Hot take: That expensive fireproof sealant is overkill for most residential jobs

Had a flue liner crack on me last Tuesday in a little house near Austin, and I patched it with regular high-temp silicone instead of the $30 stuff - held up fine through two test burns. Anyone else tried skipping the fancy sealants on low-use fireplaces?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_cooper3d agoMost Upvoted

You make a good point about those low-use fireplaces. Most people only burn a couple dozen fires a year and the regular high-temp stuff handles that kind of duty just fine. It's hard to justify the fancy price tag when the basic product does the same job for years.

mileslane3d ago

Agree with abby_cooper on that. Even on the low use stuff, you're looking at maybe 40-50 burns tops over a few years before the whole thing gets replaced anyway. The regular high-temp silicone is rated for something like 500 degrees continuous, which is way more than most fireplace flues ever see during normal operation unless you're really packing it in. I used the cheap stuff on my own place three years ago and it still looks fine, no cracking or peeling. People get sold on the idea that more expensive means safer, but the real world testing just doesn't back that up for typical home use.

walker.julia2d ago

That "few years" part is key, I've got patches still holding after four winters on a cabin woodstove.