Enough room for liner.

[Knotdodger]

I am looking at a couple used wood burning fireplace inserts. This house I bought has One fireplace, that has three pipes that get heated , kind of in the way for the Liner. I could take the center one out, easy enough. And has a 12" flue. There is another 12" flue that leads to vents in the stone on the right side of the firebox.. That thing must suck warm air out of the house.. Not sure what it is for.. Oh yeah, after getting my head in there I will have to do a good cleaning on it tommarow. I have the right size brush for it. Went and bought it today after seeing the condition of it....

Anyway fella's , you guys convinced me too get an insert. I havent bought one yet.. Hopefully sometime this week. Is there detailed instructions on how a insert should be installed somewhere??? I could not find them. I want to do it myself to save some cash. I could buy a 90cc saw for the price of an install. Thanks for any feedback. Here is some pic's of the fireplace.

Here is the damper and pipes... looks like maybee 5" Clearance for both that a liner could go through.

And here is that vent in the stone that goes to its own 12 flue.

 

[Knotdodger]

There is only 3 and 7/8ths inches between those pipes... And I could not reach the damper with a tape.. looks like maybee 4.5 inches of clearance...
Do I have to get some cutting torches out?????? hehehe..

Time for me to get a grilling isnt it??!!

 

[curdy]

Those are some very interesting pics...never seen anything like that before. Great move on going with the insert. I was able to pick mine up from somebody upgrading to gas. It was a nice Regency for $150. Paid for itself the first month in operation.

Since the set up you have there is beyond my knowledge and experience, I'm going to let someone else handle that stuff! But, I did install my own liner, and was very impressed with how easy it was.

I started off with a good foundation, the chimney I was installing it in had never been used before even though it was nearly 50 years old. Mortar and terracotta were both 100%. That's the first thing to make sure of. Have you had the chimney inspected since living there? Might not hurt to have that looked at closely before installing a liner (rather than install everything and then find that you need to do a repair that now will require twice the amount of time to fix because the liner is in the way.)

I cut a section of the damper out for the liner to fit with a borrowed reciprocating saw, nothing fancy, just a $50 Ryobi saw. I went and bought some blades so I wasn't tearing up someone else's. I was pretty impressed with how well the saw cut. I'm sure you could cut your pipe with one pretty easily with one.

I also saved some $ by purchasing 3 sections of flex liner and 2 couplings rather than 1 full length. I asked the shop owner if he had ends that had been cut off from other installs and were too short by themselves for install. He did and it cost me much less than the alternative. This method is safe btw, and I have no issues with smooth sweeping.

The biggest advantage you can give yourself is to get your hands on a cone for installing the liner. It attaches to the liner and than has a ring so you can attach a rope to it and pull it down the chimney. My friend and I had it installed in under an hour.

Once I got the liner down to the damper, I took a hammer drill to the brick to make an opening big enough for the liner to come through.

Put the insert in, attached the liner to the stove, and we were in business.

 

[Log Splitter]

Knotdodger, pull down an owners manual off the manufacturer's website for a stove you are considering. That should give you a good idea of what's involved with installing the liner. Be sure to pay attention to the blocking plate installation, having a blocking plate at the bottom of the liner will keep a lot of the heat from being wasted up the chimney.

It looks like your present installation is based on the old Heatolater concept. Fresh air is drawn from the openings at the bottom and circulated around the heated pipes above the fireplace. It does not work very well for heating a room.

In any case, you have a lot of work to do laying on your back cutting out the existing damper and pipe. I used a right angle grinder to cut mine. In any case, Curdy's advice about having the chimney checked out before you line it is good. Try not to take out any masonary if you can avoid it.

Let us know how it goes.