Wood stove in 2 person sauna

[Charlied]

Thinking about putting a small wood stove in a 2 person barrel sauna. Planning to do outside load and chimney so not to overheat. Read somewhere on here that 1/4” + steel is better than cast iron for water. Is that true? If I build a cage on the outside of the stove for the stones, does this reduce clearance to combustibles?

 

[begreen]

That's a no-go from the start. Passing a stove through a combustible wall is a bad idea.

 

[Charlied]

Seems like standard practice

 

[Charlied]

It’s not going through a combustible wall. Question is- 1/4” steel better than cast iron? Can rocks reduce distance to combustibles?

 

[begreen]

No, they do not reduce clearances. Can you show a picture of this standard practice setup? Maybe I am missing something.

 

[Charlied]

Thanks for the info. It seems like pretty much all the Harvia wood fired heater’s allow you to feed from another room. Here’s a photo of a diy that I’m thinking of...

 

[begreen]

Do you have a Harvia stove? I guess if you have one of their stoves and follow their direction you can Harvia at it. One would assume they have tested with this application. But not with an ordinary woodstove or opening.

 

[MongoMongoson]

I saw a setup like this at da ski jumps in 2019. They had one set up and running, and it made me want to build one too. There are companies that sell these things, and the purpose for the through-wall stove is so you don't have to drag messy wood into your nice clean sauna. You run it from the outside until it's good and hot then you get inside and enjoy the clean hot steam.

Oh man, that's funny. I was just going to include some pictures but I see the OP got the picture from the same place. "The Sauna Guys" in the UP.

If you want to get a better look at what Charlied is thinking of building, you can check this link with more pictures.

Gallery - The Sauna Guys

Photo Gallery View OurBrochure

thesaunaguys.com

I think The Sauna Guys get away with it because it isn't attached to a home, it isn't insured, and the stove is built into the wall on the opposite side of the sauna from the exit door... But it doesn't look like it follows any kind of acceptable clearances. Is it safe? Probably as safe as a lot of people's sugar shacks.

Charlied, one thing about hearth.com is that it will be hard to find someone who will say "that doesn't follow NFPA 211 but you are probably OK in this instance". It is fire, and it is dangerous, and everyone here wants to give the best, safest advice. Nobody wants you to pass out in our sauna from a few too many beers and wake up to a blazing fire or not wake up all. begreen gave you the best advice. Buy the stove and follow the manufacturer's recommendations for install.

 

[bholler]

Thanks for the info. It seems like pretty much all the Harvia wood fired heater’s allow you to feed from another room. Here’s a photo of a diy that I’m thinking of...
View attachment 277620

That is passing through a combustible wall.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Nippa makes a sauna stove designed to pass through a wall, but they also give clearances and show it passing through a masonry wall, not a wood wall with a little piece of cement board.

But, this one wouldn't go in a house. I don't see anything about UL or EPA ratings on their sauna heaters, or their room heaters.
I'm not sure how they can sell their room heaters.

Royale Manufacturing out of Calumet, MI also sells through-wall kits for their sauna heaters. It is a pretty common practice to pass them through the wall, but again in every picture they show it is going through a non-combustible wall and I know that just because it's common, that doesn't necessarily make it OK.

So how far would the wood need to be away from the pass through to have it be considered a non-combustible wall? There probably isn't a guideline for that. The guideline is probably "don't put your wood stove halfway through a wall". But if combustibles were 36" away?