A stove for a summer house is an essential necessity, as gardeners spend time in their gardens from early winter until, typically, late fall. Today, there's a wide selection of heated stoves for summer houses. Compact and affordable systems are available at home improvement stores, but you can also build your own stove yourself.
Which material should I choose?
Today, long-burning water heaters, especially those made by hand, are not preferred. Let's discuss popular, widely available models that don't require a large investment but still perform well at their primary function—heating a room. You can read in detail about why a potbelly stove is better for a summer house than a water-heated design in the final section of this article.
Cast iron
Cast iron stoves, commonly known as "potbelly stoves," are considered the most popular. However, this material has its drawbacks: they are heavy, making them difficult to transport and assemble. During cold weather, intensive heating with wood can cause the stove to crack. A cast iron stove is not suitable for regular use. Therefore, while it's fine for a summer cottage, it's absolutely not suitable for long-term use in a permanent home.
Brick
The brick oven is the next most popular and widespread. Its excellent heat capacity and ability to retain heat for a long time when fired with wood are noteworthy: the heat remains for a long time after the fire has finished. A key advantage of this type of oven is the mandatory foundation required for its installation. If you plan to do it yourself, the process requires experience. Laying a brick oven is not an easy task; it's best to consult a professional.
Important! Please note that such a stove needs to be heated regularly; otherwise, if it's left idle for too long, you could end up ruining your money on firewood. Combustion in a brick stove is efficient, and an advantage is that it's ideal for homes where people live full-time.
Metal
A stove for a dacha can be welded from metal. This material is perfect for a dacha. Building one yourself is easy; no special skills are required; just look at photos, videos, and drawings. Most often, such a stove, a potbelly stove, is a metal box standing on tall legs.
The main part of the box is divided into two sections: the firebox and the ash pan. The advantage of a potbelly stove is that it can accommodate a heat exchanger or even a cooktop. We're building it. a neat shed made by hand at the dacha.
Please note! In case of long-term use for heating a room, metal stoves are not durable.
Popular models of combustion furnaces on the modern market
"Matrix"
A unique feature of this model is its convector casing. It heats the room quickly and evenly. The maximum burn time on just one log after loading a batch is up to eight hours, depending on the selected mode. This means it's not suitable for extended use, only under certain conditions.
This stove model has a built-in cooktop and heat-resistant glass that allows you to observe the wood-burning stove's combustion process. However, the price is quite high—around 15,000 Russian rubles. But don't think that all models are so expensive and that you have to do everything yourself.
Top Model
The convection heater is the key feature of this model. Cold air enters the lower part of the heater, where it cools off the walls of the firebox and exits through special openings in the convection pipe. Although this heater is suitable for heating rooms up to 150 square meters, it is expensive at 20,000 rubles. However, it is suitable for long-term use and will quickly pay for itself.
"Stove"
Let's move on to budget-friendly stove options for heating a cottage or private home. This model features a cylindrical shape, burns wood, and features a convection casing. It also features a cooktop (cooking is only possible in a cauldron). Made of cast iron, it's suitable for occasional use and costs 8,000 rubles.
Potbelly stove "Vesuvius mini"
This dacha stove weighs just twenty kilograms, can heat 100 square meters of space, and provides a long-lasting wood burn. You can build such a stove yourself (see video) or buy a ready-made one. Moreover, the stove costs only 6,000 rubles. Read on to learn how. build a shed at the dacha yourself.
"Doublet"
The stove is simple and inexpensive. For just 7,000 rubles, you can heat a small country house, garage, or greenhouse, even a tent or a mobile sauna. Transporting the stove is easy: the pipes and legs are tucked into the firebox, and the model comes with a carrying bag.
Advice! This type of stove is perfect for heating a cottage where there's no electricity or electricity bills are required. It's suitable for long-term burning, but not for continuous use.
"Cinderella"
This long-burning wood stove features an additional cooktop. Its sleek, cube-shaped design features door locking mechanisms and a cool-touch glass opening. You can watch the wood stove heat up, watch the wood burn, and hear the crackling of the knots.
A unique feature of this model is the hinged firebox door, which can open 140 degrees, making loading firewood easy and safe. It's compact in size and inexpensive, costing only about 8,000 rubles.
How to make a stove for your dacha
The easiest and fastest way to weld a stove yourself is called a potbelly stove. You'll need a 5mm thick sheet of iron (this is the minimum thickness; thicker sheets are also available). Regarding the sheet thickness, it's important to consider that the surface will heat up, as the stove's combustion chamber is located inside.
You'll also need 100mm diameter pipes for the flue outlet. A grate will be needed for the firebox, and the wood will be placed on it. A 25cm long steel pipe works well for the outlet.
DIY manufacturing technology step by step:
1. Transfer the stove dimensions from the drawing to a sheet of iron and cut them out with a grinder. The stove will consist of six parts, or three pairs: the bottom and top of the stove itself, its side walls, and the ends.
2. Make a 100mm circle in the lid for the pipe, insert the pipe into the hole, and carefully weld it shut. Weld in one seam; otherwise, microcracks will form, which will allow carbon monoxide to escape from the stove.
3. Assemble the structure, weld the grate, and secure the lid.
4. Be sure to weld legs to the bottom of the structure; these can be simply the corners of a potbelly stove. Don't forget about the firebox door and the ash pit opening.
Stove with water heating
Less common due to their high water consumption, wood-burning stoves with hydronic heating still exist. Household needs require a significant amount of water, as does energy. Heating the water consumes 90% of the energy, with only 10% ultimately used to heat the room. For this reason, few homeowners today consider hydronic stoves due to their practicality.
Not all stoves are suitable for long-term burning, so when choosing between buying or making your own, it's important to understand that everything depends on the intended use. A potbelly stove is perfect for a summer cottage, but a hot-water heating unit is only suitable for a private home where people live full-time and don't skimp on water consumption.