Anyone have experience or thoughts on Norsk Kleber masonry heaters?

[tlingit]

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you well during these upside down times. I’d like to ask people’s experience and opinions with masonry heaters. As background, we live in Alaska and use wood as the primary heat in winter, with backup gas hot water baseboard. The current wood stove is a big equinox but has been having problems that have been difficult to resolve. When it was working well, the equinox kept the house warm even at -20. It’s a standard split level house, the equinox is on the first level, daylight basement and it heats the upper floor through convection. A gas fireplace on the first floor supplements the convention heat, we have two floor vents and a ceiling fan in the stairwell to move heat around.

One local dealer is offering masonry heaters, and they look interesting. The promise is good heat, longer burn times and more efficient fuel use. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts.

 

[Sailrmike]

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you well during these upside down times. I’d like to ask people’s experience and opinions with masonry heaters. As background, we live in Alaska and use wood as the primary heat in winter, with backup gas hot water baseboard. The current wood stove is a big equinox but has been having problems that have been difficult to resolve. When it was working well, the equinox kept the house warm even at -20. It’s a standard split level house, the equinox is on the first level, daylight basement and it heats the upper floor through convection. A gas fireplace on the first floor supplements the convention heat, we have two floor vents and a ceiling fan in the stairwell to move heat around.

One local dealer is offering masonry heaters, and they look interesting. The promise is good heat, longer burn times and more efficient fuel use. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts.

Hi there. I think the Norsk Kleber soapstone heaters are gorgeous, a local stove shop has the Merethe Plus 110 on display. Their soapstone is not polished, and the gray color is perfect in my opinion. Here's why I chose against it:

They cost about twice as much as a good stove, and most people would need a masonry heater certified pro to assemble the unit.

They can't be continuously fired

Small firebox requiring short wood

Really gorgeous, but impractical for me

 

[qwee]

Tulikivi (Finland) sounds like they are getting some competition for soapstone masonry heaters from this Norwegian company, Norsk Kleber - Viking warfare!

Norsk Kleber's masonry heaters look to be of the smaller sort, in the 3000 to 7000 lb range, maybe even smaller it is hard to tell. Usually masonry heaters are site built because they weigh so much, like a fireplace, that the area under them needs to be solid.

However, there are little masonry heater/wood stove like hybrids out there (ecco stove). So if you are considering one of these the first step is to figure out how much it weighs, and next whether your floor can handle this (or be modified to handle this weight).

If your house is bigger than average a small masonry heater may not produce enough heat. I checked there website and the heaters are from around 500 to 1250 pounds - so they aren't that heavy or big. I wonder how big houses are in Norway? There are many dealers there so these mass heaters must be popular.