All time worst installation The pictures tell the story UNBELIVEABLE

[elkimmeg]

These pictires were taken from an Ebay auction a couple of years ago. The lister was bragging how easy and inexpensive
his stove setup heated this home. He claimed anybody could install it and was offering to include his vent piping as well.
thats right he vented using alumium Dryer vent pipe but the next picture is just as bizzare

 

[elkimmeg]

You are looking at his modified Volzang box stove. He had trouble drafting the stove but figured out a method to overcome his draft woes. By using a blower he connected the plastic tubes( seen running on the floor under the stove) into the fire box creating a blast furnace. He claimed that once it got cherry red it would heat his entire home and that he was able to turn off the blowers and it would remain red for quite some time. He also claimed that once he got it going the blowers helped distrobute the heat. On warmer nights he was able to re-load the stove and not need the blowers if he was able to load before it turned from the redish color. I emailed him and told him that was the most dangereous setup I ever saw, and the other safety hazzards. He pulled the auction. I saved the pictures so that all can enjoy and get a chuckle out ot it
MSG more pictures to post in your shop. Do you think he got a permit or an inspection? Does anyone see floor protection? Clearance to combustiables?

 

[webbie]

These pictires were taken from an Ebay auction a couple of years ago. The lister was bragging how easy and inexpensive
his stove setup heated this home. He claimed anybody could install it and was offering to include his vent piping as well.
thats right he vented using alumium Dryer vent pipe but the next picture is just as bizzare

The scary things is that there are probably a lot of similar installations out in the sticks. Leave people to their own devices and they come up with all sorts of amazing "improvements". After all, this is flex pipe!

Aluminum? Well, it's metal, isn't it?

It is amazing that the flex did not melt - that stuff should be bye-bye at 1100 degrees, a temp surely reached if the stove was glowing red.

I must admit, I've only heard of one worse installation. This lady did not even have a chimney! She installed the stove and just fired it up in the living room! Luckily, she called a chimney sweep inquiring about how badly the house was getting smoked up.

 

[webbie]

Hey Elk,

Isn't that why double hung windows let the top pull down - so you can stick a stove pipe through the window?

 

[elkimmeg]

I wonder what the clearance to combustiables for single wall dryer vent is? You think clearence might be a tag bit too close



BTW Craig, I went back and edited some post where emotions got in my way of posting and to edited out things that did not add to the discussions at hand. As requested I changed the liner insulation topic and post.

To Roo I can take it and give but lets not get too carried away or all will end up in ashes LOL the Mack Dumptruck was a Joke.
I deleted that one. I do own that Mack dumptruck

 

[jabush]

I'm amazed that thing didn't start a fire on the carpet the first time he lit it. Hopefully he got more than one email saying "WTF are you doing?"

 

[Todd]

What is that under the stove he's using for a hearth? Looks combustible. Can't believe those plastic tubes didn't melt. He's damn lucky he's alive!

 

[begreen]

Wow, a home-built forge - in the house. Stove appears to be sitting on a couple sheet of durock or wonderboard. What that is sitting on is... carpet!??

I also like the deluxe exterior light fixture hanging off the gutter and what's with the 2" vent stack on the roof? Something tells me this house/homeowner is a time-bomb counting down for a darwin award..

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Elk that is almost funny, what a silly person. Some time ago in hearth and home magazine, there was a clean air article about Washington state, (I think feb 2005) that showed some realy half a** installations, one a single wall pipe was directly out a window with no rise, the photo shows the pipe smoking so they were indeed using it. The other photo is a install where the pipe is out the wall, and strapped to the eve of the roof, and yes, it was single wall too! I wish i had a scanner, i would like to post these photos that i have hanging in the showroom. These will add to the collection. Thanks elk.

 

[BrotherBart]

A Darwin Award submission from 1999. Apparantly not a winner since they survived.

"A married couple wanted to keep their home fires burning, and decided to install a wood stove in their Granite Falls home. They figured it didn't take a rocket scientist to install this basic bit of heating hardware, so instead of hiring a professional, they brought the stove home and installed it themselves.

