# Masonry Heaters - Looking for info



## Bruenor (Oct 2, 2008)

Does anyone have one? I'd love to hear about your experiences, both during construction and use. Also, any pictures would be great.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

There's a conversation in Questions called "between rock and hard place " where someone tells of their experience with a similar type heater.


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## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

We're looking into building one. Found some plans here: http://www.mha-net.org/index.htm


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Artificer is a member of Masonry Heater Association. (the mha-net.org folks). We built one this summer. Works REALLY well.

Masonry heaters don't have to be "certified" or inspected like say, rocketstoves do. No EPA requirements on them. They emit almost NOTHING from the flue outside. All the heat goes into the insulation material and they burn hot and fast...so almost everything is consumed..very little ash left over.

and I love the oven that we built in!  

I'd suggest perusing the mha-net site to get ideas, find pictures, see stuff  They also do a weeklong workshop in the spring. Great people.

Oh, and masonry heaters, in a room sized version, are very very common in Europe. There's an email group that Artificer belongs to that is GREAT....I'll try to remember to get him to post in this thread about it.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

http://s167.photobucket.com/albums/u130/anntanns/The%20Land/heater/
This is a link to an album with just a few of the photos of the build. highlights, so to speak. 

The build took 8 months from start to finish, but that's because we build 2 stories of heater, AND Artificer was doing it alone, on weekends, without needing to hurry. AND had to cut the various sizes of bricks he needed, cart them up a flight of stairs, take naps...

er....no. I didn't say anything about naps. or reading...nope. I did NOT say anything about taking a break to read a couple of books. And I CERTAINLY didn't mention the George Dickel whisky.


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## Bruenor (Oct 2, 2008)

Wow, that's a nice setup Ann. How many square feet are you heating with this? Do you anticipate needing any auxiliary heat?


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

That apartment is only 24x40, so the heater will do quite well. (there will be a wood cookstove on the other side of the apartment, so that could be fired up if necessary, but i don't anticipate needing it) Even with only half the ceiling insulated, it keeps it warm enough with firing 2x a day. We figure once it's at temp, and the place if fully insulated, 1x a day will be enough. 

The masonry heaters are fired hot and fast. You fill the firebox completely full of dry firewood. Fire it. 8 to 12 hours later, fire again. And then continue the schedule as you need to. The idea is to heat up the bricks/insulation/facing..the mass...so that it radiates heat 24/7. The only place that gets HOTHOT is right smackdab in front of the glass. Everything else just absorbs the heat that is pulsing through the flue and air spaces. 

We've arranged the apartment so that the bedroom is close to the heater. then the living room and library. The kitchen is on the other side, with the bathroom on that side. Artificer is building a Stirling Engine to power a fan for air flow.


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## Bruenor (Oct 2, 2008)

I'd love to have a masonry heater in between the living room and kitchen. The living room side would have a bench that would extend through a wall into the master bedroom. That way I could sit on the bench in the bedroom and still enjoy the heat. I'm not sure how I can do that. I'd probably have to insulate it somehow as it does through the wall.

On the kitchen side I'd have a baking oven built into it. I'd also want a wood burning stove for regular cooking.

Granted these are just ideas right now. I have YEARS to think about it, since we won't be moving any time soon. Hopefully I'll have the chance to attend a number of workshops on masonry heaters before then to get better ideas, and hopefully learn enough that I can do some of the work myself.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Ann - that is incredible. Artificer did an incredible job on that. I'll have to follow this thread and learn. Something to know for the future, hopefully.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

I forced him to review what I'd said, and he said "yup. that's pretty much it".  and yup, Angie, he does some pretty incredible things. Thanks  I'll tell him what you said and he'll blush happily!

We considered the warm bench, but decided that it took up too much room, and we wouldn't really use it, so went with a more compact idea. I'm kind of sorry we didn't add that in now that I see the thing in place...we could have added another couple of feed on the front/side easily. 

About the wood cookstove for regular cooking: I'm thinking of just putting out propane powered 2burner kitchen on the cookstove instead of firing it up when I want to cook. We don't have a bunch of kids, it's just the two of us, so mainly I do water for hot drinks, boiling 2quart pots of something, etc. 

One thing to get used to with the masonry heater oven...it's ALWAYS on. It's also smaller (shorter) than a regular oven. Instead of making a large roast or HUGE pot of stew/chili and eating off that all week, you do small individual things every day. I've also been buying cast iron pots that are larger diameter, but lower...so 3" high with cover, or the flat covers instead of the domed. I have a HUGE deep frypan that I'm going to use for many things. 

It's a shift in thinking about cooking, but I'm finding it to be a good change. It means different food every couple of days instead of having to finish off that 2gallon pot of stew!.


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## Runestone (Jan 7, 2007)

We'll be firing up our masonry heater this weekend. We purchased the core from CrossFire which is a Canadian supplier. DH did all the construction himself. So, it was not a quick process. We also purchased the core with the bake oven included so DH tells me I can look forward to home made bread 
Now, let's see if I can post a picture of it under construction since I don't have the completed pictures yet.
Oh, and in Ontario, we do need them to be WETT approved for insurance purposes.


