Mobile Home Wood & Pellet Stoves: What Approval Actually Requires

Putting a wood or pellet stove in a manufactured home is entirely doable, and it is the one installation where the rules are genuinely different rather than just stricter. A stove that is perfectly legal in a stick-built house may not be installable in a mobile home at all, and the parts list is not the same.

Here is exactly what the requirement is, taken from the manufacturer's own installation manuals, and which stoves qualify, with each one's live shipping status. The wood stove rules come first; pellet stoves have their own section further down, and are often the easier fit.

First: what counts as a mobile home

Drolet's manuals use the US Department of Housing and Urban Development definition. A manufactured home, commonly called a mobile home, is a building built on fixed wheels, or transported on temporary wheels or axles and set on a permanent foundation. In Canada the equivalent standard is CAN/CSA-Z240 MH.

This matters because people conflate three different things:

• Manufactured / mobile home — covered by mobile home appliance certification. This article.
• Modular home — built to local building code, usually treated as a conventional house for stove purposes.
• RV, camper or travel trailer — not covered. Mobile home approval does not extend to recreational vehicles, and we do not carry a stove listed for RV use. If that is what you have, this is the wrong category.

The stove has to be listed for it

Mobile home approval is a specific listing on the appliance, not something an installer can confer. It appears on the certification plate and in the manual's specification table as "Approved for mobile home installation." Always confirm on the certification label of the unit you actually receive.

Approved for mobile homes:

• Drolet Escape 1200 N — $1,129, pedestal, up to 1,200 sq ft, glass door (Ships in 5–9 weeks). Our first pick: the pedestal takes the matching fresh air kit below. It's also the one we can ship now.
• Drolet Spark II N — $1,049, on legs, up to 1,200 sq ft (No confirmed date).

Also approved: the Drolet Fox (No confirmed date) and Drolet Deco Nano N (Ships in 2–5 weeks).

Three requirements that do not apply in a normal house

1. Single-wall pipe is strictly forbidden

The manual's wording is not ambiguous: it is strictly forbidden to install a unit with a single wall pipe in a mobile home. You need a double-wall connector, full stop. That changes both your parts list and your budget. The pre-packaged 6" to-the-ceiling double wall kit and to-the-wall kit show their live status on each product page (Ships Nov 6, Ships Dec 11), and the individual Vortex 6" double-wall pieces are sold separately — 12", 24" and 36" lengths, the 18"–30" telescoping section and the stove adapter. Call us with your ceiling height and we'll build the run from parts that can ship.

2. A fresh air intake kit is required

Not optional, not recommended — required. The manual specifies the intake kit plus an insulated fresh air intake pipe of HVAC type meeting ULC S110 or UL 181 class 0 or class 1.

The reason is that manufactured homes are built tight. A stove drawing combustion air from inside the home can depressurise it, which starves the fire and can pull flue gas back down the chimney. The intake feeds the firebox from outside instead.

Which kit depends on whether your stove sits on legs or a pedestal. The 5" kit for pedestal stoves ($82) fits the Escape 1200 N (Ships in 1–3 days). With both in stock, the Escape 1200 N is the fastest mobile home install this season. The kit for the N models on legs ($110) fits the Spark II N (Ships Dec 16), and the 5" kit for stoves on legs ($110) fits the Fox. Pair any of them with the insulated 5" flex pipe. Background in our fresh air intake guide.

3. A fire screen is prohibited

Open-door burning with a fire screen is not permitted in a mobile home. If you were buying the stove partly for the open-fire look, that is off the table here.

The clearance numbers

Mobile home clearances are their own set — not the same as the house figures, and they differ between the Fox and the newer N models. Every figure below assumes a double-wall connector, because single-wall is forbidden:

Stove	Rear	Side	Corner
Escape 1200 N	8"	28"	15"
Spark II N	8"	28"	15"
Fox	6"	22"	10"
Deco Nano N	11"	19"	14"
Any of the four, with the AC02762 shield	3"	3"	3"

Those side clearances — 19" to 28" — are what catch people out in a home that may only be 14 feet wide. This is where certified heat shields earn their place: adding the 53" × 58½" certified modular wall heat shield (Ships Jan 14) takes every direction down to 3", which is frequently the difference between the stove fitting and not.

One detail from the manual worth knowing: if the reduced clearance is on the same side as the door handle, keep the stove at least 6" from that side wall regardless.

Floor protection and mounting

The stove must sit on a continuous non-combustible surface — sheet steel at least 0.015" thick, sealed ceramic tile, cement board or brick. No R-value is required on these models; the pad is there to catch embers, not to insulate. Extent for the Fox and the three N models in the USA is 16" in front of the door opening and 8" to the sides. The Drolet 54" × 46¾" modular hearth pad covers that footprint (Ships in 1–3 days); our hearth pad guide covers what else qualifies.