They even remembered to cut a hole through the ceiling for the chimney vent. Unfortunately they neglected to extend the chimney through the attic to the roof. Pleased with a job well done, they settled down to a cozy evening in front of the fire. The inevitable happened. The heat and sparks built up in the attic and set their home ablaze, providing an unexpected source of warmth from above.

Snohomish County firefighters extinguished the fire, and the couple returned to their home to console each other over their $8000 loss. But the fire was not quite out. Firefighters had failed to fully extinguish the fire, which started up again the next morning, burning the house to the ground. The husband and wife survived."

 

[Corie]

Un-friggin-be-lieve-able.

 

[elkimmeg]

Unfortunately a true story that happened in my town

It was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring.
Cold Christmas eve the husband and wife just finished wrapping the presents and placed them in their bedroom Closet. They had that old 70’s Franklin Stove blazing as they retired for bed. An hour or so later they and their children and huddled in blankets out side as the fire dept extinguished the blaze.
It was reported to me, the wife smelled smoke and saw it coming from the closet. When the husband opened the closet door the rush of air fed the flame and it just about exploded. The wife grabbed some blankets and rousted the children as they all made it to the outside safely. Being Christmas eve the fire station is minimally staffed. By the time they arrived the fire was exiting the roof windows fully engulfed. 4 hours later and two additional calls for aid the fire was extinguished.

The day after Christmas I receive the call to do the findings cause inspection. I review the fire dept incident report and really I only going there to confirm the obvious.
The Franklin stove is not air tight almost every clearance to combustibles is in violation But the primary cause was the single wall pipe that went threw the rear wall into the closet the threw the ceiling and out the roof. The incident report states the paper wrapped presents appeared to ignite first.

I find out that this is the second fire dept visit to this home. The first one the clothes in that closet ignited. The fire dept was able to quickly extinguish that one and little damage was done. They had told the owners to get rid of the stove and venting.
But some people never learn. I was not involved in the first fire investigation. I never knew it occurred till I read this report. At the office I pull the file on that property guess what no permits. The stove is old enough; it could have been installed prior to requiring permits. This one fact, probably favored the homeowner, when collecting the insurance claim. They apparently never filed any claims for the first fire incident

 

[hearthtools]

We do a lot of stove removals now that when you sell your home you have to remove all NON 1990 EPA woodstoves before the sale.

Last week i removed an insert that had a old galvanized ash bucket with the bottom cut out of it used as a flue extention.
Just sitting on top of the old insert. No other pipe connected but I guess they thought it would help draft.

I have seen Black pipe through a ceiling that used a Plastic bucket as the pass through.

I dont alway have a camera with me when I see this kind of crap.

 

[Roospike]

I dont know what to say .............. or how to say it so maybe i shouldnt . Its just one of them times when someone does something STUPID and you are speackless and all you can do is give them a funny look and shake your head.

 

[Shane]

In a sense I feel bad for this guy. It's kind of like that fat kid who is broadcast all over the internet doing his best Jedi impression. Only this guy get's laughed at on a slightly smaller scale and at least there's not a picture of him sitting by his trusty death box smiling all smugly smelling that fart that was his last remaining shred of common sense.

 

[Shane]

That closet story reminds me of one that we encountered. We went to install an insert into a ZC fireplace, it was vented with Metalbestos and passed through the upstairs bedroom closet. It was not enclosed and the clothes actually contacted the chimney, no clearances where it passed through floor or ceiling or roof. We began cutting the proper clearances and framing it in etc. I pulled back the carpet to find a good chunk of floor that was black and charred. I went and got the home owner to further prove my point that they were lucky they hadn't burned down. She looked at me like yeah so what? She then went on to explain that at night time they would build a huge fire in the fireplace. Throughout the night the floor would start on fire (smoldering) and that since their bed was on the other side of the wall they could smell it and would wake up long enough to pour a glass of water over it and then go back to bed and since they were awake if needed they would re-stoke the fire. This was standard procedure!

 

[Roospike]

In a sense I feel bad for this guy. It's kind of like that fat kid who is broadcast all over the internet doing his best Jedi impression. Only this guy get's laughed at on a slightly smaller scale and at least there's not a picture of him sitting by his trusty death box smiling all smugly smelling that fart that was his last remaining shred of common sense.

