Giant Siberian Wood Stove That Anyone Can Build - Masonry Heater

[@EfficientEnergyTransformations]

I have build a fireplace on the same principle (with 4 heat-bells) and have a construction video on my channel. The most efficient ones are called Kuznetsov stoves and are 90-95% efficient. I have been using mine (1600 bricks, about 13 000 pounds, spread on 3 floors) for the past 3 years and works amazingly. The constructions are so versatile that, ones the principles of free-floating hot gasses are known, technically there is absolutely no limitation one can build, and the efficiencies that can be achieved. Actually one burns such a fireplace only ones (extremely hot fire) per 24 hours, usually between 6-10 hours, depending, clearly on the environmental factors and the house heat-holding abilities. The point of the internal chimneys ( in the heat-bells ) is to prevent the hot gasses to go directly to the next heat-bell chamber. The gasses have to radiate partially the heat energy (high in the bell) and fall to the bottom before moving up (through the internal chimney) to the next heat-bell. This hot gasses movement, and extracting the energy from them, is known and the theory of free-floating hot gasses.

[@stoveadvice]

What Kuznetsov design is that. I don't recognize yours from his plans at www.stove.ru

[@stephanygates6491]

Excellent presentation! I now clearly understand all the necessary elements of design. The chimney damper is not a CO risk if the fire is actually extinguished when it's closed. The whitewash isn't for heat, its final seal against gases escaping through cracks. It makes cracks immediately apparent for attention with more whitewash. The firebox can be lined with firebrick to take the speed of temp change. Not that hard to custom cut a few bricks.

[@ramseydieter]

Matt! It’s crazy when two worlds collide…I’m like hey I know this voice! I wouldn’t expect but am also not surprised to see you covering masonry. I miss seeing your other videos as you always laid everything out and had valuable perspectives.

[@stoveadvice]

Thanks!

[@khazdor]

As a Designer/Draftsman of over 40+ years, I agree. The concept is Bloody Good and looks highly functional. I've added this one to my list of potential heating sources for the Retirement home we are going to build next year. My Thanks for showing me thing. BTW, my Better Half likes the cooking surface, but she asked me to design an add-on for baking. :) I'll probably put the design here for you perusal. Again Thanks.

[@stoveadvice]

Well, with most of these stoves you can have a metal "cook top" OR an oven above or next to the firebox but........ It's highly complicated and a massive project to make a stove that has both of these, but I have seen it done and there are Russian plans for them. See my earlier video a month or two back on "free plans for Kuznetsov stoves"

[@Bazza1968]

I'm in the Scottish Highlands and want to build one of these in a large "garden room" I'm planning (I'm a stonemason to trade, as in dressing sandstone not just brick/block work) and want to make a feature of this but the biggest hurdle I can see is that this is so alien to our culture that nobody makes the doors/fire boxes etc and I can't find anyone importing them or even plans/dimensions should I be able to get a blacksmith to fabricate one. Our main house has a 12kw multifuel stove and it depresses me to see just how much heat goes 7m up through an insulated flue and out to the atmosphere. Criminal really, this should be heating a thermal mass store too.....

[@stoveadvice]

There must be doors for sale in the U.K. Search "masonry heater parts" ... "masonry heater doors." There would be MANY options in Germany, Norway, and Finland if you need to ship something in. Search the correct name per country... in Germany... kachelofen. Worst case scenario you could make a door of stone with a handle cemented in, air inlet would have to be separate or "air coming under with a grate" ... but yea.. we all want to see the fire. When air comes "from under" the firebox should be tall.

[@stoveadvice]

NOTE. Most traditional stove makers use 3 parts sand to 1 part fireclay for the JOINTS between the bricks... BUT... in this guy's application in making his own bricks he probably did the opposite.... 3 parts dirt to 1 part sand for the brick itself. For "bought bricks" for the joints, I recommend, 3 parts sand to 1 part fireclay, to 1 part lime (OR 1/2 part Type N cement) to 1 part wood ash. AND.. the joints should be thin... no more than 3/8th... 1/4 inch is best. The traditional stove makers don't use the lime or cement, but it's very hard for the amateur to keep working without a little "binder" of some kind. Clay and sand does not bind strong. There is no glue. It hard to "keep working" because everything slides around. I used 1 part lime AND a tiny bit of Type N. The bricks "bind up a bit" in just 10 minutes so you can keep working and doing more rows. No, the heat won't destroy the joints with that little tiny bit of cement or lime. Lime is not nearly as strong as cement.

[@CloudPine-x7i]

Good stuff Matt. I'm looking forward to your comments on the Korean ondol. Some good videos out there of them being built. Kind of cool that the fire box is generally outside. No real bypass damper either which is something you always seem to emphasize.

