Trying to decide on a different wood stove for our yurt

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roryamber

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Aug 23, 2010
24
Sierra Foothills, California
Hi, I have read up on some other of the other yurt owners problems/solutions. I would like to present my situation and get some input/advice for my specifics. We have a 30' yurt that is around 700 sq ft and has a center height of approx 20'. This is a tall yurt, so a lot of heat goes to the ceiling! We do have some NASA-type insulation, however this is not one of the nicer Pacific brand-type yurts, so it's pretty drafty. Last year we received and installed a free wood stove that would probably be considered a smoke dragon. It's an old cast iron with double front doors that do not seal properly due to being slightly off-kilter/possibly warped and a side loading door as well. This is a very narrow stove, only 12" deep, so it's hard to stack the wood in it. The ashes would build up quickly blocking the air inlets, so we'd often end up cracking the front doors to get a good burn and get heat in the house rather than up the pipe, but it felt really dangerous...and it was! On windy days it would back-smoke so bad we'd have to leave the house because even if we closed the stove doors, they weren't airtight, so the smoke would still pour in. I'm pretty sure that a big part of the problem was too short of a chimney, though most of the time we seemed to have a decent draft. We have 8" Dura-Vent DVL double wall pipe running straight out of the top of the stove collar for 2' to a 90 degree double wall elbow that transitions into a 3' Duravent Class A chimney pipe which passes through the yurt wall (it does have a slight upward angle) into a Class A chimney T up an 8' Class A chimney stack and ending in a chimney cap with spark arrestor. From what I've read it sounds like I need a taller chimney. Additionally, we were burning cedar, madrone, oak, and cottonwood. All well-seasoned.

Problems we are looking to overcome:
1. Back-smoking on windy days
2. Burning through wood so quickly

Things we'd like our new stove to do:
1. More consistent temperatures (the old wood stove was okay when we got it blazing but the rest of the time was meager despite all the wood we shoved in)
2. Easier starts without having to keep the doors open for long periods of time
3. Overnight burns, coals in the morning
4. A relatively clean burn
5. More radiant heat, so we don't all have to crowd around the front of the stove

I have been searching Craigslist for a used wood stove, but I'm kind of leery since it's hard to know how it will perform without firing it up. I've started to think that maybe it'd be smarter just to invest in a new one. The used ones are usually $200-600 whereas the new ones are $700-$1000.

As far as buying a new stove goes, we have an Ace Hardware which offers free shipping to store. The stoves I was considering through them are the Century Model CB0004, England's NC-13, or the NC-30.
Another local hardware store stocks, or can order, the Vogelzang Durango (I'm not sure if the shape will work well for my hearth), Vogelzang Vg-650ELG, and the SBI-Drolet DB02800.

Any opinions, advice, experience is welcome! Thanks!
 
roryamber said:
Hi, I have read up on some other of the other yurt owners problems/solutions. I would like to present my situation and get some input/advice for my specifics. We have a 30' yurt that is around 700 sq ft and has a center height of approx 20'. This is a tall yurt, so a lot of heat goes to the ceiling! We do have some NASA-type insulation, however this is not one of the nicer Pacific brand-type yurts, so it's pretty drafty. Last year we received and installed a free wood stove that would probably be considered a smoke dragon. It's an old cast iron with double front doors that do not seal properly due to being slightly off-kilter/possibly warped and a side loading door as well. This is a very narrow stove, only 12" deep, so it's hard to stack the wood in it. The ashes would build up quickly blocking the air inlets, so we'd often end up cracking the front doors to get a good burn and get heat in the house rather than up the pipe, but it felt really dangerous...and it was! On windy days it would back-smoke so bad we'd have to leave the house because even if we closed the stove doors, they weren't airtight, so the smoke would still pour in. I'm pretty sure that a big part of the problem was too short of a chimney, though most of the time we seemed to have a decent draft. We have 8" Dura-Vent DVL double wall pipe running straight out of the top of the stove collar for 2' to a 90 degree double wall elbow that transitions into a 3' Duravent Class A chimney pipe which passes through the yurt wall (it does have a slight upward angle) into a Class A chimney T up an 8' Class A chimney stack and ending in a chimney cap with spark arrestor. From what I've read it sounds like I need a taller chimney. Additionally, we were burning cedar, madrone, oak, and cottonwood. All well-seasoned.

