Selection of the stove in the bath. How to choose a stove for a bath - which ones are better and how do they differ from each other? Electric sauna stoves

Probably, any owner of individual suburban housing, if he does not yet have his own bathhouse on the site, then, most likely, is hatching plans for its construction and equipment. The bathing tradition in Russia is very ancient and enduring, and no modern devices and fixtures in the form of bathtubs, jacuzzi, "fancy" showers, electric heaters or steam generators can replace the real heat from a heated stove and a birch broom.

The stove is one of the most important attributes of a Russian bath or a real sauna. The required atmosphere and the required temperature both in the steam room and in the washing room directly depend on its effective operation. Currently, there are many models on sale that are specially designed for such conditions. However, many home craftsmen prefer to make a sauna stove with their own hands. This matter, although quite complicated and requiring good skills in construction or welding, is still quite feasible.

Types of sauna stoves

First of all, it is necessary to deal with the main existing varieties of bath stoves so that you can opt for one of them.

1. By material manufacturing

• For a long time, burnt bricks have been the main material for sauna stoves. This tradition has not become a thing of the past even today - many people prefer the brick oven to all others, although, of course, its construction is much more difficult than installing a ready-made one. But on the other hand, the heat in it remains much longer, and it creates a very special atmosphere in the bath.

With its construction, certain difficulties may arise. So, for a brick structure, a foundation is required that is not connected with the foundation of the bath itself. In addition, the dimensions of the building itself do not always allow placing such a furnace in it, although, of course, there are projects of very small masonry.

Another difficulty is that the construction of such a furnace requires a certain amount of experience so that it does not become a source of a potential threat to human life and health. Often the desire to have a stone stove makes the owners of the bath turn to the masters. However, you can try to fold it yourself.

• Metal bath stoves are very popular. Although they are some departure from tradition, they have a number of advantages:

- Its installation does not take a long time and does not require a lot of space.

- There are a lot of ready-made models on sale, so it is possible to choose the most optimal option for a specific bath.

- It is easier to make such a furnace on your own if you have experience with electric welding.

- For the manufacture of a metal furnace, even seemingly recycled materials are often used - pipe cuttings, old disks from trucks, obsolete gas cylinders, old barrels, etc.

In the bath, as a rule, only steel stoves are installed - cast iron is unacceptable in these conditions. Yes, it has a higher heat capacity and holds the desired temperature longer, but its fragility and instability to sudden thermal changes make it impossible, for example, to splash cold water on a hot stove - cracks may appear.

Additional information about stoves from the site:

The main disadvantage of steel stoves is their rather quick cooling after the end of the furnace, especially if an insufficiently thick metal sheet was used for manufacturing. However, a massive heater can hold heat for quite a long time.

• Supporters of brick and steel sauna stoves can be reconciled by the technology of lining a metal case with a brick.

In this case, a massive foundation is not required, the tightness of the masonry joints is also, that is, the process of building walls is quite simple.

Combined option - a metal stove lined with bricks

In addition to good heat accumulation, brick cladding will protect against direct exposure to hard infrared radiation from hot metal surfaces. And yet - it can be a good interior addition to the bath, hiding the often not very pretty look of a steel stove.

2. According to the energy carrier used

The vast majority of sauna stoves are designed to fire them. There are, of course, models with the use of gas and electricity. Some craftsmen adapt liquid fuel units (for example, diesel fuel) for this purpose, taking the furnace part with the diesel fuel supply system outside.

However, we can emphasize this again, no other energy sources, except for natural, well-dried firewood, will create in the steam room that health-improving microclimate, for which, in principle, the bath is most often built.

3. According to the location of the firebox

Both brick and metal bath stoves can have different layouts:

In one version, the entire furnace is located in the steam room, that is, it has to be fired directly from here. This design is certainly cheaper, much easier to manufacture and install, but there are a number of serious drawbacks. So, for example, you can’t create a supply of firewood in a steam room - they simply become saturated with moisture. Thus, if necessary, to maintain the fire, you will have to run out after them to another room or to the street. In addition, a steam room is usually not such a voluminous room, and therefore there is a high risk of getting an accidental burn from touching a red-hot furnace door.

From the point of view of convenience and safety of use, stoves win, in which the door of the combustion chamber is placed in the dressing room, and in the steam room itself there is a heater and, possibly, a tank for heating water. In such a stove, you can keep the fire going without disturbing anyone, and the overall level of safety increases in the steam room.

4. According to the method of heating the heater

Finally, sauna stoves differ in the way the stones are heated.

• Currently, constant heating stoves are most often used. In their design, the stones do not have direct contact with the outgoing combustion products - they are placed either in a metal container welded to the stove body, or in special lattice bodies located on the walls or even on the chimney. This arrangement of the furnace is more characteristic of the Finnish sauna. The heating temperature of the stones reaches 300 - 400 degrees. Usually, stones of a fairly small fraction are used, like coarse gravel. They are not covered with soot, as they are isolated from combustion products.