[@muddymike]

I have used about 10% Portland cement in pottery kiln building, along with about 20 fire clay and 70sand. I saw a recipe for 1 fireclay, 1 Portland, 1 lime, 3 sand. Which I will probably try soon. Thanks man, awesome channel Matt!

[@muddymike]

Matt, I am designing a masonry heater for the house. It’s going to be two stories, I am starting it on a concrete poured basement floor and will go up as to have a secondary smaller firebox on the first floor. We have the first floor ripped up now for repair work, so I can plan my new floor layout for the brick work to come up through. Any thoughts on a two story stove? My fireboxes will be arches rather than flat top. By the way, I’m a relatively experienced builder of things.

[@muddymike]

@@stoveadvice hey Matt, not sure if you emailed me yet or not but I have been checking. Cheers man!

[@timejumpertarot1114]

Quantum of Conscience in the house! Leemond here. I hope the King of Prussia area is treating you well.

[@Gungnir762]

When you have nothing, you have to do the best with what you have. I think it looks great and would be a good upgrade for houses in Northern North America.

[@KnifeCrazzzzy]

I’m really glad I found your channel! I hope to build something like this in the next year or two! Thanks for the epic videos.

[@derekcarstensen9134]

I was raised in western South Dakota and all we had on our prairie two story home which was underground up to the windows on three sides our about chin deep to a grown man this guy is totaly spot on your survival depends on own wits and grits my dads cousin froze to death about 6 ‘ from his front door this was maybe 8 years ago at age 78 we all grew up with the stories of this unless you grew up on wits and your own grits you can’t understand how unforgiving Mother Nature is being on totally wood is is completely different than on an oil or even diesel drip stove

[@AvaGld2309]

I've been watching the Russian videos and am really grateful for your explanation and experience. It seems people have a lot to relearn, and it shows in the petty criticism.

[@dogdazetravellergarrett1367]

Nice demonstration video...... Thanks 👍

[@American_Made]

Much of Summeria and the Roman empire was built from mud bricks and many are still around. So it's durable.

[@kellyeye7224]

If you build this in the West then I suggest you use stainless steel flue pipe for the heat path, enclose it in standard bricks then backfill the cavities with sand. I have a basic woodstove that I've surrounded with old storage heater bricks (high iron content), boxed it all in a steel plate enclosure and filled all the gaps with sand. Retains heat for 12 hours.

[@stoveadvice]

This is possible I guess, making it more like a "cob bench" after a rocket stove, but the way this person is doing it in this video is best. This stove will take a long time to heat up anyway, and that's with the hot gasses touching the brick directly. This much brick and this size of "long run" will take "forever to heat up with a stove pipe inside, surrounded by sand. You would be double insulating the heat away from the bricks and it's the bricks that are designed to heat up. I agree, once it finally gets hot the "sand battery" will last a long time for radiant heat, but he has more than enough thermal mass with these 1,000 bricks. Also, gasses will move much faster in a pipe. The art of these Russian stove makers is to slow the gasses down so the energy stays mostly in the stove. This stove "as insulated pipe using sand" will move very, very fast which is not what he wants.

[@kellyeye7224]

@@stoveadvice Sand doesn't 'insulate' anything - have you not heard of sand batteries? My suggestion to use stainless pipework is simply to negate CO leakage and, with 25 year+ guarantees on higher quality stainless flues there is little chance of such leakage. Better yet, solid stainless pipework would be better. Since the SAND is the primary heat retainer, the brickwork could be extended to whatever capacity you required as back-filling with sand is far simpler than creating a 'solid' lump of brickwork.

[@hyper_novelty]

if you’re worried about leakage then you could just stucco the whole thing

[@joecliffordson]

These cob bricks handle the heat well. If they get beat up you just keep some clay sand mix on hand. Slop it on for repairs and call it a day. My cob gets beat up where logs load. I just fix it up with mud slopped on with a trowel. If I’m feeling decorative I take a wet paint brush after it. I think this guy used cob plaster. Sometimes it is even hot when I fix it but that makes blending tuff.

[@stoveadvice]

cool... thanks !

[@jacobfowler4426]

these things are so cool... definitely like your idea about using fire brick, thats exactly what I would do

[@JarlSeamus]

Can we get a counter on how many times you say "he can't mess around"? LOL Great explanation on the use of the damper. I always wondered how they got the draft to follow that long path when it's cold.

[@stoveadvice]

Well, since your the only one who cares, how many times was it?

[@Williamvacanti-h7w]

Very, very nice for a build like this.

