Wife now on board, now have issue with flue inspection

[chillywilly]

Thanks to all that posted replies to my previous post. After reading replies, wifey is now onboard and ready to fire up the Quadrafire 5100! We decided though to have a professional sweep come to inspect the flue first. The sweep on initial inspection said that the stove seemed to not have been used much as it still looked like new and had very few deposits at the flue collar. On closer inspection, the Kaowool blanket that sits on top of the firebricks was falling apart somewhat, so I wonder. After he removed the center support and the bricks at the stove ceiling, he could see the flue collar. However, he could not gain access to the flue itself as there was a metal plate there (or so it seemed) blocking it off. As it turned out this plate was actually an offset connecting the flue liner (Magnaflex) to the insert collar. So now he tells us that he cannot access the flue liner to inspect due to this offset, and that the “chimley” top is too high to get a ladder to it. The house is 2 story with sloping ground around it. He said that a cherry picker would be required to get to it! My first question is, do I need to get someone to check in the flue from up top to make sure the flue is clean, even if the insert was very clean around the flue collar? From what research I have done, this wood stove though not catalytic has one of the lowest emission rates out there. This is of course dependent on operator experience I am aware.

My second question: anyone have an installation with one of these offsets with any problems? I checked with the installer and confirmed that this offset is a factory listed part from Quadrafire so I assume that it is an acceptable installation. The chimney sweep said he had not seen this done in his 14 years of experience so my wife and I were freaking out when we heard this. Thanks again for any helpful advice!

 

[webbie]

I have seen various offsets used to make flues higher or further back I(as in your case)...the usual issue is just making certain that the stove drafts correctly. With the 2 story situation that you have, it is very likely that you have more than enough draft.

I did not read the previous post, but if your chimney is fully lined it certainly sounds like a decent installation. Modern stoves such as yours tend to produce relatively little tars and creosote.....and chances are that if the chimney was dirty, a lot of this would fall to the bottom into that offset or further (the stove, etc.).

As far as the sweep, looks like he learns something new each day! Maybe he should pay you

One thing for certain - sooner or later you are going to have to be able to brush the chimney out in one way or another. If you truly have a case of the "bucket truck" (and not just a scared sweep", then the best method would be to pull the stove out and clean from the bottom -after adapter is removed. This is a fairly easy job for a sweep with the right equipment. Sweeps run the gamut from "easy job only" to "I like a challenge", so you are going to have to find one of the second ilk.

 

[jtp10181]

Totally agree with Craig on all of that. And yeah you will need to clean the chimney at some point.