Do you have or are planning on installing a pellet stove into an existing chimney? This is a great idea to take advantage of a chimney that already exists. But you may think since the pellet stove has an exhaust fan there is no need for a stainless steel chimney liner.
Well for the stove to work properly, it needs to be vented into a proper sized chimney. In most cases the vent pipe on a pellet stove is 3 inch. If you are installing a stove and venting it into a masonry chimney a 4 inch liner is recommended. Whenever you go vertical with a pellet stove, 4” is recommended.
The best chimney liner would be a 304L rigid liner. This rigid chimney liner is specifically designed to handle wood burning appliances only. Since it can only handle wood creosote, the price is considerably less than 316L chimney liner.
This rigid liner will be the best choice for your pellet stove. It will be the easiest chimney liner to clean and give you the best performance possible.
In some cases it may not be possible to use a rigid chimney liner, for example when the chimney has a bend in it. What is recommended in this case is smooth inner wall chimney liner. A corrugated chimney liner that does not have a smooth inner wall will not give you the best performance for a wood burning appliance.