Stove White Oven Wood Masonry Heater Portfolio

Scott do more than get the details right: they get the right details. The gases then exit the stove through a chimney connection at its base. The basic principle is that gases fill up a volume of space no matter the size or the shape with hottest gases rising to the top of the container and cooler gases sinking to the bottom.

Swedish origin is for flue gases to go up a throat down the front sides of a heater and back up the rear sides before exiting at the top of the stove.

Size of the bake oven chamber is determined in conversation with the client, discussing their baking requirements. However, the bake oven chamber can potentially be as deep as 40″. Someone suggested using a removable firebrick in the pizza oven on a side closest to the flue, but didn’t specify the height. Concrete blocks used for the oven’s outer walls. Heat resistant mortar for joining firebricks. Alternative to firebricks – saving money on bricks. Plans details 1000’s of oven builders & chefs use. Masonry heaters don’t require electricity to operate. The heat is absorbed into the mass (masonry) as stored heat from the short hot fire and is then released slowly over the next 12-24 hours.

Masonry stoves were fitted with cast iron grates, side cheeks, and sometimes cast iron baskets to support coals. Mediterranean region resembled tables made of clay or other unique configurations, sometimes in portable form such as this one. Smaller ovens are “periodic” ovens in that after the oven is hot and the fire out, the ashes are swept out and the oven floor damp mopped before the food is cooked.

These substitutes effectively power our industries and run our cities. The aesthetics of the wood fire are an important point. I like to stare at the flames and soak up the warmth on those cold winter days, even when the house is already warm.

The blue stone tiles are probably older, and once formed a kitchen floor. The heater has provided 95% of all of our heat with the furnace kicking on only a few times. The wood is from trees that fell over the summer but were just cut and split recently (in other words not really seasoned). I suspect that if the wood was dryer it would produce even more heat. I wouldn’t trade it for any other kind of stove. Many animals use simple sticks and rocks and leaves as tools, but only humans have learned to use and control fire. It can be on either side (front or back). Three batches of bread per firing is a typical capacity. A great feature of masonry (retained heat) ovens is a very even temperature. Quà bec oven shape, an elongated dome.

Bake Ovens – Masonry Stove White Oven



Doors on both sides, see-through shelves and bench. Large tree tiles plastered into a smooth stucco finish. A woodbox faces us with decorative tile, plaster and hand made tile base and top. If flames went right into the oven it would be a black oven). He’s documented this project very nicely. The size of his heater is just a tad bigger than we want in our space, plus he doesn’t show the chimney he’s now built on the back of this unit to vent through his ceiling.

Just because you built one does not necessarily mean that it works great. Bread lovers everywhere are ecstatic. Does one use a damper to switch from one type to another?

Thermal insulation for having hot floor, walls & vault. Soapstone technical data and how to use it. Fireboxes are built with secondary air supply and minimal grate to facilitate clean and efficient burn while keeping high temperatures. Fireboxes have top portion slopping inward to support capping slabs and induce turbulence. Joints between bricks on top of the tiles and between tiles are offset for better sealing and structural integrity. Such placement also makes it possible to replace the capping tiles easily through door openings without touching finished facing should the tiles need to be replaced at any time in the future.

This particular bake oven chamber is 20″x27″, and it has double sidewalls. There are two symmetrical exits to the bell from the bake oven chamber at the front. Using free gas movement principles allows a stove to work without as much dependence on the draft of the chimney. J shaped firebox/throat that exited into an upside down 55 gallon drum that release the gases into a long heated bench before exiting a chimney.

