Sauna boilers are traditional products designed for space heating and water heating. In order to build a boiler yourself, think over its design in advance and study the recommendations for assembly and installation given in the article. Content:
- Features of a wood-fired boiler
- Wood fired boiler design
- Making a boiler from a pipe
- Making a rectangular boiler
- Placing the boiler in the steam room
A heating boiler, unlike a stove, is equipped with a water tank and a stove and is intended mainly for heating water and, to a lesser extent, for heating a bath.
Features of a wood-fired boiler
When burning, firewood leaves a scent of wood, and this forces users to install such devices in saunas. Wood-fired bath boilers are popular due to the availability of energy. In addition, they can be installed in places where other types of energy - gas and electricity - are not available. At the dacha, firewood for heating a bath can always be found, and for free.
Wood-fired boilers also have traditional disadvantages:
- The grandfather's way of adjusting the temperature, by covering the blower.
- It is difficult to maintain the temperature in a given mode, the inertia is too high.
- The oven melts slowly.
- For burning, dry wood is needed, which must also be stored somewhere.
- A wood-fired boiler is a massive product, because there must be enough space in the combustion chamber for a large amount of firewood.
Wood fired boiler design
Boilers are made in cylindrical or rectangular shapes. The first option is preferable, a cylindrical boiler is easier to manufacture, but rectangular products are easier to maintain.
When developing a boiler project, the following parts should be placed in the correct order: a blower and a furnace, a water tank, a grate, a chimney, a heater. Don't forget the small parts - doors, hinges, latches, taps, etc.
If you have little experience with metal, go to a familiar bathhouse attendant and take a photo of a boiler for a wood-fired sauna, the image will help you develop your own project.
Making a wood boiler from a pipe
To make a simple boiler, you need a thick-walled pipe with a diameter of more than 500 mm with a wall thickness of 6-8 mm. It is desirable that the pipes are made of heat-resistant stainless steel, in which at least 12.5% chromium. The best samples contain 17% chromium, and 4 mm sheets are sufficient for such products. Ordinary steel will rust over time.
Prepare two sections: a pipe with a length of 0, 9 m will go to the manufacture of a furnace, a tank is made from a section of 0, 6 m. Such dimensions are sufficient for heating with a steam room of 12-14 m2.
Perform the work in the following sequence:
- At the bottom of the larger segment (0.9 m), at a distance of 50 mm from the edge, cut out a 200x70 mm rectangular hole with a grinder to access the ash pan. Do not discard the cut piece, make a door out of it. To do this, attach the hinges and latch to it. Weld the finished part to the pipe in the right place. Round off the edges of the cut.
- Make the grate of the grate from 20-25 mm rods. Weld the rods inside the pipe 5 cm above the ash pan hole.
- The grate can also be made from a metal circle with a thickness of 25 mm. The diameter of the circle must match the diameter of the pipe. Cut longitudinal slots in the workpiece to allow air to enter the combustion chamber from below. Ash will pour down from the furnace through the holes.
- At a distance of 10 cm above the grate, cut the opening of the furnace in the wall. The minimum size of the hole is 25-40 cm, the dimensions allow you to easily throw an armful of firewood into the firebox. From the cut piece, make the doors of the furnace and fasten to the pipe.
- Make the base of the oven from sheet metal at least 10 cm thick (the thicker the better). Cut a pancake out of the sheet with a diameter equal to the diameter of the pipe. Weld to the pancake 4 rods (perpendicular to the surface) with a diameter of 14 mm and a length of 30 mm, which will serve as legs. Weld the pancake with legs to the bottom of the pipe.
- Determine the height of the heater. To do this, measure the height of the pipe and subtract the height of the ash pan. Divide the result by 3. One part will be the height of the firebox, the other - the height of the stove.
- Make the bottom of the heater out of channel sections. Weld them horizontally at a given height from the grate of the furnace inside the pipe. Leave gaps between the channels, the dimensions of which do not allow the stones to fall through.
