Best Masonry Heater build pictures I've seen

byQ · Mar 28, 2014

This fellow, Jared, followed the masonry heater association's plans for a medium to large contraflow heater. This plan is the most common masonry heater built in North America. He did a great job of taking pictures of the building sequence - thanks Jared! He built in a white oven. (A white oven means the flames don't go through holes in the floor of the oven. If flames went right into the oven it would be a black oven).

part 1
jaredbarnhart.blogspot.com/search/label/masonry%20heater?updated-max=2012-01-14T21:10:00-06:00&max-results=20&start=3&by-date=false

part 2
http://jaredbarnhart.blogspot.com/2012/01/masonry-heater-part-ii.html

part 3
http://jaredbarnhart.blogspot.com/2012/01/masonry-heater-part-iii-finished.html

more pictures, mish mashed
http://jaredbarnhart.blogspot.com/search/label/masonry heater

jdg239 · Mar 29, 2014

Agreed. I've been communicating with him the last couple days. He's documented this project very nicely. The size of his heater is just a tad bigger than we want in our space, plus he doesn't show the chimney he's now built on the back of this unit to vent through his ceiling.

DougA · Mar 29, 2014

I looked at this a few months ago but have not heard any update on performance. Any news?
I'm a believer - to some extent. Just because you built one does not necessarily mean that it works great. It's not different than any other wood burning device. Small changes in design and construction can have a big impact on performance at the beginning and long term stability.

byQ · Mar 29, 2014

DougA said:
I looked at this a few months ago but have not heard any update on performance. Any news?
I'm a believer - to some extent. Just because you built one does not necessarily mean that it works great. It's not different than any other wood burning device. Small changes in design and construction can have a big impact on performance at the beginning and long term stability.

I haven't heard how his heater is doing, but would like to know, too. jdg239 here is a photo sequence of the smaller contraflow (a room heater) from the Masonry Heater Association. Note the mason built the smaller contraflow in the basement and than stacked a larger contraflow right on top of it on the first floor.

I think if you want to use a smaller heater for cooking it is common to build/obtain a metal rack to put in the firebox after the fire is out. I heard a mason say that a bake oven in a smaller heater won't get hot enough.

* Also note this heater has no grate - like a wood stove the ashes are just scooped out.

** And those concrete pieces below the firebox can be made from type N cement (except the one with firebricks laid on it) so you don't have to use the more expensive refractory cement. Why? this area doesn't get hot enough to cause problems.

*** Lastly, in the 3 masonry heater photo sequences shown 3 different materials were used for the side channels, 1) Jared used firebrick splits for his side channels, 2) the small masonry heater builder used 24" clay chimney flues cut in half, and 3) on the large masonry heater above the small one, side channels were formed by refractory cement from molds.
http://mha-net.org/docs/v8n2/wildac01c2.htm

DougA · Mar 29, 2014

I guess the difficulty is in the lack of set standards to measure the output/efficiency of a masonry heater. As i said awhile back, lots of people on this forum seem to change stoves every few years. Not that easy with one of these. I was reading about a heater from Finland made with tiles and clay but no mortar that they had to rebuild every 10 yrs.

I did a quick search for images and came up with a lot of pretty weird designs. Rather than post each link, easier to paste this search and scroll down the page:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=maso...nNqQH0mIGwDw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1598&bih=815

weatherguy · Mar 29, 2014

DougA said:
I guess the difficulty is in the lack of set standards to measure the output/efficiency of a masonry heater. As i said awhile back, lots of people on this forum seem to change stoves every few years. Not that easy with one of these. I was reading about a heater from Finland made with tiles and clay but no mortar that they had to rebuild every 10 yrs.

I did a quick search for images and came up with a lot of pretty weird designs. Rather than post each link, easier to paste this search and scroll down the page:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=masonry heaters&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=5uk2U8KUC4nNqQH0mIGwDw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1598&bih=815

Most houses are built around the masonry heater, changing it wouldn't be an option and if it worked as expected why would you want to? You could always add a wood stove somewhere else in the house if you got an itch to burn a stove. My last house I build will have one of these most likely, but that's a ways down the road.

DougA · Mar 30, 2014

weatherguy said:
Most houses are built around the masonry heater, changing it wouldn't be an option and if it worked as expected why would you want to?

There are so many designs and no standards to assure you that the one you select will work well. If you have a pro build it for you than you have some assurance but if you build it yourself, you could be stuck with a lemon. To assume it will work perfectly based on internet information is folly.

MasonryPro · Apr 1, 2014

Here are a couple of the 100+ Masonry Heaters we have built since 1984.

I agree with the previous poster. From a safety and efficiency standpoint if I was a customer, i'd get it done by a pro!

byQ · Apr 2, 2014

Your stoves look great. People who consider fireplaces should consider what you are building instead.

homebrewz · Apr 2, 2014

Here is a picture of a masonry heater in my friends house. It was built by a friend of ours who has been a mason for 30+ years. This might be the third one he's built. It heats a 2000 square foot home comfortably, but its a modern construction with passive solar gain and 24" insulation panels.

If you like the brick floor in the foreground, I installed that with my friend's husband.

Kosmik · Apr 4, 2014

I would think it's like any construction project.
Plenty of people build a house that is going to fall down in ten years (professional and amateur).
Probably have a better chance of making it stand longer with a professional though.
But some amateurs have a different skill level/set than others.
Some engineers are better than others.

The basic concepts won't change, and having a 'professional' design should help getting the channel sizes/materials used right.
Then some deal of 'performance' would be user dependent.
Did you do the heat loss calculations correctly, or get the correct answer?
Did you use the materials specified in the plan, or have 'professional' change plan to your materials?
Is your wood seasoned? Burning the right amount per charge?