Problems we are looking to overcome:
1. Back-smoking on windy days
2. Burning through wood so quickly

Things we'd like our new stove to do:
1. More consistent temperatures (the old wood stove was okay when we got it blazing but the rest of the time was meager despite all the wood we shoved in)
2. Easier starts without having to keep the doors open for long periods of time
3. Overnight burns, coals in the morning
4. A relatively clean burn
5. More radiant heat, so we don't all have to crowd around the front of the stove

I have been searching Craigslist for a used wood stove, but I'm kind of leery since it's hard to know how it will perform without firing it up. I've started to think that maybe it'd be smarter just to invest in a new one. The used ones are usually $200-600 whereas the new ones are $700-$1000.

As far as buying a new stove goes, we have an Ace Hardware which offers free shipping to store. The stoves I was considering through them are the Century Model CB0004, England's NC-13, or the NC-30.
Another local hardware store stocks, or can order, the Vogelzang Durango (I'm not sure if the shape will work well for my hearth), Vogelzang Vg-650ELG, and the SBI-Drolet DB02800.

Any opinions, advice, experience is welcome! Thanks!
Click to expand...


Of the choices you listed, I would go with the England's NC-13. The NC-30 would probably kick your ass as you are only at 700 sqft. I don't know about the others on here, but I still don't trust Vogelzang to the point that I would purchase one.
 
Greetings. I can help with one decision. For sure you don't want a 30NC. It is much too big a stove for a yurt unless you want a sauna. The ideal stove should be small enough not to overwhelm the place, but big enough to heat it when the weather gets very cold. The ideal stove, cost left out for the moment, would have good mass to retain overnight heat. A small soapstone catalytic stove would be an example. It has good thermal mass and the cat allows it to burn steadily at a low rate if that is desired. The Pacific Energy Alderlea T4 would be another. This is a non-cat, but with a cast iron jacket. The stove will light off easily with a couple splits, yet will hold the heat for hours. FWIW, I put in a Morso 2110 in a Pacific Yurt a couple years ago. It is working out pretty well for them. The key to avoiding smoking when loading the stove is to have an adequate drafting flue. The design of the Pacific yurt meant a side exit flue, so this was a bit of a challenge. But by using double-wall connector pipe with 45 deg. elbows instead of a 90, coming off the stove, then into a 12' class A pipe outside, it drafts pretty well for them. Here a link to their yurt installation:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/27154/

From the stove choices mentioned, I think the Century CB00004 might be too large also. The CB0001 would be a better size to consider. It is not fancy, but should do the job and it has an easy hearth requirement. The Englander 13NC could work too. It's a bit larger than the CB0001 and folks here have good words to say about it. Pay attention to its clearance and hearth requirements. It needs good protection. The Drolet 02800 might work. It's on the cusp of being too big, but maybe. The Vogelzang 650ELG is not an EPA stove and it is also too big. Another stove to consider would be the Napoleon 1400.

In used stoves I would stick with trying to get something with a lot of mass and about a 1.5 cu ft firebox. A Jotul model 8 would be an example or a first generation Vermont Castings Resolute I that is in very good working order. A Jotul F118 might also be a decent heater for you.
 
Wood Heat Stoves said:
we install quite a few yurt stoves..
i recomend a rear vent stove to reduce horizontal run.
Click to expand...

Horizontal run?
 
BrowningBAR said:
Wood Heat Stoves said:
we install quite a few yurt stoves..
i recomend a rear vent stove to reduce horizontal run.
Click to expand...

Horizontal run?
Click to expand...

yep, he has a top vent unit, goes up 24" the 90* into a 36" horizontal section of duravent.
that means 2 90* bends and a 36+" horizontal run. which is a nice formula for a smokey stove in high wind, etc.

venting a yurt stove vertically isn't the way to go....
 
Hi Dave, Just FYI I'm a "she". The problem with changing to a rear vent is having to put another hole in the yurt wall. Not my 1st choice, since patching the first hole in the canvas wall might be hard, but I will ponder it. How could I use the pipe I've already got? I think I need Class A to pass through the wall and how would that connect directly to the stove? An adapter?

