Do I Need A Chimney Liner For An Open Fire

Sometimes people say but i have had an open fire in this chimney for years and no problems.

Do i need a chimney liner for an open fire.

It is mandatory if you are building a new property or perhaps you have an older property both require you to have chimney liners. Probably not most everything can be installed with a round liner with the exception of some liners for fireplaces. With an open fires 80 of heat goes straight up the chimney and warm the cold and sometimes damp brick chimney. Open fires with larger fireplace openings usually freestanding grates will need larger flue sizes calculated alongside the height of the chimney and required ventilation.

If you burn wood in your fireplace or in a wood burning stove it s recommended that you have a stainless steel liner to prevent overheating your chimney and risking a fire. Wood burners send 25 of the heat up the chimney and 75 to the room. Chimney liners for open fires. Open wood burning and coal fires require a class 1 flue liner with a minimum diameter of 200mm.

I say if your chimney opening is big enough not restricting the smoke and heat you don t need a chimney flue. Most british open fires were and still are designed to burn coal at up to 25 efficiency. Larger is not necessarily better when it comes to your flue liner. Too large will give you a slow draft and poor performance and too small will restrict the draft.

No chimney flue was used and it still works great with no breakdown of the chimney blocks. If you have an older flue liner our professionals can check the condition by carrying out a cctv inspection. Lots of people will say you need to build your chimney with a clay flue for purposes of heat thus keeping the heat off the cinder block. In some locations your city s fire code may mandate that you install such a liner if you re making any changes to or installing a wood burning stove or fireplace.