Hah, I have a "blue car". Get quite enthusiastic over tent techy stuff though.
It is easier for me to order from Obelink as I am in France although with the weak pound it does make things from the UK seem more reasonable. I must get on with ordering actually in case there is a bit of a wait. Also I understand from their website ( I think!) that prices are going up at the end of April.
Lucky you on getting the stove, I can only get Mr S to agree to getting one next year and spreading the cost. I found a thread on another forum which looks at the possible stove options, here is the link in case it is of use to you.
Will let you know how I get on ordering the bell tent. Then we should start a thread about our first pitches/impressions.
Absolutely should have some news around May and I shall keep you posted, good luck to you and I shall look forward to hearing of your experiences - the thread will be great! (on UKCS, not the actual tent!!)
------------- 2011-
Dec/Jan -Cornwall nr Padstow (cottage)
Feb - our garden (tent)
March - Llangollen (cottage)
March -Town Farm, Bucks.
April - garden..again..need to get out more...
May - Acoustic Festival of Britain Uttoxeter
I have enjoyed reading this thread as I too have been wondering for a while about getting a stove. I have an ex army 5 man bell tent (well it's actually hexagonal...I think) and it has a stove pipe hole just above the side wall. I know nothing at all about stoves and so do not really know where to start! I now know (thanks to this thread) that I need a straight flue though.
I had also seen some of the American ones and they seem a good buy, but I find it all so confusing I give up, then look again...then give up! My main concern is safety as I have a very precious 7 year old and I think it is this that has stopped me from taking the plunge. Although my outer canvas appears to have a decent heat/fire proof fabric ring, the inner tent does not look quite as substantial and I would obviously want to be using the inner if it was cold enough to warrant the use of a stove. Do you use /buy something else to go around the pipe where it exits the tent?
Can any of you that have posted on this thread help allay my fears?!
splendid, this stove has a guard around the hot stove pipe where it exits the tent to stop it from burning the fabric. I imagine it is pretty effective at stopping the heat from the pipe scorching the tent as the tentipi's the stove is designed for doesn't have any kind of fire proofing around where the pipe exits the tent. here is another stove that uses what they call a 'steel insulator' around the pipe wher it exits the tent.see down below the link went weird!
Also i have seen pictures of people who have stoves in tents with children using those big old fashioned metal cages that are designed to sit around your gas fire or open fire in your house. they just cut a small door in the cage at the front so you can open it to gain access to the stove and then close it up again to stop the kids getting close to the stove. They even wire two or three together to completely surround the stove if it sits in the middle of the tent rather than at the side.here
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Thanks for your reply, very helpful, I would certainly feel more relaxed with those guards etc. I love the look of that Eldfell stove, beautiful design but not such a beautiful price!
There are so many things to consider, size, weight, does it fold flat etc. Ideally I would like one that does fold flat as I would want to take in my luggage. I like the look of the Titaniumgoat ones on one of the previous post links but again with so little practical knowledge I'm reluctant to jump straight in and buy! Maybe if I dither long enough Liverbird08 and Mrs Spaghetti will have bought,used and written some 'glowing' reviews on these stoves!
By the way I know you all say these tents are easy to put up but I always struggle. Mine is an odd shape and it takes forever to peg and re peg to get it right. I'm a higgledy piggeldy type of person in everything I do, apart from pitching tents...then (and only then) I am a bit of a perfectionist and can't sit down until it looks 'right'...my 'bell tent' really tests my patience! They are lovely though.
You are quite right to have concerns over fitting a stove in a tent as if it is not done properly it is very dangerous, just like fitting a stove in a house, possibly more so.
However done properly and properly maintained with regular checking and sweeping of the chimney it is safe.
I don't know much about fitting a flue to go through a tent inner. All of the bell tent info I have come arcoss is about fitting the flue through the outer canvas of the tent either because there is no inner or because the inner takes up another part of the tent. If your inner takes up all of your tent and the flue would need to go through it then you need an expert opinion I think. I have never dealt with this site but have been told that they are very good and they seem to know their stuff, you could try emailing for information.
This page also gives a good breakdown of all the flue components. You will need a silicon collar and an aluminium back plate to safely pass the flue through your canvas.
It is possible to get these items cheaper elsewhere but the above page gives good, clear info.
Other things to think about in stove safety are not burning green wood as this can lead to a built up of resin in the chimney and cause a chimney fire and having a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector just in case. With a good stove that burns well none of this should be a problem but better safe than sorry. Also obvious precautions like a fire blanket, bucket and extinguisher apply too.