Granite are all good choices for the veneered exterior. Faced in reclaimed brick first layed in 1910. Recycled brick from 1910 and decorative relief brick from 1850. If the oven walls are within a more massive chimney structure, insulate between the oven walls and the rest of the masonry. It is the one technology that truly sets our species apart. It is for that reason alone, not energy efficiency, that builders still put cheap fireplaces in so many condominiums and apartments today. I use the terms stove or heater interchangeably, and fireplace to specify stoves with a visible fire. The distinctive feature of the heaters is a series of baffles to pull the heat out of the exhaust. They may have kits that could be installed by a mason. But, the main thing is, it simply doesn’t produce enough heat to be worth it. I installed in floor radiant heat throughout the house as a backup. Jon was available to answer question during install and during the first few weeks of firings. Brick oven in kitchen, actually an old fireplace. Can you make pizza in a white oven?

Masonry heaters are characterized by lots of mass to absorb heat from the fire, plus a snakelike flue to extract heat from the exhaust before ventilating to the outside.

This results in a clean burn, with little visible smoke. The temperatures have been in the 30-40’s during the day and the 20’s at night, so fairly mild. We have been burning a 50 lb load of oak/hickory once or twice a day. The house is two story and tightly insulated with spray foam. We built the house around the heater so it was centrally positioned and the chimney runs through the heated envelope of the house. The fire view door stays very clear but the bake oven door gets covered in soot easily. The oven floor is unobstructed, with no throat opening to the firebox, and the interior remains clean, with no soot or ash deposits.

Because the wood was surface dried, the fire took off very quickly. We stopped tracking temperatures at this point, and started baking. The fire was lit at 8:30 a.m., and at 9:15 we added a large log that we wanted to get rid of. The week culminates, when bake ovens, masonry heaters and smokers are all fired up and used in a fiesta. The feast of good food, music and dancing goes on into the evening and the week goes by much too quickly. The front and side walls are joined with expanded metal lath ties that should allow for some vertical movement without pulling sidewalls up, while still providing lateral support.

Another possible solution is deliberately leaving the expansion joint in the facing while keeping metal ties for lateral support, and filling the expansion joint with matching flexible caulking.

The third solution that is used in the unit pictured the last, is to finish rough clay brick facing with “dry-laid” look natural stone veneer attached with acrylic thin-set mortar.

The pictured thin stone-faced heater is in operation in its third season without any problem. Notice expanded metal lath ties between block front face and stone sides. Top of the core before pouring the vermiculite/cement mixture. Double-bell unit is sealed on top with vermiculite/cement mixture maintaining ceramic fiber gasket around the facing to allow for core movement without breaking the seal.

The owner, a chef leading cooking classes in this kitchen, reports great baking capabilities of the unit. It is possible to vent open fireplace through the oven chamber successfully, however, chimney flue size will restrict maximum possible size of the fireplace opening.

A larger chimney, however, will draw a lot of heat out of the oven when oven is fired making the oven not very efficient.

Structural cantilevered slab on top of existing slab. Foamglass insulation was used underneath oven’s hearth. Large refractory tile is used to cap the dampers and support the dome. Sand form is used in the dome construction. Due to limit of space, the chimney connection smoke chamber above oven door was constructed only with three walls built of refractory brick. Connection lines of the refractory walls of the smoke chamber and clay brick facing were gasketed tight with ceramic blanket. The fireplace was tested right after chimney was connected. Fireplace operated well despite of the fact that area of the opening was at the maximum ratio to the chimney size and throat of the fireplace was far from ideal having restriction in the shape of the capping slab/dome over the damper connection.

Firebrick was cut at the back at an angle and smoothed out with grinder to facilitate smooth airflow over the lip. Space between the brick rough facing and refractory core was filled with mineral wool insulation. Sealing the top above the oven with cement board over thick mineral wool insulation. Finished surface was sanded and painted with latex paint. The owners report that the oven keeps the heat for more than a day allowing them to do a great variety of food. Hard to imagine improving on them, even with rocket stove tech. My screen looks just like a regular user, no special moderator tools. I am getting quicker by the day, the last one was banned before he could post. Sorry for my bad english, my language is german, austrian. People will be very generous with their knowledge if your question is more specific. Most houses are built around the masonry heater, changing it wouldn’t be an option and if it worked as expected why would you want to?