The convenience of such a stove is that the process of heating and, directly, taking bath procedures are not separated in time - you can maintain the fire and, accordingly, the temperature in the steam room for as long as necessary.

• Bath furnaces of periodic heating are arranged somewhat differently. Their design implies the removal of hot gases directly through the heater, with their subsequent exit into the chimney. At the same time, stones are heated to extremely high temperatures - up to 1000 degrees. However, after heating the stove, they must wait for the fuel to completely burn out and carbon monoxide to escape - only after that you can proceed to washing. In order not to cool quickly and not give off heavy wet steam, it is usually covered with either a lid or a hinged door.

According to this scheme usually formed classical Russian bath stoves - a heated bath was enough for all family members. When water hits such strongly heated stones, it instantly turns into steam. The main condition is that they must be massive, carefully selected, rounded, of a pronounced dark gray color, and their total mass must be at least 50 kilograms. From time to time, the heater is taken apart to clean the stones from the accumulated soot and replace the collapsed ones.

Schemes of such simple periodic ovens will be discussed below.

• It should be noted that there are models of stoves that combine the advantages of both devices. In them, the heater is divided into two areas - unventilated, placed in a special channel through which combustion products pass, and open.

In such a furnace, there are two heaters - an external ventilated and an internal one, which receives heat from combustion products.

Such stoves are quite complex in design, but they perfectly accumulate heat and give dry steam, and, if necessary, firewood can be thrown right in the process of washing.

The stove is the heart of the bath. In the absence of the proper skills, it is not easy to make it yourself. Think about what is more important: savings, most often imaginary, or the feeling of comfort that accompanies you during the arrangement of the bath and its use.

Those who prefer effective solutions should pay attention to the options for ready-made sauna stoves. Among them you will find devices that meet all the listed quality criteria, and at the same time have an affordable price.

Thus, among the leaders of the furnace market, heating installations from the Dobrostal Plant company, the winner of the competition “100 Best Goods of Russia”, can be singled out. In the assortment offered by her, such concise models of furnaces as:

• "Heat-Extra 400";
• "Heat-Lux 20".

The body material of the devices is carbon steel, one of the strongest and most heat-resistant materials. The ergonomic design of these wood-burning stoves allows them to be used not only as a heating unit, but also as a good interior solution.

The Zhara-Extra 400 model is designed for heating a steam room from 4 to 12 m 3 in size. The thickness of the roof and the weight of the furnace can also vary, based on your requirements.

Furnaces of the Zhara Lux series offer a wider range of models, with the ability to choose a device for heating a steam room area from 4 to 30 m 3.

The structures under consideration are equipped with a chimney-coil, which allows:

• make traction more uniform;
• save fuel.

By the way, the chimney can be disassembled for cleaning at any time.

The device package includes:

• grate;
• decorative elements;
• cast iron door
• closed heater with funnel for water supply;
• scoop;
• detailed installation guide.

Furnaces of the "Heat" series are able to satisfy the needs of an avid lover of a steam room, however, if the bath is not a hobby for you, but a real passion, we advise you to pay attention to the August Profi model, equipped with a panoramic glass door. The incomparable comfort of using this device will turn all parts of the bathing procedure into a pleasure.

The model in question is equipped with:

• closed-type heater;
• steam generation system.

Using the built-in system, you will be able to choose the “mode” for your steam room yourself:

• traditional Russian bathhouse;
• Finnish sauna for real Vikings;
• hammam for lovers of oriental pleasures.

The establishment of convection in the "Augusta Profi" is carried out by adjusting special dampers.

The desired model can also be purchased in simplified model variations "Standard", "Stone", however, it is the "Profi" version that is the most refined, powerful and multifunctional.

The listed designs represent only a small fraction of the Dobrostal Plant model range. We advise you to study it, and find the perfect heart for your steam room.

Prices for fireplaces and stoves

Fireplaces and stoves

How to make a metal stove for a bath yourself

There are countless options for metal bath stoves, and, by and large, anyone can come up with their own, relying on some basic models. As an example, we can cite several very simple stoves, the manufacture of which does not require any special knowledge and skills.

Periodic heating stove for a small family steam room

This is probably one h the simplest options. To make such a furnace, you need a metal sheet with a thickness of about 5 mm (steel St 3). In this case, it makes no sense to make a stove from a thinner sheet - it will burn out very quickly, and it will not retain heat efficiently.