Forgot to say that if you buy a stove that does not have a baffler then you need a spark arrester as part of your flue system. Therefore you have to be very careful to make sure that the flue system is suited to the type of stove you have.
In the above links they do not mention spark arresters because the flue kits are designed for stoves that have bafflers. The point of both the spark arrester and the baffler is to prevent sparks going up the chimney, escaping out the top and either damaging your tent or starting a fire. I believe it is a legal requirement to have one or the other in a camping stove. Bafflers also redistribute heat, make the stove more efficient and better for cooking on.
You also need a metal plate behind your stove to deflect the heat away from the canvas and something solid to place the stove on like a piece of slate. It is then sensible to protect the surrounding groundsheet so that any hot embers escaping from the stove when you open it do not melt it.
Thanks again for the links and info. There is a lot to consider and I will certainly be following all the safety advice given here which has put my mind at rest a bit! ( I am always overly cautious about things like this).
I have decided I need to actually see some of these working to get an idea of how practical/useful it would be to have one, even if I then order one from America. That Kifaru stove looks just the job Tin Pockets.
Look forward to hearing how you get on with your stove Liverbird and Mrs S.
I'm off now as away camping for a week (or 2) tomorrow......thanks again.
Hello to all musing on the in's and out's of stoves in Bell Tents.
I was also somewhat perplexed and baffled at first by the stove issue, and I did also wonder whether it was just a gimmick too far, (Drafty tent v. tiny stove), but in an attempt to make the camping experience as comfortable as possible for my Mother, who had gamely agreed to come camping with me, I ended up getting the Soulsaver package from Soul Pad, which included their Blaze Stove, Flue and Flue flashing kit.
Although it was a bit alarming, to say the least, to start cutting holes in the side of my brand new tent in order to fit the flashing kit, I have to say that on a recent week long camping holiday to Scotland, although we had beautiful sunny days, the stove really came into it's own in the evening and surprisingly really did belt out some heat! (Which obviously would have to be guarded against if there were children about.)
With regards to Angled or straight flues - due to me wanting to have the flexibility of being able to roll the sides of the tent up, I knew that I would have to get a stove with a flue that exited the tent in a straight line, rather than angled through the 'wall' of the tent, which meant that of UK suppliers, (I didn't want the worry of ordering something from the USA in case it turned out to be faulty/useless), only Windy Smith and Soul Pad had suitable stoves in stock when I was looking to buy, and once all the bits an pieces were added together the kit from Soul Pad actually turned out to be £100 cheaper.
With regards to putting the whole stove, flue and flashing together, there is some initial, one-off preparation of the flashing that's required before you can get going with using the kit, and although the Soul Pad instructions are very good, the process of drilling the holes in the flashing is a bit laborious, (especially if you're not blessed with a proper workshop and are instead having to drill the holes on the kitchen worktop, with cardboard underneath to save drilling straight through the counter!).
Additionally, once this is done, it is helpful to have two people do the nuts and bolts bit of the flashing installation when you're fixing it to the tent as it can be fiddly work. But despite all that, as long as you're staying put for a few nights, the hassle involved is more than compensated for the brilliance of have a fire in your tent and the warmth!
In terms of safety, the only warning tips I would give, (in addition to those mentioned earlier in the thread) are as below:
1.In order not to risk melting the silicon flashing, it's important to follow the measurement guidelines given in the SoulPad instructions.
2.When the fire is alight, if it is allowed to burn too forcefully, (say to heat up the tent quickly or to get the fire going), the flue pipe can heat up very, very quickly, to the extent that it can start to 'glow' – which as I discovered, (fortunately before any damage was done) is not only terrifying, it is also not a good thing for the silicon flashing!
3.Make sure you provide sufficient heat protection underneath, and in front of the stove in the form of slates or slabs of stone - it's not only the top and sides of the stove that get very hot, as I discovered on my trial run in my Father's garden, the underside does as well and despite using two slates to stand the stove on, although my groundsheet was unaffected by the heat - grass is unfortunately extremely sensitive to high heat and will turn brown very quickly!
4.Purchase the additional flue restraining collar that's designed to be guy roped down to provide extra stability for the flue in windy conditions – I used the stove and flue once minus the additional guys, (in not particularly windy weather), and then again with the extra collar/guys and unsurprisingly everything from the tent to the stove and flue ended up benefiting from the additional restraints.(Pictures below show the additional guys etc)
Oh and one more great thing about the stove - the smoke from it drives away the midges and mozzies!
Happy wood burning!
Post last edited on 06/06/2009 02:35:14
Post last edited on 06/06/2009 02:38:22
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Topic: Tell me all about bell tents please folks
