Flue for Woodburner?

dick_turpin

We live in a house that was built in early eightees and at that time there was no gas in the area. all the properties were built with baxi back boilers and the house has a chimney that served the back boiler. about 20 years ago gas came to the area and we have a living flame gas fire now.
If I wanted to install a multi fuel stove would the chimney suffice or would it need to be lined?

matelodave

You would have to have it swept and checked - it depends how well it was built and it's size. Too big is as bad as too small.

I know several people who have had woodburners fitted and a couple have needed liners and one didn't as the chimney had a vitreous lining already

dick_turpin

thank you matelodave

Kiran

With a lined flue you get a more efficient burn as the warm flue increases the draw. You can fit a stove directly to a chimney providing you install a register plate but as the advice above you need it swept and checked for integrity. www.stovefittersmanual.co.uk has the method of installation of both but also the pros and cons

Wooddrake

We had a multifuel stove fitted with no liner. The house is a 1950's ex council.

Our HETAS fitter said a liner wasn't mandatory for two reason. 1) The chimney was narrow (9" square) and would draw very well. The smoke test proved this. 2) Our chimney was in good enough condition to not need to be lined. There were no leaks, the brickwork was sound. etc etc.

We got a second opinion and they said the same thing with a word of caution. If we burn only wood, make sure it's very dry. 20% or less.
The condensation and kresote from wet wood would otherwise sit on the chimney and eat away at the brick work. You can buy a £20 moisture reader to check.

I know you can get higher efficiency with a liner but to be honest, our 5Kw stove kicks out so much heat it often gets too hot in the lounge and we have to open the kitchen door. I wouldn't want it any hotter! (Especially at an extra £1200 which was the going rate.)

What I also thought was interesting, all the shop showrooms said a liner was necessary. All the independent fitters all found from the HETAS website said it wasn't.

So from my experience, don't get the same people you buy the stove from to fit it.

The first thing is to do is get it swept, (They found a birds nest in mine!)
The second thing to get a HETAS installer to do an inspection and smoke test. (A proper smoke test requires someone on the roof blocking the chimney to force the smoke out of any cracks. A friend of mine just had a plumber light a smoke bomb in the grate which they passed off as OK. Subsequently he had problems with leaks that didn't show up during the 'test'.)

After a proper test, you'll know where you stand. Our independent fitters charged £60 for the test. Our local fire showroom wanted £200.