Gas bottle workshop stoves (ebay type) any good?

[charlieb]

As always, sorry if this's been done before.  I'm after a cheap and cheerful workshop stove to install as a christmas present for my mum in her studio (actually a garage with some insulation and white paint - a previous christmas present).  I'm not much bothered about efficiency - we have lots of wood, and she'll not be using it masses - more concerned about ease of use and decent/safe heat output. And cost.    I'll get it made properly, probably by this guy http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150686933415?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 who says he'll make one up for £70. Has anyone had any experience with these? Kettle space is a major plus.

Incidentally, would be burning grannylogs and offcuts, not sawdust. And flue would go straight up through a corrugate polycarb roof, only insulated around the flashing unless that turns out to cause big problems. 

[Heinz]

As always, sorry if this's been done before.  I'm after a cheap and cheerful workshop stove to install as a christmas present for my mum in her studio (actually a garage with some insulation and white paint - a previous christmas present).  I'm not much bothered about efficiency - we have lots of wood, and she'll not be using it masses - more concerned about ease of use and decent/safe heat output. And cost.    I'll get it made properly, probably by this guy http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150686933415?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 who says he'll make one up for £70. Has anyone had any experience with these? Kettle space is a major plus.

Incidentally, would be burning grannylogs and offcuts, not sawdust. And flue would go straight up through a corrugate polycarb roof, only insulated around the flashing unless that turns out to cause big problems. 

I've made more than a few woodstoves over the years, some quite similar to these, so I'd think these would work quite well. The common problem with home made gas bottle stoves it sealing the door and ash door/pan to slow the thing down. Loads of fast burn heat is easy, slow steady heat is more difficult. This design solves much of that by not having an ash pan door and having the fill door well above burning height. Emptying the ash with a tin can is do-able for a grubby workshop bloke, but older female? Depends on the kind of person she is. The ash in my house stove only needs scooped down to the correct level (just below air intake height) once a month or so, so probably not a problem with this stove. I'm not sure about the air valve, looks like threaded pipe with a cap on the end with holes drilled in the sides, unscrew cap to expose more holes. Suppose it would work, but difficult to stick a poker in to shoogle the logs down though. Gas bottles are hot zinc spayed before they are painted, looks like your man has just painted black over the orange and zinc. It's all going to burn off and you really don't want to inhale the zinc fumes, very unpleasant for a day or so afterwards  Need to get it mega hot outside for a while before repainting then relight to cure the new paint then install it.
Seventy quid is super cheap 

Heinz

[charlieb]

Thanks Heinz.  Yep, seventy quid seemed damn good to me.  I think I'll get one.   I'm also planning to get a welder and grinder at some point in the next year or so, and I think doing a copy (with improvements?) of this would be a nice place to start my learning curve. 

[MR GUS]

Hope folk won't take this the wrong way, & also as I do not know the ladies  health, & mobility, nouse et al, however i'd be somewhat concerned as to a gas bottle  burner for an older person on safety grounds..
ok so anyone can burn themselves on a WBS however we know that old folk are more susceptible in terms of "repair" of themselves & burns are notorious where older folk are concerned (at least in my limited life experience).

How about badgering your family (IF) that's doable to combine & get her a http://greymetal.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=149 "cube" small, proper, cheap(ish) lined, ashpan, dual air sliders...?

I know I get caught out several times a season & i'm wary as hell of my WBS  (long gauntlet worn in the main) ..not to mention the controlability of the burn.
Is there capacity to stack wood up for her in the workshop to use as needed etc?

I've so often vbought kit for my mother only to find it totally unused because of one thing or another, energy monitor , water limescale remover, ..dvd player, & things such as heaters not moved & used in a dangerous manner just because of the grey cells receding ..being polite about ma you understand, if ashe was my horse i'd have shot her! 

like I say i don't know your mum, just my own personal alarm bells rnging eg, hot coals, hot metal, basic awkwardness that comes with stooping for any length at age.

..however if you're popping in every day a different kettle of fish.
As is a good thermos full of pre-boiled water on the top of even a non hot plate burner.

Sorry to sound like an elfnsafety ninny, ..I must be losing my marbles.

* also concerned at the polycarb roof, however would love to be proven very wrong there too! 