Your killing me , your really killing me .................

 

[BrotherBart]

My first stove was back in the mid seventies. A Franklin. I had the house built without a fireplace because I wanted a wood stove instead. I had the stove and chimney professionally installed straight up through the roof by the shop where I bought the stove.

Before we moved I was up in the attic and went over to where the chimney came through the ceiling. The ceiling joists on both sides of the chimney were charred.

I have done my own installations every since then.

 

[Mo Heat]

... Throughout the night the floor would start on fire (smoldering) and that since their bed was on the other side of the wall they could smell it and would wake up long enough to pour a glass of water over it and then go back to bed and since they were awake if needed they would re-stoke the fire. This was standard procedure!

Good Lord! That is beyond my comprehension!

Reminds me of the feeling I got when a 12 year old kid on a firing range station next to mine started blasting away with everyone else still down-range replacing their paper targets (just a few feet from his). His dad was standing right next to him, commenting on his accuracy! One of the few times in my life I screamed bloody murder at someone with a gun in their hand. Hopefully I got them banned from shooting there, permanently.

 

[elkimmeg]

She then went on to explain that at night time they would build a huge fire in the fireplace. Throughout the night the floor would start on fire (smoldering) and that since their bed was on the other side of the wall they could smell it and would wake up long enough to pour a glass of water over it and then go back to bed and since they were awake if needed they would re-stoke the fire. This was standard procedure!

Too bizzare: maybe some sort of IQ test should be given to owners who install their own stoves.

 

[Shane]

Man I wish I had the camera today. Picture this if you will. Two masonry fireplaces both of them have a opening about 5.5' square. Dumping into the same 8x13 flue. The downstairs fireplace has one of those old radiant gas heaters installed. The ones with no safety shutoff valve, just turn it on and light with a match. Oh yeah it's hearth mounted but sometime in the 60's or 70's carpet was installed over the hearth. (I know it was the 60's or 70's because it's baby blue shag! Classic.) The downstairs fireplace was built with no damper or smokeshelf. The upstairs fireplace has a damper installed but no smokeshelf per say. They stopped with the flue tiles and knocked a 6"x8" hole in the flue to vent the upstairs fireplace. They then continued with 8x13 flue tiles to the roofline and stopped just made it double wall brick from there up. Man what a mess and this guy used to burn it. It's just so wrong from every aspect, even when you consider the house must have been built in the 20's.

 

[hearthtools]

Man I wish I had the camera today. Picture this if you will. Two masonry fireplaces both of them have a opening about 5.5' square. Dumping into the same 8x13 flue. The downstairs fireplace has one of those old radiant gas heaters installed. The ones with no safety shutoff valve, just turn it on and light with a match. Oh yeah it's hearth mounted but sometime in the 60's or 70's carpet was installed over the hearth. (I know it was the 60's or 70's because it's baby blue shag! Classic.) The downstairs fireplace was built with no damper or smokeshelf. The upstairs fireplace has a damper installed but no smokeshelf per say. They stopped with the flue tiles and knocked a 6"x8" hole in the flue to vent the upstairs fireplace. They then continued with 8x13 flue tiles to the roofline and stopped just made it double wall brick from there up. Man what a mess and this guy used to burn it. It's just so wrong from every aspect, even when you consider the house must have been built in the 20's.

I have seen that with people adding an Outdoor BBQ pit or fireplace.
All they did was to put more brick on the outside and putch a hole above the fireplace damper on the other side.

 

[babalu87]

Thats awesome, he must have cats in his geneaology......... he has 9 lives!

Looks like a military surplus blanket under the stove

 

[stuart]

that's the new age people are not that smart at times i had guy come to my shop and said there is a engine light on i said it is a pic of a oil can you are low on oil he said it has been on a few weeks only down 3 quarts i told him, and it is should of had a oil change awhile ago, i said lets do a oil change he is money smart BUT

 

[elkimmeg]

I know of a guy that had low oil light it eventually went out. When the engine siezed

I also know of a guy that got 50k miles between oil changes At 51k he had to buy another truck