A little background.....I bought a used osburn 2200 a few weeks back and plan to put it in myself sometime this summer. Currently I have a masonry chimney with a 7" square clay liner. I plan to put a 6" stainless liner in for the new stove. I was up this evening measuring everything and discovered that I couldn't get my tape to the bottom of the flue. Upon further inspection I discovered what looks to be a plug of creosote between where the flue comes out of the wall and the clean out at the bottom of the chimney. Any ideas on how to solve this? I was thinking of getting a long rod or something to try to chip a hole through it. Top 2 pics are from the crock looking down. Last pic is from the clean out looking up.
So this is a fireplace chimney? Or? This is built up creosote between the bottom of the chimney and where the stove connects?
I'll be interested to see the responses. There were large and very hard chunks of creosote lining our chimney when we bought this place, but the plug is curious!
It's for a woodstove. Its plugged up about 1 1/2 feet to 2 feet below where the crock comes through the wall. The clean out is at the bottom of the chimney on the inside of the house.
The top 2 pics are from me sticking the camera through the wall and pointing down towards the clean out. The last pic was with the camera in the clean out pointing up to the top of the chimney.
So it would seem like you can go in through the crock with a tool of some sort to break it up...get it to fall out the cleanout?
Maybe drop a poker on a rope down the chimney, then reach in through the crock to operate it...once you get the first hole through I bet the whole thing falls apart pretty easily
After a miserable fail by a local chimney sweep service, we got lucky and borrowed a tool from a friend in Colorado where we just moved from. It was chains attached to a rod that a big drill spun around, husband had to super careful though to avoid cracking the clay. PS, we too put in an insulated liner, good choice.
Too bad its only 7" ID, that doesn't leave much room for insulation...and you want to have insulation if at all possible...even if you have to get the 1/4" thick insulation instead of the standard 1/2"...gonna be tight, most liners are 6 1/4" ish OD...also depends on how much the mortar joints are pooched out into the chimney...and how well the tiles are aligned.
I was doing some research on this subject and was curious if anyone here knows anything about these cast in place liners? I was just figuring on going with stainless but wasn't sure if the cast is worth looking in to?
CHeath did a little investigation into that.... let’s see if he pops up....good time for a nudge anyway- he’s been quiet since around the time heating season ended.
On another site there is a frequent contributor that is a chimney sweep by day...IIRC he doesn't like the cast liners...I can't remember why though...
Marvin where's the chimney located in the house? If it's on an external wall then I would insulate with whatever I could fit in there. If it's interior then you could consider just stuffing around the top of the chimney and the block off plate at the bottom with rock wool insulation to create a dead air space in the chimney. That'll help keep things warm. BTW I've never seen a creosote plug like that before, that's wild! My insert at my old house was hooked up to an exterior chimney that was close to 30' high and I had to squeeze in an insulated liner in a similar sized chimney. It took some patience but it was done. My current set up is about 10' shorter and my garage on the other side of the fireplace so I just went ahead and put in an uninsulated liner and put rock wool at the top and bottom. Haven't had any problems with this set up either.
The chimney comes up the outside of the house. I think I've decided I'm going to put the liner in and use pour in insulation. I just haven't decided what kind yet. I'm trying to figure out how im going to plug the bottom to keep it from running out.
Best bet is to clean it from the bottom up with a rotary system, or have a chimney sweep do it. When it's clear, you should use an insulated ss liner, but to do this, you'd need to break all that clay tile similar tool to what wildwest put up. This gets done from the top down, removing the clay pieces from below. Can you post any pictures? Sometimes if there is excessive mortar in there, the tiles can be a pain. Should you decide to use a pour insulation, thermix works well, it gets mixed with water, then poured down the chimney. The plate at the bottom to hold everything is challenging. IMO, running a ss insulated liner is your best bet. Tile breaker tool......
Sorry this is a long post. I will try to keep it concise so if you need more details I will clarify as best I can. So I've been researching this quite a bit and have decided I'm going to knock the tiles out and use 1/2 inch insulation because it is an external chimney. Thanks everyone for the input. Sorry Well Seasoned I just remembered you mentioned more pictures. I was on vacation at the time and forgot to take more pics when I was on the roof this weekend. However I'm still looking for more advice. I called Rockford Chimney Supply today to chat with them about what I'm going to need. My chimney is 21 feet 6 inches from the bottom of the clean out to the top of the terra cota liner. From the top of the through the wall thimble to the top of the terra cota is 16 feet 6 inches. I was just figuring on getting a 25 foot liner and using the spare liner to line underneath the tee body down to the clean out. However the Rockford people (very friendly and helpful by the way) told me they do not recommend this. They said use a 20 foot liner and just leave the cap off of the bottom of the tee body as it will not effect my draft by doing so and then I can still use the clean out. Thoughts on this? IIRC brenndatomu mentioned (I think I read this here) about you have a set up similar to what I was thinking of doing? Next question...since I'm only lining about 16 feet of chimney could I use a 15 foot insulation blanket and insulate from the top down? Or should I insulate from the tee up and then stuff some rock wool in the top? This was just a thought to try to save a few bucks. Not really trying to skim just thought if I could save any $$ that would be great. Sorry for writing a novel but I'm trying to tie up the last few details before I pull the trigger on this.