[charlieb]

I appreciate the concern Mr Gus, but a) she's not actually very old - just turned 60 and full fit/cm (I sometimes wonder if I'm the youngest person on this forum at 30..?) and b) I'd be around a lot of the time to keep her right and stack wood, and we sell logs so no shortage of them (I have a huge pile of grannylogs that have been chucked aside).

Greymetal www doesn't seem to work here, but I'll try and have a look.  And I checked with various wwws and there doesn't seem to be a problem with flue through corrugated polycarb roofing: http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Roof-Flashings.html    Plan would be to have single skin flue up to the roof, then just a metre or so of twin-skinned as it goes through the roof.

[charlieb]

Right, I bit the bullet and bought the stove.  Picked it up from Andy the other day, who's a great guy, and it looks well made and like it'll do what it says on the tin.  Now I need some 5 inch cheap and cheerful stove pipe (this won't get used that often; no point in going ott on it).  Any ideas? - it all seems to be surprisingly expensive online.  And is there any reason not to bodge using some generic steel tube which I might find lie-ing around somewhere.

Ta

[Heinz]

Steel pipe is steel pipe, so whatever you can find is OK. My favourite freeby stove pipe is old cast iron sewer or gutter down pipe. Bit hard to find over 4inches these days, but an old building being demolished is a good place to look. Cast iron pipe is much better than steel due to not rusting at 300 miles an hour....

H

[charlieb]

Nice one, thanks Heinz.   Freecycle edinburgh seems to have come up with a 1.5m length, but if that fall's through I'll have an enjoyable couple of days trawling building sites/scrappies/junk yards - I need lots of stuff for flat and various other bodges anyway.

[charlieb]

One other question. Can you get flashings for going through a garage roof that will also insulate the roof (and, obviously, not melt themselves)?   I want to avoid having to use insulated stove pipe at all if I can help it, but that would mean a hot flue going through the roof. How do other workshop stoves out there deal with this? Thanks, as always
C

[County 4x4]

Have a try here mate:

http://www.workshopstoves.co.uk/flashings.asp

Cheers,

Andy

[charlieb]

Thought I'd do an update. The stove is now in my mum's studio and does a fantastic job heating the place - we get much more heat off it than I expected, and if it's burned reasonably hard it burns surprisingly clean too. Overall more than happy with the stove. Hopefully Mum will produce some masterpiece's in the suddenly comfortable environment. And I've cleared out a lot of old spruce/pine that was sitting useless in the garage.

In the end I found some old gas twinskin flue pipe at the scrappy, along with a flashing patch and a rain top.  I've taken out the inner skin, leaving 5.5 inches as I wanted.  (It may burn, but I have a spare identical length to replace it with as soon as I see signs).  This runs up 2m from the stove, then some flexi-pipe I got on freecycle goes through one pane of a high level window, sealed (sort of) with the bendy-metal flashing, and just curves back up to provide a nearly-vertical exit just above the ridgeline. Flue is held in place with bodge-brackets made of non-tensile fencing wire, and I genuinely don't think shop-bought brackets would have done any better. I don't think I'm going to bother putting the rain-cap on.   

Overall I'm very pleased with a stove that cost £65 (from an extremely nice man - I'd have been happy to pay more). and installation that cost £12.75 (tenner for 2x flue pipe and £2.75 for a tub of fire cement (not really necessary, but it makes mum feel better)).   If anyone's thinking of getting something like this then I'd definitely advise it. Ask me again after next winter which components have burned out, but for now it's doing a great job (if I can persuade Mum to light it in advance, etc). 

[Ivan]

Would be great to see a picture of the setup.

[charlieb]

A phone photo, so doesn't show much, but it does show Dad and dogs sitting toasty warm in front of it.  The door is high up, so it doesn't appear to make much difference if it's open or closed.             Out of picture above the pipe turns into flexible and just wiggles out the window. I've actually improved the fit of the flue at the base, and filled in with firecement, so it all looks neat and tidy now (although the white stove pipe has browned a bit towards the bottom).     You can see where the paint at the bottom half of the stove has burned off - I've had it going full whack and couldn't burn any more off; mum's decided she rather likes the technicolour non-black bit anyway.