• The dimensions of the stove are small - only 900 mm long, 800 - height with legs, and width along the front - 600 mm. It can be placed even in a very small steam room.
• For the chimney pipe, you will need a piece of pipe with a diameter of 115 mm. Its length can be different - some prefer a short pipe with a flange for connecting the chimney, others weld a long enough length on which you can put a hot water tank.
• In order for all seams to be durable, it is better to make them on a metal corner with a shelf of 30 × 30 × 3 mm. The same profile will also be needed for shelves and brackets for internal lattice partitions.
• In height, the space of the stove is divided into three unequal compartments. The lower, narrowest one is an ash pan (1) with a blower door. The size of this door is usually small, 2-2.5 times smaller than the furnace opening.
• Between the ash pan and the firebox (3), cast-iron grates are installed on brackets from the corner.

• If they could not be found, then you will have to weld a lattice of parallel bars with a diameter of at least 10 — 12 mm. The distance between the bars is kept the same - about 10 mm.
• The upper compartment is a heater through which combustion products are removed during heating of the stove (5). Gases pass freely through the grate (4), heat the stones and are discharged into the chimney (6).
• The doors of the combustion chamber and the blower-ashpit are broadcast on welded hinges and are necessarily equipped with latch valves.
• The rear part of the heater is welded by one third with a metal sheet (300 × 600 mm), in the center of which a hole is cut, where the chimney pipe is welded, which goes down by 100 - 120 mm.
• The diagram does not show the lid that is used to cover the heater during the heating of the sauna stove. It is easy to make it from thin metal (0.8 - 1.0 mm) in such a way that it completely covers the heater and slightly lies down on the body walls. This cover will not allow the stones to cool quickly, and in process the pre-heater of the bath will prevent the direct exit of combustion products into the room, directing them into the chimney pipe. Of course, good traction must be provided for this.

Immediately before the start of bath procedures, this cover is removed and the heater remains in the open position. However, sometimes they also provide a hinged hatch, which is opened when it is necessary to give steam, and the lid is constantly in place, keeping the heat of the stones longer.

• When the stove is fully welded, a thorough cleaning and check of the seams, removal of burrs and metal irregularities are carried out. It is recommended to cover the outside of the structure with a heat-resistant varnish specially designed for fireplaces and stoves.

Stones are laid in the compartment intended for them later, after the stove is installed in place in the bath and connected to the chimney. This will be discussed a little later.

The heat from such a stove after heating it should be enough for a full-fledged bath procedure for 2 - 3 people.

Periodically heated metal stove with additional brick walls

Another version of the open type stove, which, however, is somewhat more difficult to manufacture, but its ability to accumulate heat is much higher.

“Double” technology is already being used here - a metal case and internal brickwork. In this case, steel is not needed too thick - sheets of 1.5 - 2.0 mm are enough. Heat-resistant fireclay bricks are used for masonry, and as a mortar, it is best to purchase a ready-made dry mortar specially designed for stoves and fireplaces, and knead it in accordance with the preparation instructions.

• To begin with, a base is being prepared with legs welded to it with heel pads so that the design of the furnace is stable.
• Then, on this basis, the first continuous row of bricks is laid out. All other rows are made in a "half-brick" in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe firebox, and in a "quarter" - in the area of ​​​​chimney channels.
• After the camera is laid out ash pan-blower(1), a cast-iron grate is installed between it and the firebox (2). To leave openings for the blower and the loading window during masonry, it is fashionable to use jumpers from a metal corner 20 × 20, but only so as not to disturb the evenness of the inter-row seams.
• Above the combustion chamber, a grate of metal rods (Ø 12 mm) is installed, on which stones will subsequently be laid.
• On the left or right side of the masonry, at the level of the heater, a window (5) is left, which will serve to load the stones, for their regular inspection and cleaning, and in the process of bathing procedures - for steam generation - water from the ladle will splash into it.
• The sinuous chimney channel contributes to the most complete heating of the entire furnace structure and complete afterburning of all combustion products. In the back of this channel, at the level of turning it up, an inspection window is left, where a valve will then be mounted to maximize heat retention after the furnace has been fired.
• The upper two rows of bricks are made solid, only with a window for the exit of combustion products - in this place the chimney pipe will then be welded.
• When the brickwork is finished, and the mortar has set well enough, it is possible to sequentially weld the walls of the metal case to the base, which in this case plays the role of a kind of “case”. To facilitate this task, and at the same time to achieve tightness of the welds, a corner of 20 × 20 mm can be put on top of the joints.
• When marking the workpiece for the front wall, openings for the ash pan and the loading window of the combustion chamber are immediately outlined and cut out. After the front wall is in place, hinges are welded on which the doors of both chambers with locking devices are hung. The door leafs themselves should be 10–15 mm wider in each direction than the recessed windows in order to ensure tight closing. It would be useful to install an asbestos seal around the perimeter or even over the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe inner surface of the firebox door.

• During the installation of the side wall, from the side of the steam window left in the masonry, a opening and a metal door with a seal is installed. It is better to make it fold down and equip it with a “cold” handle so that you can open it during washing to give steam.
• The stove cover is welded last with a pre-cut hole for the chimney pipe. Then a piece of pipe with a diameter of 100 mm is welded.
• The stove will be loaded with stones after it is installed in the bathhouse at the prepared place.

