OAK (or the lack-thereof) in a Mobile home

#1) Does this Stove have a mobile home approved signature on the rating plate? If not, its a no go.
Welcome to the Hearth,by the way!

P.S. The words you used...CODE ASIDE don't really go well around here. Code was to be a minimum from preventing deaths that have already happened due to these types of situations..

Josh25 said:

Code aside, could i safely work with that until i can get a stove that has a O.A.K. adapter(or whatever it is called)?

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Can't/won't help you. Assisted suicide is illegal in my state.

Great responses all!

That's why hearth.com rocks!

Shari

Code be damned . . . things are a little slow right now at the firehouse.

Yeah . . . just kidding . . . seriously . . . do it right, do it safe . . . or don't do it at all.

C'mon FFJake, you know how much fun it is to roll up on a 60' alum. Heat-n-Melt thing! Hey, I lived in one for 5 years, and fire-proofed the heck out of it.(I rent it out now)- My Pellet stove venting would shame most people- talk about overkill, that vent for the Quad Castille was encapsulated with angle steel and fire-proof insulation, much less the in/out Pipe. Oh yeah, hearth and backing could withstand a NC-30 at full bore, much less a pellet stove.- Enough of that, - FOR Josh25, dude,... I mean it, ...it doesn't matter what they got away with before you moved in, they probably got lucky. I am intimate with how those things are built and I'm warning you in advance- be careful. Don't install that heater until you know exactly what it's going to require to run it. If you can't meet the criteria, don't force it. It can end up bad. (I pried two sets of bones out of melted aluminum back in the day. MH fire, done before we reached the scene. I can still smell it- don't be that guy.) Be safe.

I don't really understand what the mobile home rating is all about. I know that the mobile home stoves all have the outside air kit, this is where the differences that I know of end. If someone could fill me in on the differences I would really like to know. Now if the only difference is the outside air kit I really don't understand it because any mobile home that I've ever been in is about 4000 times more drafty than any old house I've ever been in.

Probably not a good Idea to use the stove in your application, but if it mean the difference between your family freezing or not, I would make sure all your clearances are met. Maybe come up with some sort of ducting from your hole in the floor to the air intake of the stove. I would say do what you have to do to make sure your family don't freeze, but be very careful so you don't burn down your house. Now I'll probably get blasted for making this post.

Well, I don't know the exact answer either but will toss out a few thoughts until someone more knowledgeable jumps in here:

1. Height clearance - do mobile homes have the typical stick built house interior height of 8'? Dunno.

2. When we installed our Oslo, our code enforcement department wanted to make sure the 'room' our stove went in had "x" amount of cubic sq. ft. with no interior doors which could close off the room. They didn't care if we installed an oak either for this cubic 'room' sq. ft. requirement - the cubic sq. ft. was the determining factor.

Shari

While the OAK is a specific requirement for mobile homes, an OAK in and of itself does not imply mobile home approved. There are lots of stoves with OAK that are not mobile home approved. Lots of people will question why a moble home installation is so different from a conventional home and try to use it to justify in their own mind, putting code aside. Code however, is black and white and cannot be put aside.

Mobile home setups have to have the OAK. The reason is that it is a small space and they don't want more inside air robbed from the occupants. Most MH also have clothes driers and exhaust fans too so that would not be welcome to the stove which needs lots of air. btw, the furnace in a MH also has to draw outside air as does any gas water heater. Code also specifies a heater stove must be bolted to the floor but to me that is a bit ridiculous unless you plan on moving it down the road.

Another problem with MH installations is the chimney height. If it goes straight up through the roof and stops 3-4 feet above roof line, that is still a very short chimney.

OK the concept of MH approval makes sense (well, I posit that it made sense in 197x...). However, before worrying about mobile-home vs non-mobile home, look at the application. Is this a 800 sq ft singlewide? Or a 2011 1800 sq ft triplewide modular built ot IRC (then, the MH issue is moot, but you might have to argue that). There are folks in 600-sq-ft stick-built homes that probably need an OAK more than a large, well-built mobile home. What is your mobile home? What is the construction, ceiling height, how well insulated and sealed? As mentioned, many here will not advise going contrary to code - though that presupposes there IS a code that applies in your case. Typically, code involves the NFPA, municipal or county code, NEC (electrical), and whatever your insurance company requires. Not all areas are subject to all types of "code", there are still, for better or worse, areas where the stupid may still legally flourish in blissful ignorance.

As with any other question on the forum, the more info the better - post some more info on your home, year, size, floor plan, etc. No one is likely to advocate installing a non-MH approved stove if you have a mobile home, but I would first establish what the factors are that make it a "mobile home" and see if they apply. Is it standard construction on a full basement, or a tin can on wheels? I agree, you would best be served by installing a MH-approved stove with an OAK. But you know best your situation, and I would hope folks here will be more helpful than "just don't do it!". Sometimes ya gots limited options, so need to do what you can for your family like aaronl said. Just be safe and continue to ask for advice. I'm sorry you will probably get some here that refuse to help, which is unfortunate - not all have the luxury of affording a new stove, or a new home. But if you can swing it, a little Englander or something would be pretty reasonable, and there's a tax credit til the end of the year, and you would have a stove that can be installed to comply with whatever code you need.

I had an Englander in a 12x50 singlewide for a while, which was MH approved and I simply cut a hole in the floor under the hearth, added a hose, caulked it and it was an OAK. The install, chimney, clearances, insulation value of the hearth, etc. are (IMO) much more serious considerations than whether your home has 2x3 studs on 24" centers or 2x4 studs at 16 " (old HUD standards vs modern home construction).

A little reading material.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/1985-09-01/Woodstoves-and-Mobile-Home-Safety.aspx

Good decision! What stove did you get?