If you have a pro build it for you than you have some assurance but if you build it yourself, you could be stuck with a lemon.

This might be the third one he’s built. Probably have a better chance of making it stand longer with a professional though. Some engineers are better than others. Did you do the heat loss calculations correctly, or get the correct answer? Burning the right amount per charge? and others will fork over the dough for someone else to make sure it gets done right (sometimes it doesn’t). White gets heat through the stones and maintains a fairly constant temperature of 350 to 400. Of course these peasants weren’t building them out of soapstone or adorning them with fancy tiles. At first they were wooden chimneys!

Masonry and tile chimneys replaced them, if you could afford this. Which seems foolishly out of proportion to the rest of the edifice. It is certainly strange that useful customs and devices do not spread from country to country with more facility and promptness than they do. England which traditionally heated with fireplaces. Blessed with much wood, coal and iron ore. The iron/steel industry came about quickly, and expansion led for the need for mass-produced heating units that could be moved with the frontier, as we depleted land and needed to expand.

Funny thing is, a steel stove probably would have cost more than a masonry heater at some point in time?

In the beginning, iron/steel was not cheap at all. Probably not enough people knew how to make them based on immigration of the time. Gimse (the 1st picture) in the wood stove challenge but said he had to back out because it took too long to set up (it has a long bench).

Best wishes on your house project. Mineral wool blankets do need to be covered — either with a reinforced stucco shell, tile, or equivalent. These are efficient and very safe heating systems. Through this book you can learn about the origins of the masonry stove and see many examples past and present. The book includes plans for building one style of masonry stove, with enough cut-away drawings of other stoves to give the reader many more ideas and inspirations.

It would have been better if half the book included step-by-step diagrams and photos from multiple different projects. For thousands of years fire has been a focal point of human existence, providing warmth in cold weather and light in the midst of darkness.

A fire in the stove heats the rocks. It may be possible to improve the efficiency somewhat by winding the chimney pipe through the rocks, so less heat is lost up the flue.

But otherwise, this is a sweet little book with detailed step-by-step instructions and numerous illustrations, backed by twenty years of field testing. After the hot coals are removed, the hot walls radiate a steady, intense heat for hours. Building with earth is safe, easy, inexpensive, and extraordinarily effective. Build the simplest oven in a day!

The simple, round shape makes a beautiful garden sculpture, or can be sculpted into a fire-breathing dragon!

Except for the few hours right after a burn, the surface of the fireplace is often only 110-130 degrees. As the room warms, and fireplace cools the heat output drops. Holes,”11 indicating that the now-destroyed mansion had a masonry stove. Wing, what is now the reconstructed kitchen, near the north wall. Both grates have been conserved and sealed to prevent flaking and disintegration. We’ve switched to an infrared thermometer which gives instantaneous surface temperatures with a simple “point and shoot” operation. Russian stoves.”, “russian stove with vertical ducts. Cardboard creates an expansion joint between the brickwork and the stonework. Elpel shows how to lay up the brickwork for the core of the fireplace, how to build the arch, and how to build the baffle system.

Elpel demonstrates freehand stone masonry, using natural rock to lay up the stonework around the brick core. The more advanced homes had a raised platform so the women wouldn’t have to bend over to cook, and a few houses had plaster spark arrestors overhead.

The methodology was effective, but when one house caught fire it often took the entire town with it. The reason builders did not embrace enclosed fires sooner was a matter of economics. Safe, efficient heaters were developed out of necessity. The air supply and exhaust in the stoves was tightly controlled, so the fuel slowly smoldered, giving off an even and steady flow of heat.

Much of the remaining heat potential was released in the form of thick smoke, clogging chimney pipes and the atmosphere with unburned, cancer-causing particulate.

