The stove is the main element of the Russian bath. Coziness and temperature in the steam room will depend on its type, as well as the possibility of saving firewood, which is important. A stove for a Russian bath, you can choose a ready-made one, or you can do it yourself. First, choose a project and decide on the materials.
Types of sauna stoves
Which stove is better to put in the bath depends on what is planned to be done: a bath or a sauna. Some stoves are more suitable for generating steam, while others dry the air and increase the temperature. A large amount of steam and lower temperatures is a bath, a high temperature and a low percentage of humidity is a sauna. For example, dry air is not recommended for people with respiratory problems; it is useful for them to breathe in steam. The same goes for colds. It is recommended to enter the sauna for people with a healthy heart, more enduring, since the body begins to give up a lot of liquid in the form of sweat. An electrolyte imbalance may begin and your health will deteriorate. Therefore, first you need to decide what is healthier.
There are sauna stoves according to the following parameters:
- Fuel type - wood, gas, electricity.
- By materials of manufacture - brick, stone, metal.
- According to the temperature of the outer wall - cold and hot. In the first case, heating is done with a cold wall, if there are alternative ways to heat the room. A hot outer wall is necessary if, in addition to the stove, the room is no longer heated by anything else. In this case, there is a risk of overheating the bath and lowering the humidity.
The type of wood of the firewood also plays a role: after conifers, more soot is formed, so the elements will have to be cleaned more often.
Brick oven
The brick firebox is large and heavy. To warm up the room well, the brickwork must contain several layers and have a foundation. The brick oven has the following structural elements:
- The firebox is the heart of the building. Lined with refractory bricks. The service life will depend on how well the construction technology is followed. It is impossible to replace refractory bricks with ordinary red ones - it quickly burns out.
- Cast iron or steel grate where coals are located.
- Box or compartment for collecting burnt residues - ash pan.
- Coil for heating water.
- An obligatory element is a chimney, without which it is dangerous to heat the stove due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
For the construction of a brick firebox, clay, sand and bricks of two types are required. Cement is not used in construction, as it cracks at high temperatures.
Advantage of a brick sauna stove:
- Long-term retention of heat. Its amount directly depends on the size of the structure.
- You can heat a large sauna room.
- Protection against fire, since protective technologies and refractory materials are used in construction.
Disadvantages:
- To achieve the desired temperature, a brick stove needs to be heated for a long time, sometimes 3 - 5 hours.
- It is necessary to work with drawings during construction, since the efficiency of work and traction will depend on correctly stacked layers.
- Takes up a lot of indoor space.
The construction of a bath brick oven is a laborious and time-consuming process. The cost also exceeds all similar products.
Electric heater
Electrical units for heating a bath are made of several sheets of steel. These are modern devices that can be programmed to the desired temperature. There are sensors that protect the product from overheating. The advantages of electrical appliances include:
- Ability to work in automatic mode. There is no need to monitor the availability of fuel.
- There is no danger of carbon monoxide poisoning if used improperly.
- It can be installed in a humid room, since the device has a high IP protection degree.
- Safe - the risk of getting burned is minimized.
- Small dimensions with high power allow heating both small and large rooms.
The disadvantages of the work include high power consumption, as well as a small work resource - an average of 6 years. You will also need to lay a thick copper cable - at least 5 mm thick.
Metal oven
Welded metal structures are distinguished by the fact that they quickly heat up the room - in 1 - 2 hours. Moreover, they do not need a chimney. The advantages of a metal stove include:
- ease of installation - no foundation is needed;
- relatively low weight of the product;
- materials are cheaper than building a brick stove.
Disadvantages:
- When the fuel burns, the structure cools down quickly, so it is necessary to monitor and throw up firewood.
- To avoid a fire, you need to take additional measures to protect the incandescent object from wooden structures.
- The efficiency is lower than that of a brick firebox.
- There is a risk of getting burned, since the walls are not protected by anything from the outside.
It is better to install metal structures if it is possible to constantly monitor the temperature and you do not need to go far for firewood.
Gas oven
Such ovens are capable of operating in automatic mode; they do not need to be controlled. It is enough to set the required temperature, and the automation will maintain the operating mode.
The advantages of the units:
- The design was chosen so that the fuel gives off heat with maximum efficiency.
- Environmentally friendly materials are used.
- Adjustment can be made from an adjacent room.
- The container with stones heats up quickly and with the help of a ventilated mode of operation, warm air quickly spreads through the room.
- A tank for heating water is provided.
Gas-wood-burning units are versatile stoves that can be used depending on the availability of fuel. The number of stones determines how many hours after turning off the gas, the steam room can be kept warm.
Disadvantages of a gas stove:
- It can be installed if the house is connected to a natural gas main or there are imported cylinders.
- High requirements for fire safety.
The burner power must be calculated from the area of the room, as well as the height of the ceilings in the bath and the degree of vapor barrier.
Criterias of choice
- The structure should correspond in power to the area of the room, and also be able to regulate the thermal coefficient in a wide range. With the help of a stove, you need to warm up the room, water, create steam in the steam room. The heat should be enough to dry the room on its own after all the procedures. The easiest way to adjust the power is in electric and gas models. Wood-burning stoves are more difficult - they do not have temperature sensors.
- Compactness with maximum efficiency. Refers to electric and gas stoves. Brick structures are much larger and "eat up" a good part of the steam room.