- The heater can be open or closed. When the stove is open, the cavity is divided in half by a vertical sheet of metal. In one cavity, stones can be poured, in the other, a water tank can be installed.
- If you plan to make the stove closed, in the pipe wall, in the heater zone, cut a hole for steam outlet and laying stones.
- When the stove is closed, the chimney is passed through the tank, it can reach the horizontal stack partition. Smoke passing through the pipe will heat the water faster. The heat from the stove heats up the chimney and also shortens the heating time of the water.
- To make a water tank, you will need a smaller pipe (0.6 m long). Make a bottom from a metal sheet 0.6-0.8 cm and weld on one side of the pipe. Cut a hole in the plug with a diameter equal to that of the chimney.
- Make the upper part of the lid in two parts - stationary and opening. Cut a hole for the chimney on the stationary cover. Make sure that the axes of the holes in the top and bottom covers are in the same vertical plane.
- The length of the pipe must be greater than the height of the tank. Place the pipe in the water tank and weld to the bottom.
- Check the quality of the welds at the bottom of the tank. In the absence of tightness, the furnace will be filled with water.
- Weld the upper blank part of the lid to the boiler. Fasten the other half on the hinges.
- Place the tank on the boiler and weld both parts together.
- Make a hole in the lower part of the boiler and weld the tap through which water will be drawn.
- To give it a presentation, the oven can be painted with heat-resistant paint. It must be remembered that the walls of the furnace heat up to + 600 ° C, and the painting will often have to be renewed, and its cost is very high.
Making a rectangular wood-fired boiler for a bath
Homemade rectangular boilers are more difficult to make than cylindrical ones. You will need metal sheets with a thickness of at least 5 mm, preferably from heat-resistant steel.
Draw the boiler blanks on the sheets, cut them out with a grinder. Weld the boiler drum from the blanks. Reinforce the walls by welding stiffeners to them, which are made from the corners. In the future, the work differs little from the manufacture of a boiler from a pipe.
For reference: a combustion chamber with a size of 450x450 cm and a height of 600 mm can quickly heat a room with a volume of 20 m3.
Rules for placing a wood-fired boiler in a steam room
In the steam room, you cannot install a wood-burning boiler the way you want, you should adhere to certain rules:
- Place the device so that it evenly heats the entire room and does not create a fire hazard.
- Place the product along a wall with shelves.
- A wood-fired boiler is installed at a distance of at least 0.5 m from unprotected combustible walls and at least 25 cm from protected ones, even if they are brick.
- Place the stove on a concrete or brick base 0.25 cm deep, the dimensions of which are larger than the overall dimensions of the heating device.
- The boiler is placed in the steam room in two ways, depending on where the stove will be fired from. If the boiler is completely in the steam room, position it so that the doors face the entrance doors. In this case, only the steam room will be heated, other rooms are heated in a different way.
- Another option: firewood is thrown from the side of the washing or dressing room into the modified front of the boiler. To do this, build a box, the length of which will be greater than the wall thickness of the steam room, and the dimensions are slightly larger than the size of the furnace door. In the wall between the dressing room and the steam room, make a hole where you insert the box and slide it all the way into the boiler.
- To remove ash in the wall, make another hole, a structure resembling a drawer is inserted into it. With its help, the ash pan can be cleaned of the remnants of burnt firewood.
- If the sauna is wooden, it is recommended to cover the walls of the boiler with refractory bricks so as not to overheat the wood. Also construct a protective screen so that you do not accidentally touch the hot surface. Make the screen from a brick placed on an edge. It should not retain heat, it is desirable to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
Watch a video about installing a metal stove for a bath:
[media = https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = lAN_VXxiaEo] A wood-burning metal boiler can be built from scrap materials in a short time. By making a boiler for a wood-fired sauna with your own hands, you will save money and get the design you intended (in shape, placement, size).
