I have never heard of a mobile home approved stove. We live in a 1973 mobile home, and it has an add-on room. The wood stove was in the add-on room, and because it was out of the way and inefficient, we moved the stove into the main house (mobile home). We installed the stove with all the parts as they were and I recently read online about mobile home approved stoves. I do not know if we need to change anything about our current stove set-up to maintain safety, or if it is fine as it is.
What is the importance of mobile home approved stoves?
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We have a US Stove 2000 stove and it's mobile home approved. The way I had it explained to me is the reason ours is mobile home approved is because it has the option for the fresh air kit. Our house isn't a mobile home, so I just didn't buy the kit.
But because mobile homes are built in a factory like setting, they are built with very tight tollerances, unlike a stick built house. A stick built house is going to have some small drafts and air leaks. A brand new mobile home shouldn't have hardly any drafts or leaks. Wood stoves needs oxygen to burn. So, if you're wood stove is using all the oxygen out of the house, I'm not sure what kind of health issues it could cause. So, they want you to use these fresh air kits where your wood stove is hooked to a vent pulling air from outside and not inside your house.
I've also heard if you don't want to mess around with that and you notice some kind of oxygen issue with your stove, just leave a window cracked in the same room as the wood stove to cause a draft.
Probably if your mobile home was built in the 70s, I'm guessing it's not in perfect shape and it's not air tight, so it's probably not an issue for you.
But because mobile homes are built in a factory like setting, they are built with very tight tollerances, unlike a stick built house. A stick built house is going to have some small drafts and air leaks. A brand new mobile home shouldn't have hardly any drafts or leaks. Wood stoves needs oxygen to burn. So, if you're wood stove is using all the oxygen out of the house, I'm not sure what kind of health issues it could cause. So, they want you to use these fresh air kits where your wood stove is hooked to a vent pulling air from outside and not inside your house.
I've also heard if you don't want to mess around with that and you notice some kind of oxygen issue with your stove, just leave a window cracked in the same room as the wood stove to cause a draft.
Probably if your mobile home was built in the 70s, I'm guessing it's not in perfect shape and it's not air tight, so it's probably not an issue for you.
A mobile home approved stove must have an outside air kit, leg bolt kit(so it can be bolted to the floor), double wall stove pipe and the stoves have pretty close clearances. Most importantly though, they were tested for this application and thats what insurance wants to see. If your aren't worried about the insurance man and you have met all the proper clearances, then you should be fine. You need to have a class A chimney, maintain an 18" clearance to the stove pipe, and if it's an old stove you need to maintain 36" from any combustibles.
That makes sense, thank you both for the answers! And yes, our mobile home isn't entirely "draft-free" so I'm not worried about the oxygen issue. Our pipe is not double pipe, it's single, but it is the 18" clearance from the wall as well as many feet from any combustibles. What is a class A chimney?
Welcome pb. The importance is safety. With an add-on it doesn't sound like your home is too mobile any more, but safety is still the major concern. Class A pipe is the hi-temp chimney that starts at the ceiling. If you can post some pictures we can look out for any issues. Was this installation inspected?
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Welcome to the forum Perleblack.
I've been in several mobile homes that have been heated with wood and there is no problem at all. As others have stated, it is the air that is the concern. Same thing if you install an LP water heater. That heater must, by code draw the air from outside rather than from inside the home.
As for the tied downs, if that thing is never moved that is redundant but you won't convince the code officials of that.
On the other hand, you might notice a big difference in the draftiness of the home if you did install an outside air kit. With the stove drawing air from outside, that means less air has to enter the home to feed the stove. Less air coming into the home means a warmer house.
I've been in several mobile homes that have been heated with wood and there is no problem at all. As others have stated, it is the air that is the concern. Same thing if you install an LP water heater. That heater must, by code draw the air from outside rather than from inside the home.
As for the tied downs, if that thing is never moved that is redundant but you won't convince the code officials of that.
On the other hand, you might notice a big difference in the draftiness of the home if you did install an outside air kit. With the stove drawing air from outside, that means less air has to enter the home to feed the stove. Less air coming into the home means a warmer house.
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Even though your home may not be terribly air tight, burning with outside air is a really good idea anyway, and is cheap and easy to accomplish. It solves many potential problems. There are some good threads on the topic here.
It's also a requirement in case of tornado, strong wind or earthquake. Most large appliances are restrained in some way at the factory, not only for transportation but in the event of a roll over.
If the mobile home becomes unsecured due to crazy weather, and the fridge falls over, that sucks. If the wood stove falls over (while in operation) your problems just changed significantly, the least of which is the house being knocked out of position!
pen
As others have stated, and I'll add:
-Double wall stovepipe- per code
-Stove bolt down kit- in case you decide to move the trailer to another location
-Stove is grounded to chassis (dont know why, maybe lightning???
-outside air kit (oak)
-in some municipalities; a screened chimney cap
-Double wall stovepipe- per code
-Stove bolt down kit- in case you decide to move the trailer to another location
-Stove is grounded to chassis (dont know why, maybe lightning???
-outside air kit (oak)
-in some municipalities; a screened chimney cap
Prior to 1976 localities were the code authority for mobile homes. In 1976 The Department of Housing and Urban Development took over that role and their codes became the law of the land pre-empting local authority on manufactured housing. Soooo.... One can look at all of the reasons for a stove having to be mobile home approved and installed correctly but the long and short of it is that it is Federal law.
Because his ceiling is no doubt made of combustible material, his class A would actually start about 18" below the ceiling, correct?
I thought there was a set distance from a single or double wall stove pipe to a combustible material like a wall or ceiling? Within that distance you had to have class A.
thechimneysweep
Minister of Fire
Pipe clearance is measured in a straight line perpendicular to the pipe surface. For vertical installations into manufactured chimneys, the only clearance requirement for the connector pipe would be to adjacent walls or roof beams that extend below the ceiling. Most chimney manufacturers require that the support box extend 4" below the ceiling, and 4" below any exposed roof beam that falls within the clearance requirement of the connector pipe.
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