Older stoves were less efficient, but at least they burned wood cleanly. Catalytic converters increased the efficiency of airtight stoves up to 85% or 90%. The energy crisis also led to a new interest in efficient masonry stoves. Masonry heaters burn a hot fire with lots of oxygen, so the exhaust is very clean. The quality of these prefabricated units is exceptional, but the cost is astronomical-usually four to six thousand dollars for the core and hardware. The cement itself is different from the cement used in regular masonry, and it has bits of steel fibers and broken pottery pieces mixed in for aggregate.

You have to list thecriteria, then brainstorm a plan that best fits the criteria. A masonry stove needs a long enough baffle system to efficiently extract most of the heat from the exhaust, but not so long that the smoke doesn’t immediately rise through the system when you light thefire.

I believe we could have added another series of baffles on top (which would have made the fireplace unreasonably tall), or extended the baffles another brick or two horizontally.

The book includes plans for building one style of masonry stove, with enough cut-away drawings of other stoves to give the reader many more ideas and inspirations.

For thousands of years fire has been a focal point of human existence, providing warmth in cold weather and light in the midst of darkness.

It can be done, by running the chimney for the fireplace to the back or side, but you are limited to a very small pizza oven because of the space used by the fireplace.

I also gave up on propane 5-6 years ago. It soon became clear that having the oven that close to the open fire made it hard and dangerous to use. You can also see the diagonal flue above the oven, leading to a two flue chimney. Bringing two flues together to form a two flue chimney is not a simple task. The system can work very well for bread because as the temperature curve drops you can refire without having to clean the chamber once again.

So this in truth would be a hybrid between the “white” and “black” ovens. The flue systems of both of those are tricky.

TempleFire Port Townsend WA Jason Temple Masonry Heater Specialist

Can you tell us if the white oven or the french version ever even get hot enough for the proper pizza baking temps?

I should just go for a rumsford for heat and some kind of semi shallow firebrick pit for wood/charcoal cooking with grates for the wood to burn on and a adjustable grate for the food above, no chimney system for this, just live with the smoke.

All the fumes out thru the oversized chimney. I suppose if you really want to get technical the white ovens can be brought to a temp to do decent pizzas. The retained heat masonry oven with a fire inside heats in 3 ways, conductive, convective and radiant. I am just happy we have so many points of view and areas of expertise. All of us have so much to contribute we should all speak up when so inclined. Others have so much red tape forget about it. I sure do miss all the brick buildings though. The first time you fire the heater in the season it takes about a day to get it warm and producing heat.

Unlike a wood stove, most of the heat it produces is after the fire goes out. If you go away for a week you will need some sort of backup heat because the masonry heater will take a good 24 hours to warm the house back up, but on the same token, if you leave for 1-2 days your house will still be warm(ish).

I feel safe leaving the house with the fire burning but you need to turn off the intake and damper when the fire just goes out or the heater will eventually send most of the heat out of the chimney.

The bake oven is heated by the fire below. It is a “black oven” which means the fire from the firebox passes through the oven and some black ash gets in the oven when the fire is burning.

You cannot use the oven when the fire is burning. Once the fire is out you simply brush out the fly ash (if any) and put in your food. The temperature is only adjustable by the timing of the fire. Right after the fire the oven is 500-550 and it will stay at this temperature for about 1-2 hours then it will slowly go down.

I have only used the oven a couple of times but it has worked very well. Masonry heaters are reported to use 25-50% less wood than a stove to produce the same amount of heat. The unit gets warm but will not burn you if you touch it like a wood stove (unless you touch the door/window). Since the wood is burnt without a damper there is very little pollution and are considered one of the cleanest wood burning appliances.

The biggest downside of a masonry heater is the cost. Also this was the cost to do this in a new construction. Maybe one day in our house too, but a greenhouse has priority right now. A heater like you have installed would be great to keep in mind. When you buy one you are buying a finished, installed product.

Heavenly Heat Masonry Heater Burn Process

How a masonry heater burns so cleanly and efficiently.