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[willieG]

i know a fella with a home made OWB  in his insulated 30 x 40 detached garage. his agent asked him if he had  annother furnace in teh home and he said yes i have a propane furnace also. his agent then wrote down on the police that he had an auxillary wood stove, charged him 50 bucks extra for it and insured him.

i on the other hand  have my home made in an outdoor shed that is just that, an old shed (i think i have posted it on here before) my agent said he would insure everything BUT that shed. i was fine with that as i feel these stoves (as long as they use rockwool insulation or anything but faom) are far safer than any other ones out there.  i have seen one of thses stoves (home built) in an insulated shed boiled dry (left the door open a bit) 3 TIMES, stove survived and shed did too. i was told it was a steam bath inside  but other than that no problems insurance companies are not in the business to pay out, they only want to collect and i think if you look hard enough you can find one that will insure you but it may me costly?

[MattyNH]

i know a fella with a home made OWB  in his insulated 30 x 40 detached garage. his agent asked him if he had  annother furnace in teh home and he said yes i have a propane furnace also. his agent then wrote down on the police that he had an auxillary wood stove, charged him 50 bucks extra for it and insured him.

i on the other hand  have my home made in an outdoor shed that is just that, an old shed (i think i have posted it on here before) my agent said he would insure everything BUT that shed. i was fine with that as i feel these stoves (as long as they use rockwool insulation or anything but faom) are far safer than any other ones out there.  i have seen one of thses stoves (home built) in an insulated shed boiled dry (left the door open a bit) 3 TIMES, stove survived and shed did too. i was told it was a steam bath inside  but other than that no problems insurance companies are not in the business to pay out, they only want to collect and i think if you look hard enough you can find one that will insure you but it may me costly?

Isn't that truth about insurance companies.. All they want to do is to collect

[slimjim]

Again I will say that the part that I would be very concerned about is the propane tank 30 feet from the stove!!!!

[Divernut]

I certainly appreciate all of the responses.  There is a lot of good information here on this blog.  Like all of us, I don't want to pay a dime more for insurance than I have to.  Point being, the insurance company wants things to be as safe as possible.  Either you will pay to have it safe, or pay extra for the increased risk.  I also know they look for ways NOT to have to pay for a claim.  I am willing to pay a little extra on installation to make it "insurance friendly".  My job is to install this thing as safe as possible using common sense and following some of the lame brain rules required by insurance companies.  Double wall pipe is obvious, 18" away from wood roof perlins, and 30-50' from the propane tank is also a no brainer.  50' from your propane tank is not far enough if you have a propane leak, I get all of that.  It's the insurance company's ignorance on the safety of these OWB is what is so discouraging to me.  Some just flat out say no, it is not insurable.  Others charge you a premium.  I thought when I started this post, someone out there would have heard of a reasonable installation requirement for these stoves when installed inside of a lean to or building.  Any kind of wood stove inside a home is far more dangerous (IMHO) than this outdoor wood furnace.  We had ashes popping out of the fireplace in the living room we dumped our Coca-Cola on to put it out when I was a kid.  Another time we had a chimney fire that put the fear in all of us.  Again, no damage but still a concern.  These were typical hazards of any stove whether inside the home, basement, or garage.  I put this in my barn on a concrete pad with metal sided room and double walled chimney pipe.  It is checked at least 2x a day.  The stove is air tite (or else it won't work correctly) so nothing gets out.  In the event the fire would flame up and get out of control, it boils the water out making a steam bath like the other poster noted.  One of my other safeguards is I turn my propane tank off after my stove is burning.  No reason to have the lines pressurized when not in use.  If I need my propane, then I turn the valve back on at the tank.  I would only do that if I ran out of wood, went on vacation, or had a problem with my stove and couldn't burn wood to keep warm.  This OWB is safer than if I put it inside my home!

It surprises me the lack of knowledge the insurance companies have when it comes to these stoves.  They don't understand the value of them and choose to remain ignorant on their safety aspects.   "Look at the hillbilly with his wood stove!".  It's a bunch of BS.  It's  one of the best things our family has ever done.

New chainsaw $300
Outdoor wood furnace $8000
Warm heat, hot water, making memories and sharing weekend's with the family cutting wood - PRICELESS!

[slimjim]

NICE