Chimney Liners and UL Listings

"You may be an unlisted system if" reminds me of the "You may be a redneck" lines of the Jeff Foxworthy jokes. Let's face it. As sweeps, we come across many stainless steel chimney liner installations that would make the honorary Foxworthy "unlisted" hall of fame. We have heard and seen some pretty strange installations that were anything BUT UL Listed. In this four part article I would like to explain just how important UL Listings are. Let's start by looking at the perspective from the liner manufacturer.

What a UL Listing means to the manufacturer (part I):

A UL Listing is like a trophy of achievement to liner a manufacturer. It shows that they have put forth the effort and quality product to have their product put through the tests at UL. These tests not only include the famous temperature tests, but also torsion (bending) tests, chimney brushing tests, weighted support tests, rain tests, etc...

UL also requires that the manufacture specify all of the components that were tested and evaluated in their installation instructions down to the last pop rivet. They have to clearly spell out the method of installation and the recommended maintenance procedures including specific wording. They also have to provide and label their product with specific size and type of labels with specific wording. And as part of the listing agreement with UL, the manufacturer has to be open to surprise visits from UL where they can drop in unannounced and inspect the pipe, components, labels, instructions, etc. If the manufacturer doesn't meet the criteria then they are issued a type of warning and have a certain amount of time to correct the problem. Manufactuers take their UL Listings seriously and many won't warrant their product if it's not installed according to the listing. In fact, they will often tell say "if you don't install it according to the listing, we won't back you up if there's a problem".

To be continued...