compress so much that it squeezes out or so much that the plate contacts the clay. Let it cure.
 
So I want to get some opinons on this. The cap that fits on my liner recently blew off the chimney. The only thing that was holding it on was the rutland fire safe caulk that I put on the edge of the top of the clay liner. It worked well until this year. I was going to go back up and reaffix things, but I was wondering if there would be any downside to just using the original chimney cap. It holds onto the outside of the chimeny with bolts.

THAT is exactly what I did as far as keeping my original CAP. I ordered the liner kit and the cap that came with the kit was not anywhere near as heavy and well built as the cap I already had so I used my original cap. I know for sure that it is the better cap and has been performing just fine.
 
Isn't that what he meant in the original post, that the top plate was silicone to the terracotta liner, and it is that weld which did not hold?
The plate gets sealed down with silicone, then it should clamp to the liner. Even without the seal holding it shouldn’t blow off.
 
The two plates that I installed didnt have any such clamp. Silicone was all that held it on. It got siliconed on and after cured it got clamped to the liner.
 
The two plates that I installed didnt have any such clamp. Silicone was all that held it on. It got siliconed on and after cured it got clamped to the liner.
That’s exactly how I described it.
 
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THAT is exactly what I did as far as keeping my original CAP. I ordered the liner kit and the cap that came with the kit was not anywhere near as heavy and well built as the cap I already had so I used my original cap. I know for sure that it is the better cap and has been performing just fine.
Did you use the proper top plate under your old cap?
 
Did you use the proper top plate under your old cap?

bholler, I haven't been on for a few days but yes I did use the top plate that came with the kit. It fit my 13x13 tile perfectly with maybe just a little overhang. I used sealant up there recommended by the old dude at the dealer. The space between my liner top plate and block off plate I constructed inside the firebox is dead space now. I am not bragging but I think I have a pretty good install especially with the burn times I am getting. Hell, my co-workers and family are so sick of hearing me talk about this BK insert its funny. One thing I was worried about was could my wife run this thing? Well, the answer is yes, she is able to run the Princess with no problems and she likes it as well as I do.
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