[deMolay]

This design was invented by the Roman's. It works my neighbor has one in his loghome. Here in Northern Alberta it can get 50/60 below 0.F, he uses about 3/4 pickup loads of wood each winter. You only burn a fire every 2/3 days. Labor intensive to build but no moving parts. http://www.timelyconstruction.com/Mason ... ussian.htm

[Specop_007]

Dear God, couldnt they have made it a bit more visually appealing??

[deMolay]

OK here is some more info with some better pictures and a drawing of internals. http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/do-it ... stoves.htm

[Curmudgicus]

Check out www.biofire.com. They make a German version of the Russian stove called a Kachelofen. You can get them tiled or stuccoed.

Also, Tulikivi's soapstone ovens are essentially Russian stoves as well.

[cornholio]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... D%26sa%3DN

a link to others that aren't quite so ugly... : )

[skyemoor]

The important criteria concerning these stoves is;

- Mass: the more mass, the greater thermal storage capacity, and to some extent, storage time. Some of the smaller stoves don't have much (i.e., Tulikivis I have seen)

- Flue configuration: The flue must zigzag back and forth across the thermal mass's surface area in order to efficiency exchange heat. Again, IMO many pre-fabricated stoves don't have enough heat exchange area.

These Masonry Heaters need to be placed in the center of activity areas, as they radiate heat, instead of heating the air.

Much more information can be found at;
http://www.mha-net.org/

[Triffin]

Has anyone integrated a hydronic heating system
with one of these masonry stoves ?? You could run
your piping in the flue system when you built the stove ..
add water and a small circulating pump and you
get domestic hot water and space heating ..

Triff ..

[DR_STU]

I see in the second link that the design allows for cleanout of each area where the flue gas passes back and forth through the fireplace. This is important as any type of wood burning appliance that tries to extract heat from the flue gas is going to build up creosote, which will lead to chimney/flue fires. This would be especially critical for fireplaces/stoves that do not have a secondary combustion area where the flue gas can be combusted prior to leaving - this secondary combustion reduces the number of condensable flue gasses and gets you more energy per unit of wood. Also, as creosote builds up it creates a significant barrier to thermal transfer of heat, reducing the effectiveness of such an appliance.

So you have to balance the need to get as much heat as possible from burning wood with the risk of creating a chimney fire hazard. If the chimney and flue areas are cleaned regularly then fine, if not you're asking for trouble.

[Caoimhan]

I see in the second link that the design allows for cleanout of each area where the flue gas passes back and forth through the fireplace. This is important as any type of wood burning appliance that tries to extract heat from the flue gas is going to build up creosote, which will lead to chimney/flue fires. This would be especially critical for fireplaces/stoves that do not have a secondary combustion area where the flue gas can be combusted prior to leaving - this secondary combustion reduces the number of condensable flue gasses and gets you more energy per unit of wood. Also, as creosote builds up it creates a significant barrier to thermal transfer of heat, reducing the effectiveness of such an appliance.

So you have to balance the need to get as much heat as possible from burning wood with the risk of creating a chimney fire hazard. If the chimney and flue areas are cleaned regularly then fine, if not you're asking for trouble.

This is incorrect in regards to a properly designed wood-fired masonry heaters. Combustion temperatures in the main firebox are high enough that nearly complete combustion is achieved. The masonry heaters are designed to have a very hot, short burn, where the heat is nearly completely absorbed in the masonry before the exhaust is vented to the outdoors.

Naturally, if you use very green or sappy wood, you're not going to get a fast enough burn, but I know from personal experience that 1" diameter dry kindling in a paper grocery bag will keep a large home with an open floorplan nice and toasty all night long in Wisconsin in January. Just one bag full (which fills the firebox nicely).

The quick hot burn produces very little creosote. The cleanouts can be swept with a long push broom once per year.

[Curmudgicus]

Has anyone integrated a hydronic heating system
with one of these masonry stoves ?? You could run
your piping in the flue system when you built the stove ..
add water and a small circulating pump and you
get domestic hot water and space heating ..

Triff ..

I did some research on this, because I wanted to build a fireplace that had a water jacket for hydronic heating. It turns out to be problematic.

A russian stove is absorbing heat into the mass over a ten to twenty foot path. The masonry doesn't absorb a lot of heat at any one point in the path, so the path must be long to maximize absorbtion. The very intense heat caused by the hot fire burning all the combustibles is thus transferred incrementally all along that length.

If you pull a lot of heat out of that high heat location all at once, such as by heating water pipes or a water jacket, there is a sudden drop in termperature and the higher threshold combustibles don't ignite. The fire becomes very sooty and smoky and desposits soot all through the flue.
Russian stoves and Kachelofens don't soot up a chimney, because the combustion is normally so complete. Fireplace boilers and water heaters by contrast are extremely sooty.

[DR_STU]

Naturally, if you use very green or sappy wood, you're not going to get a fast enough burn, but I know from personal experience that 1" diameter dry kindling in a paper grocery bag will keep a large home with an open floorplan nice and toasty all night long in Wisconsin in January.

Agreed, this is true for most appliances that burn wood that is properly seasoned. However, in the real world people that have limited experience burning wood will try to use wood that is not seasoned properly and this is where you get into trouble regardless of the type of appliance. I've been burning wood for over 40 years and have designed and installed many systems and have seen this happen many times.

[Caoimhan]

I think most of the time, if it's the original builder living in the home, they made a careful choice to install a masonry heater, and understand how it is meant to be used.

When the home is resold, the new owners may not be so knowledgeable. I can just see their faces when they burn 5 hours of wood one evening, and the house becomes 100 degrees around 2 AM.