Hot tenting with a stove

[Syrio]

Hello people.

I have had a 4m canvas bell tent for a few years and have been angling to hot tent from the beginning. With summer coming to an end and another winter on the way
im looking to get some impetus to follow through and get it done this year and have a go.

Mostly im reluctant to cut a hole in the tent as the cold weather use and length of stays long enough to warrant taking all the extra gear will be only once or twice a year, while using it during warmer times will be more frequent.
I keep thinking it will be annoying having that hole with the silicon sleeve and flap when not being used with a stove, and while a very minor consideration my particular tent is pure white canvas so may look a bit shabby with the off colour kits and maybe stains?.

Is it at all workable to run the chimney out of the front door leaving the zip open using a couple of aftermarket 90 degree elbow sections?. It would probably be an awkward compromise with the stove blocking the entrance in use and the tent not being as sealed with the front partially open but the idea is appealing.

Has anyone done this or used any other methods apart from the usual hole and sleeve kits?. Do you think I should just bite the bullet and do it the standard method.

Thanks for any input!

 

[Robson Valley]

The traditional method is very common on big tents, canvas tents, here, as you might imagine.
To me, the stove vent speaks to camping in less than ideal weather with the risk of snow any night.
Maybe +4C last night and pouring rain at my house in the valley.
Obvious this morning that it snowed like hello up top. Were you ready?

One thing I do know: It's awful dark and quiet in a tent with 4" fresh snow on it.

 

[Nice65]

Never seen it done, but I wonder if that’s because it’s so impractical. All chimneys, from industrial to domestic rise straight up and out, you can’t put horizontal or angled sections in and expect the fire to draw properly. With the popularity of wood burning stoves you see a lot of chrome plated chimneys sticking out of houses these days. It’s because the stove is directly below or there’s a low right angle and then the chimney rises more or less straight up. The heat in the vertical section is essential to pull the gasses up and out. Even houses with existing chimney breasts there no attempt to angle the flue into the main chimney. Nobody busts out a hole in their roof, insulates, seals, lead flashes it and re-tiles for no good reason, it’s necessity.

I considered a Frontier for my 4m bell and soon realised I’d lose about one third of the tent to the stove and a safe area around it so decided it was just a romantic idea for our kind of camping. We don’t go out for a week or more in the winter, the only time I did was in an Oztent in the Lakes and I took lots of bedding and a butane gas heater that served me fine for clicking on first thing in the morning from the comfort of my bed. Had I done the stove thing with the bell I’d have used the flashing kit. It’s purpose designed, won’t burn the canvas like maybe a flapping door might, but more than anything you don’t have to crawl past a red hot stove getting in or out. Putting the stove in the doorway just seems wrong. Or could easily go wrong.

 

[TLM]

Well, there is always the teepee solution used in Sami kota too. I have spent more than a few nights in a tent with stove (the bloody rifle and drill sergents were always in the way), works but. I wonder how it is done in a yurt, never seen a real one.

It is nice when it is - 10 C out and you are all wet but winter camping can be done without a stove easily, just don't get wet.

In all the arrangements I have seen there has never been anything but a straight chimney.