Nu-way heater for shanty

[Scalloper]

I recently bought a Nu-way heater for my ice shack. I installed it yesterday. It's the 16,000 btu model. Any of you have experience with one of these? Seems like a great option for a shack except they loose a ton of heat out of the chimney. I am guessing 40% or more of the heat goes out the chimney. I am considering putting a damper in the top of the stove pipe to help. By the way this is the propane model not the wood stove. Another option would be to install another chamber like a steel 5 gallon bucket above the stove to act as a heat exchanger. Any other options?

[RealBigReel]

Curios to see how it works...how is everything working out for you?

[Scalloper]

Great been a very busy year scalloping, best year in many years the stocks are looking good.

[Scalloper]

Reel big reel
Are you familiar with the Nu-Way propane heaters?

[RealBigReel]

I have seen one but never in action...seemed like good bare bones option for heating a shack...see if you can find one of those heat exchangers that go in the exhaust, I know a guy that could adapt it to your chimney if needed.

That was the same problem I had heating the shack with the propane fire place, most of the heat went up the chimney,.

[lunkahville]

Good to see your still kicking Scalloper. Is the nuway like a plaque heater or more like a traditional burner?

[Fish Wayniac]

I have only seen the wood stove model. The damper in the 3" pipe works good for that.

[Scalloper]

Good to see your still kicking Scalloper. Is the nuway like a plaque heater or more like a traditional burner?

It's basically like a box wood stove with two gas burners inside. It has a 3" chimney.

[StolenB8]

It's basically like a box wood stove with two gas burners inside. It has a 3" chimney.

Maybe try looking at a heat robber for a wall tent stove? Not sure if they go less than 4" diameter though??

Could have one fabricated...

[prospector]

 Do not put anything in the way of the vent on a gas unit.  Death wish for sure.

[prospector]

Hope I don't sound like a jerk. But I want to see you live to fish another day! By the way, I love your quote on your profile. LOL 

[StolenB8]

Do not put anything in the way of the vent on a gas unit.  Death wish for sure.

Heat robber won't act like damper just increases surface area of chimney

[prospector]

Heat robber won't act like damper just increases surface area of chimney

Agreed. The original post was talking about putting a damper on. That is scary.

[woodchip]

NO damper on stove pipe!!!  Lengthen out the smallest size pipe you can put on the stove, do not restrict the out flow.

[RealBigReel]

What did you end up doing for a heater?

[Scalloper]

We installed a carbon monoxide detector and a damper. Considering many propane heaters are non vented I dident see a danger if we had a cd. I let it run for most of a day at -7 to 4 and the Windows did not have any condensation at all. With the heater on 1/2 open it got to 55 deg with in on high it got to 72 and very comfortable.

[RealBigReel]

Good point about the non vented heaters....

Maybe I'll come up with a heat exchanger for you and do a little trading for some of those scallops.

[Scalloper]

The damper does not close off the pipe well and we put it 7' high in the 5" pipe just before it exits the shack. The stove has a 3" exhaust so we were trying to make a 6.5' heat exchanger with the pipe. Even closed the damper allows a lot of heat out but it's much better as the outside pipe is much cooler. A small metal box the size of the heater with baffles and 3" inlet maybe 2 passes then 3" outlet should do the trick. I am assuming the way you would rate it's efficiently would be heat loss at the outside pipe temp vs propane used?

[prospector]

 Looks like a damper will work fine as per manufacturers instructions as long as you install it in the first section of pipe near the stove. Also, they want you to have 6 inches minimum of combustion  air to the unit.