- It is advisable to provide for the possibility of switching from bath mode to sauna mode - the maximum and minimum amount of steam in the air that can be controlled.
- The material of manufacture is the quality of the brick and the thickness of the steel sheets from which the walls are made.The quality of welding and seam processing matters. In this regard, the Finns are considered the best producers. If we consider the cast iron version, they are produced only by one domestic plant. Steel must be selected with a chromium content of at least 13%.
The appearance of the model matters, so budget purchased devices cannot be compared in beauty with custom-made copies.
Rating of the best ovens
Rating of the best wood-burning stoves for a bath in the domestic market:
- Teplodar Sahara 24LK / LKU. Steam can be produced 20 minutes after switching on. Thanks to the different settings, you can easily switch to the sauna or bath mode. Has a volumetric heater. Suitable for large rooms from 24 square meters. Among the disadvantages - the walls are deformed at high temperatures and frequent use.
- Varvara Terma. Can be used as a stove in a sauna or as a heating boiler. The set includes a water tank. Suitable for rooms up to 24 square meters. Has a large container for stones. Among the disadvantages is the formation of condensation. The chimney must be cleaned once a month so that the draft does not deteriorate.
- Vesuvius Scythian standard. You can choose in two versions - with an open and closed container for stones, as well as with a forged or glass door. The water tank is not included in the package.
- Hephaestus is a massive cast iron model that can compete with the best European brands. The disadvantage is the high cost of construction and the large dimensions of the product.
Of the foreign manufacturers, the best are Finnish brands - Harvia, Helo, Feringer.
The best sauna stoves with a long service life, made of quality materials (mainly chrome-plated steel) are quite expensive, but users do not experience problems and inconveniences with lighting and maintaining the temperature.
Equipment features
Closed stoves have three compartments - a blower from the bottom, a fuel compartment above, a closed heater, and a water tank. The closed design heats up less and dries the air. Due to the temperature difference, high humidity is created, so this type is more suitable for a Russian bath.
Open-type units have an open container for stones. When heated, their heat spreads faster and dries up the air more. To maintain steam, water must be poured onto the stones. Open heaters warm the room better. It is possible to pressurize the temperature up to 100 degrees.
The combined models have a closed firebox and an open stone container.
The models of sauna stoves differ in the type of firebox - ordinary and elongated. The elongated version is better, since you can heat the unit from an adjacent room. In this case, the heat dissipates more evenly, providing a comfortable climate in all corners of the bath.
Choosing the size of the sauna stove
In addition to the size of the firebox and the firewood compartment, the volume of the stove is important, as well as the number and size of the stones themselves. The larger the size of the stone, the longer it heats up, but the longer it keeps warm. Smaller stones heat up faster but also release energy quickly.
You should choose a stove for a bath so that its size is not too large, but at the same time the owner did not experience problems with heating the room:
- Calculate the volume of the room by multiplying the height, length and width.
- The result must be divided by 2 to get the number of kilowatts. This will be the approximate power of the stove.
- The number of kilowatts is multiplied by 3. This is necessary to provide for heat loss through the chimney, walls, if they are not insulated.
- The resulting value is divided by 0.5.
- The cube root is extracted from the resulting number. This will be the approximate volume of the firebox.
The ratio of the size of the firebox to the size of the room should be 1:50. It is important to take into account the ratio of the volume of the furnace to the cross-section of the chimney - it should be in a ratio of 1:10.
Dimensions are needed if the stove is planned to be built independently. In purchased models, all parameters are taken into account and are described in the instructions.
Bath heating specifics
- Turkish sauna. In it, the floors are heated using pipes that are located throughout the area. As a result, you can only walk there in special shoes. The pipes also heat the beds.
- The Finnish bath is heated by metal structures that spread heat to the walls. The Finns did not build stone baths, because it is not easy to heat the stone in this way.
- The Russian bath is heated by steam from stones or boiling water in a tank.
- Using infrared radiation from incandescent spirals that transfer heat to the human body.
- The Japanese principle is that first the water in the pool or tank is heated, and then the heat is transferred to the air.
- Spraying hot water, such as a shower, increases the air temperature.
In practice, the Finnish or Russian variants of heating and steam generation are most often used.
About choosing stones and caring for them
Stones are selected according to three parameters:
- Density or weight. The higher, the more energy-intensive the stone will be.
- Heat resistance - the ability of a material to withstand frequent heating and temperature changes.
- Heat capacity - the ability of a solid material to retain heat during cooling.
Bath stones must have a homogeneous structure, not have cracks. They are chosen in size, which should be approximately the same - with a fist. You can check its strength like this: heat the stone and immediately lower it into a bucket of ice water. If the specimen does not collapse and cracks do not go, it can be placed in the stove.
For 1 square meter, it is necessary to lay 5 - 6 kg of stones. It is not enough to know which stove to put in the bath - you still need to choose and sort the stones correctly. Usually the largest specimens are laid down, then smaller ones and very small ones on top.
The most useful properties are found in basalt, white quartz, talcochlorite and crimson quartzite. When the temperature rises, ions of mineral substances are released from them into the air, which is useful to inhale. Jadeite, gabbro-diabase, dunite, porphyrite are also suitable. You need to look for suitable specimens near fresh water bodies, since they are more resistant to destruction from high temperatures.
During use, stones should be periodically washed and sorted, removing cracked samples and replacing them with new ones.