Constant heating stoves with an open heater

It is even easier to build such stoves from a metal sheet or other available materials.

The figure shows an easy-to-manufacture stove made from trimming a metal thick-walled pipe with a diameter of 325 mm.

The pipe cavity itself is divided into two compartments by a grate. The upper, main one, serves as a firebox, the lower one serves as an ashpit-blower. Both compartments have their own doors, respectively, for laying firewood and providing air supply and cleaning.

Closer to the far, completely muffled end of the pipe, a chimney pipe with a diameter of 100 mm is welded.

A metal box is welded on top of the cylindrical body, which will be filled with stones. In order to ensure maximum heating of the stones, it is possible to make the chimney in this area not straight, but with a curved elbow - the contact area of ​​the hot pipe with the heater will increase significantly.

It will not be difficult to make a similar stove in the form of a parallelepiped, using metal sheets as blanks.

Very often, these stoves are equipped with hot water tanks. In the photo of the stove from the pipe, it is placed on the back plug, which is also the wall of the water tank.

In the manufacture of rectangular structures, there are much more options - tanks are placed on either side, on top, or even make a semblance of a “water jacket” from several sides, with a tie-in of cold and hot water supply pipes.

Another convenient option for solving the issue of heating water can be the installation of a special heat exchange tank on the chimney pipe.

Such water heaters can be made independently, but it is also possible to purchase a finished factory product that has a ton of a certain standard diameter. All that remains is to embed this tank into the vertical part of the chimney above the stove and connect the water supply and withdrawal pipes.

Such tanks can themselves have sufficient volume, or serve only as a heat exchanger and be connected to the main water tank.

Video: an interesting simple design of a metal stove for a bath

Preparing the site for installing the stove

Making your own stove for a bath is only half the battle. It is necessary to carefully prepare a place for its installation directly in the room.

Even just a metal stove is a fairly massive structure, especially if you add to its own weight the weight of the stone laying and the weight of the filled hot water tank. Thus, it is necessary to prepare the base - a kind of podium on which it will be installed. It is best to provide your own foundation for it.

• To do this, a small pit (up to 500 mm deep) comes off in a selected place.
• A sand layer up to 100 mm is laid on the bottom, then, after tamping, another 200 mm gravel and crushed stone backfill.
• A layer of cut-off waterproofing is laid - usually roofing material is used for this.
• Then a concrete solution is poured to the ground level with a filling of sand and fine gravel.

• After this site has completely solidified (at least 3 weeks), a layer of roofing material is laid on top of it, and then a continuous laying of baked bricks is performed
• The masonry is carried out either to the level of the "clean" floor of the bath, or even a little, 100 - 150 mm higher, thus constructing a raised podium for installing the stove.

It is impossible to put the oven on a concrete base - for all the seeming solidity and strength, it will certainly begin to crack and crumble in conditions of high humidity and high temperatures.

From walls, especially wooden ones, the stove should be located at a distance of at least 200 mm. The walls must be sheathed with heat-resistant material - stainless steel sheet or "Isover" - foil thermal insulator based on harmless basalt mineral wool.

Izover is an excellent material for thermal insulation of bath walls at the installation site of the stove.

Very often, metal stoves are “dressed” in brickwork. This gives a number of advantages - there is less risk of getting burned on hot walls, plus brickwork will be another fairly capacious heat accumulator.

You can learn more about this process from. Here are just a few important notes:

• The distance from metal walls to brickwork is recommended to be kept at 100 mm. This is necessary for normal air circulation - a powerful convection flow will be created, contributing to uniform and rapid heating of the steam room. For the same purpose, special windows must be provided below the masonry. The metal walls of the stove, lined with bricks on the outside without a gap, close, due to a violation of normal heat transfer, will burn out very quickly.

• For masonry, only natural clay oven mortar or special building mixtures designed specifically for such purposes, with pronounced moisture and moisture properties, can be used. thermal stability.
• The brick lining of the stove must be thought out in advance - this is taken into account when pouring the foundation and laying out the brick podium.

Refractory brick prices

Refractory brick

Stone laying

The efficiency of a home-made bath stove will also largely depend on the stones - the correctness of their selection and laying out in the heater.

Even a small stove requires no less than a 50-kilogram stack, but it’s still better to focus on 80 for a family bath. — 100 kg.

It is better to choose cobblestones with a rounded shape, even gray color, without surface flaws (cracks or breaks). It is desirable that the stones be of various sizes - from 50 to 150 mm.

Granite for sauna stove absolutely useless. Firstly, its structure is unstable to frequent processes of strong heating with simultaneous exposure to steam - destruction will begin very quickly. Secondly, granite always contains mica inclusions, and when heated, they are capable of emitting quite toxic fumes.

