Shielding Explained

One of the most crucial things to consider when choosing where to install your wood stove is how close it will be to combustible surfaces and whether or not shielding will be necessary.

To put it simply, having the stove or flue pipe too close to anything combustible is extremely dangerous.

 

Here are the clearances to combustibles that were determined through our own in-house testing done according to marine standards:

 

Stove:

Back: 20"

Sides: 20"

Front: 30"

Top: 30"

Bottom: 20"

 

Pipes:

Flue pipe: 9"

Insulated pipe: 1"

 

In other words, these are the minimum distances from combustible surfaces that must be kept (the back of the stove must be at least 20" away, the flue pipe must be at least 9" away, and so on).

 

However, all of these clearances can be reduced to 3" if you use adequate shielding.

(Except for the insulated pipe)

 

We carry wall mounts that shield the back and bottom of the stoves. They shield the pipes as well, but you may need to add more length with the use of flue shield extensions. The number of sections needed depends on how much pipe you have. Our floor mounts can also be equipped with a rear heat shield and will keep the stove high enough so that the floor is protected.

 

We also provide side shields for the sides of the stove and flue shields for the pipes.
These get mounted directly to the surfaces that you want to protect.

 

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We do not carry any shielding for the ceiling. If the top of your stove is less than 30" away from the ceiling, we always recommend lowering the stove instead of shielding the ceiling to reduce the clearance.
There are two reasons for this:

 

1) You should have as little pipe on the outside as possible in order to avoid excessive creosote buildup. Keep in mind that you need to surpass your roof by at least 12" and have at least 40" of total pipe length at the same time.
 
2) The lower you install your stove, the more efficient it will be (since heat rises).

 

You can always use your own shielding, but we have only ever tested our own, so it's tricky for us to give advice on other materials.

 

The general principle that we follow comprises the following setup:

 

stove > shield > buffer > combustible surface

 

The buffer is necessary so that heat does not transfer directly from the shield to the surface it's protecting. Our shields have a 1" air gap built into them, which acts as a heat buffer between the shield and the wall.

 

In general, you should always make sure that you are respecting the clearances to combustibles and that you are using proper shielding where required. If you have any questions that we can help you with, feel free to contact us.