And I'm sure there are a lot of the more basic questions with radiant heating that your average homeowner would have little knowledge about, coming from central HVAC.

Like with anything.
Some will fail. Some will succeed. And others will fork over the dough for someone else to make sure it gets done right (sometimes it doesn't).
But for DIYers this type of project is very intriguing.
However the engineering side of it (design) may be best accomplished with professional help.

Kosmik · Apr 4, 2014

DougA said:
I looked at this a few months ago but have not heard any update on performance. Any news?

Not very much long term updates on his blog (nothing from this heating season I can find).
Built Nov 2012

Update: (end of 'off-grid solar' post)
Saturday, February 16, 2013
"On a side note. We also couldn’t be happier with our masonry heater. The constant radiant heat is awesome. And we are slowly but surely learning how to cook in the bake oven – including pizzas and rustic artisan loaves."

DougA · Apr 4, 2014

In case anyone is interested. The masonry heater can be built with either a white or a black oven. White gets heat through the stones and maintains a fairly constant temperature of 350 to 400. Black has heating passages through the oven itself and can get much hotter.

tekguy · Apr 5, 2014

Doesn't soot and creosote build up in thoseover time, can you clean it?

DougA · Apr 5, 2014

From what I have been told, owners are much fussier about wood than those with wood stoves. The theory is that is you own a Ferrari, you treat it better than a Chevy. There are clean-outs built in for ash and most areas can be reached via the door but it is definitely not the straight path of a normal chimney and not something you can disassemble easily.
Also, the fire reaches temperatures of 2000+ so that will burn off any creosote.

I think both ByQ and I (plus many others) are trying to get past the mystique that the masonry heater is only for the wealthy and are a valid alternative.

Kosmik · Apr 6, 2014

DougA said:
I think both ByQ and I (plus many others) are trying to get past the mystique that the masonry heater is only for the wealthy and are a valid alternative.

I mean this guy's house is nice, but not Oligarchy status.

I believe it was traditionally a peasants heater. Of course these peasants weren't building them out of soapstone or adorning them with fancy tiles.

begreen · Apr 6, 2014

There are lots of variants on masonry stoves. What the video is showing is a pechka. The early and often peasant designs had no chimney and vented the smoke through a nearby door which no one wanted open during the extreme cold of winter. Finally they started adding chimneys around the 1600s. At first they were wooden chimneys! and had lots of fires in them. Masonry and tile chimneys replaced them, if you could afford this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_oven

begreen · Apr 6, 2014

You all might appreciate Mark Twain's assessment of masonry stoves when he traveled to Europe and experienced them for the first time.

The Masonry Stove

"To the uninstructed stranger it promises nothing. It has a little bit of a door. Which seems foolishly out of proportion to the rest of the edifice. Small sized fuel it used, and marvelously little of that. The process of firing is quick and simple. At half past seven on a cold morning the servant brings a small basketball of slender pine sticks and puts half of these in, lights them with a match, and closes the door. They burn out in ten or twelve minutes. He then puts in the rest and locks the door...The work is done.

All day long and until past midnight all parts of the room will be delightfully warm and comfortable...it's surface is not hot; you can put your hand on it anywhere and not get burnt.

Consider these things. One firing is enough for the day; the cost is next to nothing; the heat produced is the same all day, instead of too hot and too cold by turns.

America could adopt this stove, but does America do it? No, she sticks placidly to her own fearful and wonderful inventions in the stove line. The American wood stove, of whatever breed, is a terror. It requires more attention than a baby. It has to be fed every little while, it has to be watched all the time; and for all reward you are roasted half your time and frozen the other half... and when your wood bill comes in you think you have been supporting a volcano.

It is certainly strange that useful customs and devices do not spread from country to country with more facility and promptness than they do.

- Mark Twain

PassionForFire&Water · Apr 6, 2014

begreen said:
It is certainly strange that useful customs and devices do not spread from country to country with more facility and promptness than they do.

So, it looks like already this long ago we here in North America were very good at marketing and selling crappy stuff for big bucks.
It seems to me that there is nothing new under the sun.

begreen · Apr 6, 2014

This is a guess, but it could come from our heritage? Our early history stems in great part from England which traditionally heated with fireplaces. Then with industrial age came a fascination in cast iron foundry work and steel. Kachelofens are more mainland European traditional heaters.

Kosmik · Apr 6, 2014

This book provided some interesting insight into the history.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Masonry-Stoves-Rediscovering/dp/1890132098

I hear you Begreen, I wouldn't want to live in one of those 'black' houses...

The answer seemed to be heritage. English colony for sure.
Being the resource colony first, and industrial factory later. Blessed with much wood, coal and iron ore. The iron/steel industry came about quickly, and expansion led for the need for mass-produced heating units that could be moved with the frontier, as we depleted land and needed to expand.
Pretty interesting, but I think the industrial revolution and America's place in it proved a big part. But utility wise, the steel stove could be moved easier, and our borders were fluid.
Wood conservation was a concern among the Europeans. Not a concern among the colonists, early Americans.

Funny thing is, a steel stove probably would have cost more than a masonry heater at some point in time? In the beginning, iron/steel was not cheap at all. Probably not enough people knew how to make them based on immigration of the time.

DevilsBrew · Apr 7, 2014

Check out the stoves by Lars Helbro. F'in beautiful.

byQ · Apr 7, 2014

HI DB! Here are a couple of his stoves. He had that Gimse (the 1st picture) in the wood stove challenge but said he had to back out because it took too long to set up (it has a long bench).

DevilsBrew · Apr 7, 2014

Hey you! Best wishes on your house project.

Best Masonry Heater build pictures I've seen

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