[@stevecochran9078]

I've been fascinated with the masonry stove concept since discovering them. I too live where winter temperatures drop down the -50° F. Although I'm heating with an advanced tech high-efficiency conventional woodstove, I'm interested in heating my workshop an detached garage with smaller version masonry stoves. My main problem is most of the masonry stove videos are in Russian. I can pick up on a lot of what I see, but the narration fills in a lot of blanks.

[@stoveadvice]

Leave me (on my newest video) a link of what stove you want exactly explained, and I'll do a video on it.

[@jamesalanstephensmith7930]

Looking to build in Maine, will build like this!

[@bus535joyfully3]

Nice and warm. Some people do a brick bench to sit on.

[@Ihaveausernametoo]

Very nice to see homemade bricks. As for the design, as I understand it, no bells, heat riser or other type of secondary combustion? That’s a lot of unburnt particles and energy.

[@stoveadvice]

They kinda are long bells... it's a hybrid... They are too wide to call this a channel stove..... right down the middle.

[@pwprescott]

I like this video. I'm planning to build a masonry stove of some sort and this is how I like to learn. The idea of you commenting on a video whose language I don't understand seems like I found an easy button. Please do more. Two critiques though. If something is important enough to repeat, maybe don't repeat it 4 times in a 30 minute video. Also, watching you search back and forth for a particular images almost lost me. Those moments should get clipped.

[@stoveadvice]

Sorry.. but this is my "fun" and hobby channel. What's more important, getting the information to build a stove that lasts a lifetime or saving that precious 5 minutes wasted because I repeated a few things???? What if the information here saves you 2 weeks of research, eh?

[@mikefiatx19]

Thanks for the great video. Can you build this sort of heater with Lime mortar? Will the Lime survive the heat?

[@stoveadvice]

3 parts sand. 1 part clay, 1 part lime (we only have hydrated lime in the US. Using only hydrolic lime or lime putty, or slaked lime for all the other bricks I think is fine,... but NOT for the firebox. Firebox should be refractory cement or 3 sand to 1 clay and only 1/2 part lime. Not all lime for those temps. TEST FIRST. Create your lime mortar and throw the two "stuck" bricks in a fire for 1 hour or place in a burn barrel outside.

[@THEBIGKUSH420]

I am in Southern California by the Beach and i will at some point have one of these .

[@stoveadvice]

It should impress the girls of Manhattan Beach when 1,000 bricks hold all your surfboards.

[@davydacounsellor]

Brilliant great job

[@makeamericagreenagain8511]

For building a stove in the basement FLOOR of a typical Philadelphia style ROW HOUSE are there any great designs for UTILIZING the immense thermal mass capacity of the actual soil, etc that is UNDER the typical basement slab?? Sure, an appropriate footing can be constructed to provide bearing for the mass of the masonry stove ... the existing lined traditional chimney is already being used for gas water heater & the gas fired 80k btu heating system... QQQ is: is the typical masonry xhaust temperatures going to allow some sort of alternate chimney, or is there a way to 'shunt' off the exhaust from one or the other, fan assist, easiky dis-assemble and then reconnect to chimney... Some good examples MUST exist to illustrate a safe and effective design interpretation?? Thanks very much 💚

[@stoveadvice]

Sorry, but I don't think I understand your question. You capitalized the word "UNDER," so I must assume the concrete slab at the bottom of the house remains in tact.... .... How could someone even get under the slab to build stove channels in the soil???? Why would anyone do that if the slab remains, keeping the heat separated from the house.

[@makeamericagreenagain8511]

@stoveadvice the usual slab in these 6 1/2 foot tall, row house basements is a patched and cracked & often only 1 1/2 inches thick cement. No rebar or mesh. Maybe the original 1890 - 1920's floor was only the local available fill ? And is often subsoil clay, soil and cinders from the original coal furnace which carried warm air up thru grills in the floor of the central 1st floor hallway. By convection. Row homes stay warm if the neighbors keep the adjoining 3 course brick party wall warm. Often, there's a horsehair mortar and local stone footing up to where the economy bricks begin. If good window treatments exist and blocking the air leaks at the fenestration details too, you won't freeze even if you have run out of fuel. So, brick making soil might be dug out the basement ! - if more head space is made available there's often skip hoppers full of the soil by the buckets lifted thru the front basement windows - discarded and hauled away for 'improvements'. So, making a warm bench at the basement floor 'slab' height seems like a place to stretch out or put that chair and blanket whenever the power might go out. Ah, nice and warm. This row house, fire resistant architecture might last hundreds of years until the pay-to-play real estate investors saw how profitably they could get zoning changed and build 7 story luxury with 1st floor commercial, etc. In the meantime, I see your Siberia gentleman making 1000 bricks with no banks on his back. Now I think that the license & inspection municipal cockroaches might not get admitted without a court order. It could happen. Those masonry stove concepts fit in nicely to such a warming futurity. I can carry on with enthusiasm if I can get away with it. Piles of used bricks are at demolition sites nearby. It looks really good if it's not detected. BTW, there's a HUGE amount of this sort of housing stock in many eastern seaboard states. Just saying. 💚 Thanks much for your inspiration!

