Smooth wall liner Vs Regular . Is this a real improvement?

[double-d]

Most masonry chimney offsets our 30 degree or less, but without seeing it, someone may have made it with 45 deg offsets.

 

[bholler]

Thank you for all your help. Is Heavy weight liner significantly less flexible? I'm worry about going trough two 45 degree elbows in a middle of my chimney.

If anything it is easier to get through offsets.

 

[Slocketman]

I'd second the recommendation for a heavier insulated liner. I personally went with a Premier Flex Lite Liner, 0.010" in 316L stainless that came with an insulation blanket kit.

 

[Ashful]

...the regular corregated light wall liner is fine. It won't last as long as the heavy wall which is why we don't use it but it works.

I’ve always wondered about this. Saying it won’t last as long implies it will fail, but how does one know when it’s reaching that point? Every sweep I’ve ever had out to this house pushes a brush thru each liner, cleans the stove, and calls it done. My liners are totally blind, inaccessible inside existing chimneys and hidden by block off plates. No sweep has ever put a camera down one, or disconnected my stove pipe to get their eyes on one of my liners. If we know the liner will eventually fail, how does one know when that day is nigh?

 

[bholler]

I’ve always wondered about this. Saying it won’t last as long implies it will fail, but how does one know when it’s reaching that point? Every sweep I’ve ever had out to this house pushes a brush thru each liner, cleans the stove, and calls it done. My liners are totally blind, inaccessible inside existing chimneys and hidden by block off plates. No sweep has ever put a camera down one, or disconnected my stove pipe to get their eyes on one of my liners. If we know the liner will eventually fail, how does one know when that day is nigh?

We scan every chimney the first time we clean it. Then every 3 years after that or if there is some reason to suspect a problem. Lightwall liners we start scanning every year after 15 years . Heavy wall after 25. Everything will fail eventually. Newer stoves run correctly are not very hard on liners though so even light wall can give a decent life.

 

[Ashful]

We scan every chimney the first time we clean it. Then every 3 years after that or if there is some reason to suspect a problem. Lightwall liners we start scanning every year after 15 years . Heavy wall after 25. Everything will fail eventually. Newer stoves run correctly are not very hard on liners though so even light wall can give a decent life.

By scan, you mean with a camera, or some other method?

 

[bholler]

By scan, you mean with a camera, or some other method?

Camera really no other way to do it.

 

[Ashful]

Camera really no other way to do it.

That’s what I figured. So far, the only sweep I’ve come across locally that does any camera work is the guy who tried to charge me five figures to remove wood from my chimney that never existed. My current company (BK dealer) won’t even go up top to inspect the cap and crown. I’ve asked them to do this when I scheduled each of their last two visits, and both times I find out after the job that they skipped that part.

 

[bholler]

That’s what I figured. So far, the only sweep I’ve come across locally that does any camera work is the guy who tried to charge me five figures to remove wood from my chimney that never existed. My current company (BK dealer) won’t even go up top to inspect the cap and crown. I’ve asked them to do this when I scheduled each of their last two visits, and both times I find out after the job that they skipped that part.

If the other ones didn't use cameras how do you know there is no wood? I am not saying there is any just curious.

I don't know how a sweep can possibly do this job without a camera

 

[Ashful]

If the other ones didn't use cameras how do you know there is no wood? I am not saying there is any just curious.

I ended up putting my own high-def camera on a pruning pole and running it up and down the chimney, all four interior faces. I showed it to another local sweep, who agreed that what the prior company said was wood, was really brick. Brick you can in fact also see on the outside. Then I sent it on a USB thumb drive to the original sweep, who agreed it was brick. When I asked him why he thought it was wood, he admitted he never actually ran a camera up and down, he was making that judgement solely by standing in the fireplace (remember, it's a large walk-in) and looking up almost 30 feet to the location of the "wood". After he agreed it was actually brick, I made him revise his report prior to my payment, for insurance purposes.

There's a lot more to the story, I should re-post it all sometime, your head would truly spin.

I don't know how a sweep can possibly do this job without a camera

Agreed. But of the three sweeps I've had do work in this house, only one has ever agreed that camera work should be done. Then they came out here, did the level 2 inspection, and submitted a report implying the camera work was done. When later challenged on it, they admitted they never did it. The other two sweeps don't even do camera work.