Hey Jandal,

The material used is called "Promatect H".  They used to use a similar product called 'Eterpan' however it can no longer be imported due to it being made in the same facility as asbestos.  Unfortunately you can only purchase this material in sheets of 2400x1200 at around $500.

Why Metro keeps on using it I don't know - every other manufacturer stopped 10 years ago to steel or ceramic-brick.  Being a chimney sweep, we replace around 500-800 of these 'baffle lips' in Metros every year.  If you don't replace it, the steel will bend out of shape, possible upwards, getting stuck in the firebox.  This requires about 30 minutes of a grinder, sweat, and swearing to remove.

So, for you, the best is just to buy it from Mitre 10.

Hey Swept, is there some kind of chimney sweep thing I can put up the flue from in the house or is that a really dumb question? I have an old concrete tile roof and I worry about them shifting or breaking every time someone climbs up there. It's a tad steep, too!

@JayADee  No you're not mad - we hardly climb on roofs, we sweep 95% of all chimneys from the bottom.  We use a brand of brushes called 'SootEaters'.  There is an NZ distributor of them if you just google it.  Just get the kit and a drill and you're sorted.  Work out how your baffle comes down, then stick your brushes up, cover up the door with the provided sheet and cut a hole in it to allow the sticks to go through.  Connect all the rods together and start from the top working your way down going slowly; we break our sticks up into 2m lengths (so that's two rods connected) and work it that way.  These sticks are very flexible and will go past any offsets (bends) in your flue - you will just have to pulse the drill to get them moving through.  We buy our sticks in bulk from the manufacturer - the tallest chimney I've done is 28 metres in length.

All the build-up drops to the bottom where you can scoop it out (we have a special vacuum that does that for us).

Yeah I agree with the woman in the shop; that's fine as it is.  Being an 'ECO' model, the front lip has 2 extra layers over the larger piece; these will wear away as intended.  In my experience, you'd get another 2-3 years out of that before you need to replace the whole front piece of promatect.

And no, it's no asbestos.  It's a ceramic-fibre board used in commercial buildings where a firewall is required - this is the material you use, not Gib Fire line which doesn't meet code.

All good mate!  Glad I could help.  If you or anyone else have any logfire questions, I should be able to answer.  While we're a chimney sweeping business, we do just about anything else with logfires; remove flues, reinstate old coal ranges, chippies, refurbish old fires - we just don't install them anymore; got sick of dealing with local councils (but do install a couple a year for friends or family).  Very rarely does anything stump us these days!

Awesome, thanks Swept!