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## Runestone (Jan 7, 2007)

Okay, here's a few photos...



























The stone used was from a local quarry - all hand picked by DH and myself. The requirements for the masonry heater where the stone had to be a minimum of 4 inches thick. some of these stones weigh in at 100 lbs! The brick we purchased from a local masonry place - its all antique brick. We would have liked to do stone for the whole fireplace but it was just too time consuming. The brick was quicker. 
This is in a new addition. We needed to have footings 4 ft deep - to be below the frost line - it's build onto a cement block foundation, then another 4" thick cement pad on that....it's quite complicated (thankfully DH knows what he's doing)


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## rickfrosty (Jun 19, 2008)

Bruenor said:


> Does anyone have one? I'd love to hear about your experiences, both during construction and use. Also, any pictures would be great.


Hi, I was always interested in them, in 'Russian Fireplaces' actually, which are just a masonry stove designed to use the wood the peasants in Russia were allowed to scavenge off the land owner's land. Burn hot, burn clean, no waste, heat stored in masonry mass.
I built one in a log house I built (& later sold) for myself, but it was kinda funky & the new owner eventually took it out, I don't think he really knew what it was.
I my ex-wife's family village in Siberia I saw the real thing in an old log cabin sinking into the permafrost that was pretty cool. There was one part in the kitchen that was the iron (steel?) cookstove & then the masonry mass passed
through the wall into the living area where in the old days they actually slept on top of it.
They made me try the home made russian 'white lightning' the old guy made in a still right there. As Jed Clampett used to say - "Whoooeee Doggies !!
I gotta email her right now, because i can't recall the name for that stuff. 
I know it was more than 150 proof.
But there are a lot of masonry stoves in Maine, & I'll have another before I'm done (w/any luck), because the price of fuel will go way up soon enough !


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## BeaG (Aug 21, 2008)

Here is a link to the site of a friend of mine who has a masonry stove. He has written a small paper that contains some very helpful internet links to masonry stove sites. This link will take you right to his paper, but his entire site is fun to check out also. His "resources" page has tons of links to good information.

http:www.beetberry.com/RaysMasonryHeaterPaper.html

The link to his entire site:

http://www.beetberry.com/


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## BeaG (Aug 21, 2008)

I see that the link that I gave yesterday to Ray's masonry stove information is incorrect. 

You probably already figured it out, but here is the corrected link anyway. He has other good internet links at the end of his paper.

http://www.beetberry.com/RaysMasonryHeaterPaper.html


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

Here are a few links I have. I would love to have a Masonry Stove.

Some of the most beautiful Stoves ever are here:
http://www.pyromasse.ca/articles/articlee.html

Masonry Heater Associa:
http://www.mha-net.org/index.htm

Great stoves here too - this site has a Planning Guide that is really good:
http://www.tempcast.com/


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Runestone, that's a very attractive heater  I'd love to have a stone surround, but our local stone is limestone and well...I think it's pretty ugly. So it's brick for us! 

thanks for the pictures


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## Bruenor (Oct 2, 2008)

Thanks for all the info everyone. Keep it coming!

I think the biggest thing that I've found is that if I want to keep costs down, I'm going to have to learn how to do masonry work. Maybe I'll start this summer with a backyard brick BBQ, and then work my way up from there.

I wonder if I could find a local mason who wouldn't mind teaching me in exchange for me providing free "grunt" labor.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

It's not hard to learn to do...backbreaking YES,  There are a few sites online that you could learn the basics from, but once you try it for real, you learn a LOT. (like only use JUST ENOUGH mortar or you end up with a squishy cake looking thing...and remove mortar ASAP from the sides of bricks)

I would suspect you could find someone who's done brickwork in your area to help you


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## Runestone (Jan 7, 2007)

I managed to help DH with ours but he's the specialist. It was fun and the biggest issue was keeping the lines straight and level....not an easy task for someone like me with a 'crooked' eye 
We started heating the core yesterday....I am so impressed


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## Phantomfyre (Jul 1, 2004)

rickfrosty said:


> ...in 'Russian Fireplaces' actually, which are just a masonry stove designed to use the wood the peasants in Russia were allowed to scavenge off the land owner's land. Burn hot, burn clean, no waste, heat stored in masonry mass.
> I built one in a log house I built (& later sold) for myself, but it was kinda funky & the new owner eventually took it out, I don't think he really knew what it was.
> I my ex-wife's family village in Siberia I saw the real thing in an old log cabin sinking into the permafrost that was pretty cool. There was one part in the kitchen that was the iron (steel?) cookstove & then the masonry mass passed
> through the wall into the living area where in the old days they actually slept on top of it.


DH is Russian, and he told me about these. (Petch, in Russian.) We want one. But have no idea where we'd start in this house... *sigh* It should sit in the middle of the house, but that's where they put the stairwell, and there really isn't any other spot for the stairs.



> They made me try the home made russian 'white lightning' the old guy made in a still right there. As Jed Clampett used to say - "Whoooeee Doggies !!
> I gotta email her right now, because i can't recall the name for that stuff.
> I know it was more than 150 proof.


Samagon! Crazy potent stuff, isn't it? I tried some in a small village last year when we were there. Uff-da! :shocked: :buds:


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