Building a country house these days necessarily includes a sauna. And where there's a sauna, there needs to be a stove that quickly warms the room and produces sizzling steam. Building a metal sauna stove with a water tank using ready-made plans isn't difficult. There are many options, but most often, summer cottage owners opt for metal stoves. You don't have to buy them; you can build them yourself. The materials are readily available, and the technology is easy to understand, even for those with little technical knowledge.
Metal sauna stoves today are considered safe according to modern requirements and are more practical than their predecessors.
They are made of 4mm thick sheet metal. The design of new models includes special compartments filled with stones that retain heat for a long time. Almost all models are designed with water tanks of varying capacities. Building a stove with a water tank has become a fairly common way to achieve excellent comfort in the steam room.
Stoves have different designs, and the home craftsman always creates custom drawings in several projections, taking into account the sauna's structure. Her model suggests two types of stove designs: closed and open.
Closed-type furnaces
Closed-type stoves are ideal for family saunas due to their compact size.
To increase heat capacity, it is recommended to line the body with fireproof bricks both inside and outside, with the bricks being secured with metal fasteners.
A brick lining allows for coal firing, whereas a conventional design cannot withstand the heat of coal and can only be fired with wood. A lined firebox significantly extends the life of a refractory steel furnace.
A grate for stones is structurally included in the middle of the oven.
To protect people from accidentally touching the fiery metal surface, the side facing the steam room must be lined with brick.
The sauna stove and brickwork will be a wonderful addition to the steam room, adding a unique and cozy feel. Proper placement of the heating element relative to the steam room will ensure heat retention, excellent heating, and gentle steam.
Open-type furnaces
The main distinguishing feature of open-concept stoves is their small tank. The heater also remains open. When such a heating device is installed in a steam room, it ensures effective heating of the entire room. A simple technique increases the heat capacity: when installing the heating equipment, the owner includes a galvanized cover for periodic covering of the stones.
A distinctive feature of this sauna heater is the use of welded metal joining. Photos and drawings will help you build a metal sauna stove with a water tank using welding.
You'll need a welding machine and an experienced welder skilled in producing high-quality welds. A highly qualified specialist, as indicated by the drawings, will weld the tank from boiler iron and equip it with a tight-fitting lid and a specially designed tap. The tap and lid openings must allow for easy cleaning of the tank.
The secret to installing a drain valve. The inlet for the valve should be cut into the lowest point of the tank. A fitting for attaching a removable valve is welded directly to the tank. This will allow for regular cleaning of the valve. A ball valve is recommended.
Combined design furnaces
In the case of combined stove designs, a firebox with two dampers is installed - this is their main feature.
The design includes a grate, 10 and 14 cm diameter pipes, and an ash pit. These stove designs are constructed using 5 mm thick hardened sheet steel. You can build a metal sauna stove yourself, equip it with a water tank, and a convenient faucet for completely draining the water during cleaning.
Combination sauna stoves are a simple, budget-friendly option. They are fired with wood, filling the steam room with the invigorating aroma of burning wood.
As you can see, building a metal sauna stove with a combined water tank isn't all that difficult if you have the necessary drawings and a video.
Read also:
https://youtu.be/Ri3xGo8QyUE
It's time to design a sauna stove.
A stove model made from special parts, such as a pipe or barrel, is most suitable for DIY construction, provided the appropriate raw material is available. A home builder should first consider whether the planned stove will fit within the dimensions of the bathhouse being built and carefully draw all the plans to ensure an excellent result.
It is important to choose the correct location for the heating system and take into account all necessary components in its dimensions:
- firebox;
- heater;
- grate;
- chimney;
- valve;
- water tank;
- ring-shaped steel coupling.
A hole must be provided in the roof of the building in advance for the smoke exhaust pipe. Therefore, the stove design, especially one built independently, should be considered simultaneously with the bathhouse design.
Variety of forms
Shape is a significant factor in deciding the issue of heating performance, ease of use and design of the steam room.
Furnace designs of various shapes are used:
- rectangular;
- horizontal;
- cylindrical;
- curly.
Rectangular heating units are considered more convenient to use. The secret lies in the corners, which don't heat up during operation, ensuring the entire structure maintains its shape for a long time. In addition to a long service life, the stove shape ensures uniform heating and reduces heat transfer to the entire wall. This ensures maximum heating of the entire room, ensuring a uniform balance of heat flow. Proper heating increases the stove's service life, and the corners ensure high mechanical stability.
Cylindrical and round furnace structures are the least able to withstand high temperatures. Therefore, craftsmen use a denser and more reinforced material for their walls.
Installing a stove in a bathhouse
The sauna stove is placed either with the firebox door facing into the adjacent room or directly in the steam room, where the wood is stored. This consideration is important during the design stage when choosing the stove model.
The first stage of installing a metal heating unit is laying the foundation. This is done using highly fire-resistant brick, bonded with high-quality concrete mortar.
The bricks must be laid in several rows. If the stove body is not planned to be lined with brick, it should be installed at least 1 meter from the wall. All installation conditions are included in the drawings developed by the designer or the home builder during the pre-construction stage of the bathhouse.
The stove is installed on the foundation only after it has completely cured—this is a prerequisite for installing a metal structure. If the sauna building is located separately from the residential building, its small size makes it susceptible to temperature fluctuations. For this reason, a shallow foundation is used, which is particularly durable and frost-resistant.
It is recommended to cover the section of the wall near which the heating device will be installed with foil-clad thermal insulation material - this will provide additional heat reflection and excellent protection against building fire.
This only applies to metal structures that are not lined with stone.
When the design calls for the stove structure to be located slightly closer to the wall, brick cladding is a mandatory fire safety requirement. If a metal stove is clad with brick, the cladding dimensions must be maintained: 120 mm high and 80 mm wide. If these dimensions are exceeded, the brick takes a long time to heat up and does not provide sufficient heat to the steam room. This detail is always indicated in the drawings and is visible in the photo instructions for building a metal sauna stove. Brick cladding ensures additional operational safety and adds an aesthetically pleasing appearance to the room.
Important points in chimney construction
A metal heating system must include a well-insulated chimney. For these systems, it is recommended to use sandwich pipes with a special thermal insulation layer between the outer and inner casings.
A ceiling pass-through unit is installed at the junction of the ceiling and the pipe, which allows combustion products to escape.
The secret to preheating the chimney. A metal sauna stove includes an iron chimney. It's welded together using special pipes. When lighting the stove in a cold sauna room, owners often notice smoke and poor ignition. To avoid this, it's recommended to preheat the chimney, burning only thin kindling in the firebox for at least 0.5 hours, and then begin regular kindling.
Vertical and horizontal sauna stoves
You can independently build metal structures with different firebox locations – vertical and horizontal.
A horizontal firebox is included in the structure of a furnace with a tank, a vertical firebox is included in the structure of a furnace made from a large-diameter pipe.
A tube furnace is more resistant to high temperatures, burns out less than furnaces with a tank, and therefore lasts longer.
Stove heating allows you to control the humidity and temperature in the steam room, and the air from burning wood is undoubtedly beneficial to the body when using firewood of a single species – birch, oak, or coniferous trees.
A sauna stove with a water heating tank and a pocket heater creates a comfortable atmosphere in any sauna room, and its exterior design can become an exclusive highlight, reflecting your personal tastes, if you build it yourself using our tips, videos, and drawings.