Jadeite is one of the best options for a heater. In addition to its natural beauty, it is also credited with medicinal properties.

The best materials, in addition to the usual natural cobblestone, are talc chloride, basalt or jadeite. Such stones of various sizes can be purchased at specialized stores.

It is very important to lay the stones correctly. The layout begins in such a way that the largest, most massive of them are at the bottom. They will not prevent the passage of heat to those located above and will create a powerful supply of heat. Then stones of medium size are laid out, and only at the very top - small in size.

This order will provide the upper layer of stones with heating to a temperature of 300 - 400 º - exactly what is needed for dry steam. When water hits well-heated stones, evaporation occurs literally instantly and is accompanied by a characteristic crack.

If the stones are flattened, then when laying them, their spatial orientation must also be taken into account. With their long side, they should be located along the main heat flow, otherwise a kind of “locking” will occur when the lower stones overheat and the upper ones do not reach the required temperature regime.

Neglecting the rules for laying stones will drastically reduce the overall healing effect of the bath. The steam will begin to “get heavier” very quickly, and although, perhaps, the overall temperature in the steam room will not decrease significantly, staying in it will do more harm than good - there is simply nothing to breathe in a waterlogged room.

Video: how to properly lay stones in a sauna stove

Prices for various types of stones for furnaces

Stones for stoves

So, a do-it-yourself sauna stove is a completely feasible task, if all technological nuances are taken into account during manufacture, and the established safety requirements are observed during installation. But a self-made stove will not only help save a fairly significant amount, but will also become the pride of the owner when it becomes possible to invite his friends to the bath.

The choice of a stove for a bath is a responsible matter. Not only the fire safety of the steam room, but also the softness of the heat, the saturation of the steam and the rate of heating of the steam room directly depend on its type, form, type of fuel use.

What parameters to look for when choosing a furnace?

In general, if there are any specific criteria for choosing a sauna stove, then the most important of them is this: the stove must have sufficient thermal power and, preferably, a wide dynamic range of regulation of this power.

But what can be called sufficient thermal power? Here it all depends on the size of the steam room. Usually, it will take about half an hour to warm up this room to 50 degrees, and adjacent rooms in summer, and about an hour in winter. In addition, the kindling time also depends on whether it is a frame bath or a log cabin.

Here is a simple example of calculating the required power of the stove: the cost of heating a total area of ​​​​22 sq.m. (floor, walls, ceiling) will be 4 kW. If we take into account the heating of the stove itself, its stones, a tank of water, then this figure should be multiplied by another 3, which will be 12 kW. This is for a steam room, upholstered. But if its walls are a bare log house, then you will have to multiply by another 1.5, which will result in 18 kW. If you need to warm up adjacent rooms, then another x2, which will give 26 kW. But, if you do not spare time for warming up, then this sufficient power can be completely reduced by one and a half times.

As for the dynamic range, 1:10 will be enough for a sauna stove - then it will be able to provide both 2 kW and 29 kW equally well. The easiest way to do this is in gas and electric stoves, with firewood - a little more difficult.

• by regulating the supplied fuel for a certain period of time;
• limitation of air volume;
• release of excess heat into the environment.

As for wood stoves, the first method is difficult for them - all because of the inertia of combustion. But the second one is much more effective if you think carefully about the special designs of dampers, ash pans, etc. But with the third method, you will literally have to chill the steam room, opening the doors to the street.

But how to find out the thermal power of the furnace if it is not indicated in the manufacturer's passport? It is easier to do this with a tape measure - calculate the internal volume of the stove. Its power is proportional to the volume of the furnace, and it can even be calculated using the following formula:

Furnace power = 0.5 x V (furnace volume in liters)

In general, a standard furnace with a furnace volume of 30 liters usually has a power of 15-18 kW.

Why is dynamic range so important? Yes, because in order for the furnace to heat up quickly enough, the thermal regime was stable, but then overheating did not happen. For wood stoves, according to experts, this range is 1:5.

Comparison of microclimate readings in various types of baths

In addition to good thermal power, the sauna stove must also meet the following standards:

• The stove should have a good heat accumulator and a steam generator so that you can easily create the desired mode and turn the steam room into a dry Finnish sauna or a real Russian bath according to your mood.

• In the furnace, means of convection control must be thought out.
• There should be no significant surfaces on the oven, the temperature of which is higher than 150?C.

The size of the firebox and the furnace itself is already an individual matter, but the register-heat exchanger will definitely not hurt either.

And the best sauna stoves that are produced today have all of the above items.

