Anyone here own a potbelly stove?

[theHandpuppet]

My father had one which kept his workshop toasty even in the dead of winter and used little wood.

Now that I have my own garage workshop (carpentry gene), I am thinking about installing a potbelly stove, too. I have the opportunity to get a good-sized Buckeye potbelly for fifty bucks. Now for the problem -- I'm wondering what kind of damage I'll have to do to install the vent pipe through a cinder block wall. I'd rather not do it myself, but am wondering how much it would cost to have someone more experienced with this kind of heat install it for me.

Location of the stove may prove to be a bit of a problem. Only one wall -- the cinder block wall -- is really available for this purpose (one wall is consumed by the double-wide garage door, one is an adjoining wall to my interconnected brick sheds and the third also serves as a wall to my wooden garden shed addition), and that one faces a very narrow passageway between my shop and the shed of my neighbor, which has corrugated tin siding. Would this be safe, heat-wise?

Or would it be possible to vent directly through the high ceiling of the garage/workshop? I have one of those old, indestructible tin roofs.

[NMDemDist2]

1. i've had lots of stoves in the day

i'd suggest the roof, but be sure you give it a large enough diameter flue

i'd call the local fireman and they'll be able to tell you more

[theHandpuppet]

2. Thanks for the suggestion!

It never occurred to me to call the fire dept for advice.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

3. depending on the state you live in,

the stove might be against code if it's older & doesn't meet DEQ standards. The fire department might tell you that you can't install it. I'm not saying that that is going to happen, just giving you a heads up to a possibility.

[dweller]

4. regardless of the wall or the roof

i think the code will state you have to have the top of the flue 'x' feet above the highest point of the roof within 4' ( i think)...

so you'll have to take it up fairly high if through the wall, so you could just go through the roof with the same footage of flue to attain the height requirement.

you need to check as suggested above with either fire/or building codes.

good luck.

btw, i have a caboose potbelly (a coal burner) in my shop. It's a smaller version of the big potbelly. I burn wood scraps...and failed projects.

dp

[Eloriel]

5. There's something magic about heat from a wood-burning stove

I never had one until we moved out here to the country 6 years ago now, and we had one installed in our house. Actually, it's a cookstove, old-fashioned kind (tho not old itself).

But the heat is just fabulous. Very warm -- toasty is a good word -- seems to envelope you, comfort and embrace you. It's really quite different from any other type of heat I've ever experienced. I love it and wish I could use it all the time.

BTW, I second suggestions about your local fire department and/or building codes AND/OR fireplace/wood stove installers.