do i need another liner

going to put a coal stove in, i have a block chimney, and brick on the out side, with a clay liner..some one said i needed a stanless steel liner.. cant i just use what i have..?

Let me welcome you to the forum before Greg does...

IF your clay liner is good, and if it isn't too big (diameter) to draw with your stove, I'd stick with the clay:

1) You need to verify the condition of your chimney. (We can't do that very well from the web. At issue are leaks and fire hazard.) A pro, or high levels of common sense required. How old is it?

2) Experienced guys on this forum can give you a pretty good idea about your draft, if tell us how high the chimney is and how big a flue it has. (13x13, 8x8, etc.).

cf1 wrote:going to put a coal stove in, i have a block chimney, and brick on the out side, with a clay liner..some one said i needed a stanless steel liner.. cant i just use what i have..?

You have what you need, there is nothing better than a masonary chimney. Like Charlie said, we need dimensions of the chimney and a few details about the appliance.
As long as your chimney is in good shape a liner of any kind is a waste of money.

Hello cf1, Charlie Z, our 'offical greeter' has already welcomed you to the forum!!

As said above a good masonry chimney with a clay liner is just about the best chimney to have. The only exceptions would be if your coal burning appliance is one that needs lots of draft to work well and the chimney is too short, or too large inside dimension or situated on your house such that it doesn't draw well.

Sometimes a overly large chimney, with a small coal appliance that creates very little hot flue gas [exhaust] can't get enough volume of warm air to create a good draft. This would be about the only time a liner might be a good idea in an otherwise good chimney.

Tell us what type, brand and model coal burner you are planning on installing, what type of coal you plan on burning [bituminous or anthracite]. How big is the house, and how well insulated, how good are the windows etc. These pieces of information will help us help you.

Greg L

thanks for the help guys, what i have now is a wood burner, hearth mate series 1800.. and cuting and spliting wood is geting hard on me.this fire place was built in the late seventys, im thinkig of buying a kodiac or hitzer insert..or i have 24 inches from the front of the fire place to set a free standing stove.the fire place oping is rough 24x 40.. the inside of the flue i havnt checked.. im looking at the hitzer 503 insert ot the alaska kodiac...last winter i went thru 3 cords of wood.. and i used 3200 cmf in natural gas at 1.23 cmf. its a ranch house built in 1937 it app, 1400 square feet. i have boiler heat..i think i can get this gas bill down if i have a stove that dont need tending at night.. and the furnace wont com on..any ideas??thanks

Hello cf1. we have several forum members with Hitzer stoves, they appear to be well made with very good customer support by the company.

Forum member 'davemich' has a Hitzer 503 insert and he really likes it. He feeds it twice a day, shakes the grate and empties the ash pan once a day. It produces plenty of heat for his ~1500 sqft CapeCod style house on the Lake Michigan shore. [cold and very windy].

You will need to burn Anthracite coal in either the Hitzer aor Kodiak, have you checked on the price and availability of coal in your area?

Hope this helps, Greg L

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i can get the coal for $194.00 ton bulk or $250.00 baged. would i get more heat out of a free standing stove than an insert?

the clay liner is 11x11 outside diam. i took the wood stove out of the fire place and there was no pipe conected . someone removed part of the damper, theres only a 5 inch slot i can see up thru the chimney.. im going to install a hitzer 503 insert , should i try and saw the rest of the old damper,its steel .so i can hook a flu pipe up, or just set the 503 into like they had the wood burner?it looks like it would be 5 foot to the chimney opening..

The 6" chimney pipe is pretty flexible, I'd see if you can't flatten the round pipe to an oval that will fit through the 5" gap.

I think it would be best to have a dedicated pipe from the Hitzer up through the damper, and seal off the rest of the damper. You don't want coal fumes being pulled back down the chimney from bathroom fans, clothes dryers, kitchen exhaust fans etc.

Take a plate of galvanized steel that will cover the damper opening and cut the same oval in it that the pipe will be shaped. Use the plate to seal off the gaps on the sides of the pipe.

Not as good, but workable would be to tightly pack the gaps in the damper with fiberglass insulation. It needs to be tightly packed to restrict air getting through or past the pipe.

Hope this helps. Greg L

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I believe I have an oval shaped stove adapter in S/S with about 6' of stack to go into the chimney. It is made to adapt stoves to fireplaces and has a blockoff plate. Let me know if your interested. I paid $160 IIRC, and can let you have it real cheap. It is for 6" stovepipe and used one season with wood.

LsFarm wrote:The 6" chimney pipe is pretty flexible, I'd see if you can't flatten the round pipe to an oval that will fit through the 5" gap.

I think it would be best to have a dedicated pipe from the Hitzer up through the damper, and seal off the rest of the damper. You don't want coal fumes being pulled back down the chimney from bathroom fans, clothes dryers, kitchen exhaust fans etc.

Take a plate of galvanized steel that will cover the damper opening and cut the same oval in it that the pipe will be shaped. Use the plate to seal off the gaps on the sides of the pipe.

Not as good, but workable would be to tightly pack the gaps in the damper with fiberglass insulation. It needs to be tightly packed to restrict air getting through or past the pipe.

Hope this helps. Greg L

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ls farm that a good idea with the galvanized plate i may just do that.. someone should have a pre fab plate to go in it.. i have to open this old damper up, so i can hook and seal the pipe ito the chimney.. right now i want to figue what im going to use to clean this chimney out.. thanks

coaledsweat wrote:I believe I have an oval shaped stove adapter in S/S with about 6' of stack to go into the chimney. It is made to adapt stoves to fireplaces and has a blockoff plate. Let me know if your interested. I paid $160 IIRC, and can let you have it real cheap. It is for 6" stovepipe and used one season with wood.

i will let you know on that,, i have to look around fist ,thanks.