I'm looking for ideas to resolve issues I've had with ice melting under the wood stove in my hot tent. When base camping multiple days and camping on the ice I've had terrible problems with ice melt. I have purchased both the heat reflector and ground hearth from Snowtrekker and still have more melting than I desire. Until I get this resolved, I camp on land whenever possible. The ground is dry and I works great. However, I'd like to have a better plan for ice camps.

Are there other packable materials that I can use under my stove to reflect heat? What systems work well for others when on the ice?

Thanks!

Just got back from a week long trip with my Snowtrekker and stove. No matter were I use the stove at there's time spent everyday re-adjusting both the stove pipe and firebox. There's always going to be some melting underneath the stove so shoring it up with some logs most likely will be in order.

Raise the stove using some logs under the legs, and line up additional logs underneath. This will raise the stove higher, and the additional logs act as an insulator which will help with the melting.

quote WalleyeDundee: "I'm looking for ideas to resolve issues I've had with ice melting under the wood stove in my hot tent. When base camping multiple days and camping on the ice I've had terrible problems with ice melt. I have purchased both the heat reflector and ground hearth from Snowtrekker and still have more melting than I desire. Until I get this resolved, I camp on land whenever possible. The ground is dry and I works great. However, I'd like to have a better plan for ice camps.

Are there other packable materials that I can use under my stove to reflect heat? What systems work well for others when on the ice?

Thanks!"

I set up camp on the ice 90% of the time and I had this problem a few years back and solved it for 4 dollars. I went to my local thrift store and saw one of those windshield heat reflectors for your car, for when you are parked in the sun in the summer. well I thought hey this would maybe work great for under my stove in my winter tent. As it turned out it works great! I cut it in half and double it up just under my stove and under my ground tarp. The outer area is just single layer. I have almost no ice melt under my stove. I do also set my stove on small logs. The other good thing about this is that it weighs almost nothing. Try it it works.

quote catfish72: " I went to my local thrift store and saw one of those windshield heat reflectors for your car, for when you are parked in the sun in the summer. "

Thanks for the idea Catfish. Based on your recommendation, I picked one up today for 5 bucks. They all seem to be made out of plastic bubble wrap with a reflective exterior. I'm concerned that it is combustable and will either melt, or worse, ignite. Does your windshield reflector have plastic in it?

I'm going to try it out this weekend on a backcountry trip. I'll let you know if it works ... or burns down the tent.

quote WalleyeDundee: "

quote catfish72: " I went to my local thrift store and saw one of those windshield heat reflectors for your car, for when you are parked in the sun in the summer. "

Thanks for the idea Catfish. Based on your recommendation, I picked one up today for 5 bucks. They all seem to be made out of plastic bubble wrap with a reflective exterior. I'm concerned that it is combustable and will either melt, or worse, ignite. Does your windshield reflector have plastic in it?


I'm going to try it out this weekend on a backcountry trip. I'll let you know if it works ... or burns down the tent.


"

Ya mine are the same thing. Plastic bubble stuff with reflective coating. I have had no problems with it melting or catching fire. Like I said it is under the ground tarp and under logs about 2 inches in diameter. So odds are it will not catch fire. just a thought, what kind of stove are you running? I use a cabalas Alaskan and a packer stove have not used it on anything bigger than that. I hope you have a great time on your trip and do not burn your tent down! let me know how it goes.

Hi: I have a false floor in my hot tent stove. It is two pieces of light sheet metal bent in the shape of a flattened letter "C". The short legs are about 3/4". This keeps the hottest part of the fire 3/4" above the actual stove bottom. They usually last a few years and then I throw them away and make some new ones. I still use some aluminum under the stove. Maybe that will help you!

hey WalleyeDundee,I hope you did not burn your tent down. I would like to know if the car shade worked as well for you as it does for me?

hey WalleyeDundee,I hope you did not burn your tent down. I would like to know if the car shade worked as well for you as it does for me? woops sorry for the double post :)

Catfish, the reflector seemed to work ok. I was at a state park where you must camp on land, so it wasn't a very good test. I still had a lot of melting behind my stove that would pool up and be a nuisance. The area covered by the reflector was clearly less impacted by the heat.

Would a Mylar emergency blanket do the same thing? I might try that too.

Thanks again for the idea.

hey walleye. bummer about it not working out as well as you had hoped. this will get figured out. I am here racking my brain on what could be different in our stove set ups. what kind of stove are you using? are you using a row of logs under your stove? Did you double it up inder your stove? Is there a false floor in your stove? ( I forgot to tell you that my stove has a false floor like the one like the one whiteceder has). As far as the snow melting and pooling up I have not had an issue with that though I suppose you could set one up behind your stove to try to combat that problem. how much water would you say you had under your stove? I went from having about 5 inches of standing water under my stove to having maybe a cup or two. I think one of those heavy duty mylar blankets may help when you use both together. I think thay are about 15 bucks or so.

You could also use Reflectix. Its an insulated layer that also reflects heat. Alot of icefisherman use this stuff on the ceiling of their portable ice houses. It works to reflect heat so you could use it to line the ceiling of your tent as well as the ice under your stove, odds are you'll be able to get away with less heat from the stove since you won't lose so much through the roof.

Reflectix Info

+1 on reflectix. works great. I put a small sheet of it under the buddy heater and no melt. Good luck

Hey, walleyedundee, I built a new " thingy" for under my stove. I am going to test it out this week. I will let you know how it works when I get back.

Hey WALLEYE, here are some pics of my stove set up and the thing I built for under my stove to keep the ice from melting. I am not sure if last weekend was the best time to test this stuff but the system seemed to work very well even in 60 degree weather and 50 and raining all day. I had alot of water under my floor but I think that was do to the temps. oddly my stove had almost no water under it. basically I took some parts of a shelving unit that I was not using and cut them to fit on my sled and under my stove. it is just pine wood that I coated with a fire retardant spray and stapled a piece of reflectix to. It seems that reflectix is pretty much the same stuff as the car reflector stuff except that it is a but thicker and I also noticed that the reflective material comes off very easily. any way here's the pics and I hope this helped you out. OH sorry about the pics not being in order.

Thanks for the pics and ideas Catfish. I like the idea of getting enough heat reflection to put a tarp under the entire floor - keeping any moisture out of the way. I'm going to continue to play with the reflectix to tune my setup.

sounds good man. post some pics on how you work it out.:)