Additional but important options

In addition to the performance of the furnace itself, when choosing it, it will not be superfluous to pay attention to such details:

1. Material of manufacture

Its service life completely depends on the quality of the brick, steel or cast iron of the furnace and the thickness of the walls of its furnace. But what kind of sauna stoves are better in terms of material of manufacture? To date, modern chromium steel units are considered the most durable, which have the highest design reliability and the production of "clean air" - they do not oxidize chemically inert material, and therefore oxygen in the room is not burned out. It is this steel that is used by domestic manufacturers Termofor and Feringer, Swedish Tylo and Finnish companies Kastor, Harvia and Helo.

If we talk about how to choose a stove in a steel bath, then the highest quality ones are produced by Finnish companies. Their assembly, seam processing and metal welding itself are deservedly considered exemplary.

But stoves with a real cast-iron firebox today are already a rarity, although cast iron is actually an excellent material. So far, its only option on the modern market is Sudarushka M, manufactured by the Russian plant Inzhkomtsentr.

As for brick ovens for baths, it is worth noting that their laying in Russia at all times was a real art. Even in those days, not many people knew the secrets of building a brick oven, and today a real stove-maker cannot be found at all with fire. You can, of course, guided by our website, fold such an oven yourself. But it is better to familiarize yourself with its disadvantages in advance - it is difficult to melt it, it heats up for a long time, and even before construction begins, you need to take care of a high-quality separate foundation - and after all, the zero cycle is considered the most difficult and costly in construction. In addition, to get steam on such a stove, you also need to splash water, and the wet brick does not smell very fragrant. That is why, if the design of the steam room initially assumed only a brick stove, you can go this way: purchase a modern compact metal stove - wood-burning or electric - and complete it in the form of a screen with beautiful decorative bricks of various colors.

2. Location of the furnace and type of fuel

Today, heaters are available with only two options for the furnace - an elongated one, for installation in a wall opening, and a regular one. The first option is used so that the stove can be heated from an adjacent room - this is much better in terms of the microclimate of the steam room and its fire safety.

As for the type of fuel, firewood is far from the only option for modern sauna stoves. Oddly enough, and despite the warnings of particularly meticulous experts, more convenient gas and electric designs are becoming more and more fashionable. The main thing is that the result of their firebox does not depend at all on the quality of the available firewood or the skill of the firebox. On the other hand, the installation of a gas furnace can only be carried out by specialists and with special permission, but an electric one, on the contrary, is much easier to install than the construction of heavy brickwork with a serious foundation.

3. Steam source

The answer to the question of which stove to choose for a bath also depends on such a factor as the steam it produces. For a real Russian bath, you need really high-quality dry steam - this is its most important recognizable attribute. But not all heaters are capable of producing it in this way - modern models are closer in design to sauna stoves. But there is a way out: in extreme cases, you can additionally purchase an electric steam generator for a bath - that's the whole solution to the problem.

Or a country cottage has long ceased to amaze the neighbors. The basis of the bath and its heart is a stove, traditional, made of bricks or modern metal. There are many different types and subspecies of stoves on the market designed for installation in a bath.

The cost varies depending on the complexity of the design, type of fuel and power. The best sauna stoves heat up quickly and do not cool down for a long time, maintaining a constant temperature and saving fuel.

Types of stoves for a bath

All furnaces can be represented in the form of a certain classification, this will facilitate the choice when buying. Despite the fact that their main function is to provide the bath with a sufficient level of heat and high-quality steam, they perform it in different ways.

The model range is represented by the following main types:

• By fuel used: gas, electric and wood;
• By type of stone heating: direct and indirect;
• According to the material of manufacture: brick and metal;
• According to the temperature of the outer walls: cold and hot;
• Wood-burning heaters differ in the type of furnace mode and are of continuous and intermittent action;
• Another option for those who want to heat the stove while in the next room is a design with a remote firebox.

Note! Brick may not be the most suitable option; for its correct and safe functioning, a competent specialist is needed. It is quite difficult to fold the stove-heater in compliance with all the norms and rules with your own hands.

The choice of stove according to the type of fuel: wood

Traditionally, the stove was heated with wood - it was the most affordable type of fuel at that time. Its feature is the ability to use it in the absence of a gas pipeline and electricity.

Structural - chimney, ash pan, grate and firebox. The material for the manufacture is often brick, less often metal.

Which stove for a bath will function better depends on many factors. First of all, this is its power relative to the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe steam room and adjacent rooms. All wood stoves, regardless of the material of manufacture, have common elements in the design, without which they cannot work.

Details that ensure the full functioning of the system:

• Grate - through it oxygen is supplied to the furnace to ensure the combustion process;
• Furnace department- a place where firewood is laid. Its volume affects performance. The larger it is, the higher its power;
• Kamenka - it is responsible for the degree of heated stones and heat resistance. The best sauna stoves can accommodate from 4 to 7 kg of stones per cubic meter of space;
• Ash pan - ash accumulates there. It is located under the grate and is a metal drawer.

These components are the same for all wood-burning stoves.

