Chimney question

[Sonyaclegg]

If you have a stove and a chimney which is in good condition, can you just use the chimney without putting a liner up it? would that mean the use of a steel register plate to take the stove pipe into the chimney? i seem to recall there were good arguments against just using the chimney. Can anyone advise?

 

[MdB]

If you have a stove and a chimney which is in good condition, can you just use the chimney without putting a liner up it? would that mean the use of a steel register plate to take the stove pipe into the chimney? i seem to recall there were good arguments against just using the chimney. Can anyone advise?

You can and some people certainly do. It isn't necessarily a good idea though and I'm not sure that building control would like it. The one thing that immediately comes to mind is that the larger diameter of the chimney will cause the flue gases to move slowly which in turn will allow them to cool and condense. This will allow tars etc to build up quicker.

 

[Flyfisher]

I have a feeling that a liner is a regulatory requirement and that a HETAS installer or building control would not sign off an installation without one. I'm not absolutely sure about tha though.

But even if that's not strictly the case, MdB has already mentioned one good reason for a liner in such a large chimney. The forum has had a number of threads in the past with people asking how to solve staining problems due to sooty/tarry chimney deposits migrating through the brickwork. This seems to be a common problem with old chimneys and decades/centuries of open fires.

 

[DJH]

As is not unusual for older properties here, there is a single large chimney stack of stonework in the middle of our house with what once was an inglenook in the kitchen and an open fire in the parlour. The flue from this fire extends for about five feet up and then joins with the main chimney. The inglenook was closed in many years ago into just an open fire so both fires use the same flue. I've fitted a stove in the kitchen fireplace and shoved up a stainless steel flue to just above the junction of where the other flue joins in.

So far this has worked very well and the fact that the mass of masonry is nearly always warm and we burn smokeless fuel in the stove and the inset fire in the other room so, at the moment, I don't envisage any problems. Did I just say that???

Doug