If solid steel pipe can't push through it, it doesn't sound like creosote. I agree it sounds like a piece of clay flue is stuck. That sucks. If you're gonna install a liner anyway, I'd ram the pipe until the clog breaks. Clay flue isn't that tough, so it should break with a little persuasion and fall to the bottom. A lot of times liner installs require the clay flue be broken and removed so the liner will fit. Depending on your flue size and liner size and whether or not its insulated (which adds thickness) your liner person may have to break all your flues. The good news is clay flues often crack and your new stainless steel liner will be much safer, easier to clean, and should make your stove run better.
Like brenndatamu said, a 6" liner will fit perfect. My brick-clay flue was lined with 6" flex, works well, cleans easy and very little creosote forms. I get about 1/2 bucket of black sand like stuff out when I clean it twice a burn season.
I told ya to go with the 1” pipe, brute force baby The pipe may be following the angle of the broken flue piece and jamming off to the side between the edge of the lower flue and chimney. Did you pick the pipe up 5-6ft and just let go, let it drop? Should be enough inertia to break a piece of flue. They’re not that tough once already broken. Remember this from WWII? I’m not suggesting anything here but you do have all that black pipe LOL
That's a real bummer for sure but at least you made progress and seemed to have figured out the cause. Plenty of 6" flex liner recommendations to correct the problem once the block is cleared which might be easier said than done, ugh!
We had a few broken tiles in ours years ago. Breaking them up and getting them out was a pain. I made a little hook for the end of the cleaning rod to lift one edge of the tiles and let them fall. Some of them refused to break when hammering from above. We used twine string to lower the new pieces down kn top of the intact ones. The twine burns away as soon as you light a fire, or you can try to pull it free. We didn’t use mortar because it was cold out and it just had to get working.
Any way to slide something up from below the blockage? Even a plumbing drain snake would be able to move upward. Where it's thought to be wedged from the top, you might be able to push the blockage upward enough to dislodge it.
You said early on in this thread that the blockage seemed to get worse gradually, which makes me think it's creosote and not a broken liner. Is there some reason the creosote can't be removed now and then the liner be viewed for any obvious damage? The creosote will need to be removed whether the liner is in tact or not.
I’m waiting too. What happened when our liner broke, was a piece of liner broke off and tipped sideways against the other side. It was at an angle and blocked at least half the flue. It wasn’t really noticeable until creosote built up on the upper side and blocked the chimney. We tried to brush it but the brush wouldn’t go. We tried just the pole and finally punched through the creosote and that is when we got a bit confused. It would go through in two corners, but not anywhere else. We kept wiggling it around and getting any loose creosote out. We dropped a camera in and saw a little bit of the flue tile, and then we used a hook on the cleaning rod to lift the tile loose until it fell down. It was a real pain, but it worked. It took an entire day of fidgeting and jamming the rod down the chimney, but we finally got it loose. We removed any broken tiles and replaced them.