Types of brick kilns

Benefits of a wood burning brick oven:

• Keeps heat for a long time, about 10 hours;
• It is safer in terms of fire;
• In winter, even the next day in the bath, the temperature is above zero;
• A brick stove is able to heat several rooms at once in a bath. The price of such a heater will be slightly higher.

Note! Not every brick is suitable for the oven - only full-bodied ones are used. The other one may crack.

What is the best stove to install in the bath depends on personal wishes.

But all brick ovens are divided into:

• Built in white- heating is carried out from a metal plate, it takes about 12 hours. They keep heat for a very long time, leaving the room clean. A chimney is required.
• Built in gray, as in the first case there is a chimney. But from time to time soot accumulates inside and therefore it is necessary to wait for the complete combustion of firewood before proceeding to bath procedures;
• The rarest type - "in black" the chimney is not supposed to be at all in the room a lot of soot and soot.

Types of metal furnaces

It has its own distinctive features. They must be taken into account when choosing - there are, made by casting and assembled from various nodes.

Which stove is better in a metal or cast-iron bath, you can decide only after getting acquainted with their differences and common features:

• The main metal for manufacturing is steel - stainless or heat-resistant. The walls are made of thin plates, they quickly heat up, but do not accumulate heat well enough;
• Stainless steel structures last longer and do not interact with oxygen, that is, they are less prone to destruction;
• Due to the thin walls, the stove quickly warms up the room;
• Metal ones are light in weight, so they support heat only at the expense of the heater.

Cast iron stoves for a bath are significantly superior to metal stoves in many respects. First of all, due to their large weight, they have a good power reserve and are able to maintain a certain temperature level in the steam room for a long time.

Their main advantage is their compact size. It is important that the best cast iron sauna stove heats up quickly like steel and cools for a long time like brick.

Continuous and intermittent furnaces

Furnaces are divided into two subspecies according to the type of heating - continuous and intermittent. The former use gas, electricity, liquid or briquettes as fuel.

They are equipped with automatic temperature control. They can be heated throughout the entire period of the bath procedure. Stones heat up to 300-350 degrees.

Constructions of periodic action - wood. You can’t steam in the bath until it is completely heated, otherwise you can get poisoned with carbon monoxide.

The stones here have uneven heating. From below - 1100 degrees, and from above about 500. Which sauna stove is better for large buildings is decided at the design stage.

Gas and electric sauna stoves

Another option, instructions are always attached to it.

It has certain features:

• No wood manipulation and therefore no chimney needed;
• No need to be afraid of carbon monoxide;
• Completely safe;
• It will keep the desired temperature level for as long as it takes.

A reliable steel frame protects from accidental burns. There are models made from a grid in which stones are stacked.

Gas oven:

• The possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning is almost completely excluded;
• Rapid heating of the surface and the room;
• Possibility to regulate the temperature.

Such an oven is suitable for those who do not like haste in bath procedures. It does not really matter which stoves are better for a bath, the main thing is that they meet safety requirements.

Conclusion

The variety of types of sauna stoves allows you to choose the one that will fully suit the main characteristics, will be durable and safe. However, they all fulfill one goal - they provide a bath with high-quality steam. The video in this article will tell you more about which one will be better.

The most important element of the bath, of course, is the oven. In fact, without this device, a bath, as such, is impossible in principle, and the quality of the procedures taken depends on how efficiently the stove will work.

So, a logical question is brewing: what are and which oven for a bath is better to choose so as not to return to this problem for many years? And the choice, paradoxically, is complicated by the fact that there is a very wide range of such heating devices on the market, which have different designs and use different energy sources. To understand the rich variety of sauna stoves, it is necessary to consider different options and highlight their advantages and disadvantages. Only in this way will it be possible to make an informed choice both according to the model and in relation to the specific volume of the bath room.

The main criteria for choosing a sauna stove

The first thing to do is to decide on the qualities that a bath heater should have.

• The safety of a sauna stove can be put, perhaps, in the first place when choosing it. However, this quality depends not only on the design of the unit, but also on its correct installation. In the very cramped conditions of the steam room, no one should even accidentally get burned.
• High heat dissipation. The stove should quickly and fully warm up the bath rooms. This criterion will be discussed in more detail below.
• Maintaining the required temperature for the entire period of taking bath procedures.
• The stove must be equipped with a good reliable chimney, that is, the smoke during its combustion should not enter the dressing room, washing room or steam room.
• It is highly desirable to provide for the possibility of heating the required amount of water.
• For a traditional Russian bath, the stove must be able to heat the air in the steam room to 60-70 degrees with a humidity of 85-90%.
• When organizing a dry Finnish sauna, the stove should heat the air up to 80÷90 degrees.

The basic criterion is the thermal power of the furnace

All of the above items may seem like just a list of "good intentions". But how to actually choose a stove for an existing steam room?