[@patrickspeer2990]

I am new to your channel, I have a question. I am from Cleveland, Ohio and want to move back, I am currently in the desert SW. I want to build a Russian/ Masonry Heater, but I am planning to buy and older type style house, 1900-1920s- two floors, basement and attic. There is no way I can imagine to build a masonry heater on the main floor, I dont think it would even be legal or safe, it would weigh too much, so I am thinking of building it in the basement, since there is a concrete floor. But I have read and heard the heat will not move up into the house, unless I imagine one built a chimney all the way up thru all the floors to the attic and out the roof. Any advice anyone has would be appreciated. Thanks

[@stoveadvice]

Why won't the heat move up into the house if the masonry heater is in the basement? Heat rises. I have a 450 pound wood stove in my basement (today's video) that heats the entire house and the heat goes up the steps into the kitchen. I also cut a hole in the floor "upstairs" (this is a ranch house... living floor and basement) ....and put in a vent so the heat can come upstairs to a different part. The Russians would use the brick chimney, through the house, with the brick chimney "running through a room upstairs" to assist in heating the second floor. Finally, why can't you put it on the main floor? Let's say your basement is pretty crappy.. just an ugly slab...not finished. Stacking up 4 columns of cinder blocks under the stove will support it and be approved by inspectors. You would cut a hole in the wood floor above, build a box, and pour a, say, 3 foot by 4 foot concrete pad supported by the cinder blocks (or 6x6 beams) below. Easy and "inspector approved" in most cases. The masonry stove itself will be harder to get approved in most cities... not the support beams to support it. Here's another idea. Build a stove in the basement and run 6 inch stovepipe through the top of the firebox (flames) where the stove pipe has intake and exhaust "'upstairs" or intake in the basement and exhaust "hot air" dumped into the second floor.?

[@slimdusty6328]

very good info

[@Mightycaptain]

Why not just keep it fired all the time in that kind of weather? Thats the part that gets me. Why would you start 4 fires a day? That takes a lot more wood than to just keep it going.

[@stoveadvice]

I don't understand this comment. The Russians have been "firing" their masonry heaters 2 x a day, (morning and night) using 4 or 5 pieces of wood each time, for 200 years. So that's, at most, only 10 pieces a day. You would use less wood loading wood in there all day long? How is that possible? The other thing is, it would get TOO HOT. It's 5 to 7 thousand pounds of thermal mass which stores heat for 5 to 8 hours.

[@Mightycaptain]

@stoveadvice I guess it's just something I would have to see in real life. I'm skeptical. 🤷 Knowing the btu output of wood per pound... Seems unlikely that 4 or 5 pieces of an evergreen which would be mostly what they would have access too in that climate is going to handle 40 below. Fired twice a day x 5 pieces per burn. Insulation must be insane.

[@Mightycaptain]

@stoveadvice let me add I heat my home with wood. So 25 years as adult. And grew up doing the same. In less than well insulated houses. You are not going to maintain room temperature with that woodload I'm sorry but it's not possible now you would maintain a temperature where you would not die but you definitely ain't going to be anywhere near room temperature. Not in that kind of weather. Unless your heating 400 ft².

[@Mightycaptain]

@@stoveadvice I do enjoy your content. This subject is of great interest to me. And I like what you break down.

[@virtueofhate1778]

​@@MightycaptainYou just cracked the puzzle there. They do live in tiny log cabins and usually sleep right next to the fireplace during the winter times.

[@thedudefromU]

I question the wisdom of using firebricks (except in the primary firebox). Dont they resist and reflect heat? Whereas the traditional brick will absorb the heat, which is the point?

[@stoveadvice]

Regular firebricks absorb and store heat equally as well as red brick. Only the very expensive, soft firebricks bricks, are reflective, so they store no heat.

[@davefletch3063]

Very cool. The bricks will end up being fired during use

[@muddymike]

Outer layers of brick would never get fired. The firebox brick are probably the only ones that will get somewhat fired

[@user-ch6um1vn8x]

Why would closing off that top damper to soon cause a carbon monoxide risk? 22:00

[@stoveadvice]

People in Russia close the damper "at night before bed" to keep the cold air from coming "down" into the house from outside. Of course, if this "door" is closed too soon, and the fire is still burning a bit, both smoke and carbon dioxide can come into the house because the damper is a door to close off the chimney.

