KindredSpiritzz
Minister of Fire
how can it be so close to the wall without any protection?? Wish i could put mine close like that.
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It depends on the make/model of stove and how well it's shielded. Some can be as close as 4" to a rear wall. Others need > 12". Often a closer clearance is achieved by using double-wall stove pipe.
bag of hammers
Minister of Fire
Not sure what the specs are on the BK, but the Osburn rear clearance is only 5". I set it up a couple inches farther out, just a bit of extra insurance.
Hi, Everybody!
Sorry, was away from the forum for a few days.
We are back in town, stove is at river along with the owner's manual/literature, so I'm working from memory. Please double check these numbers for yourself. Those who have first hand knowledge please chime in and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
We purchased a Blaze King manufactured heat shield for the back of the Princess, which reduced the rear clearance between the stove and the wall to 6". We also have a double walled stove pipe, as BeGreen noted, and that reduced the clearance for the stove pipe to 6" as well.
One of Wooden Sun's partners handled the initial planning, the ordering and the acquisition. The other partner handled the install, and the county's building inspector was on site on the day of the install, before the crew left the premises. The building inspector signed off on the install as it sits as well.
I'm being a little bit compulsive about reciting the bona fides on this install, but like you all, I put a lot of stock in safety and in complying with safety and building codes. I like it that we had at least three sets of eyes looking at the clearances- five sets of eyes including the install crew.
The double wall stove pipe should help maintain the temperatures inside the stove pipe as well as providing an additional margin of safety in terms of proximity to external combustibles. My understanding is that maintaining the temperature inside the stove pipe and chimney will maintain a good draw and help prevent creosote build up. The only bends in the stove pipe are the two 45' elbows at the top. Those elbows were required to clear a roof truss. Otherwise the stove would have been further out in the floor.
We were fortunate; this location is about as close to the center of the house as we could have gotten. That's awesome for the floor plan vs. heat distribution. It also put the chimney exiting the roof very close to/almost at the ridgeline, which meant that we didn't have to keep adding height to the chimney to meet code outside. That will make it easier to clean the chimney.
I guess I need to find a Soot Eater thread but I can't quite get my head around how a Soot Eater works from below, as opposed to a standard chimney brush from the top. Also, are the extension rods on both the Soot Eater and any standard chimney cleaning kit flexible? We are going to have to traverse those two elbows in the stove pipe...
Sorry, was away from the forum for a few days.
We are back in town, stove is at river along with the owner's manual/literature, so I'm working from memory. Please double check these numbers for yourself. Those who have first hand knowledge please chime in and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
We purchased a Blaze King manufactured heat shield for the back of the Princess, which reduced the rear clearance between the stove and the wall to 6". We also have a double walled stove pipe, as BeGreen noted, and that reduced the clearance for the stove pipe to 6" as well.
One of Wooden Sun's partners handled the initial planning, the ordering and the acquisition. The other partner handled the install, and the county's building inspector was on site on the day of the install, before the crew left the premises. The building inspector signed off on the install as it sits as well.
I'm being a little bit compulsive about reciting the bona fides on this install, but like you all, I put a lot of stock in safety and in complying with safety and building codes. I like it that we had at least three sets of eyes looking at the clearances- five sets of eyes including the install crew.
The double wall stove pipe should help maintain the temperatures inside the stove pipe as well as providing an additional margin of safety in terms of proximity to external combustibles. My understanding is that maintaining the temperature inside the stove pipe and chimney will maintain a good draw and help prevent creosote build up. The only bends in the stove pipe are the two 45' elbows at the top. Those elbows were required to clear a roof truss. Otherwise the stove would have been further out in the floor.
We were fortunate; this location is about as close to the center of the house as we could have gotten. That's awesome for the floor plan vs. heat distribution. It also put the chimney exiting the roof very close to/almost at the ridgeline, which meant that we didn't have to keep adding height to the chimney to meet code outside. That will make it easier to clean the chimney.
I guess I need to find a Soot Eater thread but I can't quite get my head around how a Soot Eater works from below, as opposed to a standard chimney brush from the top. Also, are the extension rods on both the Soot Eater and any standard chimney cleaning kit flexible? We are going to have to traverse those two elbows in the stove pipe...
Sooteater rods are flexible enougn to easily traverse the 45 deg offset. Their extension rods are the same as their regular rods.
Thank you, BeGreen!
The rear clearance thing- the guys at Wooden Sun know what they are doing. They are all certified up and have plenty of experience. Our home owner's insurance required the professional install, which was one deciding factor for going with Wooden Sun and Blaze King. Otherwise, we may have gone with an Englander or a Woodstock Ideal Steel and done a self-install.
Which brings me to the scary part of You Recognize What You Know, or The Benefit of Experience. During our research and acquisition phase, a person with a lot of experience with wood stoves and different types of installations told us a story that scared me to death.
This person had recently been involved in the investigation of a house fire that was caused by a wood stove installed too close to a rock wall. Proper rear clearance to a non-combustible surface had been accommodated in the placement of the stove vs. the actual rock wall; the rock wall was non-combustible, so the rock wall did not catch fire. The rock wall did not have the proper heat resistant surface behind it however, so when the stove heated up, the rock wall absorbed the heat from the stove and transferred it to the combustible materials behind the rock. The interior of the wall behind the rock caught on fire.
We don't have a rock wall, but I could see me making a similar mistake about installing some sort of tile on the wall behind the stove and thinking that was a "non-combustible" surface- not even thinking about the combustible wall behind the tile and heat transfer.
Made me glad that, given what we don't know, our insurance company made us have a professional installation.
bag of hammers
Minister of Fire
I think I recall reading some threads here that describe similar situations. Non combustible material isn't necessarily a heat shield - really tragic to figure that out the hard way. Obadiah has posted links somewhere here on Hearth to excellent videos on proper heat shield construction principles and techniques.
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