Does anyone have any experience with one of these, either to build for and install, or to live with?
Here’s one from Rais & Wittus.
Flue gases are run through a baffled arrangement before exiting to the stack, so that the stone panel surrounds are heated, and the whole thing becomes a radiator with a long heat unload cycle. Sorta like your fire can go out before bedtime, but the cooker keeps you warm all night.
Specs for this one and others like it call out weights in the 1500-3500# range, so you had better have enough structure underneath to handle it.
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gene, We've had a Tulikivi for 15 winters. I helped my mason buddy from NC build it. It weighed I think closer to 5000lbs. Great looks, great heat, reasonable to operate, and clean burning. We use it primarily as the only heat source in the fall and early spring. As a supplement/backup in the dead of winter.
The tulikivi has a inner chamber and wall mass of soapstone with the smoke vents up top. The smoke then makes it down and around that fire chamber to a bottom exit to the flue. The air space between the firechamber and the outter soapstone mass is maybe 5 inches. There are two small glass doors for viewage.
My friend Tom is a master at masonry heaters. Studying abroad and in this country working on his craft. He can do these "kits" or build from scratch. He's done some of those gorgeous tile stoves you see in Europe. Many of these are bake ovens in addition to heaters. You can see his work and many other craftsmen's at the Masonry Heater Assoc. website.
What specifically do you want to know?
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Is provision made for outside air ducting, like there is in a zero-clearance woodburning fireplace?
Are these piped out through the roof like a typical woodstove?
Compared to a cast iron wood stove, are they worth the premium price?
Do they really perform as stated, i.e., a 3-4 hour burn time can make for up to 15 more hours of heat radiation?
"Is provision made for outside air ducting, like there is in a zero-clearance woodburning fireplace"
I didn't, but yes you could put something simple like an operable floor grate just in front of the ash cleanout which contains a sliding air intake. There are also sliding intakes on the bottom of the doors.
"Are these piped out through the roof like a typical woodstove?"
Mine has a full masonry chimney at the backside of the bottom draft heater. I worked on a house that had the same heater. It is a corner unit (pie shaped). They ran insulated stainless pipe up through the ceiling, through the second floor and out the roof. The visible pipe on the first floor was sleeved in a round soapstone "pipe". Looked very good.
The temperature in the heater can reach 12-1500 degrees or more (hope I'm not remembering wrong), so I imagine and you can ask over at the Masonry Heater Assoc. site, that the flue temp is pretty hot. Making sure the metal pipe can handle it should be a consideration.
"Compared to a cast iron wood stove, are they worth the premium price?"
Well, you'd have to be the judge of that. The mass, efficiency, size etc are going to dwarf the usual cast iron or ? wood stove. So is the price. Ours is capable of heating approx. 2200 sf. It is roughly centered in the lower level open floor plan. There is no floor above it on one side of the downstairs. The openess of the upstairs provides a pretty good natural circulation around the house. The back bedroom even gets some of the heat as we had put a couple floor registers in, moreso to let the cool air drop down, while bringing in the warmer air. I've since added two 4' HW basebds in the two BR for more consistent, on demand heat.
The cost for our heater 15 yrs ago should have been around 7000.00, plus install. I am hesitant to tell you the deal we rcvd on both which made it affordable. Since I cleared the land the house sits on, I was the beneficiary of almost 10 yrs of fuel. In a conventional fireplace I'd have burnt it up in a couple of years. A wood stove, perhaps 4 or 5. And probably would have worked harder doing it.
Do they really perform as stated, i.e., a 3-4 hour burn time can make for up to 15 more hours of heat radiation?
Here's what I know about this heater. I'll take a log bag at nite, maybe 18-20 lbs of wood, forearm x 16'' size. Bigger pcs on bottom, med on top of that, alternating direction. Some trim scraps on top of that with two sections of newspaper twisted at the very top. Light the paper and close the doors. A bit of smoke till the paper burns up, the kindling slowly ignites and no more smoke. About an hour and a half later, the coals burn out, I shut it down. Soapstone pretty warm, gains heat for another couple hours and maintains that temp to the next morning. If I'm burning once a day Nov and into Dec, it'll be pretty warm when I start my next fire that evening. If sole heat source in Dec-Jan-Feb, I would start another fire in the morning (making 2 firings a day. However, that second fire and the rest of them at two a day, would be stocked with a bit less wood, maybe a half to two thirds that initial burn.
One firing a day-18-20 lbs.
Two firings a day-about 12-15 lbs a burn/24-30 lbs total.
So, what I'm seeing is 24 hrs of heat at 1-1/2 - 3 hours of burn.
Another beauty of this super high temp burn, long heat retention is the lack of creosote buildup. Every fall I take off the chimney lid and peer down with a flashlight. Nothing but a lite grey ash lightly covering the sidewalls of the clay flue liner.
I'm a real believer in these things. Does it warrant the high cost? Well, beats me. It works well, looks good and is the best way to heat with wood. Things like that cost money. With nat gas running up another 65% this winter, I suppose payback is more realistic. Will that ever zero out the investment? Perhaps. I do know that it will certainly be more comfortable thinking about it.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
We all invest in insulation and high efficiency heating equipment to generate $$$$ savings and a bottom line return. The cost of some of these high mass masonry units $10-20,000 with similar efficiencies to the better steel/cast iron stoves at $1,000 -2,500 + chimney seems to make the equation and answer clear. You just have to load the stove more frequently but you can bring the temp up much quicker with the stove. And you can view the flame almost fulltime. (aesthetics)
Stinger, I think one of those masonry heaters would be great to have... but:
1. I don't have the space for it
2. I don't have the $$ for it
3. I don't have a structure that can handle the weight.
If you aren't quite ready for a masonry, how about a wood stove with soapstone built into it? They won't have the burn characteristics that Calvin detailed with the masonry, but they will put out a lot of heat and are only about 400lbs and $2k. IMHO, 400lbs and $2k is enough of a hurdle to get over.
http://www.woodstove.com/pages/woodstoves.html
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jt8
"Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. " --Theodore N. Vail
I looked at these this fall:
http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/
Very nice! Well constructed on cast frames with soapstone "panels". Each one is signed by the assembler. They have the look of an art piece or heirloom, costing $1500 - $2500. EPA approved and fresh-air enabled.
DW and I couldn't quite justify the price, so went with a Drolet welded steel unit:
http://www.drolet.ca/index-en.aspx
that is also EPA approved, and fresh-air enabled. Seems to be well made, 280 pounds for the smallest "Adirondack" model, about $500.
Here is a pic Calvin posted in a different thread. True masonry heater.
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Looks like someone on eBay is selling one like you had pictured. Sheeze, his starting price is $2900.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rais-Wood-Stove-SOAPSTONE-High-Efficiency_W0QQitemZ6008707578QQcategoryZ41987QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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jt8
"Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. " --Theodore N. Vail
Edited 11/4/2005 12:19 am by JohnT8
You asked earlier about our heater. Here it is.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
That's pretty darn cool (or should I say 'hot'). Your NC friend does some really neat work. Why the heck isn't he on BT creating Gallery threads?
jt8
"Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. " --Theodore N. Vail
Believe me John, he is an artist and has the science part down too. However, he doesn't spend internet time too often and when he does it's to further his craft. I'll dig up some tile stove shots if I can find them.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
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And here's one of the Tulikivi's with the soapstone chimney sleeve.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time