Each heating device is characterized by thermal power - the amount of generated thermal energy that it is able to transfer to the room. This parameter is usually measured in kilowatts. And there is a common opinion that for every cubic meter of steam room volume there should be at least 1 kW of furnace power.

That is, everything seems to be simple. But in reality, real conditions often make very significant adjustments.

Manufacturers of sauna stoves, in addition, usually indicate in the passport data how much steam room this model is designed for. For example - for a room with a volume of 8÷12 m³. Typically, a suitable appliance is chosen so that the available volume of the steam room is approximately in the middle of this range.

It would seem, what is the problem? - any student who is familiar with the basic rules of geometry can calculate the volume. But it happens that, to their surprise (and, of course, disappointment), the owners notice that the stove selected according to this principle does not adequately cope with its tasks. And why can this be? Is the manufacturer cheating? No, just the volume of the steam room itself is not yet an “absolute” value. Agree that in different baths with approximately the same size of the premises, the conditions can be very different.

The volume indicated by the manufacturer can be conditionally attributed to some “ideal conditions”. Therefore, the task seems to be the following - to bring the existing (or planned to create) conditions to a certain “virtual volume of the steam room”, which will take into account all the specifics of this room. And to select a sauna stove already under the obtained indicator.

This algorithm probably looks somewhat abstruse, but the online calculator below will help you quickly and with a sufficient degree of accuracy to carry out such calculations. Under the calculator are the necessary explanations for the calculation.

Advantages of wood burning stoves:

• savings on the supply of gas pipes or;
• firewood can be easily purchased or prepared independently;
• wood fills the room with a pleasant aroma;
• wide range of models.

Cons of wood stoves:

• erection and periodic cleaning;
• the steam room will warm up for a long time compared to stoves operating on another;
• systematic cleaning of the ash pan;
• firewood will have to be constantly thrown up so that the warming process does not freeze.

Gas sauna stoves

This type of oven is characterized by the presence of a thermostat and a gas fuse. Well, and, of course, the source of gas is either a main gas pipeline, or.

In favor of gas stoves they say the following pluses:

• compactness (no ash pan and firebox) - accordingly, such a stove can be installed even in a small steam room;
• no need to constantly monitor the availability of fuel (for example, you do not have to throw firewood regularly);
• you can independently regulate the temperature (set it to a comfortable one, and it will be maintained in the steam room);
• fast heating with low gas consumption.

cons few, but they are:

• the need to connect to a gas pipeline or purchase a cylinder;
• in the case of the operation of the furnace from bottled gas, you will have to take care of the fire safety not only of the bath itself, but also of the place where the cylinders are stored.

Where and how to store gas cylinders in the country, you will learn from the article

Important:

1. When buying a gas oven, be sure check all documents for it(technical certificate). The device must comply with generally accepted quality standards for gas equipment. If there are no documents, alas, you have come across an unscrupulous seller. And no one is responsible for reliability.
2. buy gas ovens well-known manufacturers in branded stores. By no means "private".
3. Devices that are past their useful life or simply "junk" can be sold on used item websites. You should not tempt fate with such a furnace, even if you are seduced by a small price.

Electric sauna stoves

Finally, the most popular type of sauna stoves today are electric stoves. They differ in shape, size and power. They work, of course, on electricity.

Electric oven for a bath. Photo from the site

Advantages of electric ovens:

• compactness;
• reliability and durability;
• quick heating of the steam room in a short time;
• uniform heating;
• affordable cost;
• no need to build and clean a chimney, supply gas pipes, etc.
• high level of fire safety.

By cons, perhaps, it is possible to attribute the type of fuel itself. If the area where your site is located is famous for power outages, then the stove will have nothing to “eat”. Alternatively, you can adapt, but it's still not very convenient.

Combined models operate on two types of fuel. For example, there are gas-wood stoves. They use firewood and liquefied gas. Their design provides for the presence of a firebox for firewood and gas burner equipment.

2. Firebox location

On this basis, furnaces are divided into ordinary and with extended firebox. Elongated allows you to heat the steam room from an adjacent room. This improves the level of fire safety and makes the microclimate of the bath more comfortable.

3. Steam source

This additional parameter divides the range of ovens into, again, ordinary and with separate steam generator. Traditional bath steam should be dry and not heavy. Not every oven is capable of producing a sufficient amount of such steam. Then the steam generator is used.

4. Features of heating the room

Sauna stoves can be cold and hot. At the first, the walls will not heat up above +45 ° C. The second can warm up to +100 ° C. Heat is given off through the walls.

5. Shape

There are 3 main types of sauna stoves:

1. rectangular,
2. curly,
3. cylindrical.

Rectangular is a classic option. They are stable, the shape supports uniform heating of all parts of the furnace. What can not be said about the cylindrical. Their upper and lower parts may heat up unevenly. Such a furnace can deform over time.