Small defender stove (designed to heat 1000sq foot), 6" black pipe to esbestos double wall where it goes through roof, metal cap for refrence:
We starting off having the wood stove against the south wall next to door b/c I figured it would be nice to not have to haul wood and make a mess everywhere.
Downsides became very evident. The draft sucked! The total height of the pipe could only be around 11' . The roof was 8' high plus 3' or 4' above it. Getting to clean it was a pain and limited how high I could make the total. These were the reasons why we moved it mainly...now I have a nice hole in the wood where I can see the typar lol. I got to make something cool to cover it.
I moved it to the middle of the home. I found this to be SO SO MUCH better
Because the center of the house has 14' ceilings (approx.) plus another 3 or 4 above the roof pitch. So 18 foot total! Straight up no elbow! This stove drafts insanely well now. Like we can run with no door when starting fire with no-ish (maybe a small wisp occaisinally sneaking out while starting) smoke. I think that has something not just to do with the pipe length but the relationship (higher) then the peak. Where it was located originally it couldn't be higher b/c I needed to clean it.
Cleaning also is a lot easier. In the old setup I'd use a ladder off the front of the house. I would climb up on the roof and try to go about 6' up before I could get behind the chimney so I wouldn't slip off. Then juggle everything and clean. With chimney exiting at roof peak in the middle of house, I can straddle the roof peak and the pipe is right next the peak ..so even when its not so nice out (sleaty, icey)...this lowers the risk of issues.
The metal roof creates its own issues. When the spring comes and we got a lot of hard pack snow comes off hard!! Another reason for earthen roof in future. I bet there would be a chance it would be ripped right off..( or at least would stress it )
Up higher on the roof there is only a foot above the pipe to the peak so much less chance of problems and potential for leaks...like its "watershed" above is magnitudes (in my case approx. 20x) less water to potentially leak. Which is good b/c I have a small leak( occasionally if conditions are right) I need to still figure out. I think the uV degraded the factory seal..so need to re apply silicon.
To testify to how effective it is ..we cleaned it this year after a whole year of use (In last years winter). There was approx. like a cup-ish of soot. I've had other stove setups as a kid in our home, with a L pipe out the back of the stove that we had to clean it 4 times a year and it was most likely a firehazrd most the time if we slacked ( actually we had chimney fires now that I remember).
Looking forward to others experience / thoughts.
We have ours against an outside wall right in the middle of the house two feet from our front door, thought being better radiation and thermal charging the cement wall.
We like the placement, easier for bringing in wood and cleaning out the ashes.
One thing we overlooked and would change is door layouts to the bedrooms. Here is a pic from our bedroom, our daughters bedroom door is along the back wall. Our room get's very warm and maintains throughout the night, while our daughter always complained that her room was cold.
It kind of makes sense, so for better flow of heat to both bedrooms, I would move the door up near the front of the house.
6 Oct ’15
Always had a wood stove in all my homes. Some things I have found to be true.
Keep the chimney on the inside of the building envelope, keeps the flu warmer and helps with initial draft.
Penetrating the roof at the ridge line generally means a better draft.
Ceiling fans move air very well around the house.
For us, we locate the unit in the main living area, bedrooms are cooler, but that is what we prefer.
K made a good point about door location and heat flow.
For new place we are putting the stove on the wall that is shared with the garage...it will be in the kitchen/dining/living room (28*30ish) the one bed room on the floor will be cooler I suspect, will have to see how the ceiling fans move the air around and we could always put in a window on the one wall between the bedroom and living room to help with air flow.
The following users say thank you to Gravel Road for this useful post:
SpeedfunkMy brother is renting my old house, when we put in the woodstove when we lived there we put it in the living room, I wish I had put it in the kitchen which is more central, it's a 30x50 ranch and with the layout it has the living room becomes unbearable, but I also prefer a cooler room.
It's nice looking at a fire but I vote for being a comfortable location versus aesthetics.
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