Thanks BG- I did see that thread before and I really liked the 45 solution. I wish I'd thought of that in the first place. One problem with that it I'm trying not to have my stove very far out into the room. It seems the angle determines the distance between the wall and stove. Is that true? We built a hearth "wall" behind the stove to reduce clearance.

I'd rather not have to change the setup at all and instead use the money to buy a different stove, firewood, and extending the chimney. But I also don't want a bunch of smoke running us out of the house. I'm trying to figure a list of priorities. I do have limited funds.
 
The Jotul 8 is almost identical in size, shape and style to the stove we have now, but ours has a side loading door. I feel that it's not big enough to heat our place unless it's on the verge of over-firing. Maybe that's because ours a less efficient stove, however it is cast iron, so it does have considerable mass.

When buying another stove I would like to err on the large side. Having a 20' high ceiling, it's basically open 2 stories in the middle. We don't really feel the warmth down on the floor until all that air space is heated. Really we've got a lot more than 700 sq ft to heat (I figure the stove specs count on 8 ft high ceilings). We are definitely going to install a ceiling fan as well.

I read another thread on here by some folks in Idaho with a 600 sq ft yurt and they had a NC-30 and were pleased with it. I didn't find that totally unreasonable. We don't get as cold of weather down here but 20 degree nights are not uncommon. I think a bigger than usual stove is probably needed in a yurt.
 
The yurt owner that I installed for also did not want to rear vent his Morso because of poor alignment with the yurt lattice, so we put it higher. That also has the advantage of allowing them to put in a different stove if the later choose to do so. By using 45 elbows and 12' of class A pipe their draft is pretty good. If you take a look at the installation you will see that we used Simpson's normal wall thimble kit for the installation. I think there was a 18" horiz. piece of class A coming off the tee and into the yurt. There is a DVL adapter made by Simpson to transition from the class A to the DVL pipe.
 
BeGreen said:
The yurt owner that I installed for also did not want to rear vent his Morso because of poor alignment with the yurt lattice, so we put it higher. That also has the advantage of allowing them to put in a different stove if the later choose to do so. By using 45 elbows and 12' of class A pipe their draft is pretty good. If you take a look at the installation you will see that we used Simpson's normal wall thimble kit for the installation. I think there was a 18" horiz. piece of class A coming off the tee and into the yurt. There is a DVL adapter made by Simpson to transition from the class A to the DVL pipe.
Click to expand...

I do have that DVL adapter between my 90 degree elbow and the 3' piece of class A pipe passing through the wall. I was wondering if that would work directly from the stove itself if it vented from the rear.

I didn't use a thimble, instead it's a cone-shaped flashing framed with wood, pushed through the wall from the inside. We cut through part of our lattice and attached the wood frame of the flashing to the lattice. I would really like to avoid butchering my yurt wall and lattice any further. And it seems that using 45 degree angle could achieve that, however...
there are 4 of us living in this yurt (2 adults/2 children) and we need all the space we can get, so again, I need the stove as close to the wall as possible and looking at your photos, it seems that using the 45 degree angle sets the stove pretty far into the room. Is that true?
 
BeGreen said:
No on the earthstove,
Click to expand...
i agree, that model is meant to have class a connector pipe as well, btw!!!!! and 1" black iron pipe installed from the flue connector 6' up the pipe, really lame design

early moble home approved model
 
roryamber said:
BLIMP said:
roryamber said:
Or there are these two

A Vermont Castings Intrepid II $250
http://goldcountry.craigslist.org/hsh/1879578185.html

Or a Federal Airtight $225
http://goldcountry.craigslist.org/for/1878624094.html
Click to expand...
Federal looks interesting. u do have electricity?
Click to expand...

Yes, we do.
Click to expand...
cant beat a cat stove properly burned & that paintjob looks like haggletown. hope u can do a good inspection of it & someone else comments on the Federal
 
Also Blimp, it's pretty easy to clean the outside chimney. The T has a cap on the bottom that comes off.

Sorry all for the many posts, I keep seeing things I am compelled to respond to. I really want to get this problem solved in the next month so I can feel prepared for the cold.
 
Just an idea here, but if you want to get a rear-vent stove and NOT cut a new hole in the wall, could you just put the new rear-vent stove up on some kind of VERY stable platform and align it with the old hole? So, the whole setup might be waist-high and look funny. But it might make loading pretty convenient actually, with wood storage underneath.
 
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