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Old 08-14-2012, 07:50 PM   #1
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Sending a Stove Flue out the Window

I am in the process of converting a '91 Minibird for homesteading. We would like to direct the flue of our potbelly stove through a fire grade panel in an open window, rather than though the ceiling. We hope to elbow the flue out the window, then up. Does anyone who has tried this have any suggestions?

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Old 08-15-2012, 02:16 AM   #2
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Re: Sending a Stove Flue out the Window

Me hath seen several hippie busses with the flue out an existing window opening... and my neighbor across the road did that in his garage cause he burns his trash every day.

I have a wood stove, and 6 inch pipe, but cut holes through the roof and mounted flashing, cap and spark arrestor... it works great, but whilst burning papers at stove start up it kinda gets soot around the chimney on the roof...
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Old 08-15-2012, 02:16 AM   #3
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Re: Sending a Stove Flue out the Window

Me hath seen several hippie busses with the flue out an existing window opening... and my neighbor across the road did that in his garage cause he burns his trash every day.

I have a wood stove, and 6 inch pipe, but cut holes through the roof and mounted flashing, cap and spark arrestor... it works great, but whilst burning papers at stove start up it kinda gets soot around the chimney on the roof...
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Old 08-15-2012, 04:13 AM   #4
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Re: Sending a Stove Flue out the Window

Quote:
Originally Posted by Val&John
I am in the process of converting a '91 Minibird for homesteading. We would like to direct the flue of our potbelly stove through a fire grade panel in an open window, rather than though the ceiling. We hope to elbow the flue out the window, then up. Does anyone who has tried this have any suggestions?
I did that on my first bus. It worked fine. I did not even have double walled flue pipe. I did make a brick wall where the window was and ran the pipe through that. The bus, however, did not move. It was parked in a field.

It is more common to run the pipe through the ceiling and using insulated pipe.
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Old 08-15-2012, 07:02 AM   #5
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Re: Sending a Stove Flue out the Window

We do not plan to move the bus while living out of it, and so far have unintentionally embodied a method of least impact (we have re-converted it for several uses so far), so it seems like this method will work for us. We also plan to use a fire grade concrete board between the stove and any combustable surfaces, along with clearance.
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Old 08-19-2012, 01:10 PM   #6
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Re: Sending a Stove Flue out the Window

You could always make the part of the pipe that sticks outside the bus easily removable and make a cap for the lip that would remain after removal of the pipe, so if you did need to move the bus, it would not be such a hassle. I love the idea of having a woodstove in a bus, but I just don't have space for it in my bus, and too, I live in Central Texas so heating is not a high priority.
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Old 11-18-2012, 04:32 PM   #7
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Re: Sending a Stove Flue out the Window

In my experience there are a couple of disadvantages to this... the two 90 degree bends in the flue tend to reduce the velocity of the exhaust causing problems upon lighting. It's tougher to get the fire drawing air at first and more than once I've received a face full of smoke. The other disadvantage is the low temperature of the outside elbow and vertical section of the flue. Creosote tends to form in abundance if you use anything but the best firewood. I'm still using this type of setup in my shop, where some smoke back draft isn't a real problem and cleaning the flue can be achieved fairly safely by burning it out with a good chimney fire. Obviously this is less than ideal in the confines of a converted bus.

If you must use this type of flue routing here's a couple of ways you can save some trouble.... one, reduce the size of the pipe. This may seem counter intuitive but in my experience a 5" flue draws better than a 6" flue when using a small stove. In fact, even my large shop stove is reduced from 6 to 5 inches because it seems to keep the flue cleaner and burns a bit more efficiently. I've experimented with larger (8 inch) flues as well but found that there was no benefit. Another thing you can do is put a T with one hole capped instead of an elbow outboard. this gives you the option of cleaning out your outer flue simply by removing the cap and running a brush up from the bottom. (or tapping the outside of the flue to remove just the creosote scales) You will likely have to clean it out fairly often however as the T further reduces the velocity of the exhaust.
Best of luck staying safe and warm!
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