The manual's mobile home section also calls for the legs to be screwed in place with the supplied hardware rather than simply set down. Manufactured homes move on their foundations and travel to site; the appliance is expected to be fixed.

Pellet stoves in a mobile home

A pellet stove is often the simpler mobile home install. It vents through the wall with 3" pellet pipe instead of a double-wall chimney, its clearances are a fraction of a wood stove's, and it holds a set temperature on its own. The same principle applies, though: the stove has to be listed for mobile home use, and the manual's mobile home section has to be followed exactly.

Mobile home approved pellet stoves we sell, per their manuals:

Stove	Price	Heats up to	Hopper	Ships
ComfortBilt HP50S	$1,899	2,400 sq ft	47 lb	Ships in 1–2 days
ComfortBilt HP61	$2,299	3,000 sq ft	51 lb	Ships in 1–2 days
ComfortBilt HP22	$2,399	2,800 sq ft	55 lb	Ships in 1–2 days
Englander 25-CBPAH	$2,199	2,200 sq ft	120 lb	No confirmed date
Drolet ECO-55	$2,799	2,000 sq ft	60 lb	No confirmed date
Ventis ECO-55 ST	$3,979	2,000 sq ft	80 lb	No confirmed date
Drolet ECO-65R	$4,129	2,600 sq ft	125 lb	Ships in 1–3 days

What the pellet stove manuals require in a mobile home:

• Outside combustion air. Required on every one. For ComfortBilt stoves, the DuraVent 3" wall thimble with outside air kit ($229.99) combines the vent pass-through and the air intake. The Englander includes its outside air kit; the Drolet ECO stoves need a fresh air kit bought separately.
• Fixed to the floor. ComfortBilt says the stove must be permanently attached to the floor, Englander specifies lag bolts, and Drolet anchors the ECO-55 with two screws.
• Grounded to the chassis. ComfortBilt requires the stove to be grounded to the home's steel chassis unless properly grounded outlets are provided; Englander specifies #8 solid copper ground wire.
• Not in a bedroom. Every one of these manuals says not to install the stove in a sleeping room.
• Vent listed for mobile homes. Use the pellet vent the manual names, terminated outside, never into a crawl space or under a carport.

Clearances are small enough that a pellet stove fits where a wood stove won't: the ComfortBilt HP22, HP50S and HP61 need 2" from the back wall, 7" from a side wall and 5" in a corner, and the ECO-55 needs 3" behind, 6" at the side and 3" in a corner. Floor protection is non-combustible ember protection extending 6" in front and to each side. Our pellet stove installation guide and ComfortBilt lineup guide cover the rest.

Sizing for a manufactured home

Most single-wide homes run 600–1,300 sq ft and most double-wides 1,000–2,000. The compacts above cover up to 1,200 sq ft each, which suits a single-wide comfortably.

For a larger double-wide you may want more stove — you can compare wood stoves for sale by heating area — but check the mobile home listing before assuming a bigger model qualifies, because not every stove in a lineup carries it. Call us with the model you are considering and we will confirm from the manual rather than guess.

Bear in mind the minimum as well. These stoves publish a recommended heating area starting at 250 sq ft, with a minimum sustained output of 12,124 BTU/h on the Fox and 18,782 BTU/h on the N models. In a small single-wide that is already a lot of heat, and running a stove permanently choked down glazes the glass and builds creosote.

Before you order

Talk to your local building department and your insurer first. Manufactured home installations are frequently inspected, and some carriers have specific conditions. Getting the listing, the double-wall pipe and the outside air right on paper beforehand is far easier than retrofitting after an inspection fails.

Every stove we sell ships with No Sales Tax in any state and free shipping, delivered curbside. If you want heat before winter, the Escape 1200 N with the pedestal air kit is the quickest complete mobile home package we can ship. Compare the compacts in our small wood stove guide or email info@stovesource.com or text 1-888-866-8206 and we will check the mobile home listing with you before you buy.

Wood stove requirements cited are from Drolet published installation manuals as of September 2026, using the Fox and the three N models as the worked examples; pellet stove requirements are from the ComfortBilt, Englander and Drolet owner's manuals as of October 2026. Clearances, floor protection and mobile home requirements differ by model — always follow the owner's manual for your specific unit, and note that the certification label affixed to the appliance overrides published figures.

Compare small wood stoves and pellet stoves at StoveSource — authorized dealer, No Sales Tax in any state, free shipping on qualifying orders.