Hi Cody talking about woodstoving is like talking about Politics, sex, or chainsaw oils.
Bound to get the cat-fight fur flying.
Broadly there are three ways to woodstove for heat.
One way is the older traditional loose-slack control at the fire box and then adding heat extractors on the flue piping.
The other super-modern way is the Rocket stoves, claiming heritage to Russian/old European and other horizontal bed long path heaters. They want to extract ALL heat from the combustion and flue gases.
I can only claim expert at the third way. Using a true airtight large capacity fire box. Your primary control for heating is the amount and condition of the fuel wood batch loaded. And then secondary controlling with the air allowed. It’s really only an airtight if you can air shut off dampen down to heat bleeding off the in-stove combustion mass. Killing all new combustion.
Controlling at the beginning you never, ever restrict the flue flow up and out.
Burning as a smoke-free fulling converting combustion then you must burn HOT, HOT with deep made char beds, with WK-like slow flows.
So nope do not get the cast iron mini. Get a larger fire box welded plate metal stove with drop in fire brick floor and lower walls. Like WK once you are getting the HOT, HOT conversion efficiency the trial then is making the metals survive the heat abuse. Let the relatively cheap drop in fire brick take the heats abuse and flow wearing.
Direct to cast iron char glowing damages:
Out here West Coast modern stove piping is beam-welded double walled SS with layered kawood in between. It must pass one, and two hours forced 2100F fires without failing testing.
The space interior piping is also double walled. Inner beam-welded SS. An air gapped outer pipe of carbon steel.
And only one, two spaced out 45 degree kicks from vertical are allowed. No 90 degrees allowed. No interior horizontal runs allowed. Restricts the keep safe always up and out flows. Makes for soot’s build up pockets.
Had to do an out from the corner kick out for minimum spacing for this “Mama Bear” stove versus the original small Jotel “Baby Bear” stove originally installed. The in between tried larger Jotel Firelight “Papa Bear” stove was too damn heating big for our 1300 square foot house.
My way I’ve learned I can too use winter fresh cut 40% wet wood too. Loss of efficiency alright heating to vapor all of the excessive pounds of wood moisture to be sweep up and away out of the flue chimney. Needs-Must when you are out of pre-seasoned dry.
Anyhow I am much against farming for heat out of the chimney system for your father’s camper.
Think instead of stove fire-boxed oversizing to give the internal space to put in some black gas pipe hot water loops and pump over to him heat that way.
I just hit usage this season as using up one full cord of wood so far. 128 cubic feet. Mostly cottonwood and some English walnut with some really, heavy dense long needles pine in-yard tree and Douglas Fir. The walnut is sure different for me. Coals the best. But have to fine re-split down to get the actual active fire heat we are needing now at nights 20-22F.
Regards
Steve Unruh
