Anthracite, what conflicting advice

coppo

Does it damage a stainless chimney liner or not?


Nightmare trying to get the correct answer.


When you google it the first site(chimney sweep) says you should always use it as it a natural product and not manufactured and will not damage the liner


The second one says it ruins the stainless chimney liner.


Various other sites then give conflicting opinions, bloody hell, does anybody know?


Some say its the manufactured ovoids with varying degrees of pet coke which damage the stainless liner the most, others say it the anthracite.


What a minefield.


Paul.

A._Badger

I am told that both anthracite and 'good quality' manufactured smokeless fuels are both OK to burn.

The problem (it is alleged) is that some fuels have a high sulphur content. It's not the use of petcoke that causes the problem (that simply eats through firebars). The claim is that the sulphur produced when smokeless is burned combines with water vapour to produce sulphuric acid, which then eats through the stainless steel.

This raises a lot of questions (for example, how much water vapour can there be in a liner having hot gas fed through it all day?)

I have to say that I am very cautious about all these claims and counter claims as the industry is riddled with vested interests and outright scams - from the HETAS legalised near-monopoly of installations, to the poor quality of some stoves and liners being sold. This makes getting reliable information very hard, if not impossible, as you have found. No one ever seems to quote reliable, impartial research that you can check for yourself.

From all that I have been able to discover, the major smokeless brands (I use Newflame) are fine, as is anthracite.

No doubt someone will disagree, which is fine - but if they do, some genuine research would be good.

coppo

Yes agree entirely Badger.


Its a minefield riddled with vested interests, one site says one thing the next one contradicts them.


Paul.

Chimney_Sweep_3

This is a problem I encounter several times a year, what exactly is the cause of it is not a clear one. It seems to be the way you use the appliance aswell as the fuel used, slumbering the appliance is the real killer of liners quicker with smokeless fuels but wood will also do the same. The condensation from burning wood in the form of steam mixes with sulpur in the smokelss coal making a sulphuric acid amongst other things its these acids I am lead to belive causes the most problems, smokless fuels have to have a max of 2% suplphur by weight
A 904 liner is recommended for burning smokless coal but also proper operation is required, smokless fuels are a mix of mainly anthracite and various other things some have sawdust and other binders.
I had one a few months back serving a water boiler the liner had failed after only 20months, another one last month only 3years old and a birds nest of rusty liner was ontop of the baffle plate when I dismatled the stove, this had burnt wood and smokless but slumbered.
There appears to be no independant research into the problems with only the main fuel manufacturers testing and they say its down to low flue gas temps which could be down to very efficient stoves and/or operation ie slumber.
I am in contact with many sweeps around the country and its a growing problem, HETAs now give a stainless liner an average life of 5 years or less if slumbered.