New gas fire problem.

Millsy 82 · Feb 2, 2015

I was asked to go out and give a price for a new gas fire to replace an existing open fire. When I got out there I asked why he wanted to change from coal to gas (I'm one of these that can sit and watch an open fire for hours) and he said because when we had a fire the other day the room next door filled with smoke. In there was a gas fire connected up to the chimney.

Now I did smoke checks on both chimneys and no problems I also looked up both chimneys and they both look ok as far as I could see, when the smoke came out they came out of 2 different pots so it's not a shared chimney and no smoke came out into the room next door.

Now because the chimney has passed all the tests it says that I can re use the chimney with no liner but I am slightly concerned that there may be a problem with the chimney that might not show up until certain conditions. I did say to him to just put electric in both and said that I would drop 2 liners down the chimneys for each fire so it will cost a fortune and I tried to scare him off really but he has phoned back saying he wants it done.

Should I fit a liner? Even though it past all the tests says I don't but because they had smoke out in another room says to me there is a problem. (Unless this is a big unless the smoke travelled up the coal fire chimney out the pot and the wind as it has been blooming windy down here has blown it back down the gas fire chimney? But I can't see that happening)

Chalked · Feb 2, 2015

Hi
you have evidence that the flues are mixing. Probably the feathering between the two chimneys is breaking down.
definitely a case for fitting two liners.

Whyme · Feb 2, 2015

Are they separate stacks ? if not the mid feathers could have gone.. If they are i find it unlikely that would happen. unless they had some strange wind event. probably be proven wrong in the next few post though 🙂 Chalked beat me to it...

Billy Bob Bob · Feb 2, 2015

+3 mid feathers most likely culprit defo go for lining

Millsy 82 · Feb 2, 2015

Thanks for the replies.

The only reason I was unsure was I put about 7 pellets up each chimney and no smoke coming out anywhere and I'm only going off what the bloke was saying about smoke coming through into the room.

The reason I thought there may be a slim chance that the smoke had come out of one chimney and back down another is the house is at the bottom of a steep hill and if the wind was coming from the north it would blow over the hill and back down bit like if you had an open flue terminating in a positive zone on a roof.