[@user-ch6um1vn8x]

@@stoveadvice Interesting. I didn't realize that burning wood could cause carbon dioxide poisoning. I thought that was only from burning propane and stuff like that. I think I am getting my monoxide and dioxide's mixed up. I'm still confused. lol

[@obsidianjane4413]

Not a thermal mass stove. Its an exhaust heat exchanger. In a thermal mass you want to minimize its external surface area and maximize the internal smoke passage to build up the residual heat the mass gives off over time. This wall is clever, but it won't retain any heat when the fire stops. Probably why the Russian "experts" were so critical.

[@stoveadvice]

This is 100% wrong. The bricks in the wall will radiate heat "out" for 6 to 8 hours with no fire / flame.

[@obsidianjane4413]

@@stoveadvice Its one brick thick. Do the math. Again. It won't be "6 to 8 hours". lol

[@stoveadvice]

@@obsidianjane4413 So, in that he's getting it wrong and he won't be able to have his family make it through the winter, if I get his address, will you consider sending food to him in the middle of Siberia.

[@stoveadvice]

This tiny little stove I built hold heat nicely for four + hours. He has about 3,000 more pounds of thermal mass than I have. Mine is, as you say, "one brick thick."

[@TheKlink]

rmh without the r. plenty to like, just want to make sure the burn is efficient.

[@Semi0ffGrid7]

The Koreans do this except they channel the exhaust under the floor so the whole floor heats up.

[@stoveadvice]

Yea.. Ondol.

[@Semi0ffGrid7]

@@stoveadvice yes that's it, I think it's a great system!

[@jimschaffroth5652]

Im surprised they even have windows in their homes. That would be huge heat loss.

[@CForged]

You would think he used a little lime in the brick

[@stoveadvice]

Middle of Siberia, but you would think Hydrated or Hydrolic lime is possible to get.

[@ДенисПеньков-щ9у]

Это видео из Якутии

[@sebastienloyer9471]

❤🎉

[@Jeffery-g1b]

i like it

[@jdram58]

kIND OF SIMILAR TO A ROCKET MASS HEATRER SO YOU CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT N NOT HAVE TO CONSTANTLY FEED A NORMAL WOOD STOVE

[@stoveadvice]

Yes, similar in the way you mean.

[@dpfx99999]

💥👍

[@torstenschuster2175]

What the prohibition-obsessed inspector/chimney sweeper in GERMANY does not know is that he has no right to do so; he will not be able to obtain a signed and sealed law from any archive, so he is acting under highway robbery. with love :-)TSC #4ALLE

[@stoveadvice]

Cool.... my kind of comment !

[@virtueofhate1778]

Saying that they know what they are doing because they live in Siberia is a logical fallacy. These are by any western standard very poor and very uninformed people who try to make the best with the little they can afford and if they knew what they are doing, they would start with insulation instead of living in drafty houses in extremely cold climate.

[@stoveadvice]

OK, let me re-state. This is a great design, that is proven, that works. And... how do you know they don't start with insulation as prime importance? To assume you know this guy has a drafty house is a logical fallacy or worse.

[@virtueofhate1778]

@@stoveadvice First of all, let me state that I live in a country right next to Russia and I know very well what kind of squalid conditions many if not most people in rural Russia live and how things are done there. And what comes to the design of the stove, my main point was that yes it's a great desing if, and only if you are so poor that you can't even afford to buy a few bricks, but for anyone in the developed world there are much more efficient and much more simpler ways to make a masonry heater. Russians are inventive people, but for the lack of knowledge, education and building standards they have a habit of making things unnesserarily complicated and I would dare to claim that much simpler Nordic design that has been used more than 200 years is more efficient than any complicated Russian with many bells and whistles.

[@petenicholls5266]

@@virtueofhate1778 Maybe make serious suggestions instead of criticisms, you are obviously prejudice (that's ok, its your right) but human beings have survived by exchanging ideas...not putting each other down?

[@magedogtag]

Unfired clay based bricks used in building a cooking and heating chimney? Got a feeling they'll get a little fired over time. Not much, mind you, but I don't think the dude would use unfired clay bricks if he thought they would fail.

[@stoveadvice]

Yea... he's 6,000 miles from a Home Depot or Lowes and 2,000 miles in Siberia from the nearest Russian brickyard.... What would that be... Vladivostok bricks !